Best tv shows like Roots
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Alex Haley's "Roots", chronicling the history of an African slave sold to America and his descendants.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: historical drama, captivating, sincere, rough, suspense, inspirational, gothic, political, educational, black cinema
Best tv shows and movies like Roots (2016):
Similar in 88%
Freedom (2014)
Plot Summary:
Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodward and his family, escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. They are relentlessly pursued by the notorious slave hunter Plimpton. Hunted like a dog and haunted by the unthinkable suffering he and his forbears have endured, Samuel is forced to decide between revenge or freedom. 100 years earlier in 1748, John Newton the Captain of a slave trader sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel's great grandfather whose survival is tied to the fate of Captain Newton. The voyage changes Newton's life forever and he creates a legacy that will inspire Samuel and the lives of millions for generations to come.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing, christian film
Similar in 76%
Toussaint Louverture (2012)
Plot Summary:
Toussaint opposes the Spanish army and joins the French troops. On Saint-Domingue he succeeds to push the English back. He proclames himself as the gouvernor of Saint-Domingue. To restore the economy he takes a bold descision. He calls for the workers to return to the plantages.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 108
Genere: History
Country: France
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, historical drama
Similar in 87%
A Respectable Trade (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel by Philippa Gregory, the British miniseries A Respectable Trade was what is known in the business as a "bodice ripper." The story began in 1788, when well-bred governess Frances Scott married her rough-hewn employer Josiah Cole. It didn't take long for Frances to become disgusted by the fact that her husband was in the slave-trading profession, and to take steps to get him out of the filthy business. Complicating matters was Frances' ever-increasing attraction to one of Josiah's "possessions," a handsome and cultured African slave named Mehuru. First broadcast over the BBC on April 19, 1998, the four-part A Respectable Trade was telecast in America as part of PBS Masterpiece Theatre anthology, beginning on October 25 of that same year.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 142
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Australia, Ireland
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Bitter Tropics (2007)
Plot Summary:
In late 18th-century Martinique, a plantation owner, his irresponsible young aristocratic wife and his beautiful black mistress are drawn into a spiral of violence that reflects all the horror and inhumanity of the perverse relations between masters and slaves.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 69
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 312 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating
Similar in 84%
Dog Jack (2010)
Plot Summary:
"Dog Jack" is the story of a slave boy and his dog who escape the master's plantation, join the union army, and have to face their former master on the battlefield. The story is inspired by the historical true-life adventures of the beloved mascot of the Pennsylvania 102nd, who was so prized by his regiment for his skills in battle that he was twice exchanged for a Confederate prisoner of war.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, uplifting, bleak, independent film
Similar in 76%
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1987)
Plot Summary:
The life of an aging black slave, Tom, and the people he interacts with.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 588
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Roots: The Gift (1988)
Plot Summary:
In December 1775, Cletus Moyer is a free black Northerner in colonial America, helping slaves escape captivity. In the days just prior to Christmas, a group of bounty hunters captures Moyer. Because of his capture, dozens of slaves who have already left their plantations are in danger of being captured as well. Moyer implores two slaves from a nearby plantation to take his place: Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka in his mid-twenties who was captured in what is now Gambia, and Fiddler, an elderly man who was born into slavery. Kunta is eager to help (and to escape himself), but Fiddler is unwilling, fearful of the consequences if they are caught.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 627
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Similar in 77%
The Long Song (2018)
Plot Summary:
Set during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica, we follow the trials, tribulations and survival of plantation slave July and her odious mistress Caroline.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, costume drama, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 86%
The Porter (2022)
Plot Summary:
In 1921, friends and train porters Junior and Zeke find their unbreakable bond stretched to its limits when tragedy inspires them to take conflicting paths to a better life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 510
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, realistic, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 76%
The Good Lord Bird (2020)
Plot Summary:
Enslaved teenager Henry Shackleford, aka Little Onion, becomes a member in abolitionist John Brown’s motley family during the Bleeding Kansas era before the Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, War, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 335 min
Plot tags: historical drama, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, political, dramatic, cult classic, humorous, dark comedy
Similar in 87%
Underground (2016)
Plot Summary:
A group of slaves plan a daring 600-mile escape from a Georgia plantation. Along the way, they are aided by a secret abolitionist couple running a station on the Underground Railroad as they attempt to evade the people charged with bringing them back, dead or alive.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: historical drama, suspense, realistic, disturbing, stylized, intense, political, period drama, black cinema
Similar in 76%
Beulah Land (1980)
Plot Summary:
This sweeping epic dramatized the lives of two Georgia families during the early-to-mid 1800s: the Kendricks, who resided on the Beulah Land plantation, and the Davises, who owned the Oaks plantation. Both families loved, prospered and lost during this period, and were both touched by the events of the Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 281 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Underground Railroad (2021)
Plot Summary:
Follow young Cora’s journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping her Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 593 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, suspense, disturbing, exciting, historical drama, atmospheric, period drama
