Movies Like The Desert Rats (1953)

The Desert Rats is a 1953 action, war film from Robert Wise with a MovieMagicScore of 6.3/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel and Raid on Rommel.

Action War

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

1951

The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

6.7

MagicScore

Raid on Rommel

1971

Captain Foster plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand- picked commandos, but a mixup leaves him with a medical unit led by a Quaker conscientious objector.

5.8

MagicScore

The Hill

1965

North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.

7.5

MagicScore

Sea of Sand

1958

A small British army team is sent deep behind enemy lines to destroy a German petrol dump as part of the preparation for a major attack in the North African campaign. Sea of Sand was distributed in the US in a shortened version, Desert Patrol.

6.5

MagicScore

Five Graves to Cairo

1943

The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel. He assumes the identity of a recently deceased waiter and is helped by the hotel's owner, despite protest from the French chambermaid, who fears the imminent arrival of Rommel and the Germans.

6.9

MagicScore

Bitter Victory

1957

During the second world war, two British officers, Brand and Leith, who have never seen combat, are assigned a vital mission. Their relationship and the operation are complicated by the arrival of Brand's wife, who had a tryst with Leith years earlier.

6.2

MagicScore

Sole Survivor

1970

In 1960, the ruins of an American bomber were found in the Libyan desert, but the remains of the crew were never located. In Guerdon Trueblood's teleplay, the ghosts of a bomber crew hang around their derelict plane, awaiting the day that their bones will be recovered and given a decent burial. The sole survivor, navigator Russell Hamner, has in the intervening 25 years become a General. He joins an investigation team that has come across the wreckage, while the ghosts, headed by Major Devlin, plot to expose Hamner as a coward who deserted his post and left his crew mates to die.

6.4

MagicScore

Rommel

2012

The story of the final seven months in the life of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

6.2

MagicScore

The Night of the Generals

1967

A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.

6.8

MagicScore

#10

Sahara

1995

After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.

6.4

MagicScore

#11

Ice Cold in Alex

1958

A group of army personnel and nurses attempt a dangerous and arduous trek across the deserts of North Africa during the second world war. The leader of the team dreams of his ice cold beer when he reaches Alexandria.

7.3

MagicScore

#12

Sahara

1943

In Libya, an American tank commander, along with a handful of Allied soldiers, tries to defend an isolated well with a limited supply of water from a German Afrika Korps battalion during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.

7.2

MagicScore

#13

The English Patient

1996

In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.

7.2

MagicScore

#14

Taxi for Tobruk

1961

During World War II, French Commandos join forces with a German officer in order to survive the African desert.

7.1

MagicScore

#15

Tarzan's Desert Mystery

1943

A letter from Jane, who is nursing British troops, asks Tarzan's help in obtaining a malaria serum extractable from jungle plants. Tarzan and Boy set out across the desert looking for the plants. Along the way they befriend a stranded American lady magician.

6.1

MagicScore

#16

Young Black Stallion

2003

When courageous young Neera becomes separated from her family in the desert, she chances upon a wild colt. Together they find friendship, trust, and their way back home only to discover her family is about to lose everything!

6.6

MagicScore

#17

Operation Red Sea

2018

A squad of the Jiaolong Commando Unit - Sea Dragon, a spec ops team of the Chinese Navy, carries out a hostage rescue operation in the nation of Yewaire, on the Arabian Peninsula, and fiercely fights against local rebel groups and Zaka, a terrorist organization.

7.4

MagicScore

#18

The White Sun of the Desert

1969

The setting is the east shore of the Caspian Sea (today's Turkmenistan) where the Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov has been fighting the Civil War in Russian Asia for a number of years. After being hospitalised and then demobbed, he sets off home to join his wife, only to be caught up in a desert fight between a Red Army cavalry unit and Basmachi guerrillas. The cavalry unit commander, Rahimov, "convinces" Sukhov to help, temporarily, with the protection of abandoned women of the Basmachi guerrilla leader Abdullah's harem. Leaving a young Red Army soldier, Petrukha, to assist Sukhov with the task, Rahimov and his cavalry unit set out to pursue fleeing Abdullah.Sukhov and women from Abdullah's harem return to a nearby shore town. Soon, looking for a seaway across the border, Abdullah and his gang come to the same town...

7.2

MagicScore

#19

Warfare

2025

A platoon of Navy SEALs embarks on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq, with the chaos and brotherhood of war retold through their memories of the event.

7.1

MagicScore

#20

The Lost Patrol

1934

A World War I British Army patrol is crossing the Mesopotamian desert when their commanding officer, the only one who knows their destination, is killed by the bullet of unseen bandits. The patrol's sergeant keeps them heading north on the assumption that they will hit their brigade. They stop for the night at an oasis and awaken the next morning to find their horses stolen, their sentry dead, the oasis surrounded and survival difficult.

6.5

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Desert Rats?

The top films similar to The Desert Rats by MovieMagicScore are The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (6.7), Raid on Rommel (5.8), The Hill (7.5). Each shares action/war themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Desert Rats worth watching?

The Desert Rats holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.3/10 from 92 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is The Desert Rats?

The Desert Rats (1953) is a action, war film directed by Robert Wise, starring Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Desert Rats?

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

Keep exploring

Movies like The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel Movies like Raid on Rommel Movies like The Hill Movies like Sea of Sand Movies like Five Graves to Cairo Movies like Bitter Victory

About movies like The Desert Rats

This ranked list pairs The Desert Rats (1953), a action and war film from Robert Wise, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Richard Burton 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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