10 Most Intense Scenes In War Films

What makes a war scene intense?

Is it a sense of vulnerability – that death could be around any corner? Is it a sense of uncertainty as to what will happen next? Or perhaps it’s a sense of inevitability – that something horrible is about to happen?

War films have touched on each of these sentiments, often combining them to come at the horror of war from novel angles. As a result, we have a great many avenues to vicariously experience something of the intensity of war.

Of course, none of these scenes could ever deliver an authentic experience of war, but there is a genuine effort on the part of many filmmakers to capture something of that experience, and to expand the range of those experiences we consider - making us experience something of the violence left in the wake of colonialism or the horror of the war on drugs for example.

War scenes may not communicate the truth about the intensity of war, but at their best, they can be a testament to the intense effect the violence of war has on communities and on individuals.

Inglorious Basterds starts in terrifying fashion.

We start with some rather heroic shots of a bearded Frenchman, Monsieur LaPadite, looking on as a German military vehicle comes down the road. We don't know what the conflict here is, but Ennio Morricone's Western-sounding score tells us we are about to see an epic one. Our hero shakes hands with the villain of the film, SS officer Hans Landa, and the dialogue-driven conflict between them starts.

The scene succeeds largely because so much of it is made up of administrative and character details that might seem insignificant at first, but are actually building towards something terrible. We learn Landa is attempting to find Jewish people who have escaped Nazi persecution. Landa makes excuses to stay, starts sharing his disgusting, essentialist views on ethnic and racial character, asking for details about Jewish people who lived in the area, using every element of his rambling monologue to slowly convince LaPadite that he knows precisely what is below their feet, and implicitly and explicitly laying out the consequences and rewards of abandoning his bravery and giving up those he is protecting.

All of these small, insignificant details come together when, in closeup, we finally hear Landa state "You are hiding enemies of the state, are you not?"

The tension is at its height. Every seemingly insignificant, inane detail has led to this: the inevitable breakdown of LaPadite, this man who the camera once framed as our hero. He answers "yes".

We are left, like LaPadite himself, emotionally destroyed, watching the people he protected be ruthlessly and senselessly shot. It's a horrific rendering of the violence of the Holocaust and an introduction to a truly despicable villain.