Huey Long (1985), Boys Town (1938), Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Heavens Above! (1963), Violent Playground (1958), Black Fury (1935), Gabriel Over the White House (1933) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Social Reform movies.
Storyline: Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor/U.S. senator Huey Long.
Plot Keywords: documentary, history, politics, biography, usa, louisiana, