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The Elephant Man poster

Movies that feel likeThe Elephant Man (1980)

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.

If you loved The Elephant Man, the closest films we have are Dersu Uzala (1975), Where Is The Friend's House? (1987) and Society of the Snow (2023). All three share The Elephant Man's contemplative and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Wendy and Lucy (2008).

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. David Lynchcontemplativeepicwarm
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Elephant Man hit the spot, these will too

Dersu Uzala poster
Dersu Uzala
1975 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 73%★ 8.2adventure · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: friendship

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than The Elephant Man does

A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.

Where Is The Friend's House? poster
Where Is The Friend's House?
1987 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 100%★ 8.1drama · adventure

Contemplative where it counts, epic underneath

An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

Society of the Snow poster
Society of the Snow
2023 · dir. J. A. Bayona
🍅 90%★ 7.8drama · historyNetflix

Common ground: a true story

The difference: 43 years apart, and the 2020s show

On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest poster
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 · dir. Miloš Forman
🍅 92%★ 8.6drama

The same two preoccupations: nurse, and hospital

The difference: Easier on the scale than The Elephant Man

A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.

Dances with Wolves poster
Dances with Wolves
1990 · dir. Kevin Costner
🍅 87%★ 8adventure · drama · westernPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: friendship

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

La Haine poster
La Haine
1995 · dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
🍅 96%★ 8.1drama

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.

The Hidden Fortress poster
The Hidden Fortress
1958 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 96%★ 8drama · action · adventureMax

Drama built on warmth, twice over

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

The Last Duel poster
The Last Duel
2021 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 85%★ 7.3drama · historyRent or buy

One thread runs through both: a true story

King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges settle his dispute with his squire, Jacques Le Gris, by challenging him to a duel.

Remember the Titans poster
Remember the Titans
2000 · dir. Boaz Yakin
🍅 72%★ 7.8dramaDisney+

Contemplative history, and it commits to that

After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men learn to overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions.

In a Better World poster
In a Better World
2010 · dir. Susanne Bier
🍅 77%★ 7.6drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: hospital

The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.

The Wages of Fear poster
The Wages of Fear
1953 · dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
🍅 100%★ 8.1drama · thriller · adventureMax

Drama with a pulse of scale, in both cases

In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.

Wendy and Lucy poster
Wendy and Lucy
2008 · dir. Kelly Reichardt
🍅 85%★ 7.1drama

Warm history in both cases

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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