15 Most Underrated War Movies Of All Time

For fans of light-hearted Jennifer Lawrence vehicles such as Silver Linings Playbook and Joy, David O. Russell may be the last name you’d expect to see on a list of underrated war filmmakers. But 1999 saw the controversial director butt heads with his star George Clooney whilst shooting this surreal Gulf war satire/ sort-of-heist film, and it’s one of the I Heart Huckabees helmer’s best efforts despite (or perhaps because of) the onset tension.

With an ensemble cast rounded out by a young Mark Wahlberg and a surly, funny Ice Cube, the film uses the aimlessness of America’s invasion of Iraq in order to mock both the military and the country’s culture as Clooney and co use the war as cover for some amoral antics of their own.

Dark, funny, and pointed in its poignant critique of American foreign policy, this unusual gem deserves to be reappraised after its director’s recent late career revival.