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The Best Years of Our Lives poster

Movies that feel likeThe Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

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.

If you loved The Best Years of Our Lives, the closest films we have are Mrs. Miniver (1942), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958). All three share The Best Years of Our Lives' contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Earrings of Madame de... (1953).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. William Wylercontemplativeromantictenderbleak
11 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If The Best Years of Our Lives hit the spot, these will too

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

The same hand behind both of them: William Wyler

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.

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

The same two preoccupations: world war ii, and black and white

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.

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

Both are built on the same subject: world war ii

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.

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

One thread runs through both: black and white

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.

Wuthering Heights poster
Wuthering Heights
1939 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 92%★ 7.5drama · romancePrime VideoMax

Both are William Wyler's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Goes its own way on the bleakness

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

Battle for Sevastopol poster
Battle for Sevastopol
2015 · dir. Sergey Mokritsky
★ 7war · drama · romancePrime Video

Both land stillness and romance at once

The difference: 69 years apart, and the 2010s show

The story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

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

The same mix in both: tenderness, then bleakness

The difference: Leans further into action

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.

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

Drama built on stillness, twice over

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.

Children of Paradise poster
Children of Paradise
1945 · dir. Marcel Carné
🍅 98%★ 8.3drama · romance

Romance with a pulse of romance, in both cases

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

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

Tender war, and it commits to that

The difference: Played as science fiction first

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.

The Earrings of Madame de... poster
The Earrings of Madame de...
1953 · dir. Max Ophüls
🍅 97%★ 7.8drama · romanceMax

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

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

Romantic romance in both cases

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.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Best Years of Our Lives’ defining feeling.