Greatest Drama Films of All-Time

100 Greatest Drama Films of All-Time



The 100 Greatest Drama Films of All-Time

Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes have various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre because they include a broad spectrum of films. Melodramas are a sub-type of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience.

See also crime films, courtroom dramas, epics (historical dramas), biopics (biographical), or romantic genres - just some of the other genres that have developed from the dramatic genre.

Dramatic themes often include current issues, societal ills, and problems, concerns or injustices, such as racial prejudice, religious intolerance (such as anti-Semitism), drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness, corrupt societal institutions, violence toward women or other explosive issues of the times. These films have successfully drawn attention to the issues by taking advantage of the topical interest of the subject. Although dramatic films have often dealt frankly and realistically with social problems, the tendency has been for Hollywood, especially during earlier times of censorship, to exonerate society and institutions and to blame problems on an individual, who more often than not, would be punished for his/her transgressions.

More About Drama Films:

Drama Films
Introduction to Drama Films


Greatest Drama Films of All-Time
100 Greatest Drama Films of All-Time

Filmsite's 100+ Greatest Drama Films
(chronological order, unranked)
The linked titles below refer to reviews (with screenshots) in the "Greatest Moments and Scenes" section of the site

Broken Blossoms (1919)

Sunrise (1927)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Fr.) (aka La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc)

Grand Hotel (1932)

Little Women (1933)

Morning Glory (1933)

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

The Good Earth (1937)

La Grande Illusion (1937, Fr.) (aka Grand Illusion)

Boys Town (1938)

Jezebel (1938)

Dark Victory (1939)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Of Mice and Men (1939)

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Citizen Kane (1941)

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

The Little Foxes (1941)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Since You Went Away (1944)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Great Expectations (1946, UK)

Black Narcissus (1947, UK)

Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

The Bicycle Thief (1948, It.) (aka Ladri di Biciclette, or Bicycle Thieves)

Hamlet (1948, UK)

The Snake Pit (1948)

All the King's Men (1949)

The Heiress (1949)

All About Eve (1950)

Rashomon (1950, Jp.)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

The Wild One (1953)

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

On the Waterfront (1954)

Blackboard Jungle (1955)

East of Eden (1955)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Baby Doll (1956)

Written on the Wind (1956)

The Seventh Seal (1957, Swe.) (aka Det Sjunde Inseglet)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

12 Angry Men (1957)

Witness For the Prosecution (1957)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

The Defiant Ones (1958)

I Want to Live! (1958)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

The 400 Blows (1959, Fr.) (aka Les Quatre Cents Coups)

The Nun's Story (1959)

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

La Dolce Vita (1960, It./Fr.) (aka The Sweet Life)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Inherit the Wind (1960)

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

The Miracle Worker (1962)

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

Hud (1963)

Persona (1966, Swe.)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Graduate (1967)

Easy Rider (1969)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Sounder (1972)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

All the President's Men (1976)

Network (1976)

Days of Heaven (1978)

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The Elephant Man (1980)

Ordinary People (1980)

On Golden Pond (1981)

Sophie's Choice (1982)

The Verdict (1982)

Terms of Endearment (1983)

The Killing Fields (1984, UK)

Paris, Texas (1984, UK/Fr./W. Germ.)

A Cry in the Dark (1988, Australia/US) (aka Evil Angels)

Rain Man (1988)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

sex, lies and videotape (1989)

A Few Good Men (1992)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Philadelphia (1993)

The Piano (1993, NZ/Australia/Fr.)

Schindler's List (1993)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Quiz Show (1994)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Dead Man Walking (1995)

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Life is Beautiful (1997, It.) (aka La Vita E Bella)

American Beauty (1999)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

About Schmidt (2002)

The Pianist (2002)

Mystic River (2003)

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Ray (2004)

Sideways (2004)

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

The Reader (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

An Education (2009)

The King's Speech (2010)

The Social Network (2010)

Winter's Bone (2010)

Amour (2012, Fr.)

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Boyhood (2014)

Selma (2014)

Fences (2016)

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Moonlight (2016)

The Florida Project (2017)

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Green Book (2018)

Roma (2018, Mex./US)

Minari (2020)

Nomadland (2020)

CODA (2021)


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