Drama Films

Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with any themselves, some others, or forces of nature. A loosenesstic contain shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and evenrything in- in the midst of. Each of the types of subject-matter tiers deport various kinds of dramatic plots. outstanding ikons are likely the largest film genre because they entangle a broad spectrum of films.See in any case annoyance films, melodramas, epics (historical dramas), biopics (biographical), or romantic genres just some of the other genres that wipe out developed from the dramatic genre. Dramatic themes often include current issues, social ills, and problems, concerns or injustices, such as racial prejudice, religious intolerance (such as anti-Semitism), drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the calumniateion of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, noetic illness, corrup t societal institutions, violence toward women or other explosive issues of the times.These films have successfully drawn attention to the issues by taking advantage of the topical hobby of the subject. Although dramatic films have often dealt frankly and realistically with social problems, the dip has been for Hollywood, especially during earlier times of censorship, to exonerate society and institutions and to blame problems on an individual, who more often than not, would be punished for his/her transgressions. well-disposed Problem DramasSocial dramas or message films expressed powerful lessons, such as the bumpy conditions of Southern prison systems in Hells Highway (1932) and I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), the plight of wandering groups of junior male childs on freight cars during the Depression in William Wellmans sick Boys of the Road (1933), or the lawlessness of mob rule in Fritz Langs Fury (1936), or the imagination of lifer prisoner and bird expert Rob ert Stroud (Burt Lancaster) in bath boldenheimers Birdman of Alcatraz (1961), or the humbug of a framed, unjustly imprisoned journalist (James Cagney) in Each filter I Die (1939).In Yield to the Night (1956), Diana Dors relived her life and crime as she awaited her execution. A tough, uncompromising look at new-sprung(prenominal) York waterfront corruption was found in the classic American film, conductor dear Kazans On the Waterfront (1954) with Marlon Brando as a longshoreman who testified to the Waterfront Crimes Commission. The film rew criticism with the armorial bearing that it appeared to justify Kazans informant role before the HUAC. Problems of the poor and dispossessed have often been the themes of the slap-up films, including The Good Earth (1937) with Chinese peasants facing famine, storms, and locusts, and throne Fords The Grapes of Wrath (1940) closely an indomitable, Depression-Era Okie family the Joads who survived a tragic journey from Oklahoma to Californ ia.Martin Scorseses sad and violent Taxi Driver (1976) told of the despairing life of a solitary New York taxi cab driver amidst nighttime urban sprawl. Issues and conflicts inside a suburban family were showcased in director surface-to-air missile workforcedes best(p) Picture- getning American Beauty (1999), as were problems with addiction in Steven Soderberghs Traffic (2000). Films About cordial IllnessTwo films from different eras that dealt with the problems of the mentally ill and conditions in mental institutions were Anatole Litvaks The Snake Pit (1948) with tormented Olivia de Havillands assistance from a psychiatrist, and Milos Formans adaptation of muckle Keseys whiz Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) with Jack Nicholson as a ill-affected institutional patient who feigned insanity but ultimately was crush by Nurse Ratched and the repressive system. Bette Davis vie a neurotic and peremptory woman in crapper Hustons In This Our Life (1942). Sam Woods Kings course of instruction (1942) examined the various fears and phobias in a small-town.Repressed and prohibited from consummating her love with warren Beatty, Natalie Wood exhibited signs of insanity in dear Kazans Splendor in the dumbbell (1961). Another teenager (Kathleen Quinlan) felt suicidal tendencies due to schizophrenia in I N constantly Promised You a Rose Garden (1977). And 1930s-40s actress Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) tragically declined due to a mental breakdown and subsequent lobotomy in Frances (1982). The repressed emotions and tragic crises in a seemingly perfect family were authenticated in Robert Redfords directorial debut topper Picture and Best Director-winning Ordinary batch (1980).Films About Alcoholism A hard look was resignn at alcoholism with Ray Milland as a depressed writer in Billy Wilders The Lost Weekend (1945) and Jack Lemmon (and Lee Remick) in Blake Edwards old age of Wine and Roses (1962). An aging alcoholic singer (Bing Crosby) desperate for a repr oduction was the theme of The Country Girl (1954) the film that provided Grace Kelly with a Best Actress Oscar. Susan Hayward acted the decline into alcoholism of 1930s star Lillian Roth in Daniel Manns biopic Ill Cry tomorrow (1955).More recently, Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway played the parts of two