Best movies like Friendly Fire
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Friendly Fire? Use your knowledge to steer 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:
In March 1970, a U.S. Army officer arrived at the Iowa farm of Peg and Gene Mullen and informed them that their son Michael had been killed in Vietnam by "friendly fire." Their determined attempts to learn more about the circumstances of their son's death are the subject of this true account film.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Friendly Fire (1979):
Similar in 79%
Railway Spine (2016)
Plot Summary:
Michael Delucca, a Vietnam veteran broken by his struggle with post-traumatic stress, recollects his violent postwar life in a raw and touching memoir for the son he never knew.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Crime, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Forgotten Man (1971)
Plot Summary:
A Marine officer reported as killed in Vietnam but was actually a POW returns home. Instead of being welcomed home, however, he discovers that his father has died, his wife has remarried, his daughter has been adopted, his business has been sold and his life has completely changed.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 89
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder (1982)
Plot Summary:
An Army medic working in a mortuary in Saigon becomes emotionally involved with a group of Vietnamese orphans.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 86%
The Wall (1998)
Plot Summary:
The story of three items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: a pencil holder, a sheriff's badge, and an electric guitar. Each item connects the living with the dead and are left as either memorials or to heal the wounds of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 149
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: anthology, independent film
Similar in 85%
There Is No 13 (1974)
Plot Summary:
In this wartime drama, a young soldier spends much of stint in Vietnam remembering his life and his 12 love affairs. The story ends before he can have a 13th.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 25
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 84%
Killzone (1985)
Plot Summary:
It turns awry for a Vietnam veteran with problems during an exercise at a survival camp, and he believes that he is back in Vietnam. He kills many of the leaders whom he believes is the Vietcong. The other participants venture out to find him and catch him before he injures or kills any more. The camp holds that against have no plans to capture him alive. Is this going out, he namely major problems.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 136
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 78%
Heroes from Another Land (1996)
Plot Summary:
This docu-drama deals with the lives of two soldiers from Puerto Rico enlisted to fight during the Vietnam conflict. Based on a real-life incident, the movie relates the young soldiers' ambiguity about the war and the tragic consequences their plight holds for them, as well as their families.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Puerto Rico
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)
Plot Summary:
Chickie wants to support his friends fighting in Vietnam, so he does something wild—personally bring them American beer. What starts as a well-meaning journey quickly changes Chickie’s life and perspective. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: dramatic, exciting, uplifting, harsh
Similar in 84%
The Last Blood (1983)
Plot Summary:
A soldier attacks his corrupt superior officer and is court marshalled but before he can be sent to a firing squad he escapes.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 302
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: macaroni combat, cult film
Similar in 87%
Target for Death (1986)
Plot Summary:
Coordinates of Death (Russian Title: Koordinaty smerti / Координаты смерти) is a 1985 Soviet-Vietnamese co-production directed by Samvel Gasparov and Nguyen Xuan Chan. Set during the Vietnam War (presumably during Operation Linebacker II in 1972), the film is about a group of Soviet sailors aboard the freighter Chelyabinsk who aid their Vietnamese comrades after their ship is sunk, interspersed with scenes depicting the brutality of Americans towards Vietnamese civilians as seen through the eyes of an actress named Kate Francis (a Jane Fonda analogue).
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Vietnam, Soviet Union
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Purple Hearts (1984)
Plot Summary:
A Navy surgeon and a nurse fall in love while serving in Vietnam during the war. Their affection for one another provides a striking contrast to the violence of warfare.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 981
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: political, anamorphic, independent film, sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, cult film
Similar in 88%
Memorial Day (1983)
Plot Summary:
An attorney finds himself at the center of a surprise reunion with the veterans of his platoon from Vietnam.The reunion stirs up painful memories and disturbing secrets for all involved.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Platoon Leader (1988)
Plot Summary:
West Point graduate lieutenant Jeff Knight meets cynicism when taking command of sergeant Michael McNamara's tour veterans platoon in a Vietnamese trench camp. Unlike his predecessor, who hid till the end of his tour, Jeff takes charge, experiences the manual doesn't allow coping with all realities and gets wounded. He returns, now fully respect by men and superiors. Besides the Vietcong, the platoon wrestles with the inscrutable villagers, which the G.I.'s officially protect, but also fear as some collaborate with them, other covertly with the Cong, either way subject to bloody reprisals.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, eighties, cult film
Similar in 77%
The Veteran (2006)
Plot Summary:
Sidney J. Furie's The Veteran is a respectable straight-to-DVD movie that was headed for the "pleasant surprise" category before self-destructing with a terrible, out-of-the-blue ending.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 655
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, cult film
Similar in 84%
The Walking Dead (1995)
Plot Summary:
Five young marines on a suicide mission in Vietnam, struggle for survival in a jungle minefield. The mean streets of home did not prepare them for this.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 868
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: action adventure, independent film, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, biting, suspense, cult film
Similar in 86%
In Country (1989)
Plot Summary:
