70 Best Drama Movies of All Time
By Eric Alt
Updated: Mar. 18, 2024
Searing emotional sagas, intimate personal portraits, and gripping inspirational tales—these emotional movies are all the drama you need in your life.
RD.com, Via streaming sites (4)
Drama movies that give you all the feels
While there is a time and place for a good comedy belly laugh, an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a terrifying horror movie, a whimsical musical, and other good movies, there is something to be said about a powerful, emotional drama that refuses to leave you long after the theater lights come up (or your streaming service is already firing up the next recommendation on your playlist).
Drama movies hit hard because they tend to deal with things nearly every human being can relate to in one way or another. While we’d all like to think we could punch a meteor into space or survive the night against a holiday-themed slasher, we’re never going to experience that kind of thing in our real lives. But we will fall in love. We will experience loss. We will have challenges in our lives that force us to dig deep and find the fortitude inside to carry on. Dramas hit us in those areas that feel the most real—and for that reason dramas hit everyone a little differently based on their own personal experiences. On that note, this is by no means a ranked list—we’re not trying to say one movie here is better than another. This is just a celebration of 70 movies you need to see to fully understand the power of the drama.
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1. The Right Stuff
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2. Vertigo
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3. Moonlight
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4. Gladiator
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5. The Social Network
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6. Tokyo Story
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7. Schindler’s List
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8. Hidden Figures
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9. Shattered Glass
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10. Lady Bird
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11. All About Eve
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12. Sunset Blvd.
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13. Logan
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14. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
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15. Dancer in the Dark
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16. Dunkirk
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17. Spotlight
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18. The Farewell
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19. Revolutionary Road
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20. Boyhood
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21. 12 Years a Slave
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22. The Asphalt Jungle
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23. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
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24. Manchester by the Sea
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25. Call Me By Your Name
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26. The Bridge on the River Kwai
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27. Tangerine
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28. Roma
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29. M
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30. One Night in Miami
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31. Marty
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32. 12 Angry Men
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33. The Wrestler
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34. Uncut Gems
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35. The Lighthouse
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36. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
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37. Zero Dark Thirty
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38. The Departed
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39. A Woman Under the Influence
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40. Persepolis
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41. To Kill a Mockingbird
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42. The Silence of the Lambs
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43. Before Sunrise
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44. Amadeus
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45. No Country for Old Men
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46. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
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47. Naked
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48. The Night of the Hunter
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49. Three Colors: Red
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50. Zodiac
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51. Network
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52. Children of Men
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53. Lawrence of Arabia
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54. Casablanca
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55. Apocalypse Now
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56. In the Heat of the Night
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57. The Godfather
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58. Goodfellas
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59. Chungking Express
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60. Whiplash
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61. Parasite
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62. Rocky
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63. Dead Poets Society
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64. The Shawshank Redemption
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65. Chinatown
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66. Lost In Translation
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67. Boys Don’t Cry
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68. L.A. Confidential
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69. Nomadland
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70. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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Released: 1983
Rated: PG
Director: Philip Kaufman
A gripping story about the birth of the U.S. space program, The Right Stuff is most often remembered as the inspiration for the “crew slo-mo walking towards the camera as they prepare for their defining mission” shot that has been imitated and spoofed in everything from kids’ movie Monsters, Inc. to the TV series Community. But the film is an enthralling historical epic, even if history has spoiled the ending. It also features a cast of Grizzled Actor All-Stars at their scowling best: Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, and Lance Henricksen.
Available on: Apple TV, Vudu, DirecTV and Amazon Prime