Highest-Rated Movies about 'Abuse', Sort by Popularity

Stevie (2002), The Godfather: Part II (1974), Affliction (1997), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), Pather Panchali (1955), The Road to Guantanamo (2006), High and Low (1963) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Abuse movies.

#16. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Storyline: Blanche DuBois, a high school English teacher with an aristocratic background from Auriol, Mississippi, decides to move to live with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley Kowalski, in New Orleans after creditors take over the family property, Belle Reve. Blanche has also decided to take a break from teaching as she states the situation has frayed her nerves. Knowing nothing about Stanley or the Kowalskis' lives, Blanche is shocked to find that they live in a cramped and run down ground floor apartment - which she proceeds to beautify by putting shades over the open light bulbs to soften the lighting - and that Stanley is not the gentleman that she is used to in men. As such, Blanche and Stanley have an antagonistic relationship from the start. Blanche finds that Stanley's hyper-masculinity, which often displays itself in physical outbursts, is common, coarse and vulgar, being common which in turn is what attracted Stella to him. Beyond finding Blanche's delicate ...

Plot Keywords: sister, husband, wife, emotional, tense, sultry, new orleans ...

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#18. Kes (1969)

Storyline: Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper (David Bradley), a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher Mr. Farthing (Colin Welland) and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence, until tragedy strikes.

Plot Keywords: young boy, falcon, mother, brother, bleak, spirited, england ...

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#19. That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)

Storyline: Just after boarding a train, much to the surprise of his fellow passengers, a man pours a bucket of water over a young girl on the platform. Over the next few hours he explains (and we see in flashback) how he became obsessed by her (so much so that he failed to notice that she was played by two different actresses, representing different sides of her personality), and how she tantalised him, but would never allow him to satisfy his desire for her...

Plot Keywords: dancer, wealthy man, mother, daughter, dwarf, brutal, charming ...

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#20. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Storyline: This is the story of a donkey and the somewhat difficult life it leads. During a summer holiday, the baby donkey is a child's pet but when they return home, it begins it's life of misery. It works as a farm animal, pulling a delivery cart and working as any manner as various owners require of it. Meanwhile, the young girl who first acquired Balthazar as a pet grows up, only to be badly treated herself by an indifferent and selfish boyfriend.

Plot Keywords: girl, donkey, boyfriend, owner, bleak, profound, moving ...

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#21. Once Were Warriors (1994)

Storyline: Set in urban Auckland (New Zealand) this movie tells the story of the Heke family. Jake Heke is a violent man who beats his wife frequently when drunk, and yet obviously loves both her and his family. The movie follows a period of several weeks in the family's life showing Jake's frequent outburst of violence and the effect that this has on his family. The youngest son is in trouble with the police and may be put into a foster home while the elder son is about to join a street gang. Jake's daughter has her own serious problems which are a key element in the plot.

Plot Keywords: abusive husband, wife, gang member, foster child, poet, brutal, bleak ...

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#22. The Glass House (1972)

Storyline: At first, Brian (Clu Gulager) is thrilled to start his new job as a prison guard. But then he encounters an alarming amount of corruption involving the warden and his fellow guards. Meanwhile, an unlikely new inmate arrives: quiet professor Jonathan Paige (Alan Alda), convicted on charges of murder in self-defense. Things look bad for Paige when he runs afoul of Hugo Slocum (Vic Morrow), top dog of the vicious prison gangs. Brian wants to interfere, but the prison staff remains indifferent.

Plot Keywords: professor, prison guard, inmate, gang leader, warden, black man, gritty ...

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#24. Evil (2003)

Storyline: Erik is expelled from school for fighting. He ends up at a private boarding school where the senior students control the young ones. Erik finds a friend in Pierre, his room mate. The story revolves around Erik who just wishes to be left alone and graduate. He doesn't listen to what the seniors have to say and they don't like it.

Plot Keywords: teenager, mother, stepfather, bully, brutal, brooding, household ...

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#25. Scarlet Street (1945)

Storyline: Chris Cross, 25 years a cashier, has a gold watch and little else. That rainy night, he rescues delectable Kitty from her abusive boyfriend Johnny. Smitten, amateur painter Chris lets Kitty think he's a wealthy artist. At Johnny's urging, she lets Chris establish her in an apartment (with his shrewish wife's money). There, Chris paints masterpieces; but Johnny sells them under Kitty's name, with disastrous and ironic results.

Plot Keywords: artist, femme fatale, criminal, wife, dark, intense, suspenseful ...

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#26. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Storyline: Herzog's film is based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note; he later explained that he had been held captive in a dungeon of some sort for his entire life that he could remember, and only recently was he released, for reasons unknown. His benefactor attempts to integrate him into society, with intriguing results.

Plot Keywords: professor, captor, servant, circus performer, dark, disheartening, spirited ...

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#27. The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Storyline: In the early 1970s Nicholas Garrigan, a young semi-idealistic Scottish doctor, comes to Uganda to assist in a rural hospital. Once there he soon meets up with the new President, Idi Amin, who promises a golden age for the African nation. Garrigan hits it off immediately with the rabid Scotland fan, who soon offers him a senior position in the national health department and becomes one of Amin's closest advisers. However as the years pass, Garrigan cannot help but notice Amin's increasingly erratic behavior that grows beyond a legitimate fear of assassination into a murderous insanity that is driving Uganda into bloody ruin. Realizing his dire situation with the lunatic leader unwilling to let him go home, Garrigan must make some crucial decisions that could mean his death if the despot finds out.

Plot Keywords: dictator, doctor, victim, soldier, father, emotional, gritty ...

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#28. The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

Storyline: A thoroughly mind-provoking film about 3 young women who, under tragic circumstances, see themselves cast away to a Magdalene Asylum for young women in 1964. One of many like institutions, the asylums are run like prisons and young girls are forced to do workhouse laundry and hard labor. The asylum, one of many that existed in theocratic Catholic Ireland, is for supposedly 'fallen' women. Here, young girls are imprisoned indefinitely and endure agonizing punishments and a long, harsh working system which leaves them physically drained and mentally damaged. As the girls bond together, it soon becomes clear that the only way out of the Magdalene convent is to escape, but with twisted Sister Bridget running the wing, any chances seem limited...

Plot Keywords: teen girl, mother superior, nun, rebel, orphan, inmate, bleak ...

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#29. The Experiment (2001)

Storyline: The movie is based on the infamous "Stanford Prison Experiment" conducted in 1971. A makeshift prison is set up in a research lab, complete with cells, bars and surveillance cameras. For two weeks 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards. The 'prisoners' are locked up and have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the 'guards' are told simply to retain order without using physical violence. Everybody is free to quit at any time, thereby forfeiting payment. In the beginning the mood between both groups is insecure and rather emphatic. But soon quarrels arise and the wardens employ ever more drastic sanctions to confirm their authority.—<armin@sfb288.math.tu-berlin.de>

Plot Keywords: prisoner, guard, soldier, psychologist, leader, chilling, intense ...

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#30. The Lower Depths (1937)

Storyline: The winner of the Louis Delluc Prize as the most outstanding French photo-play of 1936, as selected by the Young Independent Critics of France (an organization and not a description.) The film treats the imprisoning hold of poverty; the disheartening odds of people rising from such social despair, and the ease in which those in the upper spheres of Society may descend.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: landlady, landlord, sister, thief, actor, baron, dark ...

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