Best movies like War Requiem
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A film with no spoken dialogue, just follows the music and lyrics of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem, which include WWI soldier poet Wilfred Owen's poems reflecting the war's horrors. It shows the story of an Englishman soldier (Wilfred Owen) and a nurse (his bride) during World War I. It also includes actual footage of contemporary wars (WWII, Vietnam, Angola, etc.).
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 928
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: experimental, cult classic, independent film, atmospheric, thought provoking, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like War Requiem (1989):
Similar in 82%
The Last of England (1987)
Plot Summary:
The artist's personal commentary on the decline of his country in a language closer to poetry than prose. A dark meditation on London under Thatcher.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: mind bending, political, cult classic, experimental, independent film, atmospheric, thought provoking, offbeat, bleak, serious
Similar in 85%
Blue (1993)
Plot Summary:
Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, underground film, experimental, factual, thought provoking, avant garde, absurd, existential
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Similar in 85%
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 78%
Alexandra (2007)
Plot Summary:
An elderly woman takes a train trip to visit her grandson at his army camp inside Chechnya.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, touching, slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 89%
King & Country (1964)
Plot Summary:
During World War I a British soldier, charged with desertion, is defended by an officer who at first despises his actions and then grows to feel sympathy for him.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, independent film
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Similar in 77%
The Last Drop (2006)
Plot Summary:
Different factions in WWII-era Holland race to find a stash of Nazi gold.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, crying
Similar in 86%
Captain Conan (1996)
Plot Summary:
Bulgaria near the end of World War I: Conan, warrior and wolf, leads a band of 50 ruthless French fighters who love hand-to-hand combat. Their motto: "We forgot to take prisoners, Captain." At war's end, the unit goes to Bucharest, where Conan tries to keep them out of trouble, defends them when they behave as warriors, and finds he's unsuited for peacetime. His friendship with Norbert, a teacher turned lieutenant, is tested when Norbert accepts a job as court-martial prosecutor because he's learned that Conan will be facing charges and he wants to protect his friend. When they are sent to the Russian border to fight Bolsheviks, Conan is back in his element and Norbert is off the hook.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspense
Similar in 84%
The Garden (1990)
Plot Summary:
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, art house, disturbing, cult classic, experimental, independent film, clever, offbeat
Similar in 84%
Sword of Honour (2001)
Plot Summary:
Guy Crouchback joins the war effort during World War 2, an idealistic quest to join the forces of good in the fight against evil. But his efforts is not rewarded, he never has any chance to join any real fighting, circumstances always prevent it. Instead he finds himself in the middle of an army full of cowards, incompetents and a few outright evil men. They of course reap the fortunes of war, promotions and fame, but never Crouchback. His war is just an endless list of transfers and an hopeless but noble quest for righteousness.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 918
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 208 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, touching, semi autobiographical, gloomy
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Similar in 87%
The Blockhouse (1973)
Plot Summary:
A group of Slave workers, drafted by the Nazis to help construct their coastal defenses in 1944 are trapped in an underground bunker when the Allies land at Normandy on D-Day. They find huge dtores of food but not enough candles. The slow dying of the light parallels their increasing boredom, illness and jealousy during their entrapment. Based on the Novel 'Le Blockhaus' by Jean Paul Clebert.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy, independent film
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Similar in 89%
Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)
Plot Summary:
World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 969
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic, historical drama, contemplative, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 87%
The Lighthorsemen (1987)
Plot Summary:
Palestine, 1917. The British advance has been stopped by the Turkish line running from Gaza to Beersheba. The latest attack on Gaza has failed. The attacking forces included a regiment of Australian mounted infantry, the Light Horse... Lighthorseman Frank is wounded in a skirmish with Bedouin. He is replaced by a young soldier, Dave, who proves to be a crack shot, but reluctant to fire at the enemy. Dave proves himself during a German biplane attack. Recuperating in hospital, he meets a sympathetic nurse, Anne... The regiment is called upon for a bold flanking attack on Beersheba. But how do you convince the Turks the main attack will come at Gaza? And how do you attack across a desert without water?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, tense, anamorphic, epic, crying, independent film
Similar in 88%
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 89%
Company K (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on the popular World War I novel by author William March, director Robert Clem's COMPANY K follows a veteran of the first great conflict as he finishes a book about his wartime experiences and reflects on how a man's true character is revealed through his actions on the battlefield. From the German soldier who visits him in dreams to the camaraderie that is forged by fighting together and the true gravity of laying down your life for a greater cause, World War I veteran Joe Delaney will attempt to exorcise his demons through writing while struggling to readjust to small-town life following the trauma of war.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, epic, serious, captivating, disturbing, bleak, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
