Skip to content

Movies like The Red Badge of Courage (1974)

The best movies like The Red Badge of Courage (1974) are Emperor (2020), Glory (1989) and The Horse Soldiers (1959). If The Red Badge of Courage hooked you with its drama and western, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. 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 war & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. Glory (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 & war

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. The 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 this
  4. Gettysburg (1993)

    In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee leads the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of marching through to Washington, D.C. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of General George G. Meade, forms a defensive position to confront the rebel forces in what will prove to be the decisive battle of the American Civil War.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  5. Field 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 this
  6. Gods 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 & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. Jacknife (1989)

    A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  8. The Yellow Birds (2018)

    Two young soldiers, Bartle and Murph, navigate the terrors of the Iraq war under the command of the older, troubled Sergeant Sterling. All the while, Bartle is tortured by a promise he made to Murph's mother before their deployment.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  9. The Kill Team (2019)

    When Andrew Briggman — a young soldier in the US Army during the invasion of Afghanistan — witnesses the murderous behavior of fellow soldiers, under the direction of a malevolent Sergeant, he faces a moral dilemma. His increasingly-violent platoon becomes suspicious that someone in their ranks has turned on them, and Andrew begins to fear for his safety. A fictionalized dramatization based on a true story.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. The 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 & western

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  11. Men in War (1957)

    In Korea, on 6 September 1950, Lieutenant Benson's platoon finds itself isolated in enemy-held territory after a retreat. Soon they are joined by Sergeant Montana, whose overriding concern is caring for his catatonic colonel. Benson and Montana can't stand each other, but together they must get the survivors to Hill 465, where they hope the division is waiting. It's a long, harrowing march, fraught with all the dangers the elusive enemy can summon.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Beneath Hill 60 (2010)

    The true story of Australia's cat-and-mouse underground mine warfare—one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and mystifying conflicts of WW I. It was secret struggle BENEATH the Western Front that combined daring engineering, technology and science. Few on the surface knew of the brave, claustrophobic and sometimes barbaric work of these tunnellers.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. Andersonville (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 this
  14. The 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 this
  15. The 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 war & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. The Thin Red Line (1998)

    The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  17. Alvarez Kelly (1966)

    In 1864, during the American Civil War, Mexican cattleman Alvarez Kelly supplies the Union with cattle until unexpected circumstances force him to change his customers.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. The Scarlet and the Black (1983)

    Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  19. The Birth of a Nation (1915)

    Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war

  20. The Beast of War (1988)

    During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. The Colt (2005)

    During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, Rabb keeps the colt as a consolation in these desperate times-a symbol of hope that leads the men of the First Cavalry on a journey of self-discovery and newfound brotherhood.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

  22. Ride with the Devil (1999)

    Friends Jake and Jack Bull join up with Civil War guerrilla fighters, yet after the realities of war set in, they must decide what honor truly means.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  23. Henry V (1944)

    In 1415, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  24. The Sand Pebbles (1966)

    Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  25. King Arthur (2004)

    The story of the Arthurian legend, based on the 'Sarmatian hypothesis' which contends that the legend has a historical nucleus in the Sarmatian heavy cavalry troops stationed in Britain, and that the Roman-British military commander, Lucius Artorius Castus is the historical person behind the legend.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  26. The Four Feathers (2002)

    A young British officer resigns his post when he learns of his regiment's plan to ship out to the Sudan for the conflict with the Mahdi. His friends and fiancée send him four white feathers as symbols of what they view as his cowardice. To redeem his honor, he disguises himself as an Arab and secretly saves their lives.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  27. Passchendaele (2008)

    Sergeant Michael Dunne fights in the 10th Battalion, AKA The "Fighting Tenth" with the 1st Canadian Division and participated in all major Canadian battles of the war, and set the record for highest number of individual bravery awards for a single battle

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

    After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  29. Mott Haven (2021)

    Hal (Robert Davi), a former radio mogul who has fallen on hard times, enlists the aid of a beleaguered businessman (Paul Wilson) to battle a thuggish superintendent (Chuck Zito) and the forces of gentrification in the South Bronx.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  30. Operation Dunkirk (2017)

    A band of soldiers tasked with staying behind during the Battle of Dunkirk to rescue a scientist with information that could turn the tide of the war must battle their way through dangerous Nazi territory to complete their mission.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Like The Red Badge of Courage and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Red Badge of Courage?

The closest matches to The Red Badge of Courage are Emperor (2020), Glory (1989) and The Horse Soldiers (1959). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Red Badge of Courage?

Start with Emperor (2020), the closest match to The Red Badge of Courage.

What is the highest-rated movie like The Red Badge of Courage?

Glory (1989), rated 7.5/10 by 1,910 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Red Badge of Courage?

Mott Haven (2021) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like The Red Badge of Courage?

Yes: Emperor (2020), Glory (1989) and The Horse Soldiers (1959).

How are movies similar to The Red Badge of Courage chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Red Badge of Courage, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

↑ ↓ to move · Enter to open · Full search page