50 Best Dramas Of All Time
by Maxx | posted Nov 12, 2017 | Drama
Drama is a very broad category. This list is intended to show a general top 50 list for best movies in the Drama genre as a whole. In this blog, you’ll be able to find more drama lists that are broken down into deeper categories. For myself… Drama is my favorite component in movies. It explores the injustices of life, our unpredictable challenges, and lessons we’re forced to learn.
-Maxx
The Godfather
IMDB: 9.2/10
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
The Shawshank Redemption IMDB: 9.3/10 Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.
The Godfather Part ll IMDB: 9.0/10 The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
Ikiru IMDB: 8.3/10 A bureaucrat tries to find a meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
City Lights IMDB: 8.6/10 With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
Goodfellas IMDB: 8.7/10 The story of Henry Hill and his life through the teen years into the years of mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his Mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate.
Fight Club IMDB: 8.8/10 An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.
Casablanca IMDB: 8.5/10 In Casablanca in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate encounters a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
Seven Samurai IMDB: 8.7/10 A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest IMDB: 8.7/10 A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.
The Apartment IMDB: 8.3/10 A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Citizen Kane IMDB: 8.4/10 Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.
Rashomon IMDB: 8.3/10 A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.
Taxi Driver IMDB: 8.3/10 A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, while attempting to save a twelve-year-old prostitute in the process.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans IMDB: 8.2/10 An allegorical tale about a man fighting the good and evil within him. Both sides are made flesh – one a sophisticated woman he is attracted to and the other his wife.
12 Angry Men IMDB: 8.9/10 A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.
Apocalypse Now IMDB: 8.5/10 During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.
High and Low IMDB: 8.4/10 An executive of a shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped and held for ransom.
Paths of Glory IMDB: 8.4/10 After refusing to attack an enemy position, a general accuses the soldiers of cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.
The 400 Blows IMDB: 8.1/10 Moving story of a young boy who, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
Schindler’s List IMDB: 8.9/10 In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.
Persona IMDB: 8.1/10 A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personas are melding together.
Saving Private Ryan IMDB: 8.6/10 Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Bicycle Thieves IMDB: 8.3/10 In post-war Italy, a working-class man’s bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre IMDB: 8.3/10 Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Forrest Gump IMDB: 8.8/10 JFK, LBJ, Vietnam, Watergate, and other history unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75.
Full Metal Jacket IMDB: 8.3/10 A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
The Red Shoes IMDB: 8.3/10 A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.
Harakiri IMDB: 8.7/10 An elder ronin samurai arrives at a feudal lord’s home and requests an honorable place to commit suicide. But when the ronin inquires about a younger samurai who arrived before him things take an unexpected turn.
The Seventh Seal IMDB: 8.2/10 A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
Sunset Blvd IMDB: 8.5/10 A screenwriter is hired to rework a faded silent film star’s script only to find himself developing a dangerous relationship.
Tokyo Story IMDB: 8.2/10 An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city; but the children have little time for them.
Wild Strawberries IMDB: 8.2/10 After living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.
8 1/2 IMDB: 8.1/10 A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
On the Waterfront IMDB: 8.2/10 An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.
The Passion of Joan of Arc IMDB: 8.2/10 In 1431, Jeanne d’Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Network IMDB: 8.1/10 A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor’s ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit.
Rocky IMDB: 8.1/10 Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
Cool Hand Luke IMDB: 8.2/10 A laid back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.
Raging Bull IMDB: 8.2 An emotionally self-destructive boxer’s journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside it.
The Conversation IMDB: 7.9/10 A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.
The Rules of the Game IMDB: 8.1/10 A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
Badlands IMDB: 7.9/10 An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.
Grand Illusion IMDB: 8.1/10 During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from.
Ace in the Hole IMDB: 8.2/10 A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance IMDB: 8.1/10 A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns for the funeral of an old friend and tells the truth about his deed.
Throne of Blood IMDB: 8.1/10 A war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider’s Web Castle.
La Dolce Vita IMDB: 8.1/10 A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering paparazzo journalist living in Rome.
Aguirre: The Wrath of God IMDB: 8.0/10 In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
All About Eve IMDB: 8.3/10 An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.
