15 Best Drama Movies on Peacock
If you’re looking for drama, Peacock can punch your ticket. Here are our choices for 15 great dramatic movies worth your watch.
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The Godfather
March 14, 1972Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
Often cited as one of the greatest movies ever made, “The Godfather” is endlessly rewatchable and endlessly quotable. Francis Ford Coppola created a masterpiece with an unforgettable cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, and Diane Keaton.
The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Mario Puzo and Coppola). From the first line (“I believe in America”) to the last image of a closing door, this movie is a phenomenon.
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The Godfather Part II
December 20, 1974In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Cuba.
Like its predecessor, this movie is considered among the best films ever made. Its dueling timelines outline the rise and fall of the Corleone crime family, and the betrayals and bloodshed that shaped it. The cast is marvelous with Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Talia Shire, John Cazale, Lee Strasberg, and Michael Gazzo.
The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (De Niro), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Original Dramatic Score. It was the first sequel ever to win Best Picture.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
March 19, 2004Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realizes that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.
This is one of Jim Carrey’s best films. He pulls back his manic energy to reveal a fragile soul, broken by an ill-fated love. Kate Winslet is fantastic as a free spirit who simultaneously excites and torments her boyfriend. If you’ve ever had a broken heart, this movie will speak to you on several different levels.
The supporting cast is also great, with Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, David Cross, Kirsten Dunst, and Tom Wilkinson.
The movie comes from Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman, the team behind other mind-bending classics like “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation.”
This incredible movie is a must-see for anyone who’s had their heart broken. It’s brilliant and touching and unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
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Casino
November 22, 1995In early-1970s Las Vegas, Sam “Ace” Rothstein gets tapped by his bosses to head the Tangiers Casino. At first, he’s a great success in the job, but over the years, problems with his loose-cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro, his ex-hustler wife Ginger, her con-artist ex Lester Diamond and a handful of corrupt politicians put Sam in ever-increasing danger.
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The Hurricane
September 17, 1999The story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
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Traffic
December 27, 2000An exploration of the United States of America’s war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin’s sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband’s ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.
This brilliant film won four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor (Benicio Del Toro), Best Director (Steven Soderbergh), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. The cast is top-notch beyond Del Toro, including Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán, Miguel Ferrer, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Brolin, Albert Finney, Dennis Quaid, Viola Davis, John Slattery, and Benjamin Bratt.
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Scarface
December 9, 1983After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
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Philadelphia
December 22, 1993Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
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Out of Africa
December 20, 1985Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.
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Psycho
June 22, 1960When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) cares for his housebound mother.
The impact of this Alfred Hitchcock classic cannot be understated. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Leigh) and Best Director (Hitchcock). In 1992, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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The Deer Hunter
December 8, 1978A group of working-class friends decide to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam War and find it to be hellish chaos — not the noble venture they imagined. Before they left, Steven married his pregnant girlfriend — and Michael and Nick were in love with the same woman. But all three are different men upon their return.
This landmark of 70s cinema features an amazing cast with Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken. It begins with a lengthy wedding scene, drawing you into the world of these working-class Pennsylvanians. By the time the film shifts to Vietnam, it becomes a tense life-or-death struggle.
“The Deer Hunter” was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won 5: Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Cimino), Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.
This was the final movie of the great actor John Cazale, who fought terminal cancer to film his scenes.
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Brazil
February 20, 1985Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.
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American Gangster
November 2, 2007Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Partly based on a true story.
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Ray
October 29, 2004Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
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TÁR
September 23, 2022As celebrated conductor Lydia Tár starts rehearsals for a career-defining symphony, the consequences of her past choices begin to echo in the present.
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