Best movies like Schindler's List
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 9.0
IMDB Votes: 14000000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 195 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, heartbreaking, realistic, thought provoking, poignant, black and white, dramatic, serious, sad
Best tv shows and movies like Schindler's List (1993):
Similar in 85%
Luther (2003)
Plot Summary:
During the early 16th Century idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Germany, USA, Czech Republic, Italy
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: uplifting, political, biblical, christian film, sincere, touching, intellectual, inspirational, costume drama, intense
Similar in 78%
The Grey Zone (2001)
Plot Summary:
A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkomando Jews – who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow-Jews – find themselves in a moral grey zone.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, disturbing, factual, emotional, harsh, compassionate, serious, realistic, heartbreaking
Similar in 80%
Europa Europa (1990)
Plot Summary:
A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth. Although improbabilities and happenstance are cornerstones of the film, it is based upon a true story.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Germany, France, Poland
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, realistic, retro, mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, epic, tense, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 78%
The Shop on Main Street (1965)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in Nazi-occupied Slovakia during World War II, decent but timid carpenter Tono is named "Aryan comptroller" of a button store owned by an old Jewish widow, Rozalie. Since the post comes with a salary and standing in the town's corrupt hierarchy, Tono wrestles with greed and guilt as he and Rozalie gradually befriend each other. When the authorities order all Jews in town to be rounded up, Tono faces a moral dilemma unlike any he's known before.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, emotional, touching, serious, realistic, depressing, social, black comedy, offbeat
Similar in 83%
Bent (1997)
Plot Summary:
Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sexy, brutal, disturbing, bleak, serious, emotional, erotic, lgbt cinema, sad, homoerotic
Similar in 86%
Jakob the Liar (1999)
Plot Summary:
In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, France, Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sad, cult classic, sincere, uplifting, humorous, emotional, realistic, gloomy, semi serious, sentimental
Similar in 82%
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
Plot Summary:
The account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Czech Republic, UK, USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: factual, rough, tense, suspense, sad, suspenseful, disturbing, costume drama, thought provoking, touching
Similar in 82%
Amen. (2002)
Plot Summary:
The film "Amen." examines the links between the Vatican and Nazi Germany. The central character is Kurt Gerstein, a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS who is horrified by what he sees in the death camps. Moreover, he is shocked to learn that the process he used to purify water for his troops, by using zyklon, served as a basis to kill people in gas chambers.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, War
Country: France, Germany, Romania
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, thought provoking, disturbing, bleak, suspenseful, realistic, intense, christian film, sentimental
Similar in 86%
Labyrinth of Lies (2014)
Plot Summary:
A young prosecutor in postwar West Germany investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of prominent public figures.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, thought provoking, captivating, realistic, heartbreaking, emotional, social, crying, tense
Similar in 90%
Les Misérables (1998)
Plot Summary:
Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Germany, USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: touching, costume drama, sincere, dramatic, epic, period piece, emotional, clever, fairy tale, social
Similar in 90%
Defiance (2008)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, during World War II, four Jewish brothers escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus in Poland and join the Soviet partisans to combat the Nazis. The brothers begin the rescue of roughly 1,200 Jews still trapped in the ghettos of Poland.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 154000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, epic, period piece, dramatic, realistic, historical drama, psychological, motivational, clever
Similar in 80%
The Book Thief (2013)
Plot Summary:
While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refuge is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 141000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, serious, captivating, sad, stylized, tear jerker, period piece, motivational
Similar in 89%
Downfall (2004)
Plot Summary:
In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 370000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Germany, Austria, Italy
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, dramatic, disturbing, harsh, realistic, suspense, political, atmospheric, thought provoking
Similar in 85%
John Rabe (2009)
Plot Summary:
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: France, China, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, disturbing, bleak, serious, uplifting, epic, edutainment, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Plot Summary:
Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he learns that she is a Holocaust survivor. Flashbacks reveal her harrowing story, from pre-war prosperity to Auschwitz. In the present, Sophie and Nathan's relationship increasingly unravels as Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan's fragile mental state becomes ever more apparent.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 52000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: depressing, sad, realistic, heartbreaking, serious, touching, crying, emotional, bleak, disturbing
Similar in 84%
The Counterfeiters (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon Sorowitsch, coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, War
Country: Austria, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, brutal, bleak, harsh, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, realistic, intense, sincere
Similar in 80%
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Plot Summary:
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 239000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, sad, heartbreaking, sentimental, tear jerker, serious, crying, thought provoking, gloomy
Similar in 81%
The Diary of Anne Frank (1980)
Plot Summary:
The story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who are forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Plot Summary:
True story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to thrilling, dramatic life. Sophie Scholl stars Julia Jentsch in a luminous performance as the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Armed with long-buried historical records of her incarceration, director Marc Rothemund expertly re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, tense, sincere, suspenseful, emotional, political, disturbing, christian film, realistic, talky
Similar in 75%
Amistad (1997)
Plot Summary:
In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, period piece, epic, dramatic, compassionate, factual, uplifting, serious, captivating
Similar in 77%
Operation Finale (2018)
Plot Summary:
In 1960, a team of Israeli secret agents is deployed to find Adolf Eichmann, the infamous Nazi architect of the Holocaust, supposedly hidden in Argentina, and get him to Israel to be judged.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: period piece, ambiguous ending, tense, historical drama, inspirational, art house, costume drama, powerful, thought provoking, suspense
Similar in 86%
The Pianist (2002)
Plot Summary:
The true story of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 890000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, War
Country: France, Poland, Germany, UK, USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: emotional, heartbreaking, harsh, bleak, suspense, poignant, reflective, touching, dramatic, motivational
Similar in 81%
The Hiding Place (1975)
Plot Summary:
The Hiding Place is an account of a Dutch family who risk their lives by offering a safe haven for Jews during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: christian film, bleak, spiritual, independent film, sincere, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Conspiracy (2001)
Plot Summary:
The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Lead by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political, factual, bleak, disturbing, atmospheric, intense, suspense, realistic, historical drama, non fiction
Similar in 82%
War Horse (2011)
Plot Summary:
Follows a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, and how their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 164000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, India
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, epic, uplifting, captivating, sentimental, melancholic, serious, crying, sad
Similar in 76%
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Plot Summary:
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 731000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: motivational, heartbreaking, disturbing, harsh, bleak, atmospheric, emotional, factual, brutal, rough
Similar in 84%
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Plot Summary:
A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 730000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, emotional, sentimental, tragicomedy, poignant, heartbreaking, sad, realistic, feel good
Similar in 87%
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 368000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, South Africa, Italy, USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: emotional, intense, informative, rough, political, sad, depressing, inspirational, sincere, touching
Similar in 79%
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Plot Summary:
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 577000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Australia, USA, UK, China
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: inspirational, touching, sentimental, harsh, motivational, emotional, brutal, tense, christian film, suspense
Similar in 88%
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