high-impact drama film
by mamdali-yazdani | created - 08 Aug 2011 | updated - 15 Mar 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
PG-13 | 166 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with consequences.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond
Votes: 695,992 | Gross: $127.51M
2. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance
The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Votes: 2,258,711 | Gross: $330.25M
3. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,281,266 | Gross: $659.33M
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,072,903 | Gross: $112.00M
5. My Name Is Khan (2010)
PG-13 | 165 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
An Indian Muslim man with Asperger's syndrome takes a challenge to speak to the President of the United States seriously and embarks on a cross-country journey.
Director: Karan Johar | Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Sheetal Menon, Katie Amanda Keane
Votes: 116,415 | Gross: $4.02M
6. The Truman Show (1998)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich
Votes: 1,197,402 | Gross: $125.62M
7. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
PG-13 | 117 min | Biography, Drama
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career
Director: Gabriele Muccino | Stars: Will Smith, Thandiwe Newton, Jaden Smith, Brian Howe
Votes: 561,287 | Gross: $163.57M
8. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
The solitary life of an artificial man - who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands - is upended when he is taken in by a suburban family.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall
Votes: 524,104 | Gross: $56.36M
9. The Message (1976)
PG | 177 min | Biography, Drama, History
This epic historical drama chronicles the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and serves as an introduction to early Islamic history.
Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Johnny Sekka
Votes: 50,864
10. Black (2005)
Not Rated | 122 min | Drama
The cathartic tale of a young woman who can't see, hear, or speak, and the teacher who brings a ray of light into her dark world.
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, Shernaz Patel, Ayesha Kapur
Votes: 36,205 | Gross: $0.73M
11. The Green Mile (1999)
R | 189 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt
Votes: 1,408,415 | Gross: $136.80M
12. Chaplin (1992)
PG-13 | 143 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to world-wide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Paul Rhys, John Thaw
Votes: 62,256 | Gross: $9.49M
13. The Prestige (2006)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine
Votes: 1,442,062 | Gross: $53.09M
14. Gold and Copper (2010)
97 min | Drama, Romance
A Tehran mullah-in-training struggles to take care of his ailing wife and their children in this profoundly moving melodrama. A film of near-universal appeal, it puts a human face on Iran's... See full summary »
Director: Homayoon Ass'adian | Stars: Negar Javaherian, Behrouz Shoaybi, Javad Ezati, Sahar Dolatshahi
Votes: 3,772
15. The Book of Law (2009)
95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rahman falls in love with a Christan woman from Lebanon. She becomes a Muslim before her second meeting with Rahman.
Director: Maziar Miri | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Darine Hamze, Davood Fathali Beigi, Farideh Sepah Mansour
Votes: 2,040
16. The Last Samurai (2003)
R | 154 min | Action, Drama
Nathan Algren, a US army veteran, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Nathan finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two worlds.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly, William Atherton
Votes: 471,408 | Gross: $111.11M
17. Dead Poets Society (1989)
PG | 128 min | Comedy, Drama
Maverick teacher John Keating returns in 1959 to the prestigious New England boys' boarding school where he was once a star student, using poetry to embolden his pupils to new heights of self-expression.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles
Votes: 546,624 | Gross: $95.86M
18. Lion of the Desert (1980)
PG | 173 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani as colonial governor to Italian Libya with orders to stamp-out all resistance from Libyan nationalists led by rebel guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar.
Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, Irene Papas
Votes: 17,387 | Gross: $3.27M
19. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 258,659 | Gross: $7.10M
20. 127 Hours (2010)
R | 94 min | Biography, Drama
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Sean Bott
Votes: 401,567 | Gross: $18.34M
21. Good Will Hunting (1997)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance
Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 1,069,038 | Gross: $138.43M
22. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 428,310 | Gross: $51.97M
23. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
PG-13 | 135 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 987,478 | Gross: $170.74M
24. Seven Pounds (2008)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A man with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
Director: Gabriele Muccino | Stars: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Ealy
Votes: 315,285 | Gross: $69.95M
25. Braveheart (1995)
R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War
Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
Votes: 1,091,840 | Gross: $75.60M
26. Gandhi (1982)
PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
Votes: 240,240 | Gross: $52.77M
27. Les Misérables (2012)
PG-13 | 158 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision changes their lives forever.
Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried
Votes: 346,140 | Gross: $148.81M
28. Groundhog Day (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 685,418 | Gross: $70.91M
29. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Approved | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama, defends a Black man against an undeserved rape charge, and tries to educate his young children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 333,021
30. The Fateful Day (1995)
105 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
As Abdollah prepares to get married to his long-time love, he hears calls for help during his wedding and leaves the ceremony for an adventure to find the truth.
Director: Shahram Assadi | Stars: Ali Reza Shoja'noori, Ladan Mostofi, Jamshid Mashayekhi, Hamid Abdolmaleki
Votes: 708
31. The Willow Tree (2005)
PG | 96 min | Drama
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Roya Teymourian, Soghra Obeisi, Mohammad Amir Naji
Votes: 4,527 | Gross: $0.03M
32. Seven Samurai (1954)
Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama
Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki
Votes: 367,009 | Gross: $0.27M
33. Sunrise (1927)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 53,865 | Gross: $0.54M
34. Whiplash (2014)
R | 106 min | Drama, Music
A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser
Votes: 990,459 | Gross: $13.09M
35. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,302 | Gross: $1.02M
36. I Am Sam (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Drama
An intellectually disabled man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.
Director: Jessie Nelson | Stars: Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 155,357 | Gross: $40.31M
37. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,677 | Gross: $11.29M
38. Wonder (I) (2017)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Family
Based on the New York Times bestseller, this movie tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman, a boy with facial differences who enters the fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.
Director: Stephen Chbosky | Stars: Jacob Tremblay, Owen Wilson, Izabela Vidovic, Julia Roberts
Votes: 178,497 | Gross: $132.42M
39. Dangal (2016)
Not Rated | 161 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his two wrestler daughters struggle towards glory at the Commonwealth Games in the face of societal oppression.
Director: Nitesh Tiwari | Stars: Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra
Votes: 210,896 | Gross: $12.39M
40. Fences (2016)
PG-13 | 139 min | Drama
A working-class African-American father tries to raise his family in the 1950s, while coming to terms with the events of his life.
Director: Denzel Washington | Stars: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo
Votes: 118,101 | Gross: $57.68M
41. Jerry Maguire (1996)
R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston
Votes: 287,163 | Gross: $153.95M
42. Sanju (2018)
TV-MA | 155 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Biopic of the controversial life of actor Sanjay Dutt: his film career, jail sentence, and personal life.
Director: Rajkumar Hirani | Stars: Ranbir Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Vicky Kaushal
Votes: 61,311 | Gross: $7.91M
43. Red Beard (1965)
Not Rated | 185 min | Drama
In 19th-century Japan, a rough-tempered yet charitable town doctor trains a young intern.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan
Votes: 21,115
44. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
R | 129 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Director: Aaron Sorkin | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong
Votes: 193,451
45. The Queen's Gambit (2020)
TV-MA | 57 min | Drama
Orphaned at the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA. But child stardom comes at a price.
Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chloe Pirrie, Bill Camp, Marcin Dorocinski
Votes: 554,416
46. The Two Popes (2019)
PG-13 | 125 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Behind Vatican walls, the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church.
Director: Fernando Meirelles | Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins, Juan Minujín, Luis Gnecco
Votes: 133,037
47. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 493,036 | Gross: $169.71M
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