Highest-Rated Movies about 'Forced Labor'

Sansho the Bailiff (1954), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Papillon (1973), The Killing Fields (1984), The Magdalene Sisters (2002), Kongen av Bastøy - The King of Devil's Island (2010), The People vs. Jean Harris (1981) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Forced Labor movies.

#2. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Storyline: DurinWW II, allied POWS in a Japanese internment camp are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge, but under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson they're persuaded the bridge should be built to help morale, spirit. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of Japanese Commandant Colonel Saito, But, soon they realise it's a monument to Nicholson, himself, as well as a form of collaboration with the enemy.

Plot Keywords: railroad, british army, discipline, coercion, briton abroad, pow, hot weather ...

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#3. Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Storyline: Luke Jackson is a cool, gutsy prisoner in a Southern chain gang, who, while refusing to buckle under to authority, keeps escaping and being recaptured. The prisoners admire Luke because, as Dragline explains it, "You're an original, that's what you are!" Nevertheless, the camp staff actively works to crush Luke until he finally breaks.

Plot Keywords: prison, fugitive, bet, egg, loss of mother, chain gang, death ...

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#4. Papillon (1973)

Storyline: A semi-fictional account of Henri Charrière's time in the penal system in French Guyana - some of it spent on infamous Devil's Island - is presented. It's the early 1930s. Charrière - nicknamed Papillon because of his butterfly tattoo - and Louis Dega are two among many who have been convicted in the French judicial system, they now being transferred to French Guyana where they will serve their time, never to return to France even if they are ever released. A safe-cracker by criminal profession, Papillon is serving a life sentence for murdering a pimp, a crime for which he adamantly states he was framed. Dega is a wealthy counterfeiter, who expects his well-to-do wife eventually to get him released. On Papillon's initiative, Papillon and Dega enter into a business arrangement: Papillon will provide protection for Dega, while Dega will finance Papillon's escape attempt. As Papillon and Degas' time together lasts longer than either expects, their burgeoning friendship ends up being an ...

Plot Keywords: latin america, escape from prison, tough guy, cliff, atlantic ocean, banishment, exile ...

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#5. The Killing Fields (1984)

Storyline: Sydney Schanberg is a New York Times journalist covering the civil war in Cambodia. Together with the local journalist Dith Pran, they cover some of the tragedy and madness of the war. When the American forces leave, Dith Pran sends his family with them, but stays behind himself to help Schanberg cover the event. As an American, Schanberg won't have any trouble leaving the country, but the situation is different for Pran; he's a local, and the Khmer Rouge are moving in.

Plot Keywords: prison camp, genocide, photographer, escape attempt, communism, mass murder, forced labor ...

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#6. The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

Storyline: A thoroughly mind-provoking film about 3 young women who, under tragic circumstances, see themselves cast away to a Magdalene Asylum for young women in 1964. One of many like institutions, the asylums are run like prisons and young girls are forced to do workhouse laundry and hard labor. The asylum, one of many that existed in theocratic Catholic Ireland, is for supposedly 'fallen' women. Here, young girls are imprisoned indefinitely and endure agonizing punishments and a long, harsh working system which leaves them physically drained and mentally damaged. As the girls bond together, it soon becomes clear that the only way out of the Magdalene convent is to escape, but with twisted Sister Bridget running the wing, any chances seem limited...

Plot Keywords: irish, ireland, unwed pregnancy, unwed mother, based on true story, dublin ireland, rape ...

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#7. Kongen av Bastøy - The King of Devil's Island (2010)

Storyline: Based on a true story: Norwegian winter, early 20th century. On the island Bastoy, located in the Oslo fjord live a group of delinquent, young boys aged 11 to 18. The boys daily, sadistic regime is run by the guards and the principal who bestow both mental and physical abuse on them. Instead of the boys being straightened out with education they end up being used as cheap, manual labor. The boys attempt to survive by adapting to their inhumane conditions. One day a new boy, Erling (17), arrives with his own agenda; how to escape from the island. How far is he willing to go in order to get his freedom?

Plot Keywords: island, sexual abuse, norway, escape attempt, humiliation, swimming, beating ...

