Movies like A Message to Garcia (1916)
The best movies like A Message to Garcia (1916) are Waiting for Anya (2020), Battleground (1949) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951). If A Message to Garcia hooked you with its war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Guns of Navarone (1961)7.3/10 from 932 votes
- NewestThe Last Rifleman (2023)Released 2023
Waiting for Anya (2020)
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattleground (1949)
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Henry Fleming is a young Union soldier in the American Civil War. During his unit's first engagement, Henry flees the battlefield in fear. When he learns that the Union actually won the battle, shame over his cowardice leads him to lie to his friend Tom and the other soldiers, saying that he had been injured in battle. However, when he learns that his unit will be leading a charge against the enemy, Henry takes the opportunity to face his fears and redeem himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Way Ahead (1944)
A mismatched collection of conscripted civilians find training tough under Lieutenant Jim Perry and Sergeant Ned Fletcher when they are called up to replace an infantry battalion that had suffered casualties at Dunkirk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood on the Sun (1945)
Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhy We Fight: Prelude to War (1942)
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command's dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
In the year 180 A.D. Germanic tribes are about to invade the Roman empire from the north. In the midst of this crisis ailing emperor Marcus Aurelius has to make a decision about his successor between his son Commodus, who is obsessed by power, and the loyal general Gaius Livius.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Set in the years before and during World War I, this epic tale tells the story of a rich Argentine family, one of its two descending branches being half of French heritage, the other being half German. Following the death of the family patriarch, the man's two daughters and their families resettle to France and Germany, respectively. In time the Great War breaks out, putting members of the family on opposing sides.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
A by-the-book Captain is ordered to capture a strategic village in Italy. The Italian soldiers are willing to surrender, if they can have a festival first. The lieutenant convinces the Captain this is the only way. Because of aerial reconnaissance, they must look like they are fighting. To sort this out an intelligence officer is sent in. Meanwhile the festival gets complicated with the Mayors daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisCast a Giant Shadow (1966)
An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his Jewish heritage. Each of Israel's Arab neighbors has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country as soon as partition is granted. He is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Died with Their Boots On (1941)
The story follows General George Armstrong Custer's adventures from his West Point days to his death. He defies orders during the Civil War, trains the 7th Cavalry, appeases Chief Crazy Horse and later engages in bloody battle with the Sioux nation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaking Sides (2002)
One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Wilhelm Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDishonored (1931)
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Guns of Navarone (1961)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Devil's Brigade (1968)
At the onset of World War II, American Lt. Col. Robert Frederick is put in charge of a unit called the 1st Special Service Force, composed of elite Canadian commandos and undisciplined American soldiers. With Maj. Alan Crown leading the Canadians and Maj. Cliff Bricker the acting head of the American contingent, there is initial tension -- but the team comes together when given a daunting mission that few would dare to attempt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this400 Bullets (2021)
One cold winter night in Afghanistan is about to get a whole lot worse for Rana Rae, a Gurkha soldier left to guard a British military outpost, when Captain Noah Brandt arrives looking for refuge from a group of rogue special ops and a cell of heavily armed Taliban. The two soldiers must fight for their lives as they attempt to call for backup before the rogue squad, led by the backstabbing Sergeant Bartlett, can hunt them down to retrieve a case of missile guidance chips that Noah intercepted. But Bartlett and his men do not count on Rana, whose ferocious Gurkha training makes him a force to be reckoned with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)
A German soldier home on leave falls in love with a girl, then returns to World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEl Cid (1961)
Epic film of the legendary Spanish hero, Rodrigo Diaz ("El Cid" to his followers), who, without compromising his strict sense of honour, still succeeds in taking the initiative and driving the Moors from Spain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLiving Dangerously (1987)
In 1950s Havana, a romance blooms between two young revolutionaries whose clandestine printing press publishes pamphlets meant to stir up rebellion against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. As their popularity grows, so, too, does their revolutionary zeal and their desire to mobilize other urban guerilla units.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Cuba (1979)
A British mercenary arrives in pre-Revolution Cuba to help train the corrupt General Batista's army against Castro's guerrillas while he also romances a former lover now married to an unscrupulous plantation owner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisPreludio 11 (1964)
Daniela – a single mother, whose boyfriend left for the US – believes wholeheartedly in Cuba's revolutionary new order. Meanwhile, in Florida, a plot is afoot. Under the command of an American officer, four Cubans ex-patriots and a Guatemalan land on the Cuban coast to prepare a US invasion of the island. Daniela's superior, the corrupt Cuban officer Palomino, is secretly helping the invaders and the young woman becomes entangled in the intrigue.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Che: Part Two (2008)
Seven years after his triumph in Cuba, Che winds up in Bolivia, where he tries to ignite the same revolutionary fires as before.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChe: Part One (2008)
Ernesto Guevara, known as 'Che', leads a group of Cuban exiles under Fidel Castro in a revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMás se perdió en Cuba (1995)
Elpidio Valdés returns to the Cuban countryside to fight against the Spaniards. But they have a much more dangerous enemy: the Americans, who want to take over the island at any cost. Elpidio Valdés and his comrades-in-arms will try to prevent them from achieving their goal, with machetes in hand and bullets flying. It was conceived as a series for Spanish television and later shown as a feature film under the name Más se perdió en Cuba (More Was Lost in Cuba) in Spain and Elpidio Valdés contra el águila y el león (Elpidio Valdés Against the Eagle and the Lion) in Cuba.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
King of the World (2006)
Cinema version of the 5 part TV series. During World War II, Stan Vandewalle saves boxing trainer Max from the bombed German war prisoners camp, and shoots two German soldiers while escaping. After the war, Stan resolves to put all his frustration over the death of his slow-witted brother Aloïs, who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, with his side-car against a farmer's truck in making come true Aloïs other dream, to see Stan becoming 'king of the world' as boxer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Cuban Rebel Girls (1959)
Errol Flynn, playing himself as a war correspondent, reports the dangerous goings-on of a band of Cuban rebels- Two of which are misguided teenage girls from America. The film was shot with Castro's cooperation while he was still fighting Batista's forces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Che Guevara, naissance d'un mythe (2017)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
El brigadista (1978)
The Castro revolution was just consolidating its power when, in 1961, over 100,000 students were sent from their schools into the countryside to teach the peasants there how to read. Coinciding with the Bay of Pigs invasion, in this docudrama, 15-year-old Mario (Salvador Wood) has come to a tiny village in the Zapata swamps and gradually wins the villagers over to his task. At the same time, he receives an education in the realities of rural life from the hard-working peasants.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Message to Garcia?
The closest matches to A Message to Garcia are Waiting for Anya (2020), Battleground (1949) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Message to Garcia?
Start with Waiting for Anya (2020), the closest match to A Message to Garcia.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Message to Garcia?
The Guns of Navarone (1961), rated 7.3/10 by 932 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Message to Garcia?
The Last Rifleman (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A Message to Garcia?
Yes: Waiting for Anya (2020), Battleground (1949) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951).
How are movies similar to A Message to Garcia chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Message to Garcia, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.