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Movies that feel like Battleship Potemkin (1925)

If you loved Battleship Potemkin, the closest films we have are Grand Illusion (1937), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Das Boot (1981). All three share Battleship Potemkin'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.

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.

πŸ… 100% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.9 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Sergei Eisensteincontemplativeepicbleak
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If Battleship Potemkin hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Battleship (2012)

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

Contemplative where it counts, epic underneath

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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All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
1930 Β· dir. Lewis Milestone
πŸ… 98%β˜… 8.1drama Β· war

Bleak drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Not nearly as epic as Battleship Potemkin

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.

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Das Boot poster
Das Boot
1981 Β· dir. Wolfgang Petersen
πŸ… 98%β˜… 8.4drama Β· history Β· war

Both keep coming back to the same thing: sailor

The difference: 56 years apart, and the 1980s show

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

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Patton poster
Patton
1970 Β· dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.9war Β· drama Β· history

History built on stillness, twice over

"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.

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The Battle of Algiers poster
The Battle of Algiers
1966 Β· dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
πŸ… 99%β˜… 8.1drama Β· war Β· history

War with a pulse of scale, in both cases

Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.

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Hotel Rwanda poster
Hotel Rwanda
2004 Β· dir. Terry George
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8.1drama Β· history Β· war

Common ground: slaughter

Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

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The Flowers of War poster
The Flowers of War
2011 Β· dir. Zhang Yimou
πŸ… 41%β˜… 7.5drama Β· history Β· war

Bleak drama in both cases

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.

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Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
1993 Β· dir. Joseph Vilsmaier
β˜… 7.5drama Β· history Β· war

Both lean on stillness more than on history

A German Platoon is explored through the brutal fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad. After half of their number is wiped out and they're placed under the command of a sadistic captain, the platoon lieutenant leads his men to desert. The platoon members attempt escape from the city, now surrounded by the Soviet Army.

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Land of Mine poster
Land of Mine
2015 Β· dir. Martin Zandvliet
πŸ… 91%β˜… 7.8war Β· drama Β· history

Epic war in both cases

In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war is handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent to the West Coast, where they are ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. With their bare hands, crawling around in the sand, the boys are forced to perform the dangerous work under the leadership of a Danish sergeant.

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The Tin Drum poster
The Tin Drum
1979 Β· dir. Volker SchlΓΆndorff
πŸ… 84%β˜… 7.4drama Β· history Β· war

Another one that scratches it

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

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The Shadow in My Eye poster
The Shadow in My Eye
2021 Β· dir. Ole Bornedal
β˜… 7.3war Β· drama Β· history

History of the same temperament

On March 21st, 1945, the British Royal Air Force set out on a mission to bomb Gestapo's headquarters in Copenhagen. The raid had fatal consequences as some of the bombers accidentally targeted a school and more than 120 people were killed, 86 of whom were children.

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The Captain poster
The Captain
2018 Β· dir. Robert Schwentke
πŸ… 83%β˜… 7.3war Β· drama Β· history

War approached the same way

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of a Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Battleship Potemkin’s defining feeling.