Best movies like The Finest Hour
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Macho Lawrence 'Larry' Hammer and frailer Dean Mazzoli initially rival as U.S. Navy SEAL trainees, but become buddies in instructor chief petty officer Bosco's merciless training class. The friends date two girls, but both love Barbara, who chooses to marry Larry, as ideal father for her pre-teen son. After graduation from Basic UDT/SEAL training, they choose opposite oceans for further training. However Sadam Husein's invasion of Kuwait gets both mobilized in the same unit, with Bosco, who gets captured and tortured. Dean learns Barbara has left adulterer Larry. They mount a rescue together, taking risks even on their own side.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 741
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like The Finest Hour (1991):
Similar in 86%
Attack at Dawn (1970)
Plot Summary:
Eli is an Israeli soldier who manages to escape from a notorious Arab prison. He makes it back to Israel, where he finds Beno, another soldier who had spent 2 years of horror in the same prison. They organize a rescue operation against the prison. The soldiers must use both cunning and boldness if they are to help their fellow Israelis regain their freedom.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful
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Similar in 81%
The Last Winter (1983)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of two women seeking leads to their missing husbands after the end of the Yom Kippur War (1973). A relationship builds between them when each identified her husband in the same blurred image of a foreign newsreel.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, Israel
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
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Similar in 78%
The American Dream (2011)
Plot Summary:
Armed with dreams that extend beyond their block, Luis and Ronald, two best friends from Los Angeles, videotape their last 36 hours before shipping off to Afghanistan. One hundred days before Obama's inauguration, these young men have joined the Marines together to face the obstacles and circumstances that seem to overwhelm their passage into manhood. Luis wants to be a filmmaker and Ronald wants to travel the world and raise a family. Through the lens of Luis's video camera, they capture their friends, family members and places they call home - to remember who they are and where they come from. In their darkest hour, they turn on the video camera for the last time and document the final moments of their journey home. They soon realize that their dreams and promises of a new life mean nothing in a place called War.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, sincere, realistic, non-linear, independent film
Similar in 88%
Ambush Bay (1966)
Plot Summary:
A Marine unit on a Japanese-held island in the Philippines tries to hook up with local Filipino guerrillas.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 764
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Kippur (2000)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in which Egypt and Syria launched attacks in Sinai and the Golan Heights. The story is told from the perspective of Israeli soldiers. We are led by Weinraub and his friend Ruso on a day that begins with quiet city streets, but ends with death, destruction and devastation of both body and mind. Various scenes are awash in the surreal, as Weinraub's head hangs out over a rescue helicopter's open door, watching with tranquil desperation as the earth passes beneath, the overpowering whir of the blades creating a hypnotic state. It is not a traditional blood, guts and glory film. There are no men in battle, only the rescue crew trying to pick up the broken pieces.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: tense, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, atmospheric, bleak, gloomy
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Similar in 76%
Marooned in Iraq (2002)
Plot Summary:
During the war between Iran and Iraq, a group of Iranian Kurd musicians set off on an almost impossible mission. They will try to find Hanareh, a singer with a magic voice who crossed the border and may now be in danger in the Iraqi Kurdistan. As in his previous films, this Kurdish director is again focusing on the oppression of his people.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, sentimental, realistic, road movie, islamic
Similar in 90%
The Human Shield (1991)
Plot Summary:
The Human Shield is a 1991 film directed by Ted Post. It stars Michael Dudikoff and Tommy Hinkley. It is about a former government agent who must save his diabetic brother from Iraqi abductors.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 537
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, rough, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, grindhouse, independent film, bleak, serious, cult film
Similar in 87%
Operation Bikini (1963)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes, whose mission is to locate and destroy a US submarine sunken in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 307
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychotronic
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Similar in 80%
Camp X-Ray (2014)
Plot Summary:
A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: sincere, intense, serious, captivating, realistic, dramatic, depressing, novela, cult classic, teen
Similar in 80%
The Situation (2006)
Plot Summary:
The first U.S.-made film drama set during the Iraq war, THE SITUATION chronicles the tragic death of an Iraqi teenager at the hands of U.S. soldiers. The incident sets off an "investigation," a cover-up, and complications involving Iraqi mayor Sheikh Tahsin (Saïd Amadis), who has a complex relationship with the Americans.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 885
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, rough, realistic, extraordinary
Similar in 80%
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 77%
Taking Chance (2009)
Plot Summary:
Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a volunteer military escort accompanies the body of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps to his hometown in Wyoming.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, emotional, sincere, sentimental, sad, serious, harsh, christian film, motivational
Similar in 77%
Live from Baghdad (2002)
Plot Summary:
A group of CNN reporters wrestle with journalistic ethics and the life-and-death perils of reporting during the Gulf War.A Directors Guild Award-winning movie for director Mick Jackson, starring Michael Keaton and Helena Bonham Carter. In 1990, CNN was a 24-hour news network in search of a 24-hour story. They were about to find it in Baghdad. Veteran CNN producer Robert Wiener and his longtime producing partner Ingrid Formanek find themselves in Iraq on the eve of war. Up against the big three networks, Weiner and his team are rebels with a cause, willing to take risks to get the biggest stories and - unlike their rivals - take them live at a moment's notice. As Baghdad becomes an inevitable US target, one by one the networks pull out of the city until only the crew from CNN remains. With a full-scale war soon to be launched all around them, and CNN ready to broadcast whatever happens 24 hours a day, Wiener and Formanek are about to risk their lives for the story of a lifetime.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, sincere, emotional, realistic, cult classic, talky
