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Movies that feel likeJarhead (2005)

Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.

If you loved Jarhead, the closest films we have are The Counterfeiters (2007), In Darkness (2011) and A War (2015). All three share Jarhead's contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Beanpole (2019).

🍅 60% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Sam Mendescontemplativebleak
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Peacock Premium

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If Jarhead hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Jarhead: Law of Return (2019)

The Counterfeiters poster
The Counterfeiters
2007 · dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky
🍅 93%★ 7.5drama · war

Both land stillness and bleakness at once

The difference: Reviewed even better

The story of Jewish counterfeiter Salomon Sorowitsch, who was coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.

In Darkness poster
In Darkness
2011 · dir. Agnieszka Holland
🍅 88%★ 7.3drama · war

Drama built on stillness, twice over

A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied city of Lviv. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lviv (formerly Poland).

A War poster
A War
2015 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 90%★ 7drama · war

Bleak war, and it commits to that

Company commander Claus Michael Pedersen and his men are stationed in Helmand, Afghanistan. Meanwhile back in Denmark, with a husband at war and three children missing their father, everyday life is a struggle for Claus' wife Maria. During a routine mission, the soldiers are caught in heavy Taliban crossfire. In order to save his men, Claus makes a decision that ultimately sees him return to Denmark accused of a war crime.

Beanpole poster
Beanpole
2019 · dir. Kantemir Balagov
🍅 93%★ 7.2drama · warRent or buy

Contemplative drama in both cases

1945, Leningrad. World War II has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Two young women, Iya and Masha, search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins.

Unbroken poster
Unbroken
2014 · dir. Angelina Jolie
🍅 52%★ 7.2drama · war

War with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

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

Sobibor poster
Sobibor
2018 · dir. Konstantin Khabenskiy
🍅 73%★ 6.4war · dramaPrime Video

Drama of the same temperament

The film is based on a real story that happened in 1943 in the Sobibor concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. The main character of the movie is the Soviet-Jewish soldier Alexander Pechersky, who at that time was serving in the Red Army as a lieutenant. In October 1943, he was captured by the Nazis and deported to the Sobibor concentration camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. But, in just 3 weeks, Alexander was able to plan an international uprising of prisoners from Poland and Western Europe. This uprising resulted in being the only successful one throughout the war, which led to the largest escape of prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp.

Persian Lessons poster
Persian Lessons
2020 · dir. Vadim Perelman
🍅 80%★ 7.4war · drama

Cut from the same war cloth

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.

1917 poster
1917
2019 · dir. Sam Mendes
🍅 88%★ 8.2war · drama · historyNetflix

Sam Mendes directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Leans harder into history than Jarhead does

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.

All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
2022 · dir. Edward Berger
🍅 90%★ 7.8war · dramaNetflix

Both play drama straight

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.

The Hurt Locker poster
The Hurt Locker
2008 · dir. Kathryn Bigelow
🍅 96%★ 7.5drama · thriller · war

The same two preoccupations: sniper, and soldier

The difference: Sits closer to thriller than Jarhead does

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.

The Pianist poster
The Pianist
2002 · dir. Roman Polanski
🍅 95%★ 8.5drama · warPeacock

The same war instincts

The true story of pianist Władysław 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 café; 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.

Letters from Iwo Jima poster
Letters from Iwo Jima
2006 · dir. Clint Eastwood
🍅 91%★ 7.8action · drama · war

Both keep coming back to the same thing: anti war

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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