Highest-Rated Movies about 'Deep South', Sort by Popularity

A Lesson Before Dying (1999), The Defiant Ones (1958), The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2004), The Fugitive Kind (1960), Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2003), Harriet (2019), The Lords of Discipline (1983), Crimes of the Heart (1986) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Deep South movies.

#2. The Defiant Ones (1958)

Storyline: When the truck that is transporting convicts has an accident on the road, the inmates John "Joker" Jackson and Noah Cullen that are chained to each other escape. They hate each other but they need to help each other to succeed in their intent of going north to jump in a train and reach freedom. Meanwhile the humane Sheriff Max Muller organizes a posse to track them down in a civilized manner and respecting justice. Joker and Cullen reach a small farm where a lonely woman helps them to get rid of their chains. She offers to drive her car with Joker and her son Billy while Cullen would escape through the swamp to the railroad. But when Joker learns that she sent Cullen to a trap, he leaves her and is shot in the shoulder by Billy. Joker seeks out Cullen to save him and when they meet each other, their former hatred has changed to friendship and respect.

Plot Keywords: criminal, prisoner, sheriff, captain, landowner, brash, endearing ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#3. The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2004)

Storyline: This documentary presents a sobering reminder of the racial tensions that gripped America not so long ago. In Mississippi during the '50s, a black teenager named Emmett Louis Till, who is from Chicago and visiting his great-uncle, whistles at a white woman in public. Not too long afterward, he is kidnapped and murdered. The filmmakers revisit the public outrage that follows, revealing Till's family as being particularly brave for standing up to white racism when it was clearly unsafe to do so.

Plot Keywords: mother, civil rights activist, family member, sheriff, teenager, al sharpton, raw ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#4. The Fugitive Kind (1960)

Storyline: Having fled New Orleans to avoid arrest, the undeniably alluring Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (Val), a trouble-prone guitar-playing drifter, wanders into a small Mississippi town aiming to go straight and lead a quiet, simple life. He gets a job in the dry goods store owned by a sexually-frustrated middle-aged woman named Lady Torrence, whose sadistic elderly husband, Jabe, is dying. With an obscure past and passions of her own, Lady finds herself attracted to Val, pulsating with passion anew, as he presents an arousing antidote to her bitter marriage and small-town hum-drum life, but also vying for Val's attention are the alcoholic, sex-crazed Carol Cutrere and the unhappily-married Vee Talbot. Each bring their share of problems into Val's plans, himself equally tempted by these women though he succumbs to the charms of Lady. But the jealous Jabe is friends with Sheriff Talbot, who's also Vee's wife - things can't possibly end well for Val and Lady. The screenplay by Meade Roberts and Tennessee Williams is based on Williams' own 1957 play "Orpheus Descending".—pdlussier1

Plot Keywords: drifter, sick person, alcoholic, housewife, bleak, emotional, uneasy ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#5. Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2003)

Storyline: Traveling through the American South, documentarian Andrew Douglas trains his lens on Jim White, an alternative-country musician, as he performs in venues that range in variety from churches to coal mines. During this journey, White shares his experience of growing up in the Deep South, while Douglas interviews a number of other Southern musicians, artists and writers, attempting to gain a perspective on a unique culture that is often overlooked.

Plot Keywords: southerner, musician, singer, novelist, artist, writer, gritty ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#6. Harriet (2019)

Storyline: Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, Harriet tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.—Focus Features

Plot Keywords: freedom fighter, slave, slave trader, civil rights activist, civil rights leader, racist, cheery ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#7. The Lords of Discipline (1983)

Storyline: Will arrives for his last year at The Carolina Military Institute, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960s. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.—Matthew Stanfield <mattst@cogs.susx.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: cadet, military officer, racist, friend, tense, emotional, deep south ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#8. Crimes of the Heart (1986)

Storyline: Three sisters with quite different personalities and lives reunite when Babe, the youngest, has just shot her husband. Oldest sister Lenny takes care of their grandfather and is turning into an old maid. Meg, who aspires to make it in Hollywood as a singer and actress, has had a wild, man-filled life. Their reunion is joyful but also stirs up much tension.—Leon Wolters <wolters@strw.LeidenUniv.nl>

Plot Keywords: sister, mother, grandfather, singer, sibling, heartwarming, engaging ...

Movie Details Click Here!