Summary
- War movies with strong female leads showcase the resilience, dedication, and perseverance of women in conflicts.
- Movies like Mrs. Miniver and Carve Her Name With Pride give voice to unsung stories of war.
- Films like A Private War and Quo Vadis, Aida? shed light on personal battles faced amid larger conflicts.
This article discusses issues around conflict, genocide, PTSD, torture, and war.
While most war movies told their story from a male perspective, some great entries in the genre told important stories centered on female characters. The bias toward primarily depicting men in war movies was an extremely limiting way to look at the harrowing effects of conflict and wholly ignored the importance of the female experience in these situations. However, plenty of fantastic war movies have given female leads the spotlight that they deserve in both depictions of true stories and fictional accounts.
War movies starring strong female leads can be found throughout the entire history of cinema, from films made during World War II right up until contemporary times that dealt with currently ongoing conflicts. Over the years, fantastic actresses have given career-best performances as they truly captured the difficult challenges, the inspiring dedication, and the magnificent perseverance women have shown amid conflict and war. While it’s unfortunate that they may not always get as much attention as other conflict-based films, there have been so many great war movies that starred strong female leads.
10 Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Greer Garson as Kay Miniver
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
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- Director
- William Wyler
- Release Date
- July 29, 1942
- Cast
- Greer Garson , Walter Pidgeon , Teresa Wright , May Whitty , Reginald Owen , Henry Travers , Richard Ney , Henry Wilcoxon
- Runtime
- 134 Minutes
The war movies of the 1940s usually presented a very rigidly traditional view of gender roles, but still, the romantic war drama Mrs. Miniver was a powerful look at a brave mother's experience of the Second World War. Mrs. Miniver showed how an unassuming housewife’s life was impacted by the opening months of World War II and the struggles that Kay Miniver and her family had to endure. While Mrs. Miniver was a fictional story, it incorporated genuine events like the Dunkirk evacuation, airstrikes, and the fear everyday people in Britain felt during the war.
Mrs. Miniver was a movie about domestic fortitude and the endurance that everyday people, particularly women, needed to overcome the horrors of worldwide conflict. While Mrs. Miniver, like so many films of its time, presented women as primarily caregivers, it also showcased the undeniable importance of domestic roles in difficult times. Mrs. Miniver was an effective document about the impact of World War II that was made while it was happening, and the Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels was even compelled to make a statement about its undeniable impact (via BBC.)
Joseph Goebbels, minister of Nazi propaganda, wrote of Mrs. Miniver:
“[Mrs. Miniver] shows the destiny of a family during the current war, and its refined powerful propagandistic tendency has up to now only been dreamed of. There is not a single angry word spoken against Germany; nevertheless the anti-German tendency is perfectly accomplished.”
9 Carve Her Name With Pride (1958)
Virginia McKenna as Violette Szabo
Carve Her Name with Pride told the astounding true story of Violette Szabo, a British special operations agent recruited to work as a spy in France during the Second World War. Szabo's real story ended in tragedy and execution, and her incredible legacy was documented in this powerful 1950s war drama. Virginia McKenna gave a stunning performance as Szabo, and she was surrounded by a strong supporting cast that helped highlight the impact of this awe-inspiring true account.
Carve Her Name with Pride was about conflict, conviction, and courage and was a fantastic, lesser-known movie about World War II.
The bravery of this agent was made all the more powerful as Carve Her Name with Pride depicted Szabo’s capture by Nazi forces and the interrogation and torture she was forced to endure. Carve Her Name with Pride effectively highlighted an unsung heroine who paid the ultimate price for the greater good. Carve Her Name with Pride was about conflict, conviction, and courage and was a fantastic, lesser-known movie about World War II.