War stories bring out the best of the Oscars

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The relationship between Oscar and war-zone movies is long like The Longest Day is long, stretching back to the very first Academy Awards in 1929, when the silent epic Wings flew home with the best-film prize. Given this year's American Sniper – Clint Eastwood's humdinger has six statuettes in its sights – we take a look back at Oscar's combat record when it comes to a selection of the films nominated for best picture over the years.

Star Wars: The force was strong with this one, but George Lucas's 1977 sci-fi classic about a galactic civil war, set a long time ago and far, far away, lost out to Woody Allen's Annie Hall.

Cleopatra: Set during Caesar's Civil War, the saga's mutually attracted co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were definitely roamin' from their respective spouses behind the scenes. The ridiculously expensive epic from 1963 almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox, and it failed to win best-picture accolades (it did win five of the nine awards it was nominated for).

Braveheart: Star and director Mel Gibson got medieval, portraying a sword-swinging Scottish warrior whose valour in battles against the English Army is as legendary as Gibson's own bravery in the face of breathalysers. Braveheart won five Oscars in 1996, including best film.

Henry V: Laurence Olivier was all "once more into the breach" for a patriotic 1944 film that was used to boost the morale of British troops fighting in the Second World War. Set in the Hundred Years' War, the Shakespeare adaptation lost out to The Best Years of Our Lives (about U.S. servicemen adjusting to civilian life).

Gone With the Wind: Clark Gable's Rhett Butler may not have given a damn, but the Academy voters did, lavishing the sweeping Civil War romance with 10 trophies in 1940, including the one for best film.

The Alamo: Academy voters were asked to remember The Alamo by the hard-lobbying John Wayne, but the 1960 film won just one Oscar (best sound) out of its seven nominations.

Wings: When the silent romantic-action film about First World War fly-boys won the best production award at the inaugural Academy Awards gala in 1929, the trophy wasn't yet known as Oscar.

For Whom the Bell Tolls: In 1943, Gary Cooper starred opposite Ingrid Bergman in a Spanish Civil War saga that not only lost out to Bergman and Bogart's Second World War-set Casablanca for best film, but didn't come close in the unofficial "awesome quotes" category.

Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line: For the 1998 best-picture award, Steven Spielberg's European Theatre epic and Terrence Malick's Pacific Theatre counterpart fought for Second World War cinematic supremacy, but were outflanked by Shakespeare in Love.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: The Cold War was never hotter than in Stanley Kubrick's nuclear nightmare from 1964. But Academy voters, in a scary era that made everyone a little jumpy, turned to daintier entertainment, honouring My Fair Lady (and The Sound of Music a year later) instead.

M*A*S*H: The less contentious Korean War subbed for the Vietnam War in Robert Altman's 1970 black comedy about a mobile army hospital's blood and shenanigans. The franchise went on to prosper as a television series, but lost out to flag-waving Second World War biopic Patton for the year's top motion picture.

Deer Hunter: It took until 1978 for Oscar to finally wade into the controversial Vietnam War. The Robert De Niro-starring Deer Hunter beat out the (Hanoi) Jane Fonda-starring Coming Home for best film.

The Hurt Locker: Set in the Iraq War, the 2009 drama about explosive ordinance disposal bombed at the box office but scored nine Oscar nominations and beat out the Nazi-hunting Inglourious Basterds for the top prize.