A drama film depends mostly on in-depth development of characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes include alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena. Dramas are also the most broad genre and includes subgenres such as romantic drama, sports films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime. With that being said I'm going to bring you Top 10 Favorite Drama Films of All-Time. So without further ado...
10. Quiz Show
This film was really good and kept me on the edge of me seat especially not being familiar with the story. It's 1958, and producers of the Quiz Show 21 have a problem. Their current champ, Herbert Stempel (played by John Turturro), has a phenomenal memory and a broad range of knowledge. He's also a pudgy, loudmouth with a grating personality, so Herbert is encouraged to "take a dive" and allow Charles Van Doren (played by Ralph Fiennes), a handsome and charming college professor, to become the show's new champion. Audiences like Van Doren, and he's certainly not averse to the money he's winning, but the ethics of the situation begin to trouble him especially when the show's producers give him the questions in advance. Quiz Show was nominated for 4 Academy Award including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, it also has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Dead Poets Society
This film is magnificent and emotionally touching at the same time. A new English teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams), is introduced to an all-boys preparatory school that is known for its ancient traditions and high standards. He uses unorthodox methods to reach out to his students, who face enormous pressures from their parents and the schools. With Keating's help, students Neil Perry (played by Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (played by Ethan Hawke) and others learn to break out of their shells, pursue their dreams and seize the day. Dead Poets Society was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, while winning 1 (Best Original Screenplay) and it has a rating of 85% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. The Hurt Locker-
This film is amazing is one of the best films of all-time. As an Elite Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team tactfully navigates the streets of present-day Iraq, they face the constant threat of death from the incoming bombs and sharp-shooting snipers. In Baghdad, roadside bomb are a common danger. The Army is working to make the city a safer place for Americans and Iraqis, so when it comes to dismantling IEDs (improvised explosive devices) the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) crew is always on their game. But protecting the public isn't easy when there's no room for error, and every second spent dismantling a bomb is another second spent flirting with death. Now as three fearless bomb technicians (played by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) take on the most dangerous job in Baghdad. This is one of the most heart stopping films I have ever seen. The Hurt Locker was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Actor, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography, while winning 6 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing) and it also has a rating of 97% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Saving Private Ryan-
This film was probably the most obvious film on the list to everyone and it comes to us fro the greatest director of all-time Stephen Spielberg. The Story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback the joins Capt. John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6th, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller's men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name "Ryan" stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (played by Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt.James Ryan (played by Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and the chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (played by Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (played by Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (played by Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (played by Giovanni Ribsi) cynical Reiben (played by Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian -American Caparzo (played by Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (played by Berry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. This film is amazing and its 24 minute battle scene at the beginning of the film is one of the most gruesome and memorable scene in film history. Saving Private Ryan was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Make-Up, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay while winning 5 (Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing) and also has a rating of 93% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. A Clockwork Orange
This film is freaky and comes from my favorite director of all-time Stanley Kubrick. Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell). who is a charismatic, sociopathic delinquent whose interests include classical music (especially Beethoven), rape and what is termed "ultra-violence". He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie and Dim), whom he call his droogs (from the Russian word for friends or buddy). The film chronicles the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture and attempted rehabilitation via controversial psychological conditioning . Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat , a fractured adolescent slang composed of Slavic (especially Russian), English and Cockney rhyming slang. This film is a masterpiece and has one of the most brutal rap scenes in film history. A Clockwork Orange was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, it also has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. Silver Linings Playbook
This film is amazing is considered one of the greatest films of all-time. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover and is sentenced to a tough prison. However, only Andy knows he didn't commit the crimes. While there, he forms a friendship with Red (played by Morgan Freeman), experiences brutality of prison life, adapts, and helps the warden all in 19 years. The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound Mixing, it also has a rating of 90% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. 12 Angry Men
This film is amazing and it just shows what can happen when we put prejudice aside and what consensus building can do for everyone. Following the closing arguments in a murder trial, the 12 members of the jury must deliberate, with a guilty verdict meaning death for the accused, an inner-city teen. As the dozen men try to reach a unanimous decision while sequestered in a room, one juror (played by Henry Fonda) casts considerable doubt on elements of the case. Personal issues soon rise to the surface, and conflict threatens to derail the delicate process that will decide one boy's fate. 12 Angry Men was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay, it also has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. American Beauty-
This film is magnificent and it really dives in the emotions of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption. Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) is a gainfully employed suburban husband and father. Fed up with his boring, stagnant existence, he quits his job and decides to reinvent himself as a pot-smoking, responsibility-shirking teenager. What follows is at once cynical, hysterical, and, eventually, tragically uplifting. American Beauty was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score while winning 5 awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography) and it also has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. The Godfather Part 2
In what is considered the greatest sequel of all-time and what is also a prequel as well, The Godfather Part 2 continues the story of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) (the new Don of the Corleone crime family) trying to hold his business ventures together from 1958 to 1959. The prequel parts of the film are flashbacks to a younger Vito Corleone (played by Robert DeNiro), from his childhood in Sicily in 1901 to the founding of the Corleone crime family in New York City. I will admit that the film is a little over 3 hours long and for some people I can see why you might get bored or uninterested, but believe me when I say that the film needs to be that long because of the story they are telling. The Godfather Part 2 was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, 3 for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction and Best Music while winning 6 (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Art Direction and Music) and it has a rating of 98% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what do you think of my list and what are some of your favorite drama films of all-time? Let me know in the comments and let your voice be heard?
Jonah Sparks
10. Quiz Show
This film was really good and kept me on the edge of me seat especially not being familiar with the story. It's 1958, and producers of the Quiz Show 21 have a problem. Their current champ, Herbert Stempel (played by John Turturro), has a phenomenal memory and a broad range of knowledge. He's also a pudgy, loudmouth with a grating personality, so Herbert is encouraged to "take a dive" and allow Charles Van Doren (played by Ralph Fiennes), a handsome and charming college professor, to become the show's new champion. Audiences like Van Doren, and he's certainly not averse to the money he's winning, but the ethics of the situation begin to trouble him especially when the show's producers give him the questions in advance. Quiz Show was nominated for 4 Academy Award including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, it also has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Dead Poets Society
This film is magnificent and emotionally touching at the same time. A new English teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams), is introduced to an all-boys preparatory school that is known for its ancient traditions and high standards. He uses unorthodox methods to reach out to his students, who face enormous pressures from their parents and the schools. With Keating's help, students Neil Perry (played by Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (played by Ethan Hawke) and others learn to break out of their shells, pursue their dreams and seize the day. Dead Poets Society was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, while winning 1 (Best Original Screenplay) and it has a rating of 85% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. The Hurt Locker-
This film is amazing is one of the best films of all-time. As an Elite Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team tactfully navigates the streets of present-day Iraq, they face the constant threat of death from the incoming bombs and sharp-shooting snipers. In Baghdad, roadside bomb are a common danger. The Army is working to make the city a safer place for Americans and Iraqis, so when it comes to dismantling IEDs (improvised explosive devices) the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) crew is always on their game. But protecting the public isn't easy when there's no room for error, and every second spent dismantling a bomb is another second spent flirting with death. Now as three fearless bomb technicians (played by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) take on the most dangerous job in Baghdad. This is one of the most heart stopping films I have ever seen. The Hurt Locker was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Actor, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography, while winning 6 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing) and it also has a rating of 97% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Saving Private Ryan-
This film was probably the most obvious film on the list to everyone and it comes to us fro the greatest director of all-time Stephen Spielberg. The Story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback the joins Capt. John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6th, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller's men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name "Ryan" stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (played by Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt.James Ryan (played by Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and the chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (played by Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (played by Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (played by Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (played by Giovanni Ribsi) cynical Reiben (played by Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian -American Caparzo (played by Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (played by Berry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. This film is amazing and its 24 minute battle scene at the beginning of the film is one of the most gruesome and memorable scene in film history. Saving Private Ryan was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Make-Up, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay while winning 5 (Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing) and also has a rating of 93% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. A Clockwork Orange
This film is freaky and comes from my favorite director of all-time Stanley Kubrick. Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell). who is a charismatic, sociopathic delinquent whose interests include classical music (especially Beethoven), rape and what is termed "ultra-violence". He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie and Dim), whom he call his droogs (from the Russian word for friends or buddy). The film chronicles the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture and attempted rehabilitation via controversial psychological conditioning . Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat , a fractured adolescent slang composed of Slavic (especially Russian), English and Cockney rhyming slang. This film is a masterpiece and has one of the most brutal rap scenes in film history. A Clockwork Orange was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, it also has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. Silver Linings Playbook
This film is spectacular and it has some of the best performances in film. Patrick "Pat" Solitano (played by Bradley Cooper), a man with bipolar disorder is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents (played by Robert DeNiro and Jackie Weaver). Determined to win back his estranged wife, Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell (played by Jennifer Lawrence). She tells Pat that she will help him get his wife back if he enters a dance competition with her. The two become closer as they train and Pat, his father and Tiffany examine their relationships with each other as they cope with their issues. The film is very powerful and very emotional. Silver Lings Playbook was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing, while winning only 1 (Best Actress) and it has a rating of 92% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. The Shawshank RedemptionThis film is amazing is considered one of the greatest films of all-time. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover and is sentenced to a tough prison. However, only Andy knows he didn't commit the crimes. While there, he forms a friendship with Red (played by Morgan Freeman), experiences brutality of prison life, adapts, and helps the warden all in 19 years. The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound Mixing, it also has a rating of 90% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. 12 Angry Men
This film is amazing and it just shows what can happen when we put prejudice aside and what consensus building can do for everyone. Following the closing arguments in a murder trial, the 12 members of the jury must deliberate, with a guilty verdict meaning death for the accused, an inner-city teen. As the dozen men try to reach a unanimous decision while sequestered in a room, one juror (played by Henry Fonda) casts considerable doubt on elements of the case. Personal issues soon rise to the surface, and conflict threatens to derail the delicate process that will decide one boy's fate. 12 Angry Men was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay, it also has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. American Beauty-
This film is magnificent and it really dives in the emotions of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption. Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) is a gainfully employed suburban husband and father. Fed up with his boring, stagnant existence, he quits his job and decides to reinvent himself as a pot-smoking, responsibility-shirking teenager. What follows is at once cynical, hysterical, and, eventually, tragically uplifting. American Beauty was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score while winning 5 awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography) and it also has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. The Godfather Part 2
In what is considered the greatest sequel of all-time and what is also a prequel as well, The Godfather Part 2 continues the story of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) (the new Don of the Corleone crime family) trying to hold his business ventures together from 1958 to 1959. The prequel parts of the film are flashbacks to a younger Vito Corleone (played by Robert DeNiro), from his childhood in Sicily in 1901 to the founding of the Corleone crime family in New York City. I will admit that the film is a little over 3 hours long and for some people I can see why you might get bored or uninterested, but believe me when I say that the film needs to be that long because of the story they are telling. The Godfather Part 2 was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, 3 for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction and Best Music while winning 6 (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Art Direction and Music) and it has a rating of 98% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what do you think of my list and what are some of your favorite drama films of all-time? Let me know in the comments and let your voice be heard?
Jonah Sparks
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