MTDb › Best of › Drama › 1980s
Best Drama Movies of the 1980s
#1 Twin Peaks (1989) · ★ 8.5 · 677 votes · 1h 56m · tv-movie, thriller, dramaAn idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. (This standalone version of the series pilot was produced for…
#2 Grave of the Fireflies (1988) · ★ 8.4 · 6,595 votes · 1h 29m · drama, animation, warIn the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with t…
#3 Once Upon a Time in America (1984) · ★ 8.4 · 6,237 votes · 2h 19m · drama, crimeA former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old li…
#4 Cinema Paradiso (1988) · ★ 8.4 · 4,985 votes · 2h 4m · romance, dramaA filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.…
#5 Dead Poets Society (1989) · ★ 8.3 · 13,001 votes · 2h 9m · dramaAt an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, cour…
#6 Scarface (1983) · ★ 8.2 · 13,380 votes · 2h 50m · action, drama, crimeAfter 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…
#7 Come and See (1985) · ★ 8.2 · 1,977 votes · 2h 22m · drama, horror, historyThe invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Flyora into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl,…
#8 Full Metal Jacket (1987) · ★ 8.1 · 11,786 votes · 1h 57m · drama, warA pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.…
#9 The Elephant Man (1980) · ★ 8.1 · 4,063 votes · 2h 4m · drama, historyA Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intellig…
#10 Das Boot (1981) · ★ 8.1 · 2,651 votes · 2h 30m · drama, history, warA German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and t…
#11 Paris, Texas (1984) · ★ 8.1 · 2,333 votes · 2h 25m · dramaA man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeare…
#12 Amadeus (1984) · ★ 8.0 · 4,937 votes · 2h 40m · drama, history, musicDisciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus M…
#13 Ran (1985) · ★ 8.0 · 1,921 votes · 2h 40m · action, drama, historyShakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.…
#14 Blade Runner (1982) · ★ 7.9 · 15,447 votes · 1h 58m · thriller, drama, science-fictionIn the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their…
#15 Raging Bull (1980) · ★ 7.9 · 4,905 votes · 2h 9m · drama, historyThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.…
#16 Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) · ★ 7.9 · 1,687 votes · 1h 35m · drama, musicA troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.…
#17 Stand by Me (1986) · ★ 7.8 · 6,752 votes · 1h 29m · adventure, drama, crimeAfter learning that a boy their age has been accidentally killed near their rural homes, four boys decide to go see the body. Gordie, Vern, Chris, and Teddy encounter a mean junk m…
#18 The Untouchables (1987) · ★ 7.8 · 6,345 votes · 1h 59m · thriller, drama, historyElliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.…
#19 The King of Comedy (1982) · ★ 7.8 · 2,682 votes · 1h 49m · comedy, dramaAspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.…
#20 Do the Right Thing (1989) · ★ 7.8 · 2,061 votes · 2h 0m · dramaSal is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Bug…
#21 Wings of Desire (1987) · ★ 7.8 · 1,540 votes · 2h 8m · fantasy, romance, dramaTwo angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting wit…
#22 Fanny and Alexander (1982) · ★ 7.8 · 918 votes · 3h 8m · fantasy, drama, mysteryAs children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the si…
#23 Kagemusha (1980) · ★ 7.8 · 772 votes · 3h 0m · action, drama, historyAkira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When…
#24 Nostalgia (1983) · ★ 7.8 · 629 votes · 2h 4m · romance, dramaRussian poet Andrei Gorchakov journeys through Italy with his interpreter Eugenia to research the life of an 18th-century Russian composer who once lived abroad. Isolated and consu…
#25 The Breakfast Club (1985) · ★ 7.7 · 8,752 votes · 1h 38m · comedy, dramaFive high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast…
#26 Rain Man (1988) · ★ 7.7 · 7,367 votes · 2h 14m · dramaWhen car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and th…
#27 Platoon (1986) · ★ 7.7 · 5,309 votes · 2h 0m · action, drama, warAs a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.…
#28 The Color Purple (1985) · ★ 7.7 · 2,041 votes · 2h 34m · drama, history, crimeAn epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marrie…
#29 Mississippi Burning (1988) · ★ 7.7 · 2,031 votes · 2h 8m · thriller, drama, crimeTwo FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and…
#30 The Sacrifice (1986) · ★ 7.7 · 638 votes · 2h 29m · dramaAlexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.…
#31 Jean de Florette (1986) · ★ 7.7 · 629 votes · 2h 2m · dramaIn a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers…
#32 Blue Velvet (1986) · ★ 7.6 · 3,969 votes · 2h 0m · thriller, drama, crimeThe discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminal…
#33 Gandhi (1982) · ★ 7.6 · 2,580 votes · 3h 12m · drama, historyIn the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed…
#34 The Last Emperor (1987) · ★ 7.6 · 1,994 votes · 2h 43m · drama, historyA dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through…
#35 The Killer (1989) · ★ 7.6 · 945 votes · 1h 50m · action, thriller, dramaMob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteus…
#36 Fitzcarraldo (1982) · ★ 7.6 · 919 votes · 2h 37m · adventure, dramaFitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubb…
#37 Maurice (1987) · ★ 7.6 · 635 votes · 2h 20m · romance, dramaAfter his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.…
#38 Manon of the Spring (1986) · ★ 7.6 · 581 votes · 1h 55m · dramaIn this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily…
#39 First Blood (1982) · ★ 7.5 · 7,144 votes · 1h 33m · action, adventure, thrillerWhen former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war agains…
#40 The Name of the Rose (1986) · ★ 7.5 · 3,395 votes · 2h 10m · thriller, drama, mystery14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To sol…