Best movies like American Pastime
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
American Pastime tells a poignant story set against the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. Rounded up and uprooted from their everyday lives, they remained loyal to the United States and ironically turned to that most American of sports - baseball - as a way to deal with their plight.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 772
Genere: Drama, Romance, Sport, War
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, emotional, uplifting, serious, realistic
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Best tv shows and movies like American Pastime (2007):
Similar in 81%
Missing Brendan (2003)
Plot Summary:
George takes a trip to Vietnam to find his missing son. George's son Bob and Bob's son Patrick accompany George on the trip. George's son, Brendan, has been Missing in Action since the Vietnam War. Julie, an archeologist, joined the search.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, contemplative
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Similar in 88%
The Brylcreem Boys (1998)
Plot Summary:
In 1941, as part of an effort to remain strictly neutral, the Dublin government made a deal with both Berlin and London whereby any soldier, sailor or pilot captured on Irish soil, whether of German or Allied forces, would be interned for the duration of the war. What the Irish failed to tell was that they would intern everybody in the same camp. It is here that Canadian pilot Miles Keogh and German pilot Rudolph Von Stegenbeck meet after a fight in which both their planes were downed.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 617
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sex comedy, independent film
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Similar in 87%
Housewife, 49 (2005)
Plot Summary:
Downtrodden wife and mother Nella's life takes an unexpected turn for the better after she joins the Women's Voluntary Service office in Barrow-in-Furness during the Second World War. However, her new-found happiness is shattered when her son Cliff leaves to join the troops - provoking a painful confrontation with her husband Will.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 788
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, emotional, serious, realistic
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Similar in 88%
Swing Shift (1984)
Plot Summary:
In 1941 America Kay and her husband are happy enough until he enlists after Pearl Harbor. Against his wishes, his wife takes a job at the local aircraft plant where she meets Hazel, the singer from across the way the two soon become firm friends and with the other girls become increasingly expert workers. As the war drags on Kay finally dates her trumpet playing foreman and life gets complicated.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, touching, humorous, semi serious, period piece, realistic, sincere, crying, weeping
Similar in 75%
Ithaca (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain... and death... to the good people of Ithaca. And Homer Macauley will grapple with one message that will change him forever - from a boy into a man. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan's 1943 novel, The Human Comedy, ITHACA is the quintessential wartime tale of the Home Front. It is a coming-of-age story about the exuberance of youth, the sweetness of life, the sting of death and the modesty and sheer goodness that lives in each and every one of us.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, thought provoking, realistic, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 88%
The Painting (2001)
Plot Summary:
Heath Freeman (Tru Calling, ER) heads an all-star cast including Clifton Davis (Any Given Sunday) Ben Vereen (Roots), Stacey Dash (Renaissance Man) and Debbie Allen (Fame) in the period drama Soldier of Change, which resurrects the turmoil and confusion of the late sixties. Travel back in time to visit a young man, Randy (Freeman) who finds himself immersed in the impassioned civil rights cause in the States, and struggles valiantly to adjust to the changing social fabric around him. But this is only the first of two worlds that Randy encounters. When he is drafted and shipped off to Asia - and the nightmare that called itself Vietnam - this inexperienced soldier must fight for his life and his convictions as he attempts to survive amid the turmoil of a war whose real nature is alien even to the country fighting it.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, romantic, touching, independent film
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Similar in 86%
The Third Half (2012)
Plot Summary:
Spitz is the German-Jewish coach of the football team Macedonia during World War II. Under his leadership, the team fights to become the champion of Bulgaria's National Football League.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, Sport, War
Country: Czech Republic, USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, captivating, romantic, serious, emotional, realistic, odd
Similar in 76%
Australian Rules (2002)
Plot Summary:
Friends Gary Black (Nathan Phillips) and Dumby Red (Luke Carroll) are on the same soccer team in their coastal Australian town. But to local racists, they're a world apart: Gary is white and Dumby is an Aborigine. This becomes an issue when one of the team's Aboriginal players becomes involved in a crime. In response, Dumby is demoted even though he's the star player, and Gary is given his place. Will Gary have the courage to speak out before tragedy results?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 846
Genere: Drama, Romance, Sport
Country: Australia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
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Similar in 84%
Joe and Max (2002)
Plot Summary:
True story of boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and their enduring friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport, War
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 80%
A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)
Plot Summary:
Shortly after WWII an American soldier (Norman) and a Polish refugee (Emilia) fall in deep love. Eventually he will return to USA and both expect that she will soon follow him. Emilia's mother is sick but would recover by available medicine. Somehow the mother but not Emilia knows that there will only be one ticket. Realising that Emilia would never abandon her, the mother secretly throws away the daily doses given her by Emilia - and dies.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: contemplative, intellectual, depressing, atmospheric, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
All the Right Moves (1983)
Plot Summary:
Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach aims at a college position, resulting in a clash which could crush the player's dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, talky, melancholic, sentimental, sincere, feel good, touching, serious, inspirational, erotic
Similar in 86%
A Better Life (2011)
Plot Summary:
A gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, thought provoking, inspirational, hood, independent film, romantic, captivating
Similar in 83%
Sugar (2008)
Plot Summary:
Sugar is a 2008 sports drama film directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. It follows the story of Miguel Santos, a. k. a. Sugar (Algenis Perez Soto), a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macorís, struggling to make it to the big leagues and pull himself and his family out of poverty. Playing professionally at a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, Miguel finally gets his break at age 19 when he advances to the United States' minor league system; but when his play on the mound falters, he begins to question the single-mindedness of his life's ambition.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: USA, Dominican Republic
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, uplifting, touching, sentimental, realistic, entertaining, serious, contemplative, independent film, tense
Similar in 86%
Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987)
Plot Summary:
