Movies Like How the Steel Was Tempered

If you liked How the Steel Was Tempered (1942), a drama and war movie directed by Mark Donskoy, 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
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
★ 7/10Also drama and war
Tsar Nicholas II, the inept last monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.
2
War and Peace, Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky (1966)
★ 7.6/10Also history and war
In 1805 St. Petersburg, Pierre Bezukhov, illegitimate son of a rich nobleman, is introduced to high society. His friend, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, joins the Imperial Russian Army as aide-de-camp of General Mikhail…
3
The Dawns Here are Quiet (2015)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and war
It is late spring of 1942, and the Great Patriotic War is in full swing. A long way off from the front-line, at some God-forgotten junction, the Germans make an air landing operation in an attempt to get through to the…
4
War and Peace, Part IV: Pierre Bezukhov (1967)
★ 7.5/10Also history and war
As Moscow is set ablaze by the retreating Russians, the Rostovs flee their estate, taking wounded soldiers with them, and unbeknownst to them, also Andrei. Pierre, dressed as a peasant, tries to assassinate Napoleon…
5
Admiral (2008)
★ 6.2/10Also war and drama
This is a story of a great love facing the greatest drama of the history of Russia. Admiral Kolchak is a true war hero and beloved husband and father. One day he meets Anna, the love of his life and the wife of his…
6
Jacknife (1989)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and war
A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived.
7
Quiet Flows the Don (1957)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and history
Based on the novel of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov, about the fate of people broken by the First World War, the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922), about the collapse of the…
8
Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also war and drama
Vietnam War, 1966. Australia and New Zealand send troops to support the United States and South Vietnamese in their fight against the communist North. Soldiers are very young men, recruits and volunteers who have never…
9
Sergeant York (1941)
★ 7.2/10Also war and drama
Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most…
10
The Boy in the Woods (2023)
★ 7/10Also drama and war
The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, based on Maxwell Smart's memoir.
11
Devotion (2022)
★ 7/10Also war and drama
The harrowing true story of two elite US Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Their heroic sacrifices would ultimately make them the Navy's most celebrated wingmen.
12
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
★ 7.8/10Also drama and war
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware…
13
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
★ 7.6/10Also drama and history
In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin revolt against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police…
14
War and Peace, Part III: The Year 1812 (1967)
★ 7.6/10Also history and war
In 1812, as Napoleon's army invades Russia, Kutuzov asks Bolkonsky to join him as a staff officer, yet the prince requests a command in the field. Pierre sets out to watch the armies' impending confrontation. As the…
15
The World Will Tremble (2025)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and war
The incredible, untold true story of how a group of prisoners attempt a seemingly impossible escape from the first Nazi death camp in order to provide the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust.
16
Casualties of War (1989)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and history
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.
17
The Yellow Birds (2018)
★ 6/10Also war and drama
Two young soldiers, Bartle and Murph, navigate the terrors of the Iraq war under the command of the older, troubled Sergeant Sterling. All the while, Bartle is tortured by a promise he made to Murph's mother before…
18
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and history
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him…
19
Field of Lost Shoes (2015)
★ 6.1/10Also war and drama
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.
20
1917 (2019)
★ 8/10Also war and drama
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.