Movies Like Special Section (1975)

Special Section is a 1975 drama, history, thriller film from Costa-Gavras with a MovieMagicScore of 7.1/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Trial and Interstate 60.

Drama History Thriller

The Trial

1962

Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.

7.4

MagicScore

Interstate 60

2002

An aspiring painter meets various characters and learns valuable lessons while traveling across America.

7.4

MagicScore

The Butcher of Prague

2011

Czechoslovakia, 1941. As the war continues, Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich arrives in Nazi-occupied Prague and establishes a regime of terror that will force freedom fighters to act. But the price to pay will be too high.

6.6

MagicScore

Jojo Rabbit

2019

Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity.

8.0

MagicScore

Hitler: A Career

1977

A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.

7.4

MagicScore

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

1976

Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.

6.4

MagicScore

The Ogre

1996

Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany.

6.3

MagicScore

The Photographer of Mauthausen

2018

Spanish photographer Francesc Boix, imprisoned in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, works in the SS Photographic Service. Between 1943 and 1945, he hides, with the help of other prisoners, thousands of negatives, with the purpose of showing the freed world the atrocities committed by the Nazis, exhaustively documented. He will be a key witness during the Nuremberg Trials.

7.0

MagicScore

The Seventh Juror

1962

In a moment of madness a middle-aged, married and respectable pharmacist kills a young woman who is sun-bathing by a lake. Unable to take in what he has done, he flees from the scene of the crime and behaves as if nothing has happened. Eventually her boyfriend is charged with the crime and, in a strange twist of fate, the killer finds himself serving on the jury.

6.8

MagicScore

#10

Inglourious Basterds

2009

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

8.2

MagicScore

#11

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

2005

In 1943, as Hitler continues to wage war across Europe, a group of college students mount an underground resistance movement in Munich. Dedicated expressly to the downfall of the monolithic Third Reich war machine, they call themselves the White Rose. One of its few female members, Sophie Scholl is captured during a dangerous mission to distribute pamphlets on campus with her brother Hans. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to the White Rose, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility.

7.1

MagicScore

#12

The Devil Strikes at Night

1957

Hamburg, Germany, 1944, during World War II. A serial killer terrorizes the city. When it seems clear that the local police are unable to catch him, forces as dark and terrible as the criminal himself become involved in the case.

6.9

MagicScore

#13

Lore

2012

After being abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country. Led by the eldest, 14 year-old Lore, the children are forced to confront their parents’ actions and the reality of a new world.

6.8

MagicScore

#14

Attack and Retreat

1964

Chronicle of the unheralded and unsuccessful invasion of the Soviet Union by the Italian army during World War II.

6.7

MagicScore

#15

The Guard of Auschwitz

2018

Nazi occupied Poland, during the World War II. Hans, a former brilliant student, has become an SS officer stationed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. When he is commissioned by his superior officer to build an efficient gas chamber, Hans, facing the harsh reality, begins to realize the magnitude of the atrocious acts of which he is being accomplice.

4.2

MagicScore

#16

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi

1943

A propaganda film during World War II about a boy who grows up to become a Nazi soldier.

6.9

MagicScore

#17

The Believer

2001

A hardcore US racist skinhead who, because of his intelligence, leads a gang dedicated to fighting the enemy: the supposed American-Jewish conspiracy for domination. However, he's hiding a secret: he's Jewish-born, a brilliant scholar whose questioning of the tenets of his faith has left him angry and confused, turning against those who he thinks have a tragic history of their own making.

6.9

MagicScore

#18

The Butler

2018

The love between Mateusz Krol, a Kashubian boy, and Marita von Krauss, a Prussian aristocrat in whose family home he is taken in when his mother dies, grows and matures thorough the years, while Kashubia, the northern Polish region where they live, suffers the consequences of the tragedies that will ravage Europe from the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the World War II.

6.5

MagicScore

#19

Hitler's Hollywood

2017

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)

6.4

MagicScore

#20

Memoir of War

2017

In the last days of the Nazi-occupied France, writer Marguerite Duras awaits the return of her husband, Robert Antelme, arrested for being a Resistance fighter and then deported, while she maintains a tense relationship with her ambiguous lover and a dangerous game with a French collaborationist. Even when the Liberation arrives, she must still endure the unbearable pain of waiting.

6.1

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Special Section?

The top films similar to Special Section by MovieMagicScore are The Trial (7.4), Interstate 60 (7.4), The Butcher of Prague (6.6). Each shares drama/history/thriller themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Special Section worth watching?

Special Section holds a MovieMagicScore of 7.1/10 from 48 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is Special Section?

Special Section (1975) is a drama, history, thriller film directed by Costa-Gavras, starring Louis Seigner, Michael Lonsdale, Claude Piéplu.

Where can I find more recommendations like Special Section?

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 The Trial Movies like Interstate 60 Movies like The Butcher of Prague Movies like Jojo Rabbit Movies like Hitler: A Career Movies like Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

About movies like Special Section

This ranked list pairs Special Section (1975), a drama and history and thriller film from Costa-Gavras, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Louis Seigner 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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