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Movies that feel like Waltz with Bashir (2008)

If you loved Waltz with Bashir, the closest films we have are The Breadwinner (2017), Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and The Pianist (2002). All three share Waltz with Bashir's contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

πŸ… 97% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Ari Folmanwhimsicalcontemplativebleak

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If Waltz with Bashir hit the spot, these will too

The Breadwinner poster
The Breadwinner
2017 Β· dir. Nora Twomey
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.7animation Β· war Β· drama

The same preoccupation in both: adult animation

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

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Grave of the Fireflies poster
Grave of the Fireflies
1988 Β· dir. Isao Takahata
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.5animation Β· drama Β· war

Both keep circling back to adult animation

The difference: A 1980s film, from a different era of filmmaking

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

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The Pianist poster
The Pianist
2002 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 95%β˜… 8.5drama Β· war

Both land stillness and bleakness at once

The difference: Not nearly as whimsical as Waltz with Bashir

The true story of pianist WΕ‚adysΕ‚aw Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a cafΓ©; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

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

Contemplative drama in both cases

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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All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
2022 Β· dir. Edward Berger
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.8war Β· drama

War built on bleakness, twice over

Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

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Full Metal Jacket poster
Full Metal Jacket
1987 Β· dir. Stanley Kubrick
πŸ… 90%β˜… 8.2drama Β· war

Contemplative animation, and it commits to that

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.

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Apocalypse Now poster
Apocalypse Now
1979 Β· dir. Francis Ford Coppola
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8.4drama Β· war

Documentary with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

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Inglourious Basterds poster
Inglourious Basterds
2009 Β· dir. Quentin Tarantino
πŸ… 89%β˜… 8.4drama Β· thriller Β· war

Both are drama through and through

The difference: Plays it as thriller more than Waltz with Bashir does

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

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The Illusionist poster
The Illusionist
2010 Β· dir. Sylvain Chomet
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.4animation Β· drama

Both trade on whimsy more than on being animation

A French illusionist travels to Scotland to work. He meets a young woman in a small village. Their ensuing adventure in Edinburgh changes both their lives forever.

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Pan's Labyrinth poster
Pan's Labyrinth
2006 Β· dir. Guillermo del Toro
πŸ… 95%β˜… 8.2fantasy Β· drama Β· war

War approached the same way

The difference: Leans fantasy where Waltz with Bashir does not

In post–civil war Spain, 10-year-old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live under the control of her cruel stepfather. Drawn into a mysterious labyrinth, she meets a faun who reveals that she may be a lost princess from an underground kingdom. To return to her true father, she must complete a series of surreal and perilous tasks that blur the line between reality and fantasy.

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas poster
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
2008 Β· dir. Mark Herman
πŸ… 65%β˜… 7.7drama Β· war Β· history

The same drama instincts

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

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The Hurt Locker poster
The Hurt Locker
2008 Β· dir. Kathryn Bigelow
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.5drama Β· thriller Β· war

Cut from the same war cloth

During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

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The best-reviewed films that share Waltz with Bashir's defining feeling.