Best movies like Spare the Rod
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
It is London in the year 1960 and John Saunders enthusiastically begins his new teaching career at a tough slum-area school. His class are bored pupils in their last term before leaving. Will he handle the grave problems that lie ahead?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 242
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film, black and white
Best tv shows and movies like Spare the Rod (1961):
Similar in 77%
Station Six-Sahara (1963)
Plot Summary:
A beautiful blonde (Carroll Baker) joins a small group of men running an oil station in the Sahara Desert and starts the emotions soaring.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 512
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: noir, esoteric, independent film, cult film
Similar in 75%
Salvatore (2006)
Plot Summary:
Salvatore is a young orphan, living in Sicily with his little sister and his grandmother; after loosing his father in a tragic way he quits school and starts working as a fisherman and a farmer in order to support his little family. The Social Services soon discover the situation and resolve to put Salvatore in an orphanage, parting him from his family. Only a young, idealistic teacher (Enrico Lo Verso) tries to help him, going everyday after school to his house, to teach him the lessons he misses in the morning and to work with him in his greenhouse or on his fishing boat.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 114
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 78%
Bait (2019)
Plot Summary:
Martin Ward is a cove fisherman, without a boat. His brother Steven has repurposed their father’s vessel as a tourist tripper, driving a wedge between the brothers. With their childhood home now a getaway for London money, Martin is displaced to the estate above the picturesque harbour. As his struggle to restore the family to their traditional place creates increasing friction with tourists and locals alike, a tragedy at the heart of the family changes his world.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film, suspense, social, black and white, experimental
Similar in 75%
Caregiver (2008)
Plot Summary:
A grade school English teacher Sarah Gonzales joins the 150,000 Pinoy OFWs working in the United Kingdom to support her Husband, Teddy Gonzales in making a better living for their family. More than just a chronicle of the Filipinos experience working as nurses and caregivers in the UK, this story also charts Sarah's journey to self-discovery from a submissive wife who makes sacrifices for her Husband; Teddy's aspirations to an empowered woman who finds dignity and pride in a humbling job as a Caregiver in London.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 194
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: inspirational, tagalog
Similar in 78%
Fighting Back (1982)
Plot Summary:
Fighting Back is a 1982 Australian film about troubled teenagers.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 28
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
Birth of a Nation (1983)
Plot Summary:
A new teacher at a highly problematic comprehensive school feels that corporal punishment may just be inflaming the problems, and so begins to campaign against it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Small Voices (2002)
Plot Summary:
Melinda is a new substitute teacher at the Malawig Elementary School, located in a poor remote barrio. A young university graduate, her family expects her to look for work abroad, but in her idealism she takes on a challenging job in the provincial public school, which lacks resources and has corrupt personnel. The heavy monsoon rains and the nearby NPAs also add to her difficulties. The children are indifferent to their studies, having been affected by the hopelessness around them. Melinda tries to motivate them by capitalizing on their interest and talent in singing. She takes advantage of a funding opportunity to enter them in a choral contest. She encounters some resistance, however, from the school administration and from the parents of her students. Furthermore, the death of one of the choral group’s members at the hands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines casts a pall on their once joyful preparations. Melinda, however, constantly tries to rise above these challenges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Evergreen Tree (1961)
Plot Summary:
Yeong-shin (played by the Choi Eun-hee–Shin Sang-ok’s wife) and Dong-hyeok (Shin Yeong-gyun) graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their birth. When they arrive, the pair immediately gets to work, Dong-hyeok builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the inititive and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Class Of Miss MacMichael (1978)
Plot Summary:
A dedicated teacher (Glenda Jackson) tries to reach out to juvenile delinquent students at a London alternative school.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 468
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, dark comedy
Similar in 85%
The Child in Time (2017)
Plot Summary:
Set two years after his daughter went missing, The Child In Time follows Stephen Lewis, a children's author, as he struggles to find purpose in his life without her. His wife Julie has left him, and his best friends Charles and Thelma have retired to the countryside, battling demons of their own. With tenderness and insight, the movie explores the dark territory of a marriage devastated, the loss of childhood, the fluidity of time, grief, hope, and acceptance. The Child In Time is a lyrical and heart-breaking exploration of love, loss, and the power of things unseen.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 83%
Umbrella (2016)
Plot Summary:
Alexander Way, a secondary school teacher with a fractured personal life, finds himself attempting to rescue a woman from a violent sexual attack. Alexander finds himself overpowered, beaten & taken to hospital. Jesiah Jarvus, a famous British musician who is frequently touring, has lost his goal in life. Having not spoken with his father in over 20 years, troubling news offers them the chance to reconcile & move forward in both their lives. Theodore Smith attempts to bury the sadness that threatens to engulf his childhood upon hearing the news that his parents will be separating. Elethea Conall, a newly qualified nurse, continues to look after her patients whilst attempting to escape from her past. What do they all have in common?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, captivating, independent film
Similar in 88%
Schoolgirls (2020)
Plot Summary:
Prodded by the rebellious Brisa, puberty is awakening in twelve-year-old Celia. Quickly, the two become allies against the rigid rules of authority in the Catholic girls’ school. However, questions about the right bra, cool bands and sexy clothing cannot hide the urgent search for their own identity.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: melancholic, psychological, light, unusual plot structure, contemplative, social
Similar in 90%
Softie (2021)
Plot Summary:
Ten-year-old Johnny stands out from his family and his tough neighborhood in Eastern France. He's sensitive, intelligent and interested in all kinds of things way beyond his years. With curiosity, he observes the ups and downs of his young single mother's turbulent love life. Things change when a new teacher, fresh from the big city, takes over Johnny's class. Mr. Adamski believes in Johnny and wants to open a new world to him. The sophisticated young teacher also intrigues the boy.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 75%
