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Apocalypse Now poster

Movies that feel likeApocalypse Now (1979)

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

If you loved Apocalypse Now, the closest films we have are Paths of Glory (1957), Shame (1968) and The Pianist (2002). All three share Apocalypse Now's contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is In Darkness (2011).

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Francis Ford Coppolacontemplativebleak
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Criterion Channel

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If Apocalypse Now hit the spot, these will too

Paths of Glory poster
Paths of Glory
1957 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 96%★ 8.4war · drama

Command itself as the real enemy — the madness flows from the top

The difference: A courtroom and trenches — 1950s restraint, not hallucination

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

Shame poster
Shame
1968 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 67%★ 8war · drama

How war corrodes people who wanted no part of it

The difference: Spare Bergman chamber piece — no scale, no spectacle

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.

The Pianist poster
The Pianist
2002 · dir. Roman Polanski
🍅 95%★ 8.5drama · war

Survival watched with the same unblinking patience

The difference: One man hiding, not a mission — the horror is occupation, not combat

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

A War poster
A War
2015 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 90%★ 7drama · war

A commander's impossible calls and the moral bill that follows

The difference: Small, modern and procedural — half of it unfolds in a courtroom

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.

All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
1930 · dir. Lewis Milestone
🍅 98%★ 8.1drama · war

Idealism marched into the meat grinder until nothing is left of it

The difference: A 1930 production — its power is stark, not sensory

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.

Lifeboat poster
Lifeboat
1944 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 90%★ 7.6war · drama

People stripped to their natures once the war strands them together

The difference: One boat, one Hitchcock experiment — talk replaces spectacle

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.

The Counterfeiters poster
The Counterfeiters
2007 · dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky
🍅 93%★ 7.5drama · war

Both land stillness and bleakness at once

The difference: 28 years apart, and the 2000s show

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

Jarhead poster
Jarhead
2005 · dir. Sam Mendes
🍅 60%★ 7drama · warNetflixStarz

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.

Rome, Open City poster
Rome, Open City
1945 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 100%★ 8drama · warMax

Both lean on bleakness more than on war

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.

Paisan poster
Paisan
1946 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 100%★ 7.6drama · warMax

Contemplative drama in both cases

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.

In Darkness poster
In Darkness
2011 · dir. Agnieszka Holland
🍅 88%★ 7.3drama · war

War built on bleakness, twice over

A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied city of Lviv. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lviv (formerly Poland).

Unbroken poster
Unbroken
2014 · dir. Angelina Jolie
🍅 52%★ 7.2drama · warNetflix

Drama of the same temperament

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

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The best-reviewed films that share Apocalypse Now’s defining feeling.