fellow alcoholics in Barbet Schroeders Barfly (1987). Films around Disaffected Youth and Generational Conflict Juvenile delinquency, new-fangled punks and gangs, and youth rebellion were the subject matter of Dead End (1937), Laslo Benedeks The Wild One (1953) with biker Marlon Brando disrupting a small town, Richard Brooks The Blackboard Jungle (1955) with Glenn Ford as an idealistic teacher in a slum area school, and Nicholas Rays ascend Without a Cause (1955) with James Dean as an iconic alien youth.Race Relations and Civil Rights Dramas Films that were concerned with race relations include Hollywoods first major indictment of racism in producer Stanley Kramers and director Ma rk Robsons Home of the Brave (1949), the explanation of a subdued WWII pass facing bigoted insults from his squad.Then, there was John Sturges Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) roughly small-town lacquerese-American prejudice uncovered by a one-armed Spencer Tracy, Stanley Kramers The Defiant Ones (1958) with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as bound-together escaping convicts and Guess Whos Coming to Dinner (1967) about an inter-racial couple (Sidney Poitier as WHO doctor John Prentiss and Katharine Houghton as SF socialite Joanna Drayton) planning on marrying who needed parental approval from Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (in their ninth and outlive film together).Also, In the Heat of the Night (1967) featured a bigoted sheriff and a glowering homicide detective working together to solve a murder, and Spike Lees Do the Right Thing (1989) about racial tensions and eventual violence during a hot Brooklyn summer. Strong indictments toward anti-Semitism were made in Elia Kaza ns Gentlemans pledge (1947) with writer Gregory Peck posing as a Jew, and Crossfire (1947) about the opaque murder of a Jew. The Japanese film classic from Akira Kurosawa titled Rashomon (1951) examined a violent ambush, murder and rape in 12th century Japan from four different perspectives. Courtroom DramasSee also AFIs 10 crystallize 10 The Top 10 Courtroom Drama Films Courtroom well-grounded dramas, which include dramatic tension in the courtroom setting, maneuverings between streak opponents (lawyers, prosecutors, and clients), surprise witnesses, and the psychological breakdown of key participants, were exemplified in films such as the following * William Dieterles film noir The Acc utilize (1948), with Robert Cummings defending college professor Loretta Youngs self-protection murder * 12 Angry Men (1957) with Henry Fonda and eleven other jurists in a tense deliberation room * Billy Wilders thought-provoking and plot-twisting Witness for the Prosecution (1957) based on an Agatha Christie play* Otto Premingers Anatomy of a Murder (1959) with James Stewart as a defense lawyer for impeach murderer Ben Gazzara * Compulsion (1959) the Navy court-martial trial based on the Herman Wouk play of the same name in The Caine Mutiny (1954) a film with a memorable accomplishment of Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg * the historic Scopes audition battle in Inherit the Wind (1960) pitting Spencer Tracy against Fredric expose in a case brought against a schoolteacher for teaching Darwinism * the social drama regarding the Nazi war crimes trials in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) with Burt Lancaster as a Nazi judge defended by Nazi defense attorney Maximilian Schell in a 1948 court ruled by Chief wholeied think Spencer Tracy* the defense case of a black accused of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), adapted from the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Harper Lee about civil rights In addition, director Robert Bentons Best Picture-winning Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) focused on the subject of a nurturing bewilder (Dustin Hoffman) trying to win a child custody case with divorced Meryl Streep. An Australian film, circuit breaker Morant (1980) was another tense courtroom drama the true taradiddle of soldiers in the Boer War who were used as scapegoats by the British Army. The award-winning drama, Sidney Lumets The verdict (1982) featured Paul Newman as an alcoholic, has-been Boston lawyer fleck a case of medical malpractice against James Mason. Glenn Close defended lover/client Jeff Bridges in Richard Marquands who-dun-it Jagged Edge (1985).Assistant DA Kelly McGillis defended the bar-room gang-raped Jodie value (an Oscar-winning role) in The Accused (1988). A Soldiers Story (1984) examined racial hatred in a 1940s Southern military post in a dramatic courtroom murder/mystery. And A Few Good Men (1992) portrayed the courtroom conflict (known for its catchphrase You cant handle the truth ) between established Marine Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicho lson) and two young nautical attorneys (Tom Cruise and Demi Moore) regarding the part touch the hazing (Code Red) death (by asphyxiation due to slap-up lactic acidosis) of Private Santiago a Marine stationed at Guantanamo Naval Air Station in Cuba.Jonathan Demmes AIDS drama, Philadelphia (1993) examined discrimination against AIDS and the ratified defense of an AIDS sufferer (Tom Hanks) who was fired. Political Dramas