Movies Like Les Misérables

If you liked Les Misérables (1988), a movie directed by Al Guest and Jean Mathieson, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
The Unforgivable (2021)
★ 7.4/10
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
2
Detective Story (1951)
★ 7.1/10
Tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. An embittered cop, Det. Jim McLeod, leads a precinct of characters in their grim daily battle with the city's…
3
Brute Force (1947)
★ 7.3/10
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's…
4
Lorelei (2020)
★ 6/10
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
5
Nightfall (1956)
★ 6.9/10
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
6
South of Heaven (2021)
★ 6.4/10
Convicted felon Jimmy gets early parole after serving twelve years for armed robbery. Upon his release, he vows to give Annie, his childhood love, now dying from cancer, the best last year of her life – unfortunately…
7
The Rookie (1990)
★ 5.9/10
Veteran cop Nick Pulovski is used to playing musical partners; many of the partners he's had in the past have died on the job, and often as a result of Nick's risky tactics. But the rookie who's been assigned to help…
8
Bad Sister (2015)
★ 6.6/10
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a…
9
Protector (2026)
★ 8.4/10
Nikki's life is shattered when her daughter is kidnapped. Thrust into the criminal underworld while hunted by cops and military, she must fight to rescue her child.
10
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
★ 7.1/10
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
11
High Sierra (1941)
★ 7.1/10
Given a pardon from jail, Roy Earle gets back into the swing of things as he robs a swanky resort.
12
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
★ 8.7/10
Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden…
13
A Working Man (2025)
★ 6.7/10
Levon Cade left behind a decorated military career in the black ops to live a simple life working construction. But when his boss's daughter, who is like family to him, is taken by human traffickers, his search to…
14
In Too Deep (1999)
★ 6.4/10
Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an…
15
Traitor (2008)
★ 6.7/10
When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer Samir Horn.
16
Home (2021)
★ 6.7/10
An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.
17
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
★ 7.7/10
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's…
18
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
19
Adopt a Highway (2019)
★ 6.9/10
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn…
20
Dick Tracy (1990)
★ 6.2/10
The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.