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Jarhead: Law of Return poster

Movies that feel likeJarhead: Law of Return (2019)

Major Ronan Jackson, an accomplished fighter pilot for the Israel Defense Forces and son of a U.S. Senator, is shot down while flying through Syrian airspace. After miraculously surviving the crash, Jackson is taken captive by a group of Hezbollah militiamen. A squad of elite soldiers, led by Gunnery Sergeant Dave Torres, risk their own lives in the hopes of saving an ally they've never met.

If you loved Jarhead: Law of Return, the closest films we have are Sobibor (2018), Beanpole (2019) and Persian Lessons (2020). All three share Jarhead: Law of Return's bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is In Darkness (2011).

★ 5.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Don Michael Paulbleak
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Apple TV

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If Jarhead: Law of Return hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Jarhead (2005)

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

Bleak war, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans harder into drama than Jarhead: Law of Return does

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.

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

War built on bleakness, twice over

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.

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

War with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

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.

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

War of the same temperament

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.

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

War in the same key

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).

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

The war is handled with the same confidence

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

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

Cut from the same war cloth

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

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

Both play war 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.

Shadow poster
Shadow
2018 · dir. Zhang Yimou
🍅 94%★ 7action · warPrime Video

Both are war through and through

In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a shadow, a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want.

Balkan Line poster
Balkan Line
2019 · dir. Andrey Volgin
★ 6.6drama · action · warPrime Video

The same war instincts

After the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Yugoslav army pulls out of Kosovo region, leaving Serbian people at the mercy of the Albanian UCK. A small band of soldiers must take over the Slatina airport, and hold it until the Russian peacekeepers arrive.

Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
2013 · dir. Fyodor Bondarchuk
🍅 51%★ 5.7war · action · drama

War approached the same way

A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to a Russian woman who has been living there.

Greyhound poster
Greyhound
2020 · dir. Aaron Schneider
🍅 77%★ 7war · action · dramaApple TV+

Both working the same war territory

A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the "Black Pit" to the front lines of WWII. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.

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The best-reviewed films that share Jarhead: Law of Return’s defining feeling.