Looks and Smiles (1981)
Plot Summary:
Thatcherism and the Irish troubles provide the backdrop for this study of Mick, a well-meaning youth in Sheffield, who has, unlike Dickens' Pip, no expectations. Mick lives with his parents, works on his motorbike, looks for work, and every two weeks gets his check from the dole. There are no jobs. His best mate Alan joins the army to fix tanks and is sent to Belfast to quell Catholics. At a disco, Mick meets Karen, who works at a shoe shop and lives with her recently-separated mom. Karen misses her dad. She offers Mick emotional stability and a route to adulthood; Alan pitches the army. Does Mick have a future?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 482
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, black and white, psychological, serious, realistic, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 78%
The Red and the Blue (2012)
Plot Summary:
The story of a teacher and his students, set in an Italian high school.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 738
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing
Similar in 87%
6A (2016)
Plot Summary:
As if immersed in the situation, the viewer witnesses a distressing encounter between angry parents, a helpless teacher and three schoolgirls. It soon becomes clear that certain things are going wrong in their class. There have been complaints of bullying. The parents are mainly concerned with defending their own children. They throw around neurotic accusations and make untenable demands. Using a camera which itself seems to participate in the discussion, scene after scene is dissected with refreshing malice and a sense for the dark side of human nature. Desperate attempts to resolve things unleash an avalanche of other problems. It takes a long time before Denise, Bella and Mina can have their say.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 61 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspenseful, contemplative, juvenile
Similar in 75%
All the Little Things We Kill (2019)
Plot Summary:
A college professor takes her students hostage to force the passage of a bill that bans semi-automatic weapons.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 84%
One for All (2020)
Plot Summary:
A substitute teacher takes on a job as a year 6 class teacher in a village he does not know. He has to help a student adjust back into school, although none of his classmates want him there.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 733
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, social
Similar in 85%
Stolen Spring (1993)
Plot Summary:
At their 25th high-school anniversary some bourgeois citizens remember their time in school as a happy one. In reality it was quite the contrary. The school was a madhouse in which the teachers, especially Blomme, tormented the students. As a result one of them became a murderer.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Bad Seeds (2012)
Plot Summary:
Quiet 16-year-old Louis, the high school headmaster’s son, has never been in trouble. His best friend, 18-year-old Greg, however, is his polar opposite: provocative, angry, violent, he has been kicked out of school for physically threatening young English teacher Camille. When Greg asks Louis to help him take revenge on Camille, Louis accepts, fascinated.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: Luxembourg, Belgium, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious
Similar in 77%
Clockwork Mice (1995)
Plot Summary:
When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
Lamb (1985)
Plot Summary:
Michael Lamb is a Father questioning his calling, in a Reform School in Ireland. When young epileptic runaway Eoin is sent to the school, the two recognise kindred spirits and escape to London together. With the police on their tail and the money running out however, Lamb is forced to make some terrible decisions.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 655
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, eighties
Similar in 80%
Term of Trial (1962)
Plot Summary:
Weir, an alcoholic schoolteacher, whose criminal record for refusing to fight during the Second World War has prevented him from progressing further in his teaching career, is looked upon with disdain by his headmaster, his pupils and even his wife. The one person who appreciates his shyness and warmth is one of his pupils, Shirley Taylor. After Weir offers to give her free private tuition, the pupil slowly falls in love with her teacher leading to accusations of molestation.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 841
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: crying, detective
Similar in 88%
Wedding in White (1972)
Plot Summary:
A young girl's brother comes home from the army, and brings an army buddy with him. The three of them go out that night to celebrate, and after much drinking has been done, the brother's friend rapes the sister. After the two men have gone back, the girl finds that she's pregnant--and discovers that her parents don't blame the soldier, but blame her.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 371
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film
Similar in 89%
Nighthawks (1978)
Plot Summary:
A gay man is forced to hide his sexuality by day while living his secret life by night. A respectable geography teacher by day; by night, hanging out in London's gay bars, looking for a long-term relationship, but usually encountering only one-night stands. Ron Peck later talks about his experiences of growing up as a gay man, the attitudes to homosexuality in Britain, and his journey towards making this film in the 1991 movie "Strip Jack Naked: Nighthawks II".
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002)
Plot Summary:
In the later years of the nineteenth century Latin master Mr. Chipping is the mainstay of Brookfields boys boarding school, a good teacher and a kindly person but he is considered to be married to the job so that it is a surprise when, on a walking holiday, he meets and marries the vivacious Kathie,who becomes his helpmate at the school but sadly pre-deceases him. Just before World War One insensitive new headmaster Ralston tries to edge Chipping out but the boys rally and Sir John Rivers, an old pupil of Chipping's and now head of the board of governors, invites him to stay and,when the war breaks out and Ralston joins up, Chipping becomes the new head.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 898
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Plot Summary:
Idealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, educational, sentimental, realistic, social, retro, political, hood, black and white
Similar in 88%
Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005)
Plot Summary:
The determined new headmaster of an English prep school attempts to reform the frequently unruly students, who are tormented by a ruthless bully.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, exciting, tense, suspenseful, crying, period drama
Similar in 75%
Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979)
Plot Summary:
An abusive sexual relationship between a white spinster schoolteacher and a young black janitor in 1956 Kansas complicates her struggle to come to grips with her sexuality and emotions.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 432
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film, freeze frame
Similar in 75%
An Education (2009)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 137000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, period piece, costume drama, romantic, feel good, talky, stylized, offbeat, indie film, sexy