Best Memorial Day Movies on Netflix to Watch on Memorial Day 2026

If you’re looking for the best Memorial Day movies on streaming to watch to honor the victims of war, you’ve come to the right place. After all, Memorial Day is about more than grilling hot dogs and going to the beach—it’s also about staying inside and streaming Memorial Day movies on Netflix!

Jokes aside, Memorial Day is a day for mourning the U.S. military members who died serving our country. For families and friends of fallen soldiers, it can be a heavy day. If you don’t feel like frolicking outside, that’s totally understandable. There are plenty of Memorial Day movie options on Netflix that depict the complicated, tragic, and brutal parts of war that many U.S. soldiers know all too well.

Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, about four African American veteran soldiers who return to Vietnam, offers heartbreaking depictions of how the violence and trauma of war never fades. Father Soldier Son, a Netflix documentary from New York Times journalists Leslye Davis and Catrin Einhorn, digs into the effect one soldier’s deployment to Afghanistan had on his family. Or if you want something a little lighter, the military romance Purple Hearts is also on this list. Read on for a list of the best Memorial Day movies streaming on Netflix in 2026.

1. The very first observations of Memorial Day in the U.S. were specifically to honor the fallen Union soldiers in the Civil War, so it would be more than appropriate to watch this Denzel Washington Civil War movie today. Directed by Edward Zwick, Glory tells the true story of one of the Union’s first African American regiment. Matthew Broderick stars as the commanding officer of the regiment, and additional cast include Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. This is the movie that won Denzel Washington his first Oscar. Don’t wait to watch it, because it’s leaving Netflix on May 31.

2. Memorial Day remembers those who were lost to war, and for many soldiers, that loss doesn’t stop when the war ends. With Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee honors lives that were lost to the Vietnam War in the decades after the actual combat. With artistic flair, gorgeous cinematography, and a career-defining performance from Delroy Lindo, Lee has created a war movie that examines the way racism, trauma, imperialism, and violence are tragically, inextricably intertwined. Lee honors the lives that were lost long after the Vietnam War was over, by honestly depicting all facets of his characters’ pain.

4. World War II remains the deadliest conflict in recorded human history, with an estimated 70–85 million deaths. So it’s no wonder that there are quite a few movie dedicated to the soldier who fought and died in WWII. The Oscar-winning film 1917 is one such movie, currently streaming on Netflix. Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty), who also co-wrote the script with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, 1917 stars George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman as two WWI soldiers tasked with a dangerous but important mission. Shot by famed cinematographer Roger Deakins, this film is wowed audiences because of the way it appears to be filmed in a single shot; in reality, though, it has hidden cuts throughout.

5. Based on the world-renowned 1929 German novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, this Oscar-winning 2022 German film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front is—much like its source material—distinctly anti-war. But it’s also a heart-wrenching memorial to the many men whose lives were shattered by the violent, horrific reality of the front lines during World War II. It’s a brutal, tough watch, but one that doesn’t shy away from the very real tragedy of the many lives lost in such a terrible way.

6. Fernando Coimbra’s 2017 film Sand Castle is the movie for you this Memorial Day if you want a war film that hits those familiar and comforting beats of a war movie, with an all-star cast. Starring Nicholas Hoult, Henry Cavill, Logan Marshall-Green, it follows the plight of U.S. Army soldiers in the Iraq War, beginning in 2003, and is based on screenwriter Chris Roessner’s own experience in Iraq.

7. Written and directed by Tyler Perry (yes, that Tyler Perry), The Six Triple Eight is based on a 2019 WWII History magazine article by Kevin M. Hymel. It details the true story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, aka an all-Black, all-female battalion that was tasked with delivering mail to soldiers during World War II. The star-studded cast includes Kerry Washington, Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Moriah Brown, Gregg Sulkin, Susan Sarandon, Dean Norris, Sam Waterston and (very briefly) Oprah Winfrey. You’ll learn a lot about an overlooked chapter of American history from this film.

8. If you’re looking a lighter, more romantic watch on Memorial Day weekend, you might try Purple Heart, a Netflix romance that combines the fake-dating trope with war-time romances. Directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, with a screenplay by Kyle Jarrow and Liz W. Garcia, Purple Hearts tells the story of two very different people (Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine) who, for plot reasons, find themselves married despite being basically strangers. The stakes are particularly high, given that Galitzine plays a marine, and their fraudulent marriage is a crime in the eyes of the U.S. military. Though not as serious as other films on this list, the movie still honors fallen soldiers in its own way.

   
   WATCH PURPLE HEARTS ON NETFLIX

9. Families of veterans may find Netflix’s Father Soldier Son documentary to be a tough but moving watch. Though Memorial Day is about honoring soldiers who were lost, this doc captures what happens to those who come back, but are never the same again. New York Times journalists Leslye Davis and Catrin Einhorn began filming Brian Eisch in 2010, when he was deployed to Afghanistan, as part of a multimedia story that attempted to capture the human side of President Obama’s troop surge in the region. But, drawn in by Eisch’s family, Davis and Einhorn just kept filming and filming—until nine years had gone by.

10. For the more artsy cinephile types out there, perhaps you might enjoy watching a Coen brothers war drama this Memorial Day. Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson, Unbroken tells the true story of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, a former Olympic athlete and WWII soldier who survived for 47 days on a raft after his bomber plane crashed, before he was imprisoned in Japan.