Movies like Shackles
If you like "Shackles" you are looking for realistic, touching and captivating movies about / with prison, dedicated educator, human spirit, prison life, ambition, starting over and idealism themes of Drama genre shot in USA.
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1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
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Shackles (2005)
1K
Where to Watch
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
An aspiring teacher (Hughley) takes the one job he's offered, a position at a school inside a prison.
Style:
realistic, touching, captivating, semi serious
Plot:
prison, dedicated educator, human spirit, prison life, ambition, starting over, idealism, hardcase students, life is a bitch, rivalry, rehabilitation, confined, hopes, school, youth, student life, suspense, teachers and students, high school life, society, high school, contests and competitions, underdog, urban ghetto life, power relations ...
Time:
contemporary
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Shackles
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, touching and sincere films with plots about youth, society, hopes, power relations, dedicated educator, high school and life is a bitch mostly in Drama, Sport and Comedy genres. Some movies like Shackles: Knights of the South Bronx (2005), Cheaters (2000), Matchups (2003), Chalk (2006), Life of a King (2013). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.
Style:
uplifting, touching, realistic, serious
Audience:
family outing
Plot:
chess, school, teacher, misfit, youth, ambition, elementary school, teachers and students, lifestyle, hardcase students, high school life, life is a bitch ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
new york, bronx new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Style:
serious, realistic, clever, sincere, offbeat
Audience:
teens, kids
Plot:
teachers and students, high school, lifestyle, ambition, teenage life, social differences, rivalry, society, dedicated educator, contests and competitions, youth, teacher ...
Time:
90s
Place:
chicago illinois, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Ian Willams -- who was born blind in one eye -- grew up undaunted to become an elite college basketball player. But his dream of winning a national championship and turning pro was sidetracked when a tragic accident left him completely blind. ...
Style:
realistic, serious, touching
Plot:
blindness, against the odds, prodigy, disability, human spirit, ambition, follow your dream, dedicated educator, sport, life is a bitch, athlete's life, lifestyle ...
Time:
21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
1K
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Life in the trenches of that most honorable and frustrating profession...teaching. It's the start of a memorable new year at Harrison High. The self-conscious Mr. Stroope is convinced that his time has come - this year he will be furnished with ...
Style:
humorous, semi documentary, psychological, captivating, biting ...
Audience:
teens, date night
Plot:
teacher, high school, teachers and students, hardcase students, youth, lifestyle, power relations, ambition, rivalry, education, suspense, school ...
Place:
usa, texas
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Life of a King is the true story of one man's mission to give inner city kids of Washington DC something he never had - a future. After being incarcerated for eighteen years, Eugene Brown established the Big Chair Chess Club to get kids off the ...
Style:
uplifting, sincere, touching, rough, captivating ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
chess, dedicated educator, hardcase students, rebellion, teenage life, ambition, changing lives, ex convict, contests and competitions, teachers and students, redemption, society ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
washington d.c., usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
Also search:
Films like The Shawshank Redemption
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Mr. T's first starring made-for-TV movie role has him playing a tough and scowling, but softhearted, nightclub bouncer who finds himself involved with a bunch of kids after being conned into taking over a youth center.
Style:
semi serious, realistic, humorous
Plot:
competition, gymnasium, bouncer, high school life, power relations, urban ghetto, athlete's life, redemption, aging, human spirit, youth, life is a bitch ...
Time:
80s
Place:
chicago illinois
⇓ similarity ⇓
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
Peter Gifford is a likable, dedicated schoolteacher that teaches a senior life skills class. When student Janet Sommers brings up the topic of sex and dating, he asks students to write questions on the topic, and will cover them in the next class. ...
Style:
sexy, serious, realistic, sexual, psychotronic
Plot:
teacher, high school, high school life, looking for sex, teachers and students, school, teenage life, urban ghetto life, idealism, hopes, dedicated educator, youth ...
Time:
60s
⇓ similarity ⇓
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
Mark Thackeray (Poitier) is a West Indian, who in the 1967 film had taken teaching in a London East End school. He spent twenty years teaching and ten in administrative roles. He has taught the children of his former pupils, but is now retiring.
Style:
political, serious, realistic, uplifting, sincere ...
Plot:
teacher, education, juvenile delinquency, african american, high school, dedicated educator, youth, hopes, idealism, society, hardcase students, undisciplined ...
