10 War Movie Cliches That Annoy EVERYONE

A frequently used and tiresome war movie trope is that of senior officers disciplining their troops by reiterating that their order is actually... an order.

Unsurprisingly for such a contradictory sentence, this trope's inclusion detracts from the war movie's sense of authenticity. High-profile genre offenders include Full Metal Jacket, Battle of the Bulge and The Guns of Navarone, highlighting that even some of the finest war films aren't immune to this persistently annoying trope.

"That's an order!" is one of the most annoying war movie cliches, considering how unrealistic the prospect of hearing those words in a military context is. In reality, no commanding officer would undermine their own authority by verbally reiterating their superiority to an insubordinate. Further, the consequences for defying a direct order in the military are so severe that the chances of a senior officer even having to remind a soldier of this fact are exceedingly low. It's far more likely that such insubordination would be instantly and ruthlessly disciplined.

This trope's inclusion isn't necessarily detrimental, given that war films don't have to be unwaveringly authentic to produce a quality offering. With that being said, it still represents a played-out cliche in and of itself.