Movies like The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
The best movies like The Hour Before the Dawn (1944) are A Hidden Life (2019), Waiting for Anya (2020) and The One That Got Away (1957). If The Hour Before the Dawn hooked you with its drama and war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Old Gun (1975)7.5/10 from 303 votes
- NewestThe War Below (2021)Released 2021
A Hidden Life (2019)
Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter faces the threat of execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWaiting for Anya (2020)
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe One That Got Away (1957)
Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaking Sides (2002)
One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Wilhelm Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Never Was (1956)
The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe War Below (2021)
During World War I, a group of British miners are recruited to tunnel underneath no man's land and set bombs from below the German front in hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate of the Battle of Messines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long Voyage Home (1940)
The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during World War II. Adapted from four Eugene O'Neill one-act plays.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Guns of Navarone (1961)
A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight Train to Munich (1940)
Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattleground (1949)
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFive Graves to Cairo (1943)
During the 1942 North African campaign, a British straggler passes as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Erwin Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may provide an even better use.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEdge of Darkness (1943)
The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command's dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this633 Squadron (1964)
When Norwegian resistance leader Lieutenant Erik Bergman reports the location of a German V-2 rocket fuel plant, the Royal Air Force's 633 Squadron is assigned the mission to destroy it. The plant is in a seemingly-impregnable location beneath an overhanging cliff at the end of a long, narrow fjord lined with anti-aircraft guns. The only way to destroy the plant is by collapsing the cliff on top of it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEscape to Victory (1981)
A group of POWs in a German prison camp during World War II play the German National Soccer Team in this powerful film depicting the role of prisoners during wartime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJourney into Fear (1943)
An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Bob Sharkey, an instructor of would-be spies for the Allied Office of Strategic Services, becomes suspicious of one of the latest batch of students, Bill O'Connell, who is too good at espionage. His boss, Charles Gibson confirms that O'Connell is really a top German agent, but tells Sharkey to pass him, as they intend to feed the mole false information about the impending D-Day invasion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Sea Wolves (1980)
A German spy is passing on information about the location of Allied ships in the neutral harbor of Goa, India, with catastrophic results. Unable to undertake a full military operation in the Portuguese stronghold, English intelligence brings out of retirement a crew of geriatric ex-soldiers, veterans from World War I, using their age as cover. These old soldiers are asked to take to the seas and pull off an unlikely undercover mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Assault (1986)
At the end of WWII the Dutch resistance kills a German officer in front of the house of a Dutch family. Years after the war the young boy who witnessed the killing runs into the members of the resistance who committed the killing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Match (2021)
Inspired by true events from the spring of 1944 when the Nazis organized a football match between a team of camp inmates and an elite Nazi team on Adolf Hitler's birthday. A match the prisoners are determined to win, no matter what happens.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUn crime de guerre (1994)
A film that relates the trial in Bordeaux in January 1953 of some of the participants in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of June 10, 1944.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
The Old Gun (1975)
In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu is a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter in the back country village where Julien has an old castle. One week later, Julien decides to meet them for the week end, but the Germans are already occupying the village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlags of Our Fathers (2006)
There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen - John 'Doc' Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes - who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Came to Blow Up America (1943)
Based on a true incident that occurred in 1942 when nine Nazi saboteurs were put ashore on the coast of Long Island, New York, by submarine, with orders to blow up various defense installations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Saints and Soldiers (2003)
Five American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmpire of the Sun (1987)
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Monument (1977)
An old gardener tends for the flowers during the war. Nazis ask him for flowers for their dead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Franz + Polina (2006)
The movie tells the story of Franz, a Waffen-SS soldier who deserts, and Polina, a Belarusian woman whose village is razed and people massacred.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Like The Hour Before the Dawn and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Hour Before the Dawn?
The closest matches to The Hour Before the Dawn are A Hidden Life (2019), Waiting for Anya (2020) and The One That Got Away (1957). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Hour Before the Dawn?
Start with A Hidden Life (2019), the closest match to The Hour Before the Dawn.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Hour Before the Dawn?
The Old Gun (1975), rated 7.5/10 by 303 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Hour Before the Dawn?
The War Below (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Hour Before the Dawn?
Yes: A Hidden Life (2019), Waiting for Anya (2020) and The One That Got Away (1957).
How are movies similar to The Hour Before the Dawn chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Hour Before the Dawn, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.