Best movies like Birdman of Alcatraz
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies related to Birdman of Alcatraz? Use your insights to guide others towards films and tv shows you've watched that they may enjoy too. Help expand the group of people recommending videos to one another. We value your input!
Plot Summary:
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, black and white, retro, thought provoking, crime thriller, sincere, uplifting
Best tv shows and movies like Birdman of Alcatraz (1962):
Similar in 86%
Convicts 4 (1962)
Plot Summary:
This movie is about the progression of John Resko's (Ben Gazzara) character as he is commuted from the death sentence for killing a man to life in prison. Not only is he transferred to a new facility, but his guard (Stuart Whitman), who believes that man can be rehabilitated, has requested a transfer from death row.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 504
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: black and white, independent film, realistic, semi serious, psychotronic, classic noir
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 78%
Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995)
Plot Summary:
Carl Panzram is sent to Leavenworth Prison for burglary. While there, he is brutally beaten by a guard. Neophyte guard Henry Lesser feels sympathy for Panzram, befriends him, and gets him to write his life story. Lesser learns that Panzram's past is much more violent than he thought, but also that he's capable of being a much better person than the rest of the prison staff believes - or so Lesser thinks.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, psychological, unusual plot structure, bloody
Similar in 77%
The Executioner's Song (1982)
Plot Summary:
In this fact-based film, Gary Gilmore, an Indiana man who just finished serving a lengthy stay in prison, tries to start anew by moving to Utah. Before long, Gary begins an ill-advised romance with the troubled Nicole Baker, a teenage single mother. As their relationship quickly deteriorates, Gary goes on a murderous rampage, leaving two dead. During his trial, he demands capital punishment; a media circus ensues and outsiders look to profit from his story.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 85%
The Burning Bed (1984)
Plot Summary:
An abused battered wife has had enough of husband beating up on her. Everywhere she turns for help, there's not much anyone will do. After he rapes her one night, she sets the bed on fire with him in it asleep.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, non fiction, crime drama, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 88%
Rosewater (2014)
Plot Summary:
In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was covering Iran's volatile elections for Newsweek. One of the few reporters living in the country with access to US media, he made an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in a taped interview with comedian Jason Jones. The interview was intended as satire, but if the Tehran authorities got the joke they didn't like it - and it would quickly came back to haunt Bahari when he was rousted from his family home and thrown into prison. Making his directorial debut, Jon Stewart tells the tale of Bahari's months-long imprisonment and interrogation in this powerful and affecting docudrama featuring a potent and performance by Gael García Bernal recounting Bahari's efforts to maintain his hope and his sanity in the face of isolation and persecution-through memories of his family, recollections of the music he loves, and thoughts of his wife and unborn child.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: brutal, suspense, suspenseful, surreal, tense, captivating, political, social, novela, powerful
Similar in 82%
Chopper (2000)
Plot Summary:
The true and intense story of Mark 'Chopper' Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: disturbing, dark comedy, rough, cynical, brutal, dark, cult classic, stylized, black comedy, intellectual
Similar in 89%
Carandiru (2003)
Plot Summary:
Carandiru, a story based on real facts and on the book written by the doctor Drauzio Varella, starts when he decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, Carandiru, the victim of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History, when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil, Argentina, Italy
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: bleak, compassionate, rough, touching, captivating, realistic, sincere, disturbing, controversial, perverse
Similar in 88%
Murder in the First (1995)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by a true story. A petty criminal sent to Alcatraz in the 1930s is caught attempting to make an escape. As punishment he is put in solitary confinement. The maximum stay is supposed to be 19 days, but Henri spends years alone, cold and in complete darkness, only to emerge a madman and soon to be a murderer. The story follows a rookie lawyer attempting to prove that Alcatraz was to blame.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: suspense, dramatic, emotional, depressing, sincere, dark, period piece, crime drama, historical drama, suspense thriller
Similar in 80%
McVicar (1980)
Plot Summary:
John McVicar was a London Bad Boy. he graduated to armed bank robbery and was Britain's "Public Enemy No. 1". He was captured and put into a high security prison. Will even the highest security prison be able to hold him? This is the true story of his life, his criminal exploits and his eventual rehabilitation.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, independent film, cult film
Similar in 79%
Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004)
Plot Summary:
Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, political, hood, crime drama, sincere, touching
Similar in 81%
Longford (2006)
Plot Summary:
A portrait of Lord Longford, a tireless British campaigner whose controversial beliefs often resulted in furious political debate and personal conflict.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, talky, tense, political, captivating, cult classic, sincere, contemplative
Similar in 82%
American Me (1992)
Plot Summary:
Edward J. Olmos made his directorial bow with the powerhouse crime saga American Me. Olmos stars as street-gang leader Santana, who during his 18 years in Folsom Prison rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits. The.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: disturbing, realistic, talky, emotional, intense, rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense