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#8. The People vs. Jean Harris (1981)

Storyline: French secret agent Joss Baumont is sent to one of the African countries to kill their president Njala. However, at the last moment the political situation changes and the French secret service turns him in to the African authorities, and he is sentenced to a long-term imprisonment. After the daring escape he returns to France and deliberately informs his former chiefs of his presence promising them to kill Njala who has just arrived to the country with the official visit.—Yuri German <blsidt1@imf.org>

Plot Keywords: breasts, female full frontal nudity, spy, fictional country, female nudity, secret agent, firearm ...

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#9. War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Storyline: Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

Plot Keywords: ape, third part, dystopia, simian fiction, future war, talking animal, journey ...

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#10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

Storyline: A correspondence begins between Juliet Ashton (Lily James) and members of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, with them sharing their experiences of Nazi-occupied Guernsey Island. When an idea for a book catches Juliet, she goes to visit the island, making life-long friends and taking life changing steps along the way. This book is told by way of letters, and as the reader, you become enchanted by the writers of them and the love Juliet comes to feel for each of the Islanders; Dawsey Adams (Michiel Huisman), Amelia Maugery (Dame Penelope Wilton), Isola Pribby (Katherine Parkinson), Eben Ramsey (Sir Tom Courtenay), Kit (Florence Keen), and Elizabeth McKenna (Jessica Brown Findlay).—Cathryn McDowell

Plot Keywords: german occupation, nazi occupation, world war two, writer, publisher, based on novel, location in title ...

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#11. Bent (1997)

Storyline: Max is gay and as such is sent to Dachau concentration camp under the Nazi regime. He tries to deny he is gay, and gets a yellow label (the one for Jews) instead of pink (the one for gays). In camp, he falls in love with fellow prisoner Horst, who wears his pink label with pride.

Plot Keywords: year 1944, dancing, champagne, topless female nudity, snorting cocaine, threesome, flashback ...

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#12. First They Killed My Father (2017)

Storyline: In the 70's, a Cambodian middle-class girl sees the lives of her family and her turning upside-down when the Khmer Rouge invades the Cambodia. They leave their comfortable apartment and lifestyle to live in a primitive working camp. Her father, a former officer, is killed and the family splits to survive.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Plot Keywords: genocide, communism, f rated, 1970s, cambodia, prison camp, forced labor ...

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#13. Dark Blue World (2001)

Storyline: March 15, 1939: Germany invades Czechoslovakia. Czech and Slovak pilots flee to England, joining the RAF. After the war, back home, they are put in labor camps, suspected of anti-Communist ideas. This film cuts between a post-war camp where Franta is a prisoner and England during the war, where Franta is like a big brother to Karel, a very young pilot. On maneuvers, Karel crash lands by the rural home of Susan, an English woman whose husband is MIA. She spends one night with Karel, and he thinks he's found the love of his life. It's complicated by Susan's attraction to Franta. How will the three handle innocence, Eros, friendship, and the heat of battle? When war ends, what then?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: year 1939, nazi, fighter plane, airplane, love triangle, world war two, european history ...

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#14. The Railway Man (2013)

Storyline: Eric Lomax was one of thousands of Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during WW2. His experiences, after the secret radio he built to bring news and hope to his colleagues was discovered, left him traumatised and shut off from the world. Years later, he met Patti, a beautiful woman, on a train and fell in love. Patti was determined to rid Eric of his demons. Discovering that the young Japanese officer who haunted her husband was still alive, she faced a terrible decision. Should Eric be given a chance to confront his tormentor? Would she stand by him, whatever he did?

Plot Keywords: japanese soldier, reference to adolf hitler, forgiveness, forced labor, torture, based on true story, suicide ...

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#15. Colonia (2015)

Storyline: Lena and Daniel, a young couple become entangled in the Chilean military coup of 1973. Daniel is abducted by Pinochet's secret police and Lena tracks him to a sealed off area in the South of the country, called Colonia Dignidad. The Colonia presents itself as a charitable mission run by lay preacher Paul Schäfer but, in fact, is a place nobody ever escaped from. Lena decides to join the cult in order to find Daniel. Based on true events.

Plot Keywords: cult, torture, chile, man slaps a woman, abuse, religious fanatic, religion ...

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