MTDb › Best of › Drama › 1960s
Best Drama Movies of the 1960s
#1 Harakiri (1962) · ★ 8.4 · 1,233 votes · 2h 15m · action, drama, historyDown-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a wort…
#2 High and Low (1963) · ★ 8.4 · 1,201 votes · 2h 22m · thriller, drama, crimeA Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.…
#3 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) · ★ 8.3 · 4,947 votes · 2h 46m · drama, westernAs the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new li…
#4 The Apartment (1960) · ★ 8.2 · 2,792 votes · 2h 6m · comedy, romance, dramaBud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a pl…
#5 Il Sorpasso (1962) · ★ 8.2 · 864 votes · 1h 45m · comedy, adventure, dramaRoberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer. When t…
#6 Le Trou (1960) · ★ 8.2 · 602 votes · 2h 12m · thriller, drama, crimeFour prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan wi…
#7 Woman in the Dunes (1964) · ★ 8.2 · 538 votes · 2h 27m · thriller, dramaA vacationing entomologist suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whos…
#8 8½ (1963) · ★ 8.1 · 2,601 votes · 2h 19m · dramaGuido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gat…
#9 Persona (1966) · ★ 8.1 · 2,414 votes · 1h 25m · dramaA young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisa…
#10 Yojimbo (1961) · ★ 8.1 · 1,758 votes · 1h 50m · thriller, dramaA nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the n…
#11 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) · ★ 8.0 · 2,961 votes · 2h 9m · dramaScout Finch, 6, and her older brother Jem live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor,…
#12 La Dolce Vita (1960) · ★ 8.0 · 2,067 votes · 2h 54m · comedy, dramaEpisodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by h…
#13 Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) · ★ 8.0 · 990 votes · 3h 11m · drama, history, warIn 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears eviden…
#14 Rocco and His Brothers (1960) · ★ 8.0 · 684 votes · 2h 58m · romance, drama, crimeWhen a impoverished widow’s family moves to the big city, two of her five sons become romantic rivals with deadly results.…
#15 The Great Escape (1963) · ★ 7.9 · 2,953 votes · 2h 53m · adventure, thriller, dramaThe Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to si…
#16 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) · ★ 7.9 · 1,193 votes · 2h 15m · thriller, drama, horrorA former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.…
#17 La Jetée (1962) · ★ 7.9 · 1,049 votes · 0h 29m · romance, drama, science-fictionA man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.…
#18 Andrei Rublev (1966) · ★ 7.9 · 982 votes · 3h 3m · drama, historyAn expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk…
#19 The Battle of Algiers (1966) · ★ 7.9 · 934 votes · 2h 2m · drama, history, warFormer petty criminal Ali la Pointe becomes a commander of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directing a guerilla insurgency against the colonial French occupation. Parat…
#20 Army of Shadows (1969) · ★ 7.9 · 781 votes · 2h 25m · thriller, drama, historyBetrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, an…
#21 The Exterminating Angel (1962) · ★ 7.9 · 772 votes · 1h 33m · comedy, fantasy, dramaAfter a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves unable to depart... and, over the next few days, all of their elaborate societal pretenses and façades deteriorate as they a…
#22 La Notte (1961) · ★ 7.9 · 760 votes · 2h 2m · romance, dramaA day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship in Milan.…
#23 Sanjuro (1962) · ★ 7.9 · 749 votes · 1h 36m · action, comedy, dramaIn this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns t…
#24 Winter Light (1963) · ★ 7.9 · 521 votes · 1h 20m · dramaA Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.…
#25 Rosemary's Baby (1968) · ★ 7.8 · 4,510 votes · 2h 18m · thriller, drama, horrorA young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.…
#26 Le Samouraï (1967) · ★ 7.8 · 1,313 votes · 1h 45m · thriller, drama, crimeAfter carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless em…
#27 Ivan's Childhood (1962) · ★ 7.8 · 857 votes · 1h 35m · drama, warIn WW2, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers.…
#28 The Virgin Spring (1960) · ★ 7.8 · 692 votes · 1h 30m · drama, historyDevout Christians Töre and Märeta send their only daughter, the virginal Karin, and their foster daughter, the unrepentant Ingeri, to deliver candles to a distant church. On their…
#29 Z (1969) · ★ 7.8 · 653 votes · 2h 2m · thriller, drama, crimeA prominent politician is murdered during a demonstration. The government and army are trying to suppress the truth, but a tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get aw…
#30 Two Women (1960) · ★ 7.8 · 589 votes · 1h 40m · drama, warA young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.…
#31 Through a Glass Darkly (1961) · ★ 7.8 · 555 votes · 1h 31m · dramaKarin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrat…
#32 Planet of the Apes (1968) · ★ 7.7 · 4,129 votes · 1h 52m · action, adventure, dramaAstronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his lif…
#33 The Sound of Music (1965) · ★ 7.7 · 3,750 votes · 2h 54m · romance, drama, familyIn the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children and brings a new lov…
#34 Cool Hand Luke (1967) · ★ 7.7 · 1,665 votes · 2h 7m · action, drama, crimeWhen petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragli…
#35 In the Heat of the Night (1967) · ★ 7.7 · 1,290 votes · 1h 49m · thriller, drama, crimeAfrican-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs p…
#36 The Hustler (1961) · ★ 7.7 · 1,126 votes · 2h 14m · romance, dramaFast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stak…
#37 The Leopard (1963) · ★ 7.7 · 982 votes · 3h 6m · dramaAs Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.…
#38 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) · ★ 7.7 · 941 votes · 2h 11m · dramaA history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto…
#39 Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) · ★ 7.7 · 783 votes · 1h 30m · dramaAgnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minu…
#40 Vivre Sa Vie (1962) · ★ 7.7 · 723 votes · 1h 24m · dramaTwelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.…