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Das Boot poster

Movies that feel likeDas Boot (1981)

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.

If you loved Das Boot, the closest films we have are The Tin Drum (1979), The Patriot (2000) and The Dirty Dozen (1967). All three share Das Boot's epic and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Stalingrad (1993).

🍅 98% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Wolfgang Petersencontemplativeepicbleakmelancholy
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Paramount Plus Premium

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If Das Boot hit the spot, these will too

The Tin Drum poster
The Tin Drum
1979 · dir. Volker Schlöndorff
🍅 84%★ 7.4drama · history · warMax

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.

The Patriot poster
The Patriot
2000 · dir. Roland Emmerich
🍅 61%★ 7.2drama · history · warParamount+

Bleak where it counts, melancholy underneath

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring the simple life of a farmer. But when his son Gabriel enlists in the army to defend their new nation, America, against the British, Benjamin reluctantly returns to his old life to protect his son.

The Dirty Dozen poster
The Dirty Dozen
1967 · dir. Robert Aldrich
🍅 82%★ 7.7action · adventure · war

The same two preoccupations: world war ii, and suicide mission

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than Das Boot does

12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.

Braveheart poster
Braveheart
1995 · dir. Mel Gibson
🍅 74%★ 8.3drama · history · warParamount+

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

Full Metal Jacket poster
Full Metal Jacket
1987 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 89%★ 8.2drama · warMax

Common ground: war correspondent

The difference: Easier on the scale than Das Boot

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.

Patton poster
Patton
1970 · dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
🍅 92%★ 7.9war · drama · history

Both are built on the same subject: 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.

Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
1993 · dir. Joseph Vilsmaier
★ 7.5drama · history · war

Epic 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.

The Deer Hunter poster
The Deer Hunter
1978 · dir. Michael Cimino
🍅 86%★ 8.1drama · warNetflix

War built on bleakness, twice over

Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.

The Bridge on the River Kwai poster
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 · dir. David Lean
🍅 96%★ 8.1drama · history · war

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: 24 years apart, and the 1950s show

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.

The Battle of Algiers poster
The Battle of Algiers
1966 · dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
🍅 99%★ 8.1drama · war · historyMax

Epic history in both cases

Former petty criminal Ali la Pointe becomes a commander of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directing a guerilla insurgency against the colonial French occupation. Paratrooper commander Colonel Phillippe Mathieu, a veteran of World War II and the First Indochina War, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings.

The Longest Day poster
The Longest Day
1962 · dir. Ken Annakin
🍅 83%★ 7.7war · drama · history

Bleak war, and it commits to that

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

The Thin Red Line poster
The Thin Red Line
1998 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 80%★ 7.6drama · history · war

Both are drama through and through

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