Movies like The Shortest Day (1963)
The best movies like The Shortest Day (1963) are The Devil's Disciple (1959), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). If The Shortest Day hooked you with its comedy and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Great Dictator (1940)8.3/10 from 3,875 votes
- NewestCoward (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianDon Camillo's Last Round (1955)Also in Italian
The Devil's Disciple (1959)
In a small New England town during the American War of Independence, Dick Dudgeon, a revolutionary American Puritan, is mistaken for local minister Rev. Anthony Anderson and arrested by the British. Dick discovers himself incapable of accusing another human to suffer and continues to masquerade as the reverend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
Topper Harley is found to be working as an odd-job-man in a monastery. The CIA want him to lead a rescue mission into Iraq, to rescue the last rescue team, who went in to rescue the last rescue team—who went in to rescue hostages left behind after Desert Storm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLawrence of Arabia (1962)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Alamo (1960)
The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHot Shots! (1991)
The gang that created Airplane! and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this spoof. Topper Harley is a talented but unstable fighter pilot with an axe to grind: clearing the family name. His mission is to avenge his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers. He also gets involved in a relationship with Ramada Thompson, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. Hot Shots! makes fun of a variety of other films, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKokoda (2006)
A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidway (2019)
The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPressure (2026)
In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, and the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg face an impossible choice—launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrisoner of War (2025)
British RAF Wing Commander James Wright is captured by the Japanese during WWII and forced to fight in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The Japanese soldiers get more than they bargained for when Wright’s years of martial arts training in Hong Kong prove him to be a formidable opponent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaptain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951)
Captain Horatio Hornblower leads his ship HMS Lydia on a perilous transatlantic voyage, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 300 Spartans (1962)
The 300 Spartans is an account of the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, in which the Greek Spartan King Leonidas, played by Richard Egan, led a remarkably small number of Greek Sparta to victory over an invading Persian army led by evil King Xerxes that was thought to number over 25,000. This spectacular conflict gave the Grecians enough time to organize a force to ultimately repel the Persians, and thus change the course of Western civilization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon Camillo's Last Round (1955)
Bewildered, Don Camillo learns that Peppone intends to stand for parliament. Determined to thwart his ambitions, the good priest, ignoring the recommendations of the Lord, decides to campaign against him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDunkirk (2017)
The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKhartoum (1966)
English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarry On Jack (1964)
Able seaman Poop-Decker signs up for adventure on the high seas with the wicked Captain Fearless. Those swabbing the decks include Juliet Mills, Charles Hawtrey and Donald Houston. The film was originally to be titled Up the Armada, but the British Board of Film Censors objected to such a rude title.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisSarajevo (2014)
The events in Sarajevo in June 1914 are the backdrop for a thriller directed by Andreas Prochaska and written by Martin Ambrosch, focusing on the examining magistrate Dr. Leo Pfeffer (Florian Teichtmeister) investigating the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Trying to do his job in a time of lawlessness and violence, intrigues and betrayal, Leo struggles to maintain his integrity and save his love, Marija, and her father, prominent Serbian merchant. But the events of Sarajevo have set into motion an inescapable course of events that will escalate to become … the Great War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pity of War (2014)
Professor Niall Ferguson argues that Britain's decision to enter the First World War was a catastrophic error that unleashed an era of totalitarianism and genocide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & war
The Red Baron (2008)
Richthofen goes off to war like thousands of other men. As fighter pilots, they become cult heroes for the soldiers on the battlefields. Marked by sportsmanlike conduct, technical exactitude and knightly propriety, they have their own code of honour. Before long he begins to understand that his hero status is deceptive. His love for Kate, a nurse, opens his eyes to the brutality of war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrand Illusion (1937)
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.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Great Dictator (1940)
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe African Queen (1952)
At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPaths of Glory (1957)
A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCharcot: Secret Poles (2016)
The adventures and exploits of Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867-1936), an intrepid scientist and explorer who laid the foundations of modern oceanography.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Beyond Victory (1931)
Four battle-weary American soldiers under fire reflect on the women they left behind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Namenlose Helden (1925)
A family suffers greatly during the First World War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Coward (2026)
Surrounded by brutality but bound by a tender intimacy, two World War I soldiers find a fragile sanctuary of love and art amid the shadows of the Belgian trenches.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
The Good Soldier Švejk (1926)
The first film treatment of the fate of the good soldier Švejk, a dog dealer from Prague, who is arrested after the Sarajevo assassination, psychiatrically examined and later called up to c. and k. army to fight for the emperor lord.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Young Frenchwoman Mathilde searches for the truth about her missing fiancé, lost during World War I, and learns many unexpected things along the way. The love of her life is gone. But she refuses to believe he's gone forever — and she needs to know for sure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisQueen Marie of Romania (2019)
Devastated by the First World War and plunged into political controversy, Romania's every hope accompanies its Queen on her mission to Paris, to lobby for its great unification's international recognition at the 1919 Peace Talks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Shortest Day?
The closest matches to The Shortest Day are The Devil's Disciple (1959), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Shortest Day?
Start with The Devil's Disciple (1959), the closest match to The Shortest Day.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Shortest Day?
The Great Dictator (1940), rated 8.3/10 by 3,875 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Shortest Day?
Coward (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Shortest Day?
Yes: Don Camillo's Last Round (1955).
How are movies similar to The Shortest Day chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Shortest Day, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.