Chuck Murdock, a 12-year-old boy from Montana and son of a military jet pilot, becomes anxious after seeing a Minuteman missile on a school field trip. He protests the existence of nuclear weapons by refusing to play baseball, which results in the forfeit of a Little League game by his team. "Amazing Grace" Smith, a fictional Boston Celtics player, played by NBA star Alex English, decides to join the boy in his protest by resigning from professional basketball. This gives it nationwide coverage, inspiring more pro athletes to join the protest against nuclear weapons. The film reaches a climax when the President of the United States personally meets with Chuck, admiring his resolve but at the same time explaining the practical difficulties of disarmament. Sinister forces, meanwhile, threaten the lives of Amazing Grace and his agent, Lynn.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sentimental, inspirational, melancholic, uplifting, touching, serious, sincere, captivating, emotional, realistic
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Similar in 78%
American Son (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story of a young Marine, fresh from Camp Pendleton, who is forced to confront the complexities of adulthood and a volatile home life during a four-day Thanksgiving leave.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 913
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, hispanic, independent film, crying
Similar in 90%
Come See the Paradise (1990)
Plot Summary:
Come See The Paradise is a deeply touching love story set against the backdrop of a dramatic and controversial period in American history, It follows the romance and eventual marriage of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad), a hot blooded Irish American, and a beautiful Japanese American Lily Dawanura (Tamlyn Tomita), at the outset of World War II. The clash of cultures, at once painful for the two lovers, becomes insurmountable after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Lily and the Kawamuras are relocated To a bleak, outdoor internment camp in California, Jack is drafted into the Army, powerless to help the woman he loves abandoning all hope of ever winning her family's approval.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying, sentimental, romantic, clever
Similar in 76%
Zelary (2003)
Plot Summary:
A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, contemplative, epic, mysterious, serious, sentimental, romantic
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Similar in 90%
The Year That Trembled (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Year That Trembled is a 1970 coming-of-age story set in the shadow of Kent State that focuses on a group of young characters facing the Vietnam Draft Lottery.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, contemplative, independent film
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Similar in 89%
Haven (2001)
Plot Summary:
This is the true story of a woman named Ruth Gruber who travels to Europe to help escort 1000 Jewish War victims to the United States. She comes to love and feel sorry for them all, and fights for their rights to live in America.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 514
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, disturbing, serious, captivating, realistic, crying, uplifting
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Similar in 77%
Gaby: A True Story (1987)
Plot Summary:
The life of Gaby Brimmer, a girl physically handicapped, who finally gets her goals of study and triumph.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 783
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, emotional, realistic, serious
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Similar in 85%
Sonny Boy (2011)
Plot Summary:
Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, meets the older Dutch woman Rika van der Lans and they fall in love. In pre-WWII Netherlands they could not be more different. The one black, the other white, 17 years between them and on top of that Rika already has four children with another man. They love each other, but then Rika appears to be pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, sentimental, captivating, emotional, costume drama, serious, realistic
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Similar in 85%
Gracie (2007)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of a teenager named Gracie Bowen, who lives in South Orange, New Jersey, is crazy about soccer, as are her three brothers and former soccer star father. Although Gracie wants to join her brothers and father in the nightly practices, she is discouraged by everyone except her elder brother, Johnny. Her father does not believe that girls should play soccer and tells her that she is neither tough enough nor talented enough to play with the boys team. Undeterred, Gracie finds reserves of strength she never knew existed, and persists in changing everyone's beliefs in what she is capable of, including her own. She faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer. But as the beautiful and strong person that she has always been but she also brings her family together in the face of their own tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, serious, crying
Similar in 81%
Where Hands Touch (2018)
Plot Summary:
Germany, 1944. Leyna, the 15-year old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi solider, and they form an unlikely connection in this quickly changing world.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, sincere, captivating, realistic, retro, costume drama, touching, atmospheric
Similar in 81%
Pride (2007)
Plot Summary:
In this uplifting film based on a true story, coach Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) shocks the community and changes lives when, aided by a local janitor (Bernie Mac), he sets out to form Philadelphia's first black swim team. But the odds are against them as they battle rigid rules, racism and more.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: inspirational, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, sincere, touching, crying, exciting, road movie
Similar in 89%
Talk of Angels (1998)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about her impending marriage to a political activist in Ireland. But in Spain in the 1930's, taking a job of governess in a wealthy family, she finds the same kinds of political unrest. In fact, it isn't long before she finds herself attracted to a married man who is similarly involved in the struggle against fascism and Franco. This awakens her to her nature that brings her to such men and resolves for her what she must do about the life she left in Ireland.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 893
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sentimental, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 79%
The Greatest (2009)
Plot Summary:
Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she's pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer's door. She needs their help, and although they can't quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, captivating, realistic, serious, emotional, breathtaking, cult classic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 84%
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Plot Summary:
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor named Basie, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirits, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 133000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: sad, emotional, heartbreaking, period piece, touching, realistic, inspirational, historical drama, sincere, philosophical
Similar in 77%
Fateless (2005)
Plot Summary:
An Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Hungary, Germany, UK, Israel, France, USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, disturbing, emotional, realistic, gloomy, retro, touching, educational, sad
Similar in 84%
Rosenstrasse (2003)
Plot Summary:
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 78%
The Final Season (2007)
Plot Summary:
True story of Kent Stock, who in the early 90's, gives up a job and ditches his wedding plans to take over as head coach as the Norway High School baseball team. Kent must win over his players and convince them and himself that he can fill their former coach's shoes and that they can go out winners. In the summer of 1991 Norway High's baseball tradition ended on a triumphant but sombre note.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, historical drama, serious, captivating, emotional, independent film