Movies like A Heart Like Water (2021)
The best movies like A Heart Like Water (2021) are Frontera (2014), Broke (2025) and The Proud Rebel (1958). If A Heart Like Water hooked you with its western and drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDances with Wolves (1990)7.8/10 from 4,909 votes
- NewestBroke (2025)Released 2025
Frontera (2014)
After crossing the border illegally for work, Miguel, a hard-working father and devoted husband, finds himself wrongfully accused of murdering a former sheriff’s wife. After learning of his imprisonment, Miguel’s pregnant wife tries to come to his aid and lands in the hands of corrupt coyotes who hold her for ransom. Dissatisfied with the police department’s investigation, the former sheriff tries to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and discovers disturbing evidence that will destroy one family’s future, or tear another’s apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroke (2025)
A bronc rider in denial about his fading rodeo career battles against brain injury and a sudden blizzard while reflecting on how it became so difficult to achieve his dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Proud Rebel (1958)
Searching for a doctor who can help him get his son to speak again--the boy hadn't uttered a word since he saw his mother die in the fire that burned down the family home--a Confederate veteran finds himself facing a 30-day jail sentence when he's unfairly accused of starting a brawl in a small town. A local woman pays his fine, providing that he works it off on her ranch. He soon finds himself involved in the woman's struggle to keep her ranch from a local landowner who wants it--and whose sons were responsible for the man being framed for the fight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForty Guns (1957)
An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshal arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDances with Wolves (1990)
Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Sunset (1961)
At a Mexican ranch, fugitive O'Malley and pursuing Sheriff Stribling agree to help rancher Breckenridge drive his herd into Texas where Stribling could legally arrest O'Malley, but Breckenridge's wife complicates things.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Come Knocking (2005)
Howard Spence has seen better days. Once a big Western movie star, he now drowns his disgust for his selfish and failed life with alcohol, drugs and young women. If he were to die now, nobody would shed a tear over him, that's the sad truth. Until one day Howard learns that he might have a child somewhere out there...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Got a Gun (2015)
After her outlaw husband returns home shot with eight bullets and barely alive, Jane reluctantly reaches out to an ex-lover who she hasn't seen in over ten years to help her defend her farm when the time comes that her husband's gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Homesman (2014)
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mountain Men (1980)
The story concerns two grizzled mountain men -- Bill Tyler and Henry Frapp -- during the dying days of the fur-trapping era. The plot begins when Running Moon runs away from her abusive husband Heavy Eagle and comes across the two seedy fur trappers. The mountain men take her in, unaware that Heavy Eagle has dispatched an army of Indian braves to reclaim her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeadwood: The Movie (2019)
Follow the 10-year reunion of the Deadwood camp to celebrate South Dakota's statehood. Former rivalries are reignited, alliances are tested and old wounds are reopened, as all are left to navigate the inevitable changes that modernity and time have wrought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMan in the Shadow (1957)
In a modern cow town, the powerful ranch owner’s henchmen kill a ranch hand, prompting the sheriff to investigate despite facing strong opposition. He finds an unlikely ally in the rancher's overprotected daughter, but their quest for justice puts them both in danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dead Don't Hurt (2024)
In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger decides to go fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War, Vivienne must fend for herself, which isn't easy in a town controlled by a corrupt mayor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJubal (1956)
Jubal Troop is a cowboy who is found in a weakened condition, without a horse. He is given shelter at Shep Horgan's large ranch, where he quickly makes an enemy in foreman Pinky, a cattleman who accuses Jubal of carrying the smell of sheep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Call of the Wild (1972)
John Thornton, is a fearless man who's after more than gold; he wants to do what's right. Thornton works for the U.S. mail and is the only person daring and smart enough to figure out how to travel the deadly 600 miles from Skagway to Dawson, Alaska in the icy winter. His incredibly dog Buck is by his side and part of how he survives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quick and the Dead (1987)
In 1876 Wyoming, the gun is the only law. And for Duncan and Suzanna McKaskel, newly arrived settlers beset by outlaws, rugged frontiersman Con Vallian is the only hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnion Pacific (1939)
One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerror on the Prairie (2022)
A pioneering family fights back against a gang of vicious outlaws that is terrorizing them on their newly-built farm on the plains of Montana.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDavy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
Legends (and myths) from the life of famed American frontiersman Davy Crockett are depicted in this feature film edited from television episodes. Crockett and his friend George Russel fight in the Creek Indian War. Then Crockett is elected to Congress and brings his rough-hewn ways to the House of Representatives. Finally, Crockett and Russell journey to Texas and the last stand at the Alamo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo Rode Together (1961)
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Heart Like Water?
The closest matches to A Heart Like Water are Frontera (2014), Broke (2025) and The Proud Rebel (1958). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Heart Like Water?
Start with Frontera (2014), the closest match to A Heart Like Water.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Heart Like Water?
Dances with Wolves (1990), rated 7.8/10 by 4,909 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Heart Like Water?
Broke (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A Heart Like Water?
Yes: Frontera (2014), Broke (2025) and The Proud Rebel (1958).
How are movies similar to A Heart Like Water chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Heart Like Water, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.