Movies like In the Midst of Life (1963)
The best movies like In the Midst of Life (1963) are Jacknife (1989), Bat★21 (1988) and Beasts of No Nation (2015). If In the Midst of Life hooked you with its drama and war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBeasts of No Nation (2015)7.6/10 from 1,953 votes
- NewestCastration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Patience Stone (2013)Also in French
Jacknife (1989)
A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBat★21 (1988)
Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeasts of No Nation (2015)
Based on the experiences of Agu, a child fighting in the civil war of a West African country. Follows Agu's journey as he's forced to join a group of soldiers. While he fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Yellow Birds (2018)
Two young soldiers, Bartle and Murph, navigate the terrors of the Iraq war under the command of the older, troubled Sergeant Sterling. All the while, Bartle is tortured by a promise he made to Murph's mother before their deployment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisField of Lost Shoes (2015)
A group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Patience Stone (2013)
In a war-ridden country, a woman watches over her husband, comatose from a bullet in the neck and abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGlory (1989)
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCasualties of War (1989)
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBirdy (1984)
Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam War. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAusterlitz (1960)
A return to the life of the Little Corporal with a dramatisation of the decisive 1805 conflict between French forces and the armies of Austria and Russia. An epic reconstruction of the battle of Austerlitz, where Bonaparte had the greatest victory of his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWooden Crosses (1932)
The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKing Rat (1965)
When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. Among the American prisoners is Cpl. King, a wheeler-dealer who has managed to establish a pretty good life for himself in the camp. King soon forms a friendship with an upper-class British officer who is fascinated with King's enthusiastic approach to life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Birth of a Nation (1915)
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisWaiting 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 drama & 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 drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSarah's Key (2010)
On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being sent to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closet just before the police entered their apartment. Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah's file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeaven & Earth (1993)
In a small Vietnamese village torn apart by war, a young woman faces unimaginable horrors before deciding to escape to the city. There, she encounters a compassionate Marine who offers her hope and a chance at a new life, igniting the possibility of a future together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJ'accuse (1919)
The story of two men, one married, the other the lover of the other's wife, who meet in the trenches of the First World War, and how their tale becomes a microcosm for the horrors of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGo Tell the Spartans (1978)
A unit of American military advisors in Vietnam prior to the major U.S. involvement finds similarities between their helpless struggle against the Viet Cong and the doomed actions of a French unit at the same site a decade before.
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 thisWar for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWelcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Colt (2005)
During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, Rabb keeps the colt as a consolation in these desperate times-a symbol of hope that leads the men of the First Cavalry on a journey of self-discovery and newfound brotherhood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Muž, ktorý vedel lietať (1966)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Burning (2018)
Deliveryman Jong-su is out on a job when he runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return, she introduces to Jong-su an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. One day Ben tells Jong-su about his most unusual hobby.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thanksgiving Visitor (1968)
In this sequel to Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," a boy recalls his life with an elderly cousin in rural Alabama in the 1930s and the lesson she taught him one Thanksgiving Day about dealing with a bully from school.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2023)
A lost cat, a giant talkative frog and a tsunami help a bank employee without ambition, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mute (2022)
William, a middle-aged traveling salesman, confesses his life story to a deaf and mute hitchhiker.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Castration Movie Anthology I. Traps (2024)
Michaela 'Traps' Sinclair is a trans sex worker trying to get by in Vancouver while also mentoring her recently-out friend Adeline and making an attempt at pursuing actual motherhood. Meanwhile, lowly production assistant Turner finds himself dangerously spiraling into inceldom as his current relationship implodes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026)
Izzy does everything in her power to stop her partner from transitioning.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In the Midst of Life?
The closest matches to In the Midst of Life are Jacknife (1989), Bat★21 (1988) and Beasts of No Nation (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In the Midst of Life?
Start with Jacknife (1989), the closest match to In the Midst of Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like In the Midst of Life?
Beasts of No Nation (2015), rated 7.6/10 by 1,953 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In the Midst of Life?
Castration Movie Chapter iii. Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like In the Midst of Life?
Yes: The Patience Stone (2013), Austerlitz (1960) and Wooden Crosses (1932).
How are movies similar to In the Midst of Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In the Midst of Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.