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The Longest Day poster

Movies that feel likeThe Longest Day (1962)

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"

If you loved The Longest Day, the closest films we have are Patton (1970), The Guns of Navarone (1961) and The Battle of Algiers (1966). All three share The Longest Day's bleak and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Flame & Citron (2008).

🍅 83% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ken Annakinbleakcontemplativeepic
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If The Longest Day hit the spot, these will too

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

The same two preoccupations: steel helmet, and allies

"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.

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

Both keep coming back to the same thing: world war ii

The difference: Sits closer to adventure than The Longest Day does

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

Bleak where it counts, contemplative underneath

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

Both are built on the same subject: resistance

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.

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

Common ground: world war ii

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than The Longest Day does

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.

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

Epic war, and it commits to that

The difference: Made in the 1990s, in a different era of the craft

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.

Kalashnikov AK-47 poster
Kalashnikov AK-47
2020 · dir. Konstantin Buslov
★ 6.6war · history · dramaPrime Video

Drama built on bleakness, twice over

A Russian military propaganda film about the tank commander Kalashnikov, severely injured in battle in 1941. The accident leaves him incapacitated and unable to return to the front line. While recovering in the hospital, he begins creating the initial sketches of what will become one of the world’s most legendary weapons. A self-taught inventor is only 29 when he develops the now iconic assault riffle — the AK-47. Shot in occupied Crimea.

Flame & Citron poster
Flame & Citron
2008 · dir. Ole Christian Madsen
🍅 86%★ 7.2drama · history · war

The same preoccupation in both: resistance

Gunman Flame and his partner Citron assassinate Nazi collaborators for the Danish resistance. Assigned targets by their Allies-connected leader, Aksel Winther, they relish the opportunity to begin targeting the Nazis themselves. When they begin to doubt the validity of their assignments, their morally complicated task becomes even more labyrinthine.

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

Both lean on stillness more than on history

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.

The Captain poster
The Captain
2018 · dir. Robert Schwentke
🍅 83%★ 7.3war · drama · historyPrime Video

One thread runs through both: black and white

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of a Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

The Shadow in My Eye poster
The Shadow in My Eye
2021 · dir. Ole Bornedal
★ 7.3war · drama · historyNetflix

Both are built on the same subject: a true story

On March 21st, 1945, the British Royal Air Force set out on a mission to bomb Gestapo's headquarters in Copenhagen. The raid had fatal consequences as some of the bombers accidentally targeted a school and more than 120 people were killed, 86 of whom were children.

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

The same preoccupation in both: historical fiction

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.

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