Movies like Ryan's Daughter (1970)
The best movies like Ryan's Daughter (1970) are A Promise (2013), Benediction (2021) and Testament of Youth (2015). If Ryan's Daughter hooked you with its romance and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Zhivago (1965)7.6/10 from 1,337 votes
- NewestScarlet (2023)Released 2023
A Promise (2013)
A romantic drama set in Germany just before WWI and centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's teacher. Separated by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisBenediction (2021)
Poet Siegfried Sassoon survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery, but became a vocal critic of the government's continuation of the war when he returned from service. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London's literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTestament of Youth (2015)
Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a woman’s point of view. A searing journey from youthful hopes and dreams to the edge of despair and back again, it’s a film about young love, the futility of war and how to make sense of the darkest times.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ottoman Lieutenant (2017)
Lillie, a determined American woman, ventures overseas to join Dr. Jude at a remote medical mission in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). However, Lillie soon finds herself at odds with Jude and the mission’s founder, Woodruff, when she falls for the titular military man, Ismail, just as the war is about to erupt.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOut of Africa (1985)
Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Zhivago (1965)
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWaterloo Bridge (1940)
On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrooklyn (2015)
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFar from the Madding Crowd (1967)
Bathsheba Everdine, a willful and flirtatious young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and becomes romantically involved with three widely divergent men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Go-Between (1971)
British teenager Leo Colston spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian. Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the "go-between" for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess, a handsome neighboring farmer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Green Room (1978)
A widower maintains a memorial room filled with his late wife's belongings. When fire destroys it, he transforms a chapel into a new shrine to preserve her memory.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeat and Dust (1983)
Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiet Man (1952)
An American man returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love and conflict.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWild Mountain Thyme (2020)
Headstrong farmer Rosemary Muldoon has her heart set on winning her neighbour Anthony Reilly's love. The problem is, Anthony seems to have inherited a family curse, and remains oblivious to his beautiful admirer. Stung by his father's plans to sell the family farm to his American nephew, Anthony is jolted into pursuing his dreams.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHowards End (1992)
A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOn Chesil Beach (2018)
In 1962 England, a young couple finds their idyllic romance colliding with issues of sexual freedom and societal pressure, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrideshead Revisited (2008)
Befriended by aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, Oxford student Charles Ryder finds that the power and privilege experienced by the family is seductive. On a visit to the ancestral home, Brideshead, he falls in love with his friend's sister, Julia. However, as his ties to the Flytes deepen, Ryder finds himself at odds with their strong Roman Catholicism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMothering Sunday (2021)
On a warm spring day in 1924, house maid and foundling Jane Fairchild finds herself alone on Mother's Day. Her employers, Mr. and Mrs. Niven, are out and she has the rare chance to spend quality time with her secret lover. Paul is the boy from the manor house nearby, Jane's long-term love despite the fact that he's engaged to be married to another woman, a childhood friend and daughter of his parents' friends. But events that neither can foresee will change the course of Jane's life forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Nightingale Falling (2014)
Set against a backdrop of a turbulent, war-torn Ireland in the early 1920s, this is a story of three people and the unfolding events from a crucial time in their extraordinary and tragic lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Michael 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: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Farewell to Arms (1957)
An English nurse and an American soldier on the Italian front during World War I fall in love, but the horrors surrounding them test their romance to the limit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAtonement (2007)
A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Edge of Love (2008)
When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his flirtatious wife Caitlin sweep into war-torn London, the last thing they expect is to bump into Dylan's childhood sweetheart Vera. Despite her joy at seeing Dylan after so many years, Vera is swept off her feet by a dashing officer, William Killick, and finds herself torn between the open adoration of her new found beau and the wily charms of the exotic Welshman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Duchess (2008)
A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Room with a View (1986)
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Remains of the Day (1993)
In interwar Britain, a rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a new housekeeper. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Light Between Oceans (2016)
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScarlet (2023)
A French widower and WWI veteran returns home after the war to raise his newborn daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ryan's Daughter?
The closest matches to Ryan's Daughter are A Promise (2013), Benediction (2021) and Testament of Youth (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ryan's Daughter?
People who watched Ryan's Daughter most often go on to A Promise (2013), Benediction (2021) and Testament of Youth (2015).
What is the highest-rated movie like Ryan's Daughter?
Doctor Zhivago (1965), rated 7.6/10 by 1,337 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ryan's Daughter?
Scarlet (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Ryan's Daughter?
Yes: A Promise (2013), Benediction (2021) and Testament of Youth (2015).
How are movies similar to Ryan's Daughter chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ryan's Daughter, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.