Movies Like The Sailor's Song

If you liked The Sailor's Song (1958), a history and drama movie directed by Kurt Maetzig and Günter Reisch, 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
Iron Jawed Angels (2004)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
2
The Most Hated Woman in America (2017)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
The true story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- iconoclast, opportunist, and outspoken atheist -- from her controversial rise to her untimely demise.
3
Mr. Turner (2014)
★ 6.6/10Also history and drama
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
4
Operation Crossbow (1965)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German…
5
Walking with the Enemy (2014)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and history
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent…
6
Salt of the Earth (1954)
★ 7/10Also drama and history
At New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a…
7
The Fox (2023)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and history
At the dawn of World War II, a young motorcycle courier in the Austrian army encounters a wounded fox cub and takes it with him to occupied France. The soldier and the fox develop an unlikely bond. Based on the true…
8
Cloak and Dagger (1946)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Italian partisans help a professor sent by the OSS to find an atomic scientist held by Nazis.
9
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
★ 7/10Also drama
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
10
Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022)
★ 6.2/10Also history and drama
At the turn of the 19th century, Pugilism was the sport of kings and a gifted young boxer fought his way to becoming champion of England.
11
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and history
The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man who wears a black overcoat…
12
Hounddog (2008)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
13
Al Capone (1959)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder…
14
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even…
15
A Dry White Season (1989)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
16
Hoodlum (1997)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running 'the numbers'. When Madam Queen—the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem—is arrested, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson takes over the business and…
17
Eleanor the Great (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
18
Outlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
★ 7/10Also history and drama
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.
19
Beast (2026)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal…
20
Born in Flames (1983)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.