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Hamlet poster

Movies that feel likeHamlet (1948)

Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.

If you loved Hamlet, the closest films we have are Drunken Angel (1948), Germany, Year Zero (1948) and Late Spring (1949). All three share Hamlet's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Trip to Bountiful (1985).

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Laurence Oliviercontemplative
9 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Hamlet hit the spot, these will too

Drunken Angel poster
Drunken Angel
1948 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 94%★ 7.6drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.

Germany, Year Zero poster
Germany, Year Zero
1948 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 96%★ 7.8dramaMax

Drama built on stillness, twice over

In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.

Late Spring poster
Late Spring
1949 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%★ 8.2dramaMax

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.

How Green Was My Valley poster
How Green Was My Valley
1941 · dir. John Ford
🍅 93%★ 7.7drama

Both know what they want from drama

Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.

Ordet poster
Ordet
1955 · dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
🍅 100%★ 8.2drama

Both are drama through and through

The three sons of devout Danish farmer Morten have widely disparate religious beliefs. Youngest son Anders shares his father's religion, but eldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, while middle child Johannes has become delusional and proclaims that he is Jesus Christ himself. When Mikkel's wife, Inger goes into a difficult childbirth, everyone's beliefs are put to the test.

Sansho the Bailiff poster
Sansho the Bailiff
1954 · dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
🍅 100%★ 8.3drama

Drama in the same key

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

An Autumn Afternoon poster
An Autumn Afternoon
1962 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 95%★ 8dramaMax

Cut from the same drama cloth

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

The Whales of August poster
The Whales of August
1987 · dir. Lindsay Anderson
🍅 64%★ 7.1drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

The Trip to Bountiful poster
The Trip to Bountiful
1985 · dir. Peter Masterson
🍅 100%★ 7.4dramaPrime Video

Drama of the same temperament

The difference: Made in the 1980s, in a different era of the craft

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

Umberto D. poster
Umberto D.
1952 · dir. Vittorio De Sica
🍅 98%★ 8.1dramaMax

Both play drama straight

When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.

Through a Glass Darkly poster
Through a Glass Darkly
1961 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 7.9dramaMax

Drama approached the same way

Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger brother, Minus, is confused by Karin's vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? poster
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966 · dir. Mike Nichols
🍅 96%★ 8drama

The same drama instincts

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

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