Samantha Hughes, a teenaged Kentucky girl, never knew her father, who died in Vietnam before her birth. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett, who also served in Vietnam. Emmett hangs around with Tom, Earl, and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Samantha,becomes obsessed with finding out about her father.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sex comedy, psychological, sincere, serious, contemplative, sentimental, sexy
Similar in 77%
The Last Full Measure (2019)
Plot Summary:
The incredible true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over sixty men. Thirty-two years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman investigates a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy behind the decades-long denial of the medal, prompting Huffman to put his own career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, captivating, disturbing, depressing, cult classic, period piece
Similar in 76%
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Plot Summary:
Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: disturbing, realistic, harsh, brutal, heartbreaking, political, emotional, thought provoking, touching, serious
Similar in 88%
A Bright Shining Lie (1998)
Plot Summary:
Something in his past keeps career Army man John Paul Vann from advancing past colonel. He views being sent to Vietnam as part of the US military advisory force a stepping stone to promotion. However, he disagrees vocally (and on the record) with the way the war is being run and is forced to leave the military. Returning to Vietnam as a civilian working with the Army, he comes to despise some South Vietnamese officers while he takes charge of some of the U.S. forces and continues his liaisons with Vietnamese women.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, cult film
Similar in 84%
Heaven & Earth (1993)
Plot Summary:
Le Ly lives in a small Vietnamese village whose serenity is shattered when war breaks out. Caught between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese army, the village is all but destroyed. After being both brutalized and raped, Le Ly resolves to flee. She leaves for the city, surviving desperate situations, but surviving nonetheless. Eventually she meets a U.S. Marine named Steve Butler who treats her kindly and tells her he would like to be married -- maybe to her.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, France
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, realistic, intense, bleak, serious, epic, scenic, sad, art house
Similar in 88%
The Iron Triangle (1989)
Plot Summary:
Based on the diary of an unknown Viet Cong soldier, this film provides a sympathetic look at a Viet Cong soldier who protected a captured American soldier whom he believed did not kill him when the American had the opportunity. Written by John Sacksteder.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 532
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, serious, independent film, bleak, captivating, cult film
Similar in 84%
The Green Berets (1968)
Plot Summary:
Col. Mike Kirby picks two teams of crack Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam. First off is to build and control a camp that is trying to be taken by the enemy the second mission is to kidnap a North Vietnamese General.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, thought provoking, captivating, retro, exciting, sentimental, sexy, epic, bad ending
Similar in 90%
Flight of the Intruder (1991)
Plot Summary:
U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Jake Grafton and his bombardier buddy, Lt. Cmdr. Virgil Cole, are two soldiers embedded in the Vietnam War growing frustrated by the military's constraints on their missions. Despite the best efforts of their commanding officer, Cmdr. Frank Camparelli, to re-engage them, this disillusioned pair decide to take the war effort into their own hands with an explosive battle plan that could well get them court-martialed.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, romantic, clever, feel good
Similar in 87%
Birdy (1984)
Plot Summary:
Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam war. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: depressing, emotional, psychological, touching, realistic, art house, thought provoking, offbeat, political, surreal
Similar in 90%
Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
Plot Summary:
Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel "Incident at Muc Wa." It tells the story about U.S. Army military advisers during the early part of the Vietnam War. Led my Major Asa Barker, these advisers and their South Vietnamese counterparts defend the village of Muc Wa against multiple attacks by Viet-Cong guerrillas.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, bleak, realistic, independent film, contemplative, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 77%
Bat*21 (1988)
Plot Summary:
Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, harsh, exciting, serious, suspenseful, rough, tense, sentimental, light
Similar in 81%
84C MoPic (1989)
Plot Summary:
A cameraman embedded with a reconnaissance patrol charts their mission across territory controlled by the Vietnamese. An impressively naturalistic Vietnam film. Impressive performance by unknown actors in this low-budget Vietnam drama. The story is being told in the form of a documentary; a camera team follows an Army unit in pursuit of 'Charlie'. Filmed in Southern California. The movie's producing company itself is called '84 Charlie MoPic'.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, mockumentary, independent film, cult film
Similar in 77%
Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (2019)
Plot Summary:
Vietnam War, 1966. Australia and New Zealand send troops to support the United States and South Vietnamese in their fight against the communist North. Soldiers are very young men, recruits and volunteers who have never been involved in a combat. On August 18th, members of Delta Company will face the true horror of a ruthless battle among the trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tân. They are barely a hundred. The enemy is a human wave ready to destroy them.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, suspense, tense, rough, disturbing, perverse, cult film
Similar in 79%
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Plot Summary:
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 114000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: factual, disturbing, emotional, realistic, intense, thought provoking, serious, captivating, psychological, sincere
Similar in 78%
Platoon (1986)
Plot Summary:
As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 432000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: epic, realistic, rough, disturbing, atmospheric, emotional, suspense, brutal, tense, harsh