Time:
20th century, 90s
Place:
chicago illinois, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
36%
213
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
A new kid moves into a tough neighborhood controlled by gangs, and tries to teach them poetry.
Style:
serious, emotional, realistic, touching, gloomy
Plot:
gang, poetry, teenage life, fighting the system, idealism, youth, rebellion, life is a bitch, society, dedicated educator, school, stoners ...
Time:
80s
Place:
new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
35%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
Cleveland 'Stack' Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions among female teen offenders and decides to do something about it. He gathers ...
Style:
uplifting, realistic, serious
Plot:
prison, rivalry, human spirit, against the odds, prison guard, rebellion, youth, society, hopes, ambition, confined, life is a bitch ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
texas
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
Also search:
Films like Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story
818
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
This film charts the relationship between a man imprisoned for drug smuggling and his wife and is being shot over the course of five years, a few weeks at a time.
Style:
realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, touching ...
Plot:
prison, confined, parents and children, life is a bitch, hopes, family relations, couples, drug smuggling, husband wife relationship, society, youth, prison life ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
england, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
The true story of two African-American teen radio reporters and their documentary investigation of a notorious child murder.
Style:
serious, realistic, emotional, rough, controversial ...
Plot:
journalism, murder, uncover truth, juvenile delinquency, teenage life, social decay, human spirit, life is a bitch, lifestyle, youth, idealism, society ...
Place:
chicago illinois, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
Trusting in fate, Don Quixote and Sancho pursue their travels in search of adventure day and night. They ride through fields, talking about subjects as varied as spirituality, chivalry and daily life. A growing bond of friendship unites them.
Style:
experimental, realistic, semi serious, sexy, sexual ...
Plot:
destructive relationship, life is a bitch, tragic love, gang, friendship, prison life, hopes, idealism, society, don quixote, escape, urban ghetto ...
Time:
21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
Style:
serious, realistic, uplifting, thought provoking, sincere ...
Plot:
teacher, racism, school, youth, island, education, black history, psychology, humanist, civil rights, blaxploitation, family relations ...
Time:
20th century, 70s, 60s, year 1969
Place:
south carolina, usa, southern usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
In the 1940's South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. ...
Style:
thought provoking, uplifting, realistic, serious, bleak ...
Plot:
racism, politics, blaxploitation, aunt, false accusation, interracial relations, wrongfully committed, urban ghetto life, teachers and students, prison life, school, urban ghetto ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Also search:
Jailbait related movies
Genre: Drama
Country: Cuba
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Meet Chala, an eleven year-old boy with a hard life and strong respect for Carmela, his sixth grade teacher. The pair develops a solid bond, but after Carmela suffers an accident, things get complicated…
Style:
serious, realistic, emotional, touching, inspirational ...
Plot:
education, kids in trouble, life is a bitch, fighting the system, alcoholic mother, youth, dedicated educator, hopes, hardcase students, society, rebellion, teachers and students ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
cuba, latin america, havana cuba
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
617
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
Incarcerated women join a band of volunteers who battle forest fires and assist during natural disasters.
Style:
emotional, realistic, serious, sincere, touching ...
Plot:
redemption, youth, juvenile delinquency, power relations, human spirit, society, hopes, fire brigade, friendship, rivalry, friend, girl ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
An all-black inner city school has to become an integrated school. Few dozen white kids are transfered there, but the black students are aggressively opposed to this. The school then approaches a tough black teacher for help.
Style:
thought provoking, serious, realistic, bleak, sincere
Plot:
blaxploitation, juvenile delinquent, racial issues, high school, cheerleader, power relations, social relations, urban ghetto, militant, teachers and students, high school life, social differences ...
Time:
60s, 70s
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Canada, USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
After the death of Raya Green's(Rutina Wesley) sister, she gets out from her classes at school, and sees a stomp crew practicing. She meets Bishop(Dwain Murphy) which is the dance crew leader. She then meets Michelle and does a stomp battle ...
Style:
realistic, touching, serious, exciting
Audience:
teens
Plot:
dancing, coming of age, youth, follow your dream, contests and competitions, teenage life, friendship, black people, lifestyle, hopes, dancer's life, life is a bitch ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, canada
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Female prisoners train dogs to aid people with disabilities in a program started by a nun (Laura Dern).
Style:
uplifting, sentimental, feel good, touching, realistic ...
Plot:
prison, dog, rehabilitation, starting over, drug abuse, prison life, addiction, disability, human nature, life is a bitch, hopes, society ...
