Movies like The Better Angels (2014)
The best movies like The Better Angels (2014) are Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Miracle Worker (1962) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). If The Better Angels 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 ratedDead Poets Society (1989)8.3/10 from 13,167 votes
- NewestThe Dead Don't Hurt (2024)Released 2024
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
In this dramatized account of his early law career in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln is born into a modest log cabin, where he is encouraged by his first love, Ann Rutledge, to pursue law. Following her tragic death, Lincoln establishes a law practice in Springfield, where he meets a young Mary Todd. Lincoln's law skills are put to the test when he takes on the difficult task of defending two brothers who have been accused of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Miracle Worker (1962)
The true story of the frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness of 7-year-old Helen Keller who, since infancy, has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch, the only tool they have in common, and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth — responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln — Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, considered part of the atrocious conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the sinister Shark Island Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSong 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 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 thisThe Physician (2013)
England, 1021: Born in a miserable mining town, Robert Cole swears to become a physician and vanquish disease and death. His harsh path of many years, a quest for knowledge besieged by countless challenges and sacrifices, leads him to the remote Isfahan, in Persia, where he meets Ibn Sina, the greatest healer of his time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLincoln (2012)
The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & 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 & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelfast (2021)
Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Jane (2022)
A married woman with an unwanted pregnancy lives in a time in America where she can't get a legal abortion and works with a group of suburban women to find help.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisIntolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSo Dear to My Heart (1948)
The tale of Jeremiah Kincaid and his quest to raise his 'champion' lamb, Danny. Jeremiah's dream of showing Danny at the Pike County Fair must overcome the obstinate objections of his loving, yet strict, grandmother Granny. Jeremiah's confidant, Uncle Hiram, is the boy's steady ally.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHillbilly Elegy (2020)
An urgent phone call pulls a Yale Law student back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his own future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dead Don't Hurt (2024)
In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger decides to go fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War, Vivienne must fend for herself, which isn't easy in a town controlled by a corrupt mayor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDonnie Darko (2001)
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDead Poets Society (1989)
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRay (2004)
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInto the Wild (2007)
After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Zone of Interest (2023)
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Season in Hell (1971)
The tumultuous life of Arthur Rimbaud, the cursed poet, who completed his masterwork at the age of twenty, became an arms dealer and died at thirty-seven; and his passionate relationship with Paul Verlaine, full of wanderings, storms and falling out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Rob Roy (1995)
In the highlands of Scotland in the 1700s, Rob Roy tries to lead his small town to a better future, by borrowing money from the local nobility to buy cattle to herd to market. When the money is stolen, Rob is forced into a Robin Hood lifestyle to defend his family and honour.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Story of Love and Honor (1978)
A story of love and honor that takes place during the mid-nineteenth century during revolutions, as well as economic, political, and social hypocrisy. Two extraordinary but lonely artists share a passionate love, as evidenced by the preserved letters that they exchanged.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Kinsey (2004)
Kinsey is a portrait of researcher Alfred Kinsey, driven to uncover the most private secrets of a nation. What begins for Kinsey as a scientific endeavor soon takes on an intensely personal relevance, ultimately becoming an unexpected journey into the mystery of human behavior.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiding in Cars with Boys (2001)
In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (2009)
Just days after the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre. As a fractured nation mourned, a manhunt closed in on his assassin, the twenty-six-year-old actor, John Wilkes Booth. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln tracks the converging paths of the president and his killer, then tracks and draws connections between their last journeys, in the forms of Lincoln's funeral train route and Booth's desperate efforts to escape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Bloodsport (1988)
An American Army Major goes AWOL to Hong Kong for an outlawed martial arts contest called the Kumite.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZátopek (2021)
Autumn 1968, the Australian running record holder Ron Clarke is coming to Prague, hoping that his old friend and role model, Emil Zátopek, the most famous Czech athlete of all time, will help him overcome the biggest crisis of his career.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tideland (2005)
Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Better Angels?
The closest matches to The Better Angels are Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Miracle Worker (1962) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Better Angels?
Start with Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), the closest match to The Better Angels.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Better Angels?
Dead Poets Society (1989), rated 8.3/10 by 13,167 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Better Angels?
The Dead Don't Hurt (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Better Angels?
Yes: Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Miracle Worker (1962) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936).
How are movies similar to The Better Angels chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Better Angels, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.