Is YouTube movies the future? What's the offering for war film fans?

Forget Netflix and Amazon Prime Video for a minute is YouTube the future of streaming? Could war film fans be better off ditching the subscription and paying on demand?

I was scrolling through YouTube the other day, and although I don't watch war movies on there, it's google and they know everything, so they came up with some movie suggestions I might like to watch (presumably based on search history).

So it got me to thinking is YouTube a viable alternative for war film fans? It's certainly a different model than pay per month streaming as offered by Netflix and Amazon video (at least as part of the Prime subscription). What I did find is that there is a huge amount of variety on there and quite a few films that aren't carried by either Netflix or Amazon Video. So below I've picked out some excellent war movies and got the pricing and options, I've compared the prices to paying for them on Amazon video.

War films not on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video:

American Sniper seems a great place to start both alphabetically and as a box office smash, it's a modern classic. It surprises me that neither of the streaming giants offer it, it is on YouTube to rent for £3.49 for HD, £2.49 for SD. To buy for £8.99 HD or £7.99 SD. Available here. American Sniper is available to rent or buy on Amazon for £3.49 to rent in HD or £7.99 to buy, interestingly the price for SD or HD is the same on Amazon Video.

Saving Private Ryan a film that probably needs no introduction to readers of this blog. Probably one of the greatest war films of all time, certainly popular with critics. Again not offered on Netflix or as part of Amazon Prime subscription. But it is available on YouTube but there is no rental option you can only buy it for the price of £8.99 for HD and £5.99 for SD. Which is more expensive than Amazon's offering of £5.99 for HD or SD.

US Soldiers land on the beaches of Normandy, Saving Private Ryan

Kajaki: The True Story probably not the best known war film. It's a British film that follows a small detachment of UK troops in Afghanistan tasked with defending Kajaki dam. A patrol wanders into a minefield and a harrowing and tense rescue ensues. Anyway, YouTube offers it at the bargain price of £1.99 for HD rental and £4.99 to buy it in HD or £4.49 for SD. Meanwhile Amazon matches those prices for rental and purchase.

Flags of Our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima, 2 of Clint Eastwood's great war films, again puzzling that neither is offered on Netflix or Amazon Prime as they're both modern classics. YouTube offers rental of both for £3.49 HD £2.49 SD buy £7.99. Amazon offers Flags of Our Fathers for a rental price of £2.49 and a purchase price of £7.99 but neither is in HD both options are standard definition. Meanwhile the counterpoint film is offered in HD priced at £3.49 for rent and £7.99 for purchase.

War Horse, again another modern big budget critically acclaimed film not offered on the big two. That theme sort of continues on YouTube there is no rental option and it can be bought in SD for £9.99 and £11.99 for HD, not exactly competitively priced. Amazon seems to have the upperhand on this one offering rental for £3.49 for HD and a purchase price the same as YT.

Patton, a classic war film but not on Netflix or Amazon Prime. YouTube offers it for £2.49 SD £3.49 HD rental and bought for £7.99. Amazon matches that rental price, but is cheaper for a purchase at £5.99.

Bridge Too Far, the story of Operation Market Garden

A Bridge Too Far, star studded cast, epic story based on real events, victory and defeat a war film YouTube offers no rental options but purchase for £6.99 HD and £5.99 SD. Amazon rental for £3.49 HD and purchase for £6.99 HD.
that has it all. Not according to Netflix or Amazon though neither subscription offers it,


Conclusions: 

YouTube offers great war films, there's a huge amount of variety, as an example I didn't find any that weren't on the website, which is a big plus. In terms of pricing YouTube is very similar to paying to rent or buy movies on Amazon, £3.49 seems to be the going rate for renting HD films. In some ways this makes YouTube very competitive, they certainly aren't priced out of the marketplace, but it leaves little to recommend the platform over Amazon Prime Video.

Is it worth ditching streaming subscriptions and relying on YouTube? I think the short answer is no, the price of a monthly subscription to either Netflix or Amazon Video would only be enough for 2 to 3 rentals on YouTube and a lot of people watch much more than that. Certainly if you occasionally watch movies then YouTube is a viable option, especially if you watch less than 3 a month.

YouTube is worth checking for film fans. If you don't have a streaming subscription service or the movie you want to watch is not available through it, then check YouTube. In some cases the film might be cheaper than say Amazon streaming, occasionally it might be the only place to watch it. There might be other reasons perhaps your device offers a YouTube app and not an Amazon Video one, or perhaps even that HD is supported through the YouTube app but not through another streaming service app.

Perhaps, the end of an article is the wrong place to bring up such an important point, but there are free films on YouTube. I've searched a few times in the course of researching for this blog, for the Gene Hackman film Bat 21. There aren't many like this but it's not available on Netflix or Amazon (even paid) but there is an upload of it on YouTube for free. But is this legal? I'm no lawyer by any means but it does seem that the law is kind of murky from searching on google and even the opinions I can find are not exactly legit answers, more forum type posts. Happy to hear people's opinions but it seems to me that uploading copyrighted content is definitely illegal and simply watching that content may or may not be illegal. I don't know if any one else has any thoughts but I'm eager to hear them. For me though I'm not cancelling subscriptions and relying on pirated content any time soon.