Movies like Native Son (1986)
The best movies like Native Son (1986) are A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and A Soldier's Story (1984). If Native Son hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Help (2011)8.2/10 from 9,411 votes
- NewestTill (2022)Released 2022
A Lesson Before Dying (1999)
In the 1940s South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince school teacher go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
A South-African preacher goes to search for his wayward son who has committed a crime in the big city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
A Soldier's Story (1984)
In a rural town in Louisiana, a black Master Sergeant is found shot to death just outside the local Army Base. Military lawyer, Captain Davenport—also a black man—is sent from Washington to conduct an investigation. Facing an uncooperative chain of command and fearful black troops, Davenport must battle with deceit and prejudice in order to find out exactly who really did kill the Master Sergeant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe George McKenna Story (1988)
Washington plays a school principal in a tough inner city Los Angeles high school out to rid it of drugs, gangs, low moral of teachers, and restore educational values. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Mrs. Soffel (1984)
Kate Soffel is married to a prison warden in Pittsburgh, and is the mother of their four children. Ed Biddle is a convicted murderer awaiting execution on death row with his brother Jack. When Kate meets Eddie through her Bible readings to the prisoners, she is drawn to him, and they pursue a clandestine relationship. She agrees to help the brothers escape, and begins a treacherous journey with them to freedom in Canada.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFor Queen & Country (1988)
A retired British soldier struggles to adjust to everyday life, with increasing difficulty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975)
A dramatization of the famous 1893 Massachusetts trial of the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Jasper Jones (2017)
Fourteen-year-old Charlie's life changes when Jasper takes his help to dispose of the body of his girlfriend, Laura. He decides to look for the murderer and falls in love with Laura's younger sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRichard Jewell (2019)
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTill (2022)
The true story of Mamie Till Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Heat of the Night (1967)
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Best of Enemies (2019)
Centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRosewood (1997)
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Way Out (1950)
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one dies, the other accuses their Black doctor of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this42 (2013)
In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first Black man to play in Major League Baseball facing unabashed racism from the public, the press and other players.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRagtime (1981)
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fugitive (1993)
Wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death, Richard Kimble escapes from the law in an attempt to find the real killer and clear his name.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Banker (2020)
In the 1960s, two entrepreneurs hatch an ingenious business plan to fight for housing integration—and equal access to the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFord v Ferrari (2019)
American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPassing (2021)
In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)
Mischievous Huck Finn is unnerved when his father, reemerging after years away, kidnaps him in an attempt to take away a $600 inheritance from his late mother. Fearing for his life, Huck fakes his own death and escapes. He soon runs into his friend, Jim, a slave fleeing his master. Together, the pair embarks on a raft journey down the Mississippi River, staying ahead of pursuers who blame the slave for Huck's alleged murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoint Blank (1967)
After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBad Day at Black Rock (1955)
One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Help (2011)
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Gift (2015)
Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOdds Against Tomorrow (1959)
An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPatriots Day (2016)
In the aftermath of an unspeakable act of terror, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the Boston Marathon bombers before they strike again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMain Line to Terror (1975)
Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Seabiscuit (2003)
True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Native Son?
The closest matches to Native Son are A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and A Soldier's Story (1984). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Native Son?
People who watched Native Son most often go on to A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and A Soldier's Story (1984).
What is the highest-rated movie like Native Son?
The Help (2011), rated 8.2/10 by 9,411 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Native Son?
Till (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Native Son?
Yes: A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and A Soldier's Story (1984).
How are movies similar to Native Son chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Native Son, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.