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Doctor Zhivago poster

Movies that feel likeDoctor Zhivago (1965)

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

If you loved Doctor Zhivago, the closest films we have are Great Expectations (1946), The Hustler (1961) and Gone with the Wind (1939). All three share Doctor Zhivago's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Ashes and Diamonds (1958).

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If Doctor Zhivago hit the spot, these will too

Great Expectations poster
Great Expectations
1946 · dir. David Lean
🍅 100%★ 7.8drama · romanceMax

Both are David Lean's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Trades the bleakness of Doctor Zhivago for an angle of its own

In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

The Hustler poster
The Hustler
1961 · dir. Robert Rossen
🍅 94%★ 7.9drama · romance

Both land stillness and romance at once

Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.

Gone with the Wind poster
Gone with the Wind
1939 · dir. Victor Fleming
🍅 90%★ 8.2drama · war · romanceMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: grief

The difference: Made in the 1930s, in a different era of the craft

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

Ashes and Diamonds poster
Ashes and Diamonds
1958 · dir. Andrzej Wajda
🍅 96%★ 7.7drama · war · romanceMax

The same mix in both: tenderness, then bleakness

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

Brief Encounter poster
Brief Encounter
1945 · dir. David Lean
🍅 95%★ 8drama · romanceMax

David Lean directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

The Cranes Are Flying poster
The Cranes Are Flying
1957 · dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
🍅 96%★ 8.3drama · romance · war

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.

From Here to Eternity poster
From Here to Eternity
1953 · dir. Fred Zinnemann
🍅 88%★ 7.6war · romance · dramaPrime Video

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

The Best Years of Our Lives poster
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 97%★ 8.1drama · romance · warPrime Video

War with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Mrs. Miniver poster
Mrs. Miniver
1942 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 93%★ 7.6drama · romance · war

Both lean on bleakness more than on drama

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

Wings poster
Wings
1927 · dir. William A. Wellman
🍅 94%★ 7.5drama · action · war

Common ground in both: love triangle and world war i

The difference: Leans harder into action than Doctor Zhivago does

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.

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

Melancholy war in both cases

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.

La Jetée poster
La Jetée
1962 · dir. Chris Marker
🍅 90%★ 8.2drama · romance · science fiction

Romance built on stillness, twice over

The difference: Sits closer to science fiction than Doctor Zhivago does

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

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The best-reviewed films that share Doctor Zhivago’s defining feeling.