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Movies that feel like The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

If you loved The Bridge on the River Kwai, the closest films we have are Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Kalashnikov AK-47 (2020). All three share The Bridge on the River Kwai's epic 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.

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.

πŸ… 96% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8.1 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. David Leancontemplativeepicbleak

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If The Bridge on the River Kwai hit the spot, these will too

Lawrence of Arabia poster
Lawrence of Arabia
1962 Β· dir. David Lean
πŸ… 93%β˜… 8.3adventure Β· history Β· war

David Lean working the same nerve twice

The difference: Without the same stillness

During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.

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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

One thread runs through both: world war ii

The difference: Leans further into adventure

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 keep coming back to the same thing: world war ii

The difference: 63 years apart, and the 2020s show

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

The same mix in both: stillness, then scale

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

Common ground: prisoner of war

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

Bleak drama, and it commits to that

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

Both lean on stillness more than on war

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

History built on scale, twice over

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

The same preoccupation in both: pacific war

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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Flame & Citron poster
Flame & Citron
2008 Β· dir. Ole Christian Madsen
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.2drama Β· history Β· war

Both are built on the same subject: resistance

Gunman Flame and his partner Citron assassinate Nazi collaborators for the Danish resistance. Assigned targets by their Allies-connected leader, Aksel Winther, they relish the opportunity to begin targeting the Nazis themselves. When they begin to doubt the validity of their assignments, their morally complicated task becomes even more labyrinthine.

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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

Drama with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

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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Unbroken poster
Unbroken
2014 Β· dir. Angelina Jolie
πŸ… 52%β˜… 7.2drama Β· war

One thread runs through both: japan

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share The Bridge on the River Kwai’s defining feeling.