Movies like Barbed Wire (1983)
The best movies like Barbed Wire (1983) are Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Sahara (1995) and The Resistance Fighter (2019). If Barbed Wire hooked you with its war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)7.5/10 from 283 votes
- NewestThe Partisan (2025)Released 2025
Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSahara (1995)
After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Resistance Fighter (2019)
Based on the true story of Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, who served as a courier between the commanders of the Polish Home Army and the Polish Government in Exile in London. He must return quickly to Warsaw to transmit orders from the Polish PM to the Home Army's commander-in-chief before the start of the Warsaw uprising.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnights of the Teutonic Order (1960)
A tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her "three trophies" from the Teutonic Knights.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHurricane (2018)
Polish pilots overcome prejudice to fight against the Luftwaffe with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in the hope of protecting both Great Britain and their own Poland from the German advance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisKatyn (2007)
On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColonel Wolodyjowski (1969)
In 1668 Polish colonel Michał Wołodyjowski, who recently retired to a monastery, is recalled to active duty and takes charge of Poland's eastern frontier defenses against invading Tatar hordes and Ottoman armies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBunker (2023)
Trapped in a bunker during World War I, a group of soldiers are faced with an ungodly presence that slowly turns them against each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this303 Squadron (2018)
After the fall of the September Campaign of 1939, two Polish pilots are forced to fight for their nation in foreign battlefronts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
SnoozefestMovies 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 war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Hell and Back (1955)
The true WWII story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in U.S. history. Based on the autobiography of Audie Murphy who stars as himself in the film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWolf Hound (2022)
Inspired by the real-life German special operations unit KG 200 that shot down, repaired, and flew Allied aircraft as Trojan horses, "Wolf Hound" takes place in 1944 German-occupied France and follows the daring exploits of Jewish-American fighter pilot Captain David Holden. Ambushed behind enemy lines, Holden must rescue a captured B-17 Flying Fortress crew, evade a ruthless enemy stalking him at every turn, and foil a plot that could completely alter the outcome of World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
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 war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnemy at the Gates (2001)
A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Partisan (2025)
A Polish spy working for the British during World War II is betrayed and compromised in Warsaw, leaving her no other choice but to descend into a dangerous world of treachery and deception in order to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
SnoozefestMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlay Dirty (1969)
During World War II in North Africa, a group of British commandos disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital Nazi oil depot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hurt Locker (2008)
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiracle at St. Anna (2008)
Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four American soldiers who are members of the all-black 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeathwatch (2002)
In the brutal trench fighting of the First World War, a British Infantry Company is separated from their regiment after a fierce battle. Attempting to return to their lines, the British soldiers discover what appears to be a bombed out German trench, abandoned except for a few dazed German soldiers. After killing most of the Germans, and taking one prisoner, the British company fortifies to hold the trench until reinforcements can arrive. Soon, however, strange things being to happen as a sense of evil descends on the trench and the British begin turn on each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisMobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989)
In the final days of the One Year War, a Zeon special forces group infiltrates a colony to gather information on a new Gundam unit. Alfred Izuruha, a 10-year-old student, befriends Zeon rookie pilot Bernie Wiseman during a brief mobile suit combat. Meanwhile, Al meets up with Christina MacKenzie, his former neighbor and babysitter. Little does he know that not only is Christina a member of the Earth Federation, she's the test pilot of the new Gundam NT-4 prototype.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Memphis Belle (1990)
The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Bremen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Soldier (1966)
A story of a boy, forced to grow mature before his time and to die too early because of the cruel war circumstances. This film is dedicated to all the children who have died during the National Liberation War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
The 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: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCoast Guard Malaysia: Ops Helang (2023)
Hafiz, a Malaysian Coast Guard officer, is celebrating his engagement at a beach resort with his fiancee. Out of nowhere, a group of terrorists hijack the hotel and kidnap his fiancee and her family. Several guests are taken as hostages, while the others are brutally killed. Hafiz manages to escape with only a few injuries, and he quickly sets up a search-and-rescue mission to get everyone back safely.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
The Hill (1965)
North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Painted Bird (2019)
After losing his parents, a young Jewish boy wanders Eastern Europe, seeking refuge during World War II.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Barbed Wire?
The closest matches to Barbed Wire are Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Sahara (1995) and The Resistance Fighter (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Barbed Wire?
Start with Ashes and Diamonds (1958), the closest match to Barbed Wire.
What is the highest-rated movie like Barbed Wire?
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), rated 7.5/10 by 283 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Barbed Wire?
The Partisan (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Barbed Wire chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Barbed Wire, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.