Similar in 77%
Behind Enemy Lines (1985)
Plot Summary:
Professor-turned-spy Col. Calvin Turner and his associate, workaholic Lt. Shelley Flynn, plan a daring rescue behind enemy lines in World War II German-occupied Norway of a brilliant scientist who may or may not be aiding the Germans.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
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Similar in 88%
Hell Boats (1970)
Plot Summary:
A war drama of motor torpedo boats which did much unsung work in WW2, but the naval battles merely provide an exciting story in which an even more special romantic drama is wrapped up.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 518
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, serious, captivating, realistic
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Similar in 79%
American Soldiers (2005)
Plot Summary:
Iraq, 2004: during a routine sortie a US patrol is ambushed and the young soldiers are forced to put their training and skills into action fast. A determined foe with superior local knowledge, the Fedayeen insurgents soon draw them into close quarter combat and a desperate fight for survival.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 85%
Memorial Day (2012)
Plot Summary:
Memorial Day, 1993. When 13-year-old Kyle Vogel discovers the World War II footlocker belonging to his grandfather, Bud, everyone tells Kyle to put it back. Luckily, he ignores them. Although Bud has never talked about the war, he finds himself striking a deal with his grandson: Kyle can pick any three souvenirs, and Bud will tell him the stories behind each one. Memorial Day not only takes us on a journey into Bud's complicated wartime past, but also into Kyle's wartime future. As the two men share parallel experiences in combat, they come to realize how that magical day on the porch shaped both of their lives. .
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Great War (2019)
Plot Summary:
In November of 1918 as World War I was ending, a unit of American soldiers goes behind enemy lines to find a lost platoon of African American soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating
Similar in 90%
The Yellow Birds (2017)
Plot Summary:
Two young soldiers, Bartle and Murph, navigate the terrors of the Iraq war under the command of the older, troubled Sergeant Sterling. All the while, Bartle is tortured by a promise he made to Murph's mother before their deployment.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, realistic, disturbing, sad
Similar in 76%
Jarhead 2: Field of Fire (2014)
Plot Summary:
Battle-scarred and disillusioned by the war, Corporal Chris Merrimette is put in charge of a unit whose next mission is to resupply a remote outpost on the edge of Taliban-controlled territory. While driving through the hostile Helmand province, a Navy SEAL flags down their convoy and enlists the unit on an operation of international importance: they must help an Afghan woman famous for her defiance of the Taliban escape the country. Without tanks or air support, Merrimette and his team will need all the courage and firepower they can muster to fight their way across the war-torn country and shepherd the woman to safety.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, exciting, rough, captivating, suspenseful, perverse, bleak
Similar in 80%
Bravo Two Zero (1999)
Plot Summary:
When an elite eight-man British SAS team is dropped behind enemy lines, their mission is clear: take out Saddam Hussein's SCUD missile systems. But when communications are cut and the team finds themselves surrounded by Saddam's army, their only hope is to risk capture and torture in a desperate 185-kilometer run to the Syrian border. Based on the true story of a British Special Forces unit behind enemy lines during the Gulf War, Bravo Two Zero explores the tragedies and triumphs of men taken to the edge of survival in the Persian Gulf War.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: South Africa, UK
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 88%
The Boys in Company C (1978)
Plot Summary:
Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men find a possible way out of the war. They are told that if they purposely lose a soccer game against a South Vietnamese team, they can spend the rest of their tour playing exhibition games behind the lines.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Hong Kong, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, cult film
Similar in 79%
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 80%
Only the Brave (2006)
Plot Summary:
A searing portrait of war and prejudice, 'Only the Brave' takes you on a haunting journey into the hearts and minds of the forgotten heroes of WWII - the Japanese-American 100th/442nd.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 909
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspenseful, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 85%
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 82%
Stop-Loss (2008)
Plot Summary:
A veteran soldier returns from his completed tour of duty in Iraq, only to find his life turned upside down when he is arbitrarily ordered to return to field duty by the Army.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, sad, harsh, serious, thought provoking, realistic, suspense, cult classic, edutainment, psychological
Similar in 79%
Boys of Abu Ghraib (2014)
Plot Summary:
An American soldier deployed at Abu Ghraib finds himself behind the walls of the infamous Hard Site, where he develops a secret friendship with an Iraqi detainee.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, serious, realistic, tense, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 82%
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 81%
The Devil's Brigade (1968)
Plot Summary:
1968 American war film about the formation and first mission of the joint Canadian-American WWII special forces winter and mountain unit formally called 1st Special Service Force, but commonly known as “The Devil’s Brigade”. The film dramatises the Brigade's first mission in the Italian Campaign, the task of capturing the German mountain stronghold Monte la Difensa, in December 1943. The film is based on the 1966 book of the same name, co-written by American novelist and historian Robert H. Adleman and Col. George Walton, a member of the brigade.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, tense, harsh, serious, suspenseful, epic, retro, cult classic, historical drama
Similar in 83%
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Plot Summary:
Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 468000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, emotional, tense, serious, rough, psychological, political, sad, factual