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Movies that feel like Das Boot (1981)

If you loved Das Boot, the closest films we have are The Tin Drum (1979), Patton (1970) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). All three share Das Boot's contemplative and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 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 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.

πŸ… 98% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8.4 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Wolfgang Petersencontemplativeepicbleak

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If Das Boot hit the spot, these will too

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

The same mix in both: stillness, then scale

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

Common ground: world war ii

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

Both are built on the same subject: world war ii

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Das Boot does

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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Kalashnikov AK-47 poster
Kalashnikov AK-47
2020 Β· dir. Konstantin Buslov
β˜… 6.6war Β· history Β· drama

Both lean on bleakness more than on drama

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

A Russian military propaganda film about the tank commander Kalashnikov, severely injured in battle in 1941. The accident leaves him incapacitated and unable to return to the front line. While recovering in the hospital, he begins creating the initial sketches of what will become one of the world’s most legendary weapons. A self-taught inventor is only 29 when he develops the now iconic assault riffle β€” the AK-47. Shot in occupied Crimea.

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

Contemplative history, and it commits to that

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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The Bridge on the River Kwai poster
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 Β· dir. David Lean
πŸ… 96%β˜… 8.1drama Β· history Β· war

War with a pulse of scale, in both cases

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

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The Thin Red Line poster
The Thin Red Line
1998 Β· dir. Terrence Malick
πŸ… 80%β˜… 7.6drama Β· history Β· war

Bleak drama in both cases

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.

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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

History built on stillness, twice over

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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Downfall poster
Downfall
2004 Β· dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
πŸ… 90%β˜… 8.2drama Β· history Β· war

Both lean on scale more than on war

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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Katyn poster
Katyn
2007 Β· dir. Andrzej Wajda
πŸ… 91%β˜… 7drama Β· history Β· war

Drama with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

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Army of Shadows poster
Army of Shadows
1969 Β· dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
πŸ… 97%β˜… 8.1war Β· drama Β· thriller

The history is handled with the same confidence

Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.

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The Great Escape poster
The Great Escape
1963 Β· dir. John Sturges
πŸ… 94%β˜… 8.2adventure Β· drama Β· war

Both play war straight

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

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