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Movies that feel like Le Samouraï (1967)

If you loved Le Samouraï, the closest films we have are Le Doulos (1962), Shoot the Piano Player (1960) and Blast of Silence (1961). All three share Le Samouraï's gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on France Channel Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

🍅 92% Rotten Tomatoes8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Jean-Pierre Melvillegrittytensecontemplativeatmospheric

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If Le Samouraï hit the spot, these will too

Le Doulos poster
Le Doulos
1962 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 96%7.7drama · thriller · crime

Jean-Pierre Melville directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

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Shoot the Piano Player poster
Shoot the Piano Player
1960 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 90%7.4drama · thriller · crime

The same two preoccupations: jazz club, and french noir

Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.

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Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%7.4crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: hitman

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

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Touch of Evil poster
Touch of Evil
1958 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 96%8crime · thriller · drama

Both land grit and tension at once

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

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Night Moves poster
Night Moves
1975 · dir. Arthur Penn
🍅 78%7.1thriller · crime · drama

Neo-noir sits at the heart of each

Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case - a former Hollywood actress wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.

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The Long Good Friday poster
The Long Good Friday
1980 · dir. John Mackenzie
🍅 97%7.5crime · thriller · drama

Neo-noir is the engine of both

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

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Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%7.6crime · drama · thriller

The same mix in both: stillness, then atmosphere

The difference: A 1940s film, from a different era of filmmaking

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

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Le Cercle Rouge poster
Le Cercle Rouge
1970 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 96%7.9crime · drama · thriller

The same hand behind both of them: Jean-Pierre Melville

The difference: Not nearly as atmospheric as Le Samouraï

When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.

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One False Move poster
One False Move
1992 · dir. Carl Franklin
🍅 93%7.1crime · drama · thriller

Both trade on grit more than on being crime

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

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The Rivals of Amziah King poster
The Rivals of Amziah King
2026 · dir. Andrew Patterson
🍅 89%7.7crime · drama · thriller

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

Deep within the backwoods of rural Oklahoma, charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King herds a bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, Amziah leaps at the possibility to renew connection and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.

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Point Blank poster
Point Blank
1967 · dir. John Boorman
🍅 93%7.3crime · thriller · drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him.

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Cape Fear poster
Cape Fear
1962 · dir. J. Lee Thompson
🍅 89%7.7thriller · drama · crime

Crime built on atmosphere, twice over

Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.

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The best-reviewed films that share Le Samouraï's defining feeling.