Movies like The Man from Dakota (1940)
The best movies like The Man from Dakota (1940) are Emperor (2020), Andersonville (1996) and Field of Lost Shoes (2015). If The Man from Dakota 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 Great Escape (1963)7.9/10 from 3,009 votes
- NewestThe Dead Don't Hurt (2024)Released 2024
Emperor (2020)
An escaped slave travels north and has chance encounters with Frederick Douglass and John Brown. Based on the life story of Shields Green.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAndersonville (1996)
This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy's most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes of a company of Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, VA, in June 1864, and shipped to the camp in southern Georgia. A private, Josiah Day, and his sergeant try to hold their company together in the face of squalid living conditions, inhumane punishments, and a gang of predatory fellow prisoners called the Raiders.
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 thisGods and Generals (2003)
Follows the personal and professional life of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, a brilliant if eccentric Confederate general, from the outbreak of the American Civil War until its halfway point.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great War (2019)
In November of 1918 as World War I was ending, a unit of American soldiers goes behind enemy lines to find a lost platoon of African American soldiers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & history
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisFree State of Jones (2016)
In 1863, Mississippi farmer Newt Knight serves as a medic for the Confederate Army. Opposed to slavery, Knight would rather help the wounded than fight the Union. After his nephew dies in battle, Newt returns home to Jones County to safeguard his family but is soon branded an outlaw deserter. Forced to flee, he finds refuge with a group of runaway slaves hiding out in the swamps. Forging an alliance with the slaves and other farmers, Knight leads a rebellion that would forever change history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmancipation (2022)
Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of love and endurance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWalking with the Enemy (2014)
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent Horthy gives up control of his country to the Nazis, who quickly move Hungarians to ghettos and death camps, with no hope in sight. But the despair changes when a young man named Elek emerges. Separated from his family during the relocations and aided by the woman he loves , Elek defies the enemy by becoming one of them. In a race against time, disguised as a Nazi Officer he embarks on a mission to save his family and thousands of his countrymen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Colditz Story (1955)
The Germans believed that no man could escape from Colditz Castle, set as it was in the heart of the Reich, 400 miles from any neutral frontier. This film, based on Pat Reid's epic novel, tells the story of how the British, French, Dutch and Polish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Colditz set out to prove their captors wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & 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 western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeraphim Falls (2007)
The Civil War has ended, but Colonel Morsman Carver is on one final mission – to kill Gideon, no matter what it takes. Launched by a gunshot and propelled by rage, the relentless pursuit takes the two men through frigid snow-capped mountains and arid deserts, far from the comforts and codes of civilisation, into the bloodiest recesses of their own souls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSurrounded (2023)
After her stagecoach is ambushed, a woman is tasked with holding a dangerous outlaw captive and must survive the day when the bandit’s gang tries to free him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn of the Bad Men (1948)
US Marshall Vance is assigned to rid the Oklahoma Territory of outlaws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnion Pacific (1939)
One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Horse Soldiers (1959)
A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Escape (1963)
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Way Back (2010)
A small band of multicultural convicts stages a daring escape from a WWII-era Siberian gulag, and embarks on a treacherous journey across five countries in a desperate race for freedom and survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPublic Enemies (2009)
Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSavior (1998)
A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMichael Collins (1996)
Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiles of Fire (1957)
Civil War. Southern steppes of Russia. Circumstances bring together various people: the Chekist, professor, actor, nurse and White Guard officer posing as a vet. On two tachanka's they make their way into the city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & history
Cold Mountain (2003)
In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarla's Song (1996)
1987, love in time of war: bus driver George meets Carla, a Nicaraguan exile living a precarious, profoundly-sad life in Glasgow. Her back is scarred, her boyfriend missing, her family dispersed; she's suicidal. George takes her to Nicaragua to find out what's happened to them and help her face her past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna and the King (1999)
The story of the romance between the King of Siam (now Thailand) and the widowed British school teacher Anna Leonowens during the 1860s. Anna teaches the children and becomes romanced by the King. She convinces him that a man can be loved by just one woman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDown by Law (1986)
A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAchilleshælen er mit våben (1979)
Clemens has escaped from prison. The first thing he does is seek out his wife Maria. He dreams of the two of them traveling away, but Maria does not want to. In the end, he leaves using his friend's passport.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Persepolis (2007)
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Man from Dakota?
The closest matches to The Man from Dakota are Emperor (2020), Andersonville (1996) and Field of Lost Shoes (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Man from Dakota?
Start with Emperor (2020), the closest match to The Man from Dakota.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Man from Dakota?
The Great Escape (1963), rated 7.9/10 by 3,009 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Man from Dakota?
The Dead Don't Hurt (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Man from Dakota?
Yes: Emperor (2020), Andersonville (1996) and Field of Lost Shoes (2015).
How are movies similar to The Man from Dakota chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Man from Dakota, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.