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Braveheart poster

Movies that feel likeBraveheart (1995)

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

If you loved Braveheart, the closest films we have are Hacksaw Ridge (2016), Das Boot (1981) and The Patriot (2000). All three share Braveheart's contemplative and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Tin Drum (1979).

🍅 74% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Mel Gibsoncontemplativeepicbleakmelancholy
9 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If Braveheart hit the spot, these will too

Hacksaw Ridge poster
Hacksaw Ridge
2016 · dir. Mel Gibson
🍅 84%★ 8.1drama · history · war

Gibson's faith-and-carnage combination at full intensity

The difference: A pacifist's war story — conviction without a sword raised

WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Das Boot poster
Das Boot
1981 · dir. Wolfgang Petersen
🍅 98%★ 8.4drama · history · war

The same mix in both: stillness, then scale

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.

The Patriot poster
The Patriot
2000 · dir. Roland Emmerich
🍅 61%★ 7.2drama · history · warParamount+

A grieving family man turned reluctant leader of a revolt

The difference: Broader and more sentimental — history in primary colors

After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring the simple life of a farmer. But when his son Gabriel enlists in the army to defend their new nation, America, against the British, Benjamin reluctantly returns to his old life to protect his son.

Apocalypto poster
Apocalypto
2006 · dir. Mel Gibson
🍅 65%★ 7.8action · drama · historyPrime VideoHulu

Gibson again — love and survival driving a man through savagery

The difference: A relentless chase — subtitled, visceral, no grand speeches

Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

The Tin Drum poster
The Tin Drum
1979 · dir. Volker Schlöndorff
🍅 84%★ 7.4drama · history · warMax

Bleak and melancholy in the same breath

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.

Full Metal Jacket poster
Full Metal Jacket
1987 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 89%★ 8.2drama · warMax

Contemplative drama in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less epic than Braveheart does

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence poster
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2001 · dir. Steven Spielberg
🍅 76%★ 7.2drama · science fiction · adventureParamount+Peacock

Loss and longing stretched across an epic canvas

The difference: Sci-fi fairy tale — the battlefield is a child's heart

David, a robotic boy—the first of his kind programmed to love—is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee and his wife. Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David.

Hotel Rwanda poster
Hotel Rwanda
2004 · dir. Terry George
🍅 91%★ 8.1drama · history · war

The same preoccupation in both: a true story

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.

Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
1993 · dir. Joseph Vilsmaier
★ 7.5drama · history · war

History built on scale, twice over

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.

The Thin Red Line poster
The Thin Red Line
1998 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 80%★ 7.6drama · history · war

Bleak war, and it commits to that

The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.

The Last Samurai poster
The Last Samurai
2003 · dir. Edward Zwick
🍅 65%★ 7.8drama · action · warMax

A warrior finding a cause worth dying for in a doomed people

The difference: Elegiac and slower — reflection between the battles

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

Downfall poster
Downfall
2004 · dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
🍅 90%★ 8.2drama · history · warPrime Video

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

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