Movies like The Day the Clown Cried (1972)
The best movies like The Day the Clown Cried (1972) are The Monuments Men (2014), The Grey Zone (2001) and Uprising (2001). If The Day the Clown Cried hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSchindler's List (1993)8.6/10 from 18,182 votes
- NewestNuremberg (2025)Released 2025
The Monuments Men (2014)
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Grey Zone (2001)
The story of Auschwitz's twelfth Sonderkommando — one of the thirteen consecutive "Special Squads" of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excruciating moral dilemma of assisting in the extermination of fellow Jews in exchange for a few more months of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUprising (2001)
In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSchindler's List (1993)
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe World Will Tremble (2025)
The incredible, untold true story of how a group of prisoners attempt a seemingly impossible escape from the first Nazi death camp in order to provide the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConspiracy (2001)
At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEscape from Sobibor (1987)
The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Island on Bird Street (1997)
Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWoman in Gold (2015)
Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009)
Irena Sendler is a Catholic social worker who has sympathized with the Jews since her childhood, when her physician father died of typhus contracted while treating poor Jewish patients. When she initially proposes saving Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, her idea is met with skepticism by fellow workers, her parish priest, and even her own mother Janina.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTruth & Treason (2025)
In 1941 Nazi Germany, 16-year-old Helmuth Hübener begins questioning the regime after learning the truth about the war and seeing his Jewish friend persecuted. With two friends, he secretly listens to banned foreign broadcasts and distributes leaflets exposing Nazi lies. As the Gestapo closes in, the teenagers face mounting danger for choosing conscience over obedience. Based on the true story of one of Germany’s youngest resistance fighters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNuremberg (2025)
In postwar Germany, an American psychiatrist must determine whether Nazi prisoners are fit to go on trial for war crimes, and finds himself in a complex battle of intellect and ethics with Hermann Göring, Hitler's right-hand man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin (2024)
As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer joins a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler, risking his faith and fate to save millions of Jews from genocide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy in the Woods (2023)
The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, based on Maxwell Smart's memoir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInglourious Basterds (2009)
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEichmann (2007)
Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel, of his role in Hitler's plan for the final solution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResistance (2020)
The story of mime Marcel Marceau as he works with a group of Jewish boy scouts and the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Midnight Clear (1992)
In 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdam Resurrected (2008)
After again attempting to commit murder, a Jewish man with a mysterious past and extraordinary intelligence, charisma, and body control returns to an insane asylum, where he makes a startling discovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod on Trial (2008)
In the Jewish tradition of arguing with God, Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz decide to put God on Trial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGanef (2020)
Confusion escalates when a little girl thinks she sees her beloved family cleaner steal a precious ornament.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
After We Are Born (2027)
A New Psychological Documentary About Children
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coming SoonMovies like thisAge of Heroes (2011)
The true story of the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando unit, a precursor for the elite forces in the U.K.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBernadette of Lourdes: The Musical (2025)
Bernadette Soubirous, just 14 years old, goes by the river near the Massabielle cave. It is there that, for the first time, a “lady dressed in white” appears to her. Accused of lying, Bernadette’s revelation initially provokes mistrust and tensions in her family, drawing the wrath of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The rumor spreads. Pilgrims begin to converge. Lourdes goes down in History.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tombstone of the Fireflies (2008)
Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister as they attempt to survive the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shanghai (2010)
An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheck-Up (TBA)
Two brothers united by the game, and broken by the passion
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Her Choice (1912)
Mrs. Letitia Summers, owner and principal of an exclusive boarding school, decides to give her two nieces an education while deciding which will be her heir unbeknownst to them. She writes each a letter, stating that a lady of means has provided for their education at Mrs. Summers' seminary. Edith and May are both delighted with the news, but while Edith leaves with her modest belongings May immediately demands a lot of new things to satisfy her vanity and desire to make a great impression. May attracts considerable attention upon her arrival but Edith, in her modest wardrobe, is received with disparaging remarks. Both do well in their studies but on graduation day Mrs. Summers calls the two girls into her private office and tells them that she is their aunt, and she has chosen Edith as her heir in recognition of her kindness and thoughtfulness towards others, particularly towards her poor mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Closed to the Light (2021)
In a moment captured in time, die-hard Italian fascists conduct reprisal executions of civilians in Lombardy during World War II.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gehenna (2025)
In this recently found and restored banned underground classic from 1984, four girls go into a bathroom to hide in the middle of a war and, after an impulsive act by one of them, they find themselves trapped there. As panic gives way to despair, tragedy approaches.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Day the Clown Cried?
The closest matches to The Day the Clown Cried are The Monuments Men (2014), The Grey Zone (2001) and Uprising (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Day the Clown Cried?
Start with The Monuments Men (2014), the closest match to The Day the Clown Cried.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Day the Clown Cried?
Schindler's List (1993), rated 8.6/10 by 18,182 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Day the Clown Cried?
Nuremberg (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Day the Clown Cried?
Yes: The Monuments Men (2014), The Grey Zone (2001) and Uprising (2001).
How are movies similar to The Day the Clown Cried chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Day the Clown Cried, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.