A genius drama is not a film that will make you cry. It will find the way to relate to you personally, whatever its theme is. It will force you to think over things you usually don’t ponder on, and reconsider some of your values and viewpoints.
Considering all this, I made up my own list of favorite top drama movies.
Awakenings
Awakenings (1990) is based on a real story by Oliver Sacks. The film stars Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. This is the story of Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) and his catatonic patients at Bronx Hospital. One of them, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) is the central character. The film is about the temporal awakening of the patients from their catatonic condition and then their tragic return to their previous state.
The film carries a great massage. It is kind of a wake up call. Just consider Leonard’s answer to the doctor’s question about what he is going to do now, when awakened–“I will do all the things that you people take for granted–I’ll go for a walk, I’ll look at things, I’ll talk to people…” The film tries to remind us about the real gifts of life, which we very often neglect.
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 film starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright Penn, based on the Winston Groom novel.
This is the life story of Forest Gump (Tom Hanks)–the weirdest and the kindest creature ever. This amazing story deals with the Vietnam war, the hippie counterculture and the rapidly changing political figures of the 20th century. The greatest thing about this movie is the contradiction of complexity and simplicity of life, of human nature and of the purest and strongest feelings. The combination of contrasts makes this movie impressive — once seen it’s very hard to forget. The movie soundtrack by Alan Silvestri is a real masterpiece. It is the vivid reflection of flow of life and the flow of all human emotions.
Requiem For A Dream
When I first saw this film I think my blood pressure was going up and down.
This is a 2000 movie by Darren Aronofsky starring Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans.
First of all the movie stands out for the genius camera work and for the style featuring extensive use of closeups, split screen and time lapse photography. All these style devices and the wonderful soundtrack by Clint Mansell “Lux Aeterna” maximally capture your entire self and you may really go mad for a while together with the characters.
The movie is about the three-season development of the characters’ lives. On their way to realize their dreams all four characters become drug addicted. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) uses amphetamine pills to cut her normal portion of daily food. She dreams to fit again into the red dress she wore at her son Harry’s graduation and to take part in an evening show on TV. Her son Harry (Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and his friend Tyrone are heroin addicts. They take up dealing heroin to earn enough money for Harry and Marion to open a fashion store for Marion’s designs, and for Tyrone to quit the street life and to make his mom proud. Eventually, all of them suffer total physical and moral deterioration.
If you have missed these movies, take the time to watch them; they are really worth it.
Photo © imdb
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