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Movies that feel like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

If you loved All Quiet on the Western Front, the closest films we have are Paths of Glory (1957), Lifeboat (1944) and Grand Illusion (1937). All three share All Quiet on the Western Front's contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

πŸ… 98% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8.1 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Lewis Milestonecontemplativebleak

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If All Quiet on the Western Front hit the spot, these will too

Paths of Glory poster
Paths of Glory
1957 Β· dir. Stanley Kubrick
πŸ… 96%β˜… 8.4war Β· drama

Common ground in both: army and germany

The difference: Made in the 1950s, in a different era of the craft

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

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Lifeboat poster
Lifeboat
1944 Β· dir. Alfred Hitchcock
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.6war Β· drama

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.

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Grand Illusion poster
Grand Illusion
1937 Β· dir. Jean Renoir
πŸ… 97%β˜… 8.1drama Β· history Β· war

The same preoccupation in both: world war i

The difference: Played as history first

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant MarΓ©chal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

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A War poster
A War
2015 Β· dir. Tobias Lindholm
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7drama Β· war

One thread runs through both: army

Company commander Claus Michael Pedersen and his men are stationed in Helmand, Afghanistan. Meanwhile back in Denmark, with a husband at war and three children missing their father, everyday life is a struggle for Claus' wife Maria. During a routine mission, the soldiers are caught in heavy Taliban crossfire. In order to save his men, Claus makes a decision that ultimately sees him return to Denmark accused of a war crime.

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Rome, Open City poster
Rome, Open City
1945 Β· dir. Roberto Rossellini
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8drama Β· war

Both land stillness and bleakness at once

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

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Paisan poster
Paisan
1946 Β· dir. Roberto Rossellini
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.6drama Β· war

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley as American military personnel interact with a variety of Italian locals over eighteen months in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces retreat.

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Wings poster
Wings
1927 Β· dir. William A. Wellman
πŸ… 94%β˜… 7.5drama Β· action Β· war

Two things both keep coming back to: friendship and battlefield

The difference: Leans further into action

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.

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The Guns of Navarone poster
The Guns of Navarone
1961 Β· dir. J. Lee Thompson
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.5adventure Β· drama Β· war

Both lean on bleakness more than on war

A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

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The Longest Day poster
The Longest Day
1962 Β· dir. Ken Annakin
πŸ… 83%β˜… 7.7war Β· action Β· drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: steel helmet

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

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Shame poster
Shame
1968 Β· dir. Ingmar Bergman
πŸ… 67%β˜… 8war Β· drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

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The Breadwinner poster
The Breadwinner
2017 Β· dir. Nora Twomey
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.7animation Β· war Β· drama

Bleak war in both cases

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

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The Counterfeiters poster
The Counterfeiters
2007 Β· dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.5drama Β· war

Both know what they want from drama

The story of Jewish counterfeiter Salomon Sorowitsch, who was coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.

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The best-reviewed films that share All Quiet on the Western Front’s defining feeling.