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The Great Escape poster

Movies that feel likeThe Great Escape (1963)

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

If you loved The Great Escape, the closest films we have are The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Battle of Algiers (1966). All three share The Great Escape's epic and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Shame (1968).

🍅 94% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. John Sturgesepiccontemplativebleak
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Criterion Channel

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If The Great Escape hit the spot, these will too

The Guns of Navarone poster
The Guns of Navarone
1961 · dir. J. Lee Thompson
🍅 92%★ 7.5adventure · drama · warNetflix

Epic where it counts, contemplative underneath

A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

The Bridge on the River Kwai poster
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 · dir. David Lean
🍅 96%★ 8.1drama · history · war

Bleak drama in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into history than The Great Escape does

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

The Battle of Algiers poster
The Battle of Algiers
1966 · dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
🍅 99%★ 8.1drama · war · historyMax

War built on scale, twice over

Former petty criminal Ali la Pointe becomes a commander of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directing a guerilla insurgency against the colonial French occupation. Paratrooper commander Colonel Phillippe Mathieu, a veteran of World War II and the First Indochina War, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings.

The Longest Day poster
The Longest Day
1962 · dir. Ken Annakin
🍅 83%★ 7.7war · drama · history

Adventure with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

Where Eagles Dare poster
Where Eagles Dare
1968 · dir. Brian G. Hutton
🍅 84%★ 7.6adventure · war

The same preoccupation in both: nazi

The difference: Trades the stillness of The Great Escape for an angle of its own

World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.

Patton poster
Patton
1970 · dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
🍅 92%★ 7.9war · drama · history

Bleak drama, and it commits to that

"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.

Grand Illusion poster
Grand Illusion
1937 · dir. Jean Renoir
🍅 97%★ 8drama · history · war

Common ground in both: prisoner and escape

The difference: Made in the 1930s, in a different era of the craft

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

Lawrence of Arabia poster
Lawrence of Arabia
1962 · dir. David Lean
🍅 93%★ 8.3adventure · history · warNetflix

Both lean on scale more than on adventure

During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.

Shame poster
Shame
1968 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 67%★ 8war · drama

War with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

Paths of Glory poster
Paths of Glory
1957 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 96%★ 8.4war · drama

Another one that scratches it

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
1993 · dir. Joseph Vilsmaier
★ 7.5drama · history · war

War of the same temperament

A German Platoon is explored through the brutal fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad. After half of their number is wiped out and they're placed under the command of a sadistic captain, the platoon lieutenant leads his men to desert. The platoon members attempt escape from the city, now surrounded by the Soviet Army.

The Zone of Interest poster
The Zone of Interest
2023 · dir. Jonathan Glazer
🍅 93%★ 7.3drama · history · warRent or buy

Both are built on the same subject: nazi

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

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