Here is an epinions.com article with "the best" cold war films, the reviews are quoted from that article, but i've gone ahead and added the trailers from YouTube.

http://www.epinions.com/content_4834762884

The Bedford Incident (1965): An American destroyer skipper (Richard Widmark) remorselessly tracks a Soviet submarine in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland in a gripping film that combines elements of The Enemy Below, Fail-Safe, and (thematically), Moby Dick. Set entirely aboard the USS Bedford, the viewer is trapped, along with co-stars Sidney Poitier (as a magazine reporter) and Martin Balsam (as a reservist doctor called back to active duty) as an almost obsessive captain attempts to pin down an elusive Foxtrot-class diesel submarine in NATO-territorial waters. Its "I'll fire one if he fires one" denouement is one of the most chilling endings of the genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9fGQ0HFFZg

World War III (1982): When President Thomas McKenna (Rock Hudson) imposes a grain embargo on the Soviet Union for not withdrawing from Afghanistan, the Kremlin retaliates by sending a company of paratroopers to seize a pumping station in the Alaska Pipeline. The world is on the brink of war as McKenna tries to reason with Soviet leader Gorny (Brian Keith), and everything hinges on the ability of Col. Caffey (David Soul) to stop the Soviets with a small detachment of ill-equipped National Guardsmen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfqZDcLEiWA

Fail-Safe (1964): While on routine patrol over the Arctic Circle, a flight of Vindicator bombers receives a chilling coded message: CAP 811. Translation: Attack Moscow. This is just one link in a chain of accidents and miscues that forces a harried President of the United States (Henry Fonda) to contact his Soviet counterpart and try every means possible to avert an all-out nuclear war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oicYUhgff7Q

The Hunt for Red October (1990): John McTiernan followed up his success with 1988's Die Hard by directing this taut adaptation of Tom Clancy's first Jack Ryan novel about a Soviet sub commander and a select group of officers who commandeer -- subtly -- the Red Navy's newest ballistic missile sub and attempts a westward underwater run to the East Coast of the United States. When the Soviet Navy gives chase, it's up to CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) to figure out what Captain First Rank Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) intends to do before a crisis starts and inadvertently sparks World War III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DvmkADWyes

Red Dawn (1984): Although somewhat improbable at times, John Milius' action-adventure depiction of a Soviet-led invasion of Colorado is one of the rare Hollywood forays into a full-blown conventional war between the U.S. and Russia. Although it is narrowly focused on a group of adolescent resistance fighters trying to wreak as much havoc as they can against the invaders, the film is a good "what-if" look at the Cold War-goes-Hot scenario without the usual apocalyptic ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edlZ1uD7Uz8

Thirteen Days (2000): Although it was in and out of theaters in less than two weeks, Roger Donaldson's film about the Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the best "based on a true Cold War event" film. David Self's screenplay sticks very closely to the facts about those terrifying 13 days in October 1962, relying mostly on transcripts of actual recordings of JFK and the "Ex-Comm" of top advisors made by the President and on various written accounts. Some events are dramatized, of course, but the essence of the atmosphere in the White House and the Pentagon is captured quite nicely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSA7Evcy7iE

Dr. Strangelove (1964): Director Stanley Kubrick began this project with the intention of making a serious adaptation of Peter George's novel Red Alert, but the more he researched the topic of nuclear war, the sillier the concepts of Mutual Assured Destruction, deterrence, and limited nuclear war seemed, so he teamed up with humorist/screenwriter Terry Southern and came up with this "black comedy" about Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) and his insane plan to destroy the Soviet Union in order to, among other things, maintain the "purity of our natural bodily fluids." Peter Sellers plays three characters in this bitingly funny yet often suspenseful film that ends with mushroom clouds blooming to the strains of Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gXY3kuDvSU

The Package (1989): Before making a bigger impact with Under Siege and The Fugitive, Andrew Davis directed this end-of-the-Cold War thriller about Johnny Gallagher, an Army sergeant (Gene Hackman) assigned to escort a troublesome GI (Tommy Lee Jones) from Germany back to the States. When his prisoner escapes, Gallagher is caught up in the middle of a "Manchurian Candidate" type conspiracy that, if it works, will set back U.S.-Soviet relations to pre-glasnost depths of mutual distrust and hostility.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d27hX5xMa9M

Seven Days in May (1964): Released the same year that ushered in Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove, this John Frankenheimer film explored another nightmare scenario of the Cold War. This time, instead of dealing with nuclear war or actual combat with Russia, the film delved into the possibility of a military takeover of the U.S. government when an American President (Fredric March) intends to sign a disarmament treaty, much to the discontent of Pentagon generals who fear a Soviet surprise attack. Also starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, the film is a fine example of Cold War psychological drama at its best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJhh_UOVD00
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cold_War_films
http://www.epinions.com/content_4834762884


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