Time:
21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Also search:
Movies like Blue Spring
Genre: Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
Rick Penning lives life just like he plays rugby; fast, hard-hitting and intense. When life on the edge lands him in jail, prison ward Marcus Tate offers him a chance to get back in the game by playing for his rival, Highland Rugby. Reluctantly Rick ...
Style:
realistic, serious, touching, disturbing, rough ...
Audience:
family outing
Plot:
rugby, coach, dedicated educator, juvenile delinquency, sport, father son relationship, human spirit, ambition, redemption, starting over, teenage life, rivalry ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Genre: Drama, Family
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Orphan Eddie Burton is not bad, but too many screw-ups land him repeatedly in jail, so his 8-year old son Will, simply abandoned by his 'mother', has nobody else then Eddie's granny. When he hears about a program for convicts working ...
Style:
touching, serious, realistic
Plot:
horse, redemption, rehabilitation, rider horse relationship, prison, against the odds, human spirit, follow your dream, ambition, parents and children, hopes, contests and competitions ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min.
Story:
A drive-by shooting in Venice, California, changes the lives of five people forever. States of Grace tells the story of a homeless street preacher, Louis, a gang banger, Carl, an aspiring actress, Holly, and two young missionaries, Lozano and ...
Style:
christian film, uplifting, touching, disturbing, realistic ...
Plot:
faith, redemption, missionary, mormon, going straight, human spirit, culture clash, religions or cults, church, gang, juvenile delinquency, hopes ...
Place:
utah, california, usa, europe, italy ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
An alcoholic former horse-trainer perceives in a fifteen-year-old boy a unique gift of horsemanship and makes it possible for the boy to conceive his dream and pursue it.
Style:
realistic, serious, feel good, touching
Audience:
family outing
Plot:
horse trainer, self discovery, friendship, jockey, ambition, human spirit, against the odds, teenage life, rivalry, youth, underdog, follow your dream ...
Time:
21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
Genre: Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min.
Story:
In a conservative small town, a young man's wish to coach high school basketball are tweaked by a school board decision that makes him the new coach of the girls' team.
Style:
serious, touching, realistic, inspirational
Audience:
family outing
Plot:
basketball, sport, small town, hopes, ambition, prodigy, rivalry, underdog, contests and competitions, youth, against the odds, sport team ...
Time:
60s
Place:
oklahoma, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
Also search:
Movies like The Emperor's Club
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min.
Story:
A Fine Step is an uplifting family drama centering on Cal Masterson (Luke Perry, Beverly Hills 90210) an award winning horseman whose relationship with his beloved horse Fandango allows him to achieve multiple championship wins. However tragedy ...
Style:
sentimental, sincere, captivating, emotional, realistic ...
Audience:
pre-teens, teens
Plot:
horse, contests and competitions, friendship, starting over, parents and children, athlete's life, ambition, farm, youth, family relations, rivalry, fall in love ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
A young Aboriginal boy is torn between his unexpected love of acting and the disintegration of his family.
Style:
serious, realistic, captivating, touching, sexy ...
Plot:
teacher, urban ghetto, youth, idealism, dysfunctional family, school, society, hopes, lesbian, lgbtq, fall in love, boy ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
australia, new south wales
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
Peter Coyote (E.T., Erin Brokovich) and Karen Allen (The Perfect Storm) star in this touching family drama about the unifying power of basketball in a community torn apart by war. Both a riveting sports film and a tale of triumph over adversity, The ...
Style:
serious, realistic, touching, feel good, sentimental
Plot:
youth, world war one, immigrants, follow your dream, underdog, dedicated educator, hopes, orphan, ambition, sport, athlete's life, athlete and trainer ...
Time:
1910s, 20th century, year 1918
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
354
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Story of a New England boys' school and of one of the students who is infatuated with an instructor's wife who has Multiple Sclerosis. The woman struggles to show her strict husband how love rather than demands helps the student to ...
Style:
serious, realistic, sentimental, sincere, touching ...
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
disability, boarding school, housewife, teacher, infatuation, family relations, couples, power relations, love and romance, misfit, crumbling marriage, idealism ...
Time:
20th century, 60s
Place:
new england
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story:
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules ...
Style:
realistic, serious, gloomy, rough, disturbing ...
Plot:
teacher, education, high school, dedicated educator, racism, english teacher, mentor, business, blaxploitation, school teacher, friendship, high school life ...
Time:
60s
Place:
new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
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