Movies like The Wild Child (1970)
The best movies like The Wild Child (1970) are Song for a Raggy Boy (2003), No Chains, No Masters (2024) and The Judge and the Assassin (1976). If The Wild Child hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Elephant Man (1980)8.1/10 from 4,128 votes
- NewestNouvelle Vague (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchNo Chains, No Masters (2024)Also in French
Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)
William Franklin is a teacher who was born in Ireland and moved to the United States only to repatriate in 1939 after his leftist political views cause him to lose his job. Franklin becomes the first non-cleric instructor at St. Jude's, a school for wayward boys run by Brother John, who is a firm believer in strong discipline.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Chains, No Masters (2024)
1759, Mauritius Island, Indian Ocean. The island is controlled by French settlers and the deported slave population live in fear while toiling in the sugar cane plantations. Unlike her disillusioned father Massamba, 16-year-old Mati refuses to keep her head down and accept her fate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Judge and the Assassin (1976)
France, 1893. Joseph Bouvier attempts to shoot his love who refused to marry him and to commit suicide. Upon release from the filthy asylum where he was placed, with bullets still remaining in his head, he wanders the country roads and rapes and murders many teenagers over years. The judge Rousseau captures him, but to serve his ambition seeks to avoid that Bouvier is simply declared insane.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLes Misérables (1982)
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExperimenter (2015)
Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment that still resonates to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Despite his pleads for mercy, the majority of subjects don’t stop the experiment, administering what they think is a near-fatal electric shock, simply because they’ve been told to do so. With Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community with his exploration into people’s tendency to comply with authority. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster, but his wife Sasha stands by him through it all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Elephant Man (1980)
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRadium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoya's Ghosts (2006)
Painter Francisco Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition after his muse, Inés, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her family turns to him, hoping that his connection with fanatical Inquisitor Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure her release.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNouvelle Vague (2025)
After writing for Cahiers du cinéma, young Godard decides making films is the best film criticism. He gets Beauregard to fund a low-budget feature, creating a treatment with Truffaut about a gangster couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last of the Mohicans (1920)
As Alice and Cora Munro attempt to find their father, a British officer in the French and Indian War, they are set upon by French soldiers and their cohorts, Huron tribesmen led by the evil Magua. Fighting to rescue the women are Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohican tribe, and their white ally, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, known as Hawkeye.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Edge of the Blade (2023)
In 1887, at a time when duels are in vogue in Paris, Clément Lacaze and Marie-Rose Astié meet. He's a charismatic master of arms; she's a feminist, far ahead of her time. Clément gets caught in a spiral of violence and decides to initiate Marie-Rose in the art of dueling. The two must work together to save face. How far will they go to defend their honor?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crucible (1996)
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
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 & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDanton (1983)
Danton and Robespierre were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNiki (2024)
French-American artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, from the age of 23, is a model and an aspiring actor who is married and has a two year old daughter. Together, they flee the U.S. during the oppressive McCarthy era and come to France, where they experience a short-lived euphoria. Soon, distant and frightening memories begin to emerge in Niki’s mind. Her vocation as an artist will be her salvation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColette (2018)
After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as Willy, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Witches of Salem (1957)
Salem 1692. The young Abigail, seduced and abandoned by John Proctor, accuses John's wife of being a witch in revenge. A series of tragic trials soon befall Salem as fear and suspicion blur the lines of reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShattered Glass (2003)
Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Flood (2024)
1792. Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their children have been arrested and imprisoned in the Tour du Temple, a sinister chateau in Paris, awaiting their trial. Far from the splendour of Versailles, they are isolated and vulnerable for the first time in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeyond Rangoon (1995)
Dr. Laura Bowman is a young widow who's unwittingly drawn into political turmoil while vacationing in Burma in the late 1980s. Bowman initially left San Francisco with her sister in an attempt to escape painful memories of her husband and son's violent deaths. But her fight to escape to Thailand could prove just as harrowing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalcolm X (1992)
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Patriot (2000)
After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring the simple life of a farmer. But when his son Gabriel enlists in the army to defend their new nation, America, against the British, Benjamin reluctantly returns to his old life to protect his son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPandora's Box (1929)
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last King of Scotland (2006)
Young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan decides it's time for an adventure after he finishes his formal education, so he decides to try his luck in Uganda, and arrives during the downfall of President Obote. General Idi Amin comes to power and asks Garrigan to become his personal doctor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGuess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChildren of a Lesser God (1986)
Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Tragedy of Dr. Hosny (1973)
Hosny suffers from terrifying nightmares, so he resorts to a psychiatrist to help him
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hulk (2003)
Bruce Banner, a genetics researcher with a tragic past, suffers massive radiation exposure in his laboratory that causes him to transform into a raging green monster when he gets angry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Wild Child?
The closest matches to The Wild Child are Song for a Raggy Boy (2003), No Chains, No Masters (2024) and The Judge and the Assassin (1976). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Wild Child?
Start with Song for a Raggy Boy (2003), the closest match to The Wild Child.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Wild Child?
The Elephant Man (1980), rated 8.1/10 by 4,128 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Wild Child?
Nouvelle Vague (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Wild Child?
Yes: No Chains, No Masters (2024), The Judge and the Assassin (1976) and Les Misérables (1982).
How are movies similar to The Wild Child chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Wild Child, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.