Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Dream', Sort by Popularity

Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008), Sugar (2008), God's Country (1985), In America (2002), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), I Am Not Your Negro (2016), Which Way Home (2009) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Dream movies.

#1. Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008)

Storyline: This documentary presents the pervasive use of steroids in sports as an indication of the American obsession with winning at all costs. The Bell brothers have been sucked into the world of performance-enhancing drugs, thinking this is their ticket to realizing the American dream. Interviews with politicians, doctors, bodybuilders and coaches raise the question: Do the ends really justify the means? Because in the mad dash to win, an entire culture may be poised to lose.

Plot Keywords: filmmaker, brother, athlete, congressman, physician, coach, shocking ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#2. Sugar (2008)

Storyline: Like many young men in the Dominican Republic, 19-year-old Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Algenis Perez Soto) dreams of winning a slot on an American baseball team. Indeed, his talents as a pitcher eventually land him a slot on a single-A team in Iowa, but culture shock, racism and other curveballs threaten to turn Sugar's dream sour.

Plot Keywords: coach, baseball player, baseball pitcher, farmer, mother, friend, engaging ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#3. God's Country (1985)

Storyline: Acclaimed director Louis Malle's documentary examines the small Minnesota farming town of Glencoe at two separate times. In 1979, Malle profiles the town's sleepy, sometimes charming way of life and the citizens' less-than-refined values. When Malle and his crew return six years later, they encounter a town seized by economic woe. Farms are shutting down, citizens are angry with President Ronald Reagan, and an American way of life may be gone for good.

Plot Keywords: farmer, bride, groom, attorney, old man, old woman, profound ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#5. A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

Storyline: Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall...—Greg Bruno <burlynerd@usa.net>

Plot Keywords: son, mother, wife, widow, sister, suitor, emotional ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#6. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Storyline: The Joad clan, introduced to the world in John Steinbeck's iconic novel, is looking for a better life in California. After their drought-ridden farm is seized by the bank, the family -- led by just-paroled son Tom -- loads up a truck and heads West. On the road, beset by hardships, the Joads meet dozens of other families making the same trek and holding onto the same dream. Once in California, however, the Joads soon realize that the promised land isn't quite what they hoped.

Plot Keywords: ex-convict, sharecropper, priest, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, bleak ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#7. I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Storyline: In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished.—Jwelch5742

Plot Keywords: writer, agent, martin luther king jr., disturbing, engaging, inspiring, moving ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#8. Which Way Home (2009)

Storyline: "Which Way Home" is a feature documentary film that follows unaccompanied child migrants, on their journey through Mexico, as they try to reach the United States. We follow children like Olga and Freddy, nine-year old Hondurans, who are desperately trying to reach their parents in the US.; children like Jose, a ten-year old El Salvadoran, who has been abandoned by smugglers and ends up alone in a Mexican detention center; and Kevin, a canny, streetwise fourteen-year old Honduran, whose mother hopes that he will reach the U.S. and send money back to her. These are stories of hope and courage, disappointment and sorrow. They are the children you never hear about; the invisible ones.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: migrant, immigrant, young boy, young girl, teen boy, emotional, engaging ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#9. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Storyline: Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.

Plot Keywords: gambler, prostitute, businessman, bounty hunter, profound, moving, dreamy ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#10. In America (2002)

Storyline: Following the tragic death of their five-year-old son Frankie, Irish couple Johnny and Sarah Sullivan and their remaining two offspring, 10 year old Christy Sullivan and 5 year old Ariel Sullivan, emigrate illegally to the United States via Canada with little in their pockets. Their final destination is Manhattan where Johnny hopes to work as a stage actor. They move into a unit in a run town tenement housed primarily with drug addicts, transvestites and one tenant coined "the man who screams". They do whatever they can to eke out a supportive family environment in this difficult situation, the support which ultimately extends to those around them, most specifically "the screamer" who turns out to be an African-American artist named Mateo with AIDS. But the memory of Frankie hangs over the family in good and bad ways, especially as Sarah learns she's pregnant. Christy, who records their life's goings-on with her beloved camcorder, believes that the angel of Frankie has granted her ...

Plot Keywords: young girl, actor, mother, daughter, son, endearing, charming ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#11. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Storyline: The big-screen version of Hunter S. Thompson's seminal psychedelic classic about his road trip across Western America as he and his large Samoan lawyer searched desperately for the "American dream"... they were helped in large part by the huge amount of drugs and alcohol kept in their convertible, The Red Shark.

Plot Keywords: journalist, lawyer, hitchhiker, waitress, police officer, musician, unrestrained ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#12. Bigger Than Life (1956)

Storyline: Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery, who's been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts, is hospitalized with what's diagnosed as a rare inflammation of the arteries. Told by doctors that he probably has only months to live, Ed agrees to an experimental treatment: doses of the hormone cortisone. Ed makes a remarkable recovery, and returns home to his wife, Lou, and their son, Richie. He must keep taking cortisone tablets regularly to prevent a recurrence of his illness. But the "miracle" cure turns into its own nightmare as Ed starts to abuse the tablets, causing him to experience increasingly wild mood swings.—Eugene Kim <genekim@concentric.net>

Plot Keywords: schoolteacher, wife, friend, son, doctor, dark, gripping ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#13. Of Mice and Men (1992)

Storyline: Two traveling companions, George and Lennie, wander the country during the Depression, dreaming of a better life for themselves. Then, just as heaven is within their grasp, it is inevitably yanked away. The film follows Steinbeck's novel closely, exploring questions of strength, weakness, usefulness, reality and utopia, bringing Steinbeck's California vividly to life.

Plot Keywords: drifter, giant, wife, abusive husband, worker, sad, profound ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#14. Big Night (1996)

Storyline: Primo and Secondo are two brothers who have emigrated from Italy to open an Italian restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef, brilliant in his culinary genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man, trying to keep the restaurant financially afloat, despite few patrons other than a poor artist who pays with his paintings. The owner of the nearby Pascal's restaurant, enormously successful (despite its mediocre fare), offers a solution, he will call his friend, a big-time jazz musician, to play a special benefit at their restaurant. Primo begins to prepare his masterpiece, a feast of a lifetime, for the brothers' big night.

Plot Keywords: chef, restaurant manager, restaurant owner, girlfriend, wife, brother, winsome ...

Movie Details Click Here!