Political dramas include Frank Capras two political tales State of the Union (1948) with Tracy/Hepburn, and his classic story of a naive Senators fight against political corruption in Mr. Smith Goes to majuscule (1939). Conversely, the award-winning, potent story of a corrupt politician was dramatized in Robert Rossens All the Kings Men (1949) with Broderick Crawford as the rising politician. Alexander Knox feature as prexy Woodrow Wilson in Henry Kings epic, big budget bio Wilson (1944).In Otto Premingers Advise and assume (1962), stars Charles Laughton (in his last film), Franchot Tone, and Lew Ayres portrayed scheming Senators during Henry Fondas crisis-threatened Presidency. The controversial The Manchurian chance (1962) questioned the Cold War brainwashing of a Korean War hero. Michael Ritchies The prospect (1972) examined the harsh reality of the campaign trail with political hopeful Robert Redford feature as an attorney running for the Senate. Oliver Stones conspiracy-centered drama, JFK (1991), attempted to disprove the theory that president Kennedys killer acted alone. Journalism, the Press and Media-Related DramasDramatic films often center around the theme of journalism, the world of reporters and news. Often regarded as the best film ever made, Orson Welles Citizen Kane (1941) was an insightful character study of a newspaper magnate. Alan J. Pakulas All the Presidents Men (1976) was a docu-drama of real-life journalists Bernstein and Woodward investigating the Watergate scandal. Sidney Lumets Network (1976) with Peter Fi nch as a despairing reporter was a critical look at TV news, while Sydney Pollacks absence seizure of Malice (1981) told about an over-earnest journalist (Sally subject area) and a wrongly-implicated defendant (Paul Newman). James L. Brooks dot News (1987) focused on the world of network news shows, editors, and reporters.Elia Kazans A Face in the Crowd (1957) showed how a down-home country boy (Andy Griffith in his film debut as Larry Lonesome Rhodes) could be transform into a pop television show icon and political megalomaniac. by means of the eyes of a cameraman, Haskell Wexlers docu-drama Medium Cool (1969) covered the corruption and events surrounding clamss 1968 Democratic Convention. In Peter Weirs The Year of Living Dangerously (1962), Mel Gibson played the role of an Australian journalist working during the time of President Sukarnos coup in mid-60s Indonesia. And in Oliver Stones Salvador (1982), James Woods played the role of a photographer in war-torn El Salvador. WW II Homefront Dramas Dramatic films which have portrayed the homefront during times of war, and the subsequent problems of peacetime adjustment include William Wylers Mrs.Miniver (1942) about a disjointed mediate-class family couple (Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon) during the Blitz, Clarence Browns The Human Comedy (1943) with telegram delivery boy Mickey Rooney bringing news from the front to small-town GI families back home, John Cromwells Since You Went Away (1944) with head of family Claudette Colbert during her husbands absence, and another William Wyler poignant classic The Best old age of Our Lives (1946) with couples awkwardly brought back together forever changed after the warDana Andrews and Virginia Mayo, Fredric March and Myrna Loy, and Harold Russell and Cathy ODonnell. History-Related Dramas Films that have dramatized portions of the American past include W. S.Van Dykes San Francisco (1936) on the eve of the 1906 quake, John Fords Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) with Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda facing marauding Indian attacks at the time of American independence, Howard Hawks Sergeant York (1941) with Gary Cooper as the allay hick-hero of the WWI trenches, the gothic drama of a turn of the century family in Orson Welles The glorious Ambersons (1942), and of course Gone With The Wind (1939) during the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras. Exquisite, nostalgic family dramas include John Fords How Green Was My Valley (1941) a flashback of Roddy McDowalls childhood in a Welsh mining village, and George Stevens tribute to a Norwegian immigrant become (Irene Dunne) raising her family in San Francisco in I Remember Mama (1948). Sports Dramas Dramatic pleasures films or biographies have created memorable portraits of all-American sports heroes, individual athletes, or teams who are approach with tough odds in a championship match, race or large-scale sporting event, soul-searching or physical/psychological injuries, or romantic sub-plot distrac tions.Fictional sports films normally present a single sport (the most common being baseball, football game, basketball, and boxing), and include the education and rise (and/or fall) of the underdog or champion in the world of sports. Typical sports films (with biographical elements) include the sentimental biography of the Notre Dame football coach, Lloyd Bacons Knute Rockne All-American (1940). One of the best films ever made about pro-football was Ted Kotcheffs North Dallas Forty (1979) which examined the brutish fact of apprehend abuses and drug use in overlord football loosely basing its story on the championship Dallas Cowboys team. The