Similar in 76%
Capote (2005)
Plot Summary:
A biopic of the writer, Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book, 'In Cold Blood'.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 139000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: intellectual, captivating, dark, dramatic, talky, psychological, historical drama, atmospheric, inspirational, retro
Similar in 78%
In Cold Blood (1967)
Plot Summary:
A 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: black and white, disturbing, suspense, neo noir, bleak, tense, controversial, road movie, detective, inspirational
Similar in 75%
Infamous (2006)
Plot Summary:
While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: emotional, tense, sincere, serious, psychological, captivating, witty, talky, retro, clever
Similar in 79%
Bugsy (1991)
Plot Summary:
New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, intense, suspense, talky, tense, serious, captivating, period piece, neo noir
Similar in 87%
Midnight Express (1978)
Plot Summary:
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 87000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: disturbing, realistic, suspense, depressing, psychological, serious, tense, controversial, grim, bleak
Similar in 80%
Crown Heights (2017)
Plot Summary:
When Colin Warner was wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King devoted his life to proving his innocence.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, intense, thought provoking, serious, suspense, social, sad
Similar in 83%
Just Mercy (2019)
Plot Summary:
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 74000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, touching, inspirational, enigmatic, motivational, emotional, educational
Similar in 80%
Conviction (2010)
Plot Summary:
When Betty Anne Waters' older brother Kenny is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning the murder conviction. Convinced that her brother is innocent, Betty Anne puts herself through high school, college and, finally, law school in an 18 year quest to free Kenny. With the help of best friend Abra Rice, Betty Anne pores through suspicious evidence mounted by small town cop Nancy Taylor, meticulously retracing the steps that led to Kenny's arrest. Belief in her brother - and her quest for the truth - pushes Betty Anne and her team to uncover the facts and utilize DNA evidence with the hope of exonerating Kenny.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Switzerland, UK, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, inspirational, sad, thought provoking, disturbing, intense, motivational, entertaining
Similar in 77%
Guilty (2011)
Plot Summary:
Investigates the corrupt judicial system under which Alain Mar'caux and his wife Edith were arrested on accusations of pedophilia horrific acts they never committed- and the years he spent fighting to get out of prison, clear his name and keep his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, touching, sincere, serious, realistic, factual, social, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Brubaker (1980)
Plot Summary:
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, factual, harsh, serious, captivating, political, tense, psychological, edutainment
Similar in 83%
Blue Caprice (2013)
Plot Summary:
A narrative feature film inspired by the events known as the Beltway sniper attacks.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, disturbing, captivating, educational, tense, atmospheric, serious, independent film
Similar in 85%
The Hurricane (1999)
Plot Summary:
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 101000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, inspirational, factual, motivational, epic, political, twisted, sincere, uplifting
Similar in 85%
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Plot Summary:
Escape from Alcatraz tells the story of the only three men ever to escape from the infamous maximum security prison at Alcatraz. In 29 years, the seemingly impenetrable federal penitentiary, which housed Al Capone and "Birdman" Robert Stroud, was only broken once - by three men never heard of again.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 145000
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: suspense, atmospheric, suspenseful, realistic, exciting, motivational, inspirational, neo noir, non fiction, crime drama
Similar in 90%
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Plot Summary:
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 186000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, rough, depressing, intense, scary, inspirational, dorama, spiritual
Similar in 79%
Papillon (1973)
Plot Summary:
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 137000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: inspirational, psychological, grim, realistic, depressing, visually stunning, philosophical, uplifting, epic, dark
Similar in 82%
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Plot Summary:
A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who in his last days forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality as she accompanies him to his execution.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 100000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, thought provoking, sad, emotional, atmospheric, suspense, depressing, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Plot Summary:
A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. He and his four friends are coerced by British police into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends fifteen years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 184000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: political, sentimental, inspirational, touching, dramatic, factual, sincere, thought provoking, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Green Mile (1999)
Plot Summary:
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cellblock's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 14000000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 189 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, heartbreaking, sentimental, sad, dramatic, suspense, serious, thought provoking, inspirational