What film is the most critically acclaimed war film of all time?

I would use IMDb as the source for award winners and rottentomatoes.com for the collective critic's reviews.

Saving Private Ryan: Won 5 Oscars. Another 52 wins & 53 nominations
Hits the Rottentomatoe scale at 90% or 82 out of 91 reviews are positive.

Schindler's List: Won 7 Oscars. Another 63 wins & 21 nominations;
96% Rottentomatoe scale or 55 out of 57 reviews are positive.

The English Patient: Won 9 Oscars. Another 41 wins & 37 nominations
A mere 84% Rottentomatoe scale or 47 out of 56 reviews are positive.

My gut feeling -- and that's all it is -- is that it's probably Saving Private Ryan. I remember one reviewer writing that it's the war movie against which all future war movies will be measured.

We posted almost simultaneously, your majesty. I've never considered either Schindler's List or The English Patient war movies in the strict sense of the term. Just because the action takes place during a historical period of war time doesn't (for me) make it a "war movie."

The Bridge on the River Kwai - 7 Oscars 23 more awards
(1957 had fewer awards to win)
95% on Rottentomatoes scale

good film too

Well said!

My favorite war film is Apocalypse Now which only won a mere 2 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 32 nominations. But got a stellar 98% rating on the Rottentomatoes scale, that of 59 out of 60 reviews being positive.

My personal favorite top 20 war films in alphabetical order:
Apocalypse Now (1979)
"Band of Brothers" (2001)
Battle of Algiers (1966)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Casablanca (1942)
Catch-22 (1970)
"Ken Burns' The Civil War" (1990)
Das Boot (1981)
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Gettysburg (1993)
Grave of the Fireflies (1994)
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
MASH (1970)
My Name Is Ivan (1963)
Patton (1970)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Waltz with Bashir (2008)
Why We Fight (2005)

Gallipoli is a great war movie to. A rare cinematic glimpse at World War I. Shows the strong acting chops of Mel Gibson.

Stalingrad - powerful movie making the senseless acts of war very clear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalingrad_(film)

Downfall is also an excellent movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Untergang

forgot about grave of the fireflies, breathtaking story and animation

I used to have Stalingrad on DVD before I freecycled it away. A very powerful antiwar statement from the German perspective of things.

Grave of the Fireflies turns me into a blubbering mess of snot and tears every single time I watch it.
Me, before I pop the DVD into my laptop or DVD player:

Me, while watching the film:

Yes, and it cannot be shown often enough to make sure that we never ever
go through war again .

The Secret War of Harry Frigg. Not exactly "critically acclaimed" but most critics have no idea about war anyway.

Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," without question as it's the war film that more often shows up on worldwide critics and historian's best ten and best twenty-five lists of the finest films ever made.

Great catch!

The last Sight and Sound poll, excerpted from Wikipedia:

* Every decade, the British film monthly Sight & Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time. The Sight & Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" lists. Roger Ebert described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies--the only one most serious movie people take seriously."[1] The first poll, in 1952, was topped by Bicycle Thieves (1948).[2] The 2002 Sight and Sound critics' Top Ten Films

1. Citizen Kane
2. Vertigo
3. La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game)
4. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II
5. Tokyo Story
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. The Battleship Potemkin
8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
9. 8½
10. Singin' in the Rain

Have any of you guys seen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/ Hurt Locker?

Its about the Iraq war. I think its up there with the greats. Its new age and tells a story that I think hasn't been told before. Check it out if you havent seen it.