Movies Like The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a 1968 drama film from Robert Ellis Miller with a MovieMagicScore of 7.6/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Johnny Got His Gun and Listen.

Drama

Johnny Got His Gun

1971

A young American soldier, rendered in pseudocoma from an artillery shell from WWI, recalls his life leading up to that point.

7.5

MagicScore

Listen

2020

In the outskirts of London, Portuguese couple and parents of three, Bela and Jota, struggle to make ends meet. When a misunderstanding arises at school with their deaf daughter, the British social services grow concerned for the safety of their children. The film portrays the tireless battle of these immigrant parents against the law to keep their family together.

7.0

MagicScore

Children of a Lesser God

1986

Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.

6.9

MagicScore

Beyond Silence

1996

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.

6.9

MagicScore

The Tribe

2014

Deaf-mute Sergey enters a specialized boarding school for the deaf. In navigating through the school's hierarchy, he encounters a corrupt underbelly of criminality, known as The Tribe. By participating in several robberies, he gets propelled higher into the organization, when he meets one of the Chief’s concubines Anya, and unwittingly breaks all the unwritten rules of the group."

6.7

MagicScore

Land of Silence and Darkness

1971

Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.

7.4

MagicScore

Hush

2016

A deaf woman is stalked by a psychotic killer in her secluded home.

6.7

MagicScore

A Silent Voice: The Movie

2016

Shouya Ishida starts bullying the new girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya, because she is deaf. But as the teasing continues, the rest of the class starts to turn on Shouya for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shouko and Shouya do not speak to each other again... until an older, wiser Shouya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shouko once more. He wants to atone for his sins, but is it already too late...?

8.4

MagicScore

CODA

2021

As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.

7.9

MagicScore

#10

The Bélier Family

2014

The whole Bélier family is deaf, except for sixteen year old Paula who is the important translator in her parents' day to day life especially when it comes to matters concerning the family farm. When her music teacher discovers she has a fantastic singing voice and she gets an opportunity to enter a big Radio France contest the whole family's future is set up for big changes.

6.9

MagicScore

#11

The Grass Harp

1996

Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. Becoming an orphan in 1935, Collin moves to his dad's cousins Verena and Dolly. Verena is a rich, bossy businesswoman. Dolly, Collin and the maid revolt, moving to a tree house.

5.8

MagicScore

#12

There Will Be Blood

2007

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

8.1

MagicScore

#13

The Miracle Worker

1962

The true story of the frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness of 7-year-old Helen Keller who, since infancy, has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch, the only tool they have in common, and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.

7.9

MagicScore

#14

Barfi!

2012

The heartwarming tale of Barfi, a charming deaf-mute young man from 1970s Darjeeling, and two unalike women who can't help but fall for him.

7.6

MagicScore

#15

The Silent Child

2017

A deaf 4-year-old girl named Libby lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her to use sign language to communicate.

7.2

MagicScore

#16

Babel

2006

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

7.2

MagicScore

#17

Mr. Holland's Opus

1995

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

6.9

MagicScore

#18

Khamoshi: The Musical

1996

The daughter of deaf-mute parents seeks their understanding when she discovers a love for music.

6.8

MagicScore

#19

All the Silence

2023

Miriam teaches sign language in the mornings and is part of a professional theater production in the afternoons, maintaining a stable and passionate relationship with her girlfriend Lola. Although her life is very much connected to the routine of a deaf person, her world begins to crumble when she discovers that she is losing her hearing.

6.8

MagicScore

#20

Country of the Deaf

1998

Strana Glukhikh is about an unusual relationship between two women, one of them a deaf-mute dancer and the other on the run from the mafia. Yaya, the deaf girl, offers to hide Rita whose boyfriend, Alyosha owes gambling debts to the mafia, but in return she wants her to leave the young man and run off with her to an imaginary paradise where material values do not exist.

6.7

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter?

The top films similar to The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by MovieMagicScore are Johnny Got His Gun (7.5), Listen (7.0), Children of a Lesser God (6.9). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter worth watching?

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter holds a MovieMagicScore of 7.6/10 from 44 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter?

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968) is a drama film directed by Robert Ellis Miller, starring Sondra Locke, Alan Arkin, Laurinda Barrett.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Johnny Got His Gun Movies like Listen Movies like Children of a Lesser God Movies like Beyond Silence Movies like The Tribe Movies like Land of Silence and Darkness

About movies like The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

This ranked list pairs The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), a drama film from Robert Ellis Miller, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Sondra Locke take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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