Movies like Havana (1990)
The best movies like Havana (1990) are Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Fidel (2002) and Daniel (1983). If Havana hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Last Picture Show (1971)7.6/10 from 819 votes
- NewestAn American Affair (2008)Released 2008
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
In the 1950s, a Japanese-American fisherman is suspected of killing his neighbour at sea. For Ishmael, a local reporter, the trial strikes a deep emotional chord when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case. As he investigates the killing, he uncovers some startling clues that lead him to a shocking discovery.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFidel (2002)
Centered on the six years before the fall of Batista's dictatorship and the subsequent 40 years of the Cuban Revolution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Daniel (1983)
The fictionalized story of Daniel, the son of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, who were executed as Soviet spies in the 1950s. As a graduate student in New York in the 1960s, Daniel is involved in the antiwar protest movement and contrasts his experiences to the memory of his parents and his belief that they were wrongfully convicted.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Big Town (1987)
It is 1957. J.C. Cullen is a young man from a small town, with a talent for winning at craps, who leaves for the big city to work as a professional gambler. While there, he breaks the bank at a private craps game at the Gem Club, owned by George Cole, and falls in love with two women, one of them Cole's wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhite Hunter, Black Heart (1990)
Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlenty (1985)
David Hare's account of a one-time French freedom fighter who gradually realizes that her post-war life is not meeting her expectations.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Quiet American (2002)
Cynical British journalist Fowler falls in love with a young Vietnamese woman but is dismayed when a naïve U.S. official also begins vying for her attention. In retaliation, Fowler informs the communists that the American is selling arms to their enemy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChe: Part One (2008)
Ernesto Guevara, known as 'Che', leads a group of Cuban exiles under Fidel Castro in a revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Boy's Life (1993)
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Picture Show (1971)
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of the Spirits (1993)
A rancher, his clairvoyant wife and their family face turbulent years in South America.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBird (1988)
Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCuba (1979)
A British mercenary arrives in pre-Revolution Cuba to help train the corrupt General Batista's army against Castro's guerrillas while he also romances a former lover now married to an unscrupulous plantation owner.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Boxer (1997)
Nineteen-year-old Danny Flynn is imprisoned for his involvement with the I.R.A. in Belfast. He leaves behind his family and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Maggie Hamill. Fourteen years later, Danny is released from prison and returns to his old working class neighborhood to resume his life as a boxer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost City (2005)
In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from the oppressive regime of Batista to the Marxist government of Fidel Castro. Castro's regime ultimately leads the nightclub owner to flee to New York.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe World of Suzie Wong (1960)
A Hong Kong prostitute tries modeling and falls for the artist who's painting her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPower (1986)
Pete St. John is a powerful and successful political consultant, with clients spread around the country. When his long-time friend and client Ohio senator Sam Hastings decides to quit politics, he is rapidly drafted to help with the campaign of the man destined to succeed him, unknown and mysterious businessman Jerome Cade...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDogfight (1991)
In the fall of 1963, Eddie Birdlace is an 18-year-old Marine Corps volunteer who is about to ship out with three of his buddies for a tour of duty in Vietnam. Planning a massive blowout for their last night in San Francisco, Eddie, his buddies, and a number of other Marines set up a contest they call a "dogfight”.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Pretty Horses (2000)
The year is 1949. A young Texan named John Grady finds himself without a home after his mother sells the ranch where he has spent his entire life. Lured south of the border by the romance of cowboy life and the promise of a fresh start, Cole and his pal embark on an adventure that will test their resilience, define their maturity, and change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisUnder the Volcano (1984)
Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The consul's self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLa Bamba (1987)
Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his girlfriend. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob, and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. and Mrs. Loving (1996)
A moving and uplifting drama about the effects of interracial marriage in the 1960s. Friends since childhood, and loved by both families, this couple are exiled after their wedding and have to wage a courageous battle to find their place in America as a loving family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Foreign Land (1996)
During a time of political upheaval in Brazil, two strangers meet by coincidence in a foreign land and end up caught in the middle of a gem smuggling ring.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaria's Lovers (1984)
A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn American Affair (2008)
In the early 1960s, teenager Adam Stafford (Cameron Bright) becomes obsessed with his new neighbor, Catherine Caswell (Gretchen Mol), a divorcée and free spirit. Stafford spies on Caswell as she meets with strange men, and, despite the warnings of his conservative parents, he begins working for her as a gardener. Amid rumors of her affair with President Kennedy, the two become close, but political intrigue surrounding her acquaintances soon infringes on their friendship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCross Creek (1983)
In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editors and confused neighbors, but soon she connects and writes The Yearling, a classic of American literature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Winter People (1989)
Wayland Jackson, a widower with a young daughter, moves to a small, impoverished mountain village in North Carolina, circa 1934. They are taken in by Collie Wright, a single mother with an illegitimate baby, and she and Wayland soon fall in love. Trouble starts when the identity of her baby's father is revealed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Reds (1981)
An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn My Country (2004)
An American reporter and an Afrikaans poet meet and fall in love while covering South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Havana?
The closest matches to Havana are Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Fidel (2002) and Daniel (1983). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Havana?
People who watched Havana most often go on to Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Fidel (2002) and Daniel (1983).
What is the highest-rated movie like Havana?
The Last Picture Show (1971), rated 7.6/10 by 819 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Havana?
An American Affair (2008) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Havana?
Yes: Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Fidel (2002) and Daniel (1983).
How are movies similar to Havana chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Havana, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.