Similar in 89%
North and South, Book II (1986)
Plot Summary:
The continuing saga of the Hazards and the Mains. The Hazards are from the North and the Mains from the South. George Hazard and Orry Main met at West Point and fought in the Mexican American war together becoming fast friends. Now they find themselves fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War and struggle to maintain their friendship through these troubled times.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 570 min
Plot tags: patriotic, serious, captivating, realistic, family saga, vintage
Similar in 80%
The Blue and the Gray (1982)
Plot Summary:
This movie is also in existance as a 3 part miniseries. America just before and during the Civil War, as seen through the eyes of an artist correspondent. The plot revolves around the families of two sisters; Maggie Geyser and Evelyn Hale. The Geysers are farmers who reside near Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Hales own a small newspaper in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Geysers are generally indifferent to the issue of slavery, but are sympathetic to the Southern cause. The lone exception in the family is son John, an artistic young man who becomes sympathetic to the plight of Southern slaves and free Negroes. The Hales are pro-Union and anti-slavery, but, like many Northerners at the time, they hope for a peaceful solution to the nation's problems.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 381 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, disturbing, exciting, sincere
Similar in 89%
North and South (1985)
Plot Summary:
Two friends, one northern and one southern, struggle to maintain their friendship as events build towards the American Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 561 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, atmospheric, serious, captivating, emotional, soap opera, period piece, costume drama, patriotic
Similar in 75%
Banished (2015)
Plot Summary:
At its heart, Banished is a story of survival. Though it is set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, historical drama, tense, realistic, captivating, costume drama, epic, period piece, period drama
Similar in 88%
Roots: The Next Generations (1979)
Plot Summary:
The dramatization of Alex Haley's family line from post Civil War America to the writer's search for his roots.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 840 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, epic, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, family saga
Similar in 86%
A Woman Called Moses (1978)
Plot Summary:
A film about the life and career of the African American abolitionist and slave escape leader, Harriet Tubman.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 403
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: political, tension, suspense
Similar in 83%
Blackbeard (2006)
Plot Summary:
In the Golden Age of Piracy, at the dawn of the 18th century, Blackbeard stood out among the lawless rogues as the most fearsome and notorious seafarer of them all. He killed for the reputation, and his reputation has become legend. Now, for the first time, comes the true story of pirate Edward Teach, the man who terrorized the seas.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, tense, suspenseful, nautical, historical drama, baroque, period drama
Similar in 90%
The Book of Negroes (2015)
Plot Summary:
Kidnapped in Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate a revolution in New York, isolation in Nova Scotia and treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone, in an attempt to secure her freedom in the 19th century.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 265 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, historical drama, stylized, uplifting
Similar in 85%
TURN: Washington's Spies (2014)
Plot Summary:
The story of New York farmer, Abe Woodhull, who bands together with a group of childhood friends to form The Culper Ring, an unlikely group of spies who turn the tide in America’s fight for independence.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: period piece, serious, captivating, suspenseful, realistic, historical drama, tension, tense, political, costume drama
Similar in 90%
Roots (1977)
Plot Summary:
African teen Kunta Kinte, brought to America to be enslaved, and the generations of his family.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 588 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, uplifting, suspense, historical drama, thought provoking, sincere, serious, epic
Similar in 90%
Queen (1993)
Plot Summary:
A plantation owner's son falls in love with a slave named Easter and together they have a Mixed race daughter named Queen. As Queen grows up, she faces the struggle of trying to fit into the troubled world around her. She tries passing for white, but it leads to sorrow in post-Civil War America. Everywhere she goes, she faces obstacles and hardships while searching for happiness and a place to belong.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 282 min
Plot tags: psychological, gothic, heartbreaking, costume drama, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, captivating, emotional
Similar in 86%
Lincoln (1988)
Plot Summary:
After arriving in Washington in 1861 after his election, Abraham Lincoln struggles with personal and political problems during his Presidency. Originally titled "Lincoln", the name of this miniseries was changed to "Gore Vidal's Lincoln" when it was released for home entertainment.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 444
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 188 min
Plot tags: historical drama, clever, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, talky
Similar in 87%
Glory (1989)
Plot Summary:
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 142000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: epic, inspirational, suspense, realistic, rough, factual, period piece, emotional, talky, serious
Similar in 86%
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 84%
Peter the Great (1986)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of Peter I, Tsar of Russia from 1682, and the constant struggle between him, his sister Sophia and the Streltsy, an important Russian military corp. The story depicts the efforts of Peter in transforming Russia in an "all European" country, importing scientists, costumes, technology and military tactics.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 793
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 371 min
Plot tags: historical drama, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, period piece, costume drama, baroque, vintage, period drama
Similar in 90%
John Adams (2008)
Plot Summary:
The life of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, its second President, and his role in the nation's first 50 years.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, political, period piece, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, costume drama, epic, historical drama
Similar in 88%
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