tearjerking made-for-TV sports film Brians Song (1970) used master key football as the backdrop for its sad tale of the death of a Chicago Bears running back (James Caan).Burt Reynolds starred in The Longest Yard (1974) as scandalized ex-professional football quarterback Paul Crewe in prison who must educate a team of convicts to challe nge a prison-guard team (and then vista the additional challenge of throwing the game). Recently, Cameron Crowes sports romance-drama Jerry Maguire (1996), famous for the phrase Show me the money starred Tom Cruise as a hard-driven major sports agent, and Academy award-winning Cuba Gooding, Jr. as a football worker. One of the best sports biopics was Sam Woods The Pride of the Yankees (1942) with Gary Cooper in a fine performance as New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig. In The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), the famed black player who crossed the major-league color-line and joined the Brooklyn Dodgers portrayed himself.Director Barry Levinsons mythical and romanticized film about baseball titled The Natural (1984) featured Robert Redford as Roy Hobbes a dexterous baseball player who led his New York team to the World Series. Ron Shelton, who was an real ex-minor leaguer, wrote and directed the intelligent comedy/drama Bull Durham (1988) which used as its backdrop minor league baseb all to tell the story of a baseball groupie (Susan Sarandon), a veteran catcher (Kevin Costner) and a simple pitcher named Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins). The immensely popular fantasy/drama Field of Dreams (1989) concerned the creation of a ball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield by a farmer (Kevin Costner).Writer/director John Sayles Eight Men Out (1988) dramatized the infamous episode in professional baseball of the scandalous 1919 World Series that was fixed with its final sepia-toned shots of out(p) ball-player Shoeless Joe Jackson (D. B. Sweeney) in the minors. And Tommy Lee Jones starred as the known baseball great Ty Cobb in Sheltons Cobb (1994). Basketball-related sports dramas are rare three notable ones were Spike Lees He Got Game (1998) with Denzel Washington as the convict father of a promising basketball athlete, David Anspaughs Hoosiers (1986) about an underdog 50s basketball team (coached by Gene Hackman) that won the state championship, and Ron Sheltons pla y-filled, trash-talking court action film white-hot Men Cant Jump (1992) with its two basketball hustlers/con-artists (Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes) and their scenes of two-on-two tournaments.Kevin Costner portrayed a clever pro golfer in Ron Sheltons romantic sports film Tin cup (1996). And Paul Newman portrayed swaggering, upstart poolshark gambler Fast Eddie Felson in The streetwalker (1961) in the world of professional pool, shooting against the great champ manganese Fats (Jackie Gleason). Downhill Racer (1969) starred Robert Redford as an American downhill skier training to become an Olympic superstar. The Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire (1981) told the jibe stories of two English runners (one a devout Protestant, the other Jewish) competing in the 1924 capital of France Olympics. Autoracing in the Daytona 500 was featured in the action/drama long time of Thunder (1990).And one of the most memorable ice hockey films was bang Shot (1977), with Paul Newman as in spiring player-coach Reg Dunlop of a minor-league team. Although a comedy, Caddyshack (1980) was about an elitist country club for golf, a mischievous green-destroying gopher, and a crazed groundskeeper (Bill Murray). Films about boxing are perhaps the most numerous sub-genre. One of the best boxing films ever made, along with Robert Wises classic film noirish The Set-Up (1949) star Robert Ryan as aging boxer Stoker Thompson, was the realistically stark luggage compartment and Soul (1947). It starred John Garfield as boxer Charlie Davis who sold his soul to wrong promoters but then had a change of heart in the last three rounds of a championship fight during which he was supposed to take a dive.Others included King Vidors classic The Champ (1931), an award-winning story of a prizefighter and his young son, Champion (1949) with Kirk Douglas as the young fighter, the brutal boxing drama The Harder They Fall (1956) (Humphrey Bogarts underrated last film in which he portrayed Eddie Wi llis an aging, crooked sportswriter), Ralph Nelsons Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) with Anthony Quinn as punch-drunk, washed-up professional boxer Louis Mountain Rivera, Martin Ritts The Great White Hope (1970) with James Earl Jones as black boxer Jack Jefferson, and Karyn Kusamas independent feminist film Girlfight (2000) with a great performance by Michelle Rodriguez as a struggling Brooklynite and teenage Latino boxer. One of the best films of the 80s decade, Raging Bull (1980) was Martin Scorseses tough, visceral and uncompromising biopic film of the rise and fall of prizefighter Jake La Motta with a remarkable performance by actor Robert DeNiro. The stylized scenes in the ring included fast(a) blood and sweat, exaggerated flashbulb camera flashes, slow-motion and violent punching sounds.