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Movies like The Killing Ground (1988)

The best movies like The Killing Ground (1988) are Father Soldier Son (2020), They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025). If The Killing Ground hooked you with its documentary and war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Father Soldier Son (2020)

    When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.

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

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  2. They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

    A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025)

    Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.

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

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  4. Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942)

    Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.

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

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  5. For Sama (2019)

    A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

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

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  6. The War on Democracy (2007)

    Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger says that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  7. The Battle of San Pietro (1945)

    This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

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

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  8. Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995)

    "Trinity and Beyond" is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, this award-winning documentary reveals previously unreleased and classified government footage from several countries.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  9. Let There Be Light (1946)

    The final entry in a trilogy of films produced for the U.S. government by John Huston. Some returning combat veterans suffer scars that are more psychological than physical. This film follows patients and staff during their treatment. It deals with what would now be called PTSD, but at the time was categorised as psychoneurosis or shell-shock. Government officials deemed this 1946 film counterproductive to postwar efforts; it was not shown publicly until 1981.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  10. 20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

    As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.

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

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  11. Last Days in Vietnam (2014)

    During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  12. City of Ghosts (2017)

    With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  13. We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company (2001)

    Over a period of two years, Mark Cowen and his crew travelled to thirty U.S. states and ten European cities, to interview the veterans of Easy Company. The stories told by the veterans themselves, create a history of the Second World War from the point of view of this heroic company of men, made famous in the mini-series Band of Brothers.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  14. Korengal (2014)

    Korengal picks up where Restrepo left off; the same men, the same valley, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war.

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

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. #AnneFrank. Parallel Stories (2019)

    One single Anne Frank moves us more than the countless others who suffered just as she did but whose faces have remained in the shadows-Primo Levi. The Oscar®-winning Helen Mirren will introduce audiences to Anne Frank's story through the words in her diary. The set will be her room in the secret refuge in Amsterdam, reconstructed in every detail by set designers from the Piccolo Theatre in Milan. Anne Frank this year would have been 90 years old. Anne's story is intertwined with that of five Holocaust survivors, teenage girls just like her, with the same ideals, the same desire to live: Arianna Szörenyi, Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard, Helga Weiss and sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci. Their testimonies alternate with those of their children and grandchildren.

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

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  16. Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)

    Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  17. The Soviet Story (2008)

    “The Soviet Story” is a story of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale. Assisted by the West, this power triumphed on May 9th, 1945. Its crimes were made taboo, and the complete story of Europe’s most murderous regime has never been told. Until now...

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  18. The Bloody Hundredth (2024)

    Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  19. Einstein and the Bomb (2024)

    What happened after Einstein fled Nazi Germany? Using archival footage and his own words, this docudrama dives into the mind of a tortured genius.

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

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Van Gogh: Painted with Words (2010)

    A drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role. Every word spoken by the actors in this film is sourced from the letters that Van Gogh sent to his younger brother Theo, and of those around him. What emerges is a complex portrait of a sophisticated, civilised and yet tormented man.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. The Red Baron, a Hero of Aviation (1998)

    A documentary of early airplane pilot and WW1 fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, famously known as The Red Baron.

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

  22. 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: Similar story and style · both drama & war

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  23. The Battle of the Somme (1916)

    A documentary and propaganda film which shows the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme.

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

  24. Wooden Crosses (1932)

    The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.

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

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  25. The Girlfriends (1936)

    Girlfriends Zoya, Natasha and Asya live in Petrograd. Before the Civil War, young heroines are aware of the social injustice of life. When the war begins, the girls are recorded by the orderlies of the working group to protect the Bolshevik Petrograd from the advance of the whites.

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

  26. The First World War (1934)

    Produced by the Fox Movietone News arm of Fox Film Corporation and based on the book by Lawrence Stallings, this expanded newsreel, using stock-and-archive footage, tells the story of World War I from inception to conclusion. Alternating with scenes of trench warfare and intimate glimpses of European royalty at home, and scenes of conflict at sea combined with sequences of films from the secret archives of many of the involved nations.

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

  27. Shout at the Devil (1976)

    During World War One an English adventurer, an American elephant poacher and the latter's attractive young daughter, set out to destroy a German battle-cruiser which is awaiting repairs in an inlet just off Zanzibar. The story is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith, which in turn is very loosely based on events involving the light cruiser SMS Königsberg, which was sunk after taking refuge in Rufigi delta in 1915.

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

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 (2014)

    A response in music and film to the conflict that launched a century of war, and a celebration of the power of art to keep us sane and offer us comfort. Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 brings together three of the world's most pioneering artists: the Kronos Quartet, known for decades for their trailblazing performances and collaborations; acclaimed Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov; and filmmaker Bill Morrison, respected for his work with rare and even partially destroyed archive images.

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

  29. Gallipoli: The Untold Stories (2005)

    This program provides, through 1st hand accounts & contemporary films & photographs, a rare insight into what really happened. Together with meticulously researched stories, it provides a unique analysis of the Gallipoli campaign, including never-seen before interviews with the last 10 Gallipoli Anzacs, rare film footage showing the beach & trenches at Gallipoli.

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

  30. Who Goes Next? (1938)

    During the First World War, a number of captured British officers attempt to escape a prisoner-of-war camp.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Like The Killing Ground and something else?

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Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Killing Ground?

The closest matches to The Killing Ground are Father Soldier Son (2020), They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Killing Ground?

Start with Father Soldier Son (2020), the closest match to The Killing Ground.

What is the highest-rated movie like The Killing Ground?

For Sama (2019), rated 8.2/10 by 323 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Killing Ground?

2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like The Killing Ground?

Yes: Father Soldier Son (2020), They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025).

How are movies similar to The Killing Ground chosen?

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

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