The Trench (1999)
Plot Summary:
The Trench tells the story of a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the worst defeat in British military history. Against this ill-fated backdrop, the movie depicts the soldiers' experience as a mixture of boredom, fear, panic, and restlessness, confined to a trench on the front lines.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, freeze frame
Similar in 79%
Private Peaceful (2012)
Plot Summary:
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying, weeping, period drama
Similar in 79%
Attack on Leningrad (2009)
Plot Summary:
When in 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, their troops quickly besieged Leningrad. Foreign journalists are evacuated but one of them, Kate Davies, is presumed dead and misses the plane. Alone in the city she is helped by Nina Tsvetnova a young and idealist police officer and together they will fight for their own survival and the survival of the people in the besieged Leningrad. Written by Marcio Eduardo.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, British soldier Jack Celliers comes to a japanese prison camp. The camp is run by Yonoi, who has a firm belief in discipline, honour and glory. In his view, the allied prisoners are cowards when they chose to surrender instead of commiting suicide. One of the prisoners, interpreter John Lawrence, tries to explain the japanese way of thinking, but is considered a traitor.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, New Zealand, Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, bleak, realistic, sad, experimental, avant garde, art film, serious, crying
Similar in 77%
Journey's End (2017)
Plot Summary:
Set in a dugout in Aisne in 1918, a group of British officers, led by the mentally disintegrating young officer Stanhope, variously await their fate.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, period piece, thought provoking, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
Plot Summary:
At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: bleak, sad, suspenseful, historical drama, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, tragic ending
Similar in 84%
El Alamein - The Line of Fire (2002)
Plot Summary:
War seen through the eyes of Serra, a university student from Palermo who volunteers in 1942 to fight in Africa. He is assigned to the Pavia Division on the southern line in Egypt. Rommel and the Axis forces are bogged down; it's October, the British prepare an offensive. At first, boredom, heat, hunger, and thirst bedevil the Italians; then the Brits attack, and there's no luck or heroism in death. Finally, it's retreat in confusion. Serra, his sergeant Rizzo, and his lieutenant Fiori take a last walk toward home. It's said that each soldier gets three miracles; when Serra's are used up, what then?.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, sincere, captivating, realistic, historical drama
Similar in 79%
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 85%
Cross of Iron (1977)
Plot Summary:
It is 1943, and the German army, ravaged and demoralised, are hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of all this madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich are still vastly superior to the Russian army; however within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors. Steiner's lack of respect results in a growing animosity between the two.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: political, brutal, cult classic, tense, bleak, realistic, independent film, philosophical, mind bending, psychedelic
Similar in 89%
Red Cherry (1995)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, this horrifying tale follows two orphaned friends as they struggle to survive during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 745
Genere: Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, mesmerizing, saga, realistic, gloomy
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Similar in 80%
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Plot Summary:
Joe, a young American soldier, is hit by a mortar shell on the last day of World War I. He lies in a hospital bed in a fate worse than death - a quadruple amputee who has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Unbeknown to his doctors, he remains conscious and able to think, thereby reliving his life through strange dreams and memories and unable to distinguish whether he is awake or dreaming. He remains frustrated by his situation, until one day when Joe discovers a unique way to communicate with his caregivers.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: depressing, disturbing, thought provoking, surreal, political, psychological, atmospheric, controversial, black and white, emotional
Similar in 75%
My Mother's Courage (1995)
Plot Summary:
The deportation of 4000 Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz in July 1944, as told by George Tabori, and how the narrator's mother escaped it, owing to coincidence, courage and some help from where you'd least expect it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 203
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, UK, Austria, Ireland
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, crying, black comedy, dark comedy
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Similar in 82%
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990)
Plot Summary:
The movie follows the perspective of several characters (such as Japanese victims, soldiers, American prisoners of war and others) and how they lived or tried to survive the effects felt during the aftermath of the Atomic Bomb dropping by the Enola Gay at Hiroshima, during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, gloomy
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Similar in 75%
Behind the Lines (1997)
Plot Summary:
Based on Pat Barker's novel of the same name, 'Regeneration' tells the story of soldiers of World War One sent to an asylum for emotional troubles. Two of the soldiers meeting there are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 75%
Ambush (1999)
Plot Summary:
It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: War, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, intense, sincere, disturbing, rough, bleak, serious, brutal, sex comedy
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Similar in 77%
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