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Dances with Wolves poster

Movies that feel likeDances with Wolves (1990)

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

If you loved Dances with Wolves, the closest films we have are Thelma & Louise (1991), Where Is The Friend's House? (1987) and Dersu Uzala (1975). All three share Dances with Wolves' epic and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Shane (1953).

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Kevin Costnerepiccontemplativegrittywarm
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If Dances with Wolves hit the spot, these will too

Thelma & Louise poster
Thelma & Louise
1991 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 87%★ 7.6drama · crime · adventurePrime VideoHulu

Epic and contemplative in the same breath

The difference: Sits closer to crime than Dances with Wolves does

Taking a break from their dreary lives, close friends Thelma and Louise embark on a short weekend trip that ends in unforeseen incriminating circumstances. As fugitives, both women rediscover the strength of their bond and their newfound resilience.

Where Is The Friend's House? poster
Where Is The Friend's House?
1987 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 100%★ 8.1drama · adventure

Adventure built on warmth, twice over

The difference: Easier on the grit than Dances with Wolves

An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

Dersu Uzala poster
Dersu Uzala
1975 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 73%★ 8.2adventure · drama

Both are built on the same subject: friendship

A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.

The Irishman poster
The Irishman
2019 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 95%★ 7.8crime · drama · historyNetflix

Both lean on grit more than on drama

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid poster
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1969 · dir. George Roy Hill
🍅 89%★ 8western · crime · drama

Contemplative western, and it commits to that

As the west rapidly becomes civilized, a pair of outlaws in 1890s Wyoming find themselves pursued by a posse and decide to flee to South America in hopes of evading the law.

Midnight Cowboy poster
Midnight Cowboy
1969 · dir. John Schlesinger
🍅 89%★ 7.8drama

One thread runs through both: friendship

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

The Elephant Man poster
The Elephant Man
1980 · dir. David Lynch
🍅 91%★ 8.2drama · history

Drama with a pulse of scale, in both cases

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.

Bad Education poster
Bad Education
2004 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · crime

Gritty adventure in both cases

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.

Trainspotting poster
Trainspotting
1996 · dir. Danny Boyle
🍅 93%★ 8.1drama · crime

Warm western, and it commits to that

Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.

Shane poster
Shane
1953 · dir. George Stevens
🍅 97%★ 7.6drama · westernParamount+

Contemplative drama in both cases

A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smouldering settler and rancher conflict forces him to act.

21 poster
21
2008 · dir. Robert Luketic
🍅 36%★ 6.8drama · crime

Adventure built on grit, twice over

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

The Last Duel poster
The Last Duel
2021 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 85%★ 7.3drama · history · thrillerRent or buy

Epic western, and it commits to that

King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges settle his dispute with his squire, Jacques Le Gris, by challenging him to a duel.

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The best-reviewed films that share Dances with Wolves’ defining feeling.