Genre: Drama
Drama draws its power from conflict between people — the choices, betrayals, and reconciliations that test who characters are. The stakes are emotional, and they land hard.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Dreyer's 1928 silent French religious drama. Falconetti's face. Considered by many the greatest performance ever filmed. The closeups still devastate. -
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Coppola's 1974 sequel-and-prequel. De Niro as young Vito, Pacino as Michael. The film that proved sequels could exceed originals. -
War and Peace (1966-1967)
Bondarchuk's 1966-67 Soviet seven-hour Tolstoy adaptation. 12,000 soldiers as extras. Real artillery. The most expensive film ever made at that time. -
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Coppola's 1979 Vietnam Heart of Darkness. Sheen, Brando, Duvall, Hopper. The shoot that nearly killed everyone. The film that closed New Hollywood. -
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Cimino's 1978 Vietnam drama. De Niro, Walken, Streep, Cazale. The Russian roulette sequences. Best Picture Oscar. Closing of the steel-town American era. -
Das Boot (1981)
Petersen's 1981 German U-boat drama. Three-hour theatrical, six-hour director's cut, miniseries. The submarine claustrophobia film all later sub films measure against. -
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Rosenberg's 1967 prison drama. Paul Newman as Luke. Failure to communicate. The chain gang sequence, the egg-eating contest, the broken man at the end. -
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Darabont's 1994 King novella adaptation. Robbins as Andy, Freeman as Red. The film IMDb ranked #1 for two decades. Earned that ranking. -
Brubaker (1980)
Rosenberg's 1980 prison-reform drama. Robert Redford as the warden who arrives undercover as an inmate. Based on Tom Murton's actual 1960s Arkansas prison reform work. -
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Frankenheimer's 1962 prison biopic. Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud. Two and a half hours in a cell with a man and his birds.