Essential Classic Dramas

Our list of Essential Classic Dramas offers a world of cinematic contrasts, from intimate character studies to historical epics, from pioneering silent dramas to widescreen showpieces. Whether fact-based or drawn from classic literature, whether conjured on Hollywood soundstages or shot in distant locations, all share an enduring dramatic power.


1. Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition) (2pc) (Full B&W)
Battleship Potemkin (The Ultimate Edition) (2pc) (Full B&W;) (1925)
DVD ~ Sergei Eisenstein
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4.3
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Kino International
October 23, 2007
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Sergei Eisenstein's revolutionary sophomore feature has so long stood as a textbook example of montage editing that many have forgotten what an invigoratingly cinematic experience he created. A 20th-anniversary tribute to the 1905 revolution, Eisenstein po... Read more

2. The Passion of Joan of Arc: The Criterion Collection
The Passion of Joan of Arc: The Criterion Collection (1928)
DVD ~ Maria Falconetti
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4.8
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Criterion
October 19, 1999
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Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is as truly mythic as any film ever shot, its artistic achievement rivaled by its turbulent history. The focal point of controversy when released in 1928, the original film was lost for a half-century until an intact copy of Dreyer's original ... Read more

3. Only Angels Have Wings
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
DVD ~ Cary Grant
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4.2
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Sony Pictures
August 31, 1999
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Hands down, Only Angels Have Wings is one of the most buoyantly entertaining movies in the American cinema. It is also a razor-sharp example of the action-oriented films of Howard Hawks, the wide-ranging auteur who would go on to make To Have and Have Not and Red River. This ... Read more

4. Gone with the Wind (Four-Disc Collector's Edition)
Gone with the Wind (Four-Disc Collector's Edition) (1941)
DVD ~ Clark Gable
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4.4
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Warner Home Video
November 9, 2004
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David O. Selznick wanted Gone with the Wind to be somehow more than a movie, a film that would broaden the very idea of what a film could be and do and look like. In many respects he got what he worked so hard to achieve in this 1939 ... Read more

5. Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1941)
DVD ~ Orson Welles
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4.1
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Turner Home Ent
September 25, 2001
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Arguably the greatest of American films, Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece, made when he was only 26, still unfurls like a dream and carries the viewer along the mysterious currents of time and memory to reach a mature (if ambiguous) conclusion: people are t... Read more

6. Casablanca (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Casablanca (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1943)
DVD ~ Humphrey Bogart
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4.6
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Warner Home Video
August 5, 2003
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A truly perfect movie, the 1942 Casablanca still wows viewers today, and for good reason. Its unique story of a love triangle set against terribly high stakes in the war against a monster is sophisticated instead of outlandish, intriguing instead of garish. Humphrey Bogart plays the allegedly apolitical club ... Read more

7. A Streetcar Named Desire (Two-Disc Special Edition)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1951)
DVD ~ Vivien Leigh
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4.5
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Warner Home Video
May 2, 2006
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Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic turn as Stanley Kowalski in ... Read more

8. Seven Samurai: The Criterion Collection (Three-Disc Edition)
Seven Samurai: The Criterion Collection (Three-Disc Edition) (1954)
DVD ~ Takashi Shimura
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4.7
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Criterion
September 5, 2006
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Hailed as the greatest film in the history of Japanese cinema, ... Read more

9. Lawrence of Arabia (Collector's Edition, 2 discs) - DVD
Lawrence of Arabia (Collector's Edition, 2 discs) - DVD (1962)
DVD ~ Peter O'Toole
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4.7
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Columbia Tri/Star
April 15, 2008
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There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching ... Read more

10. To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal Legacy Series)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal Legacy Series) (1962)
DVD ~ Gregory Peck
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4.7
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Universal Studios
September 6, 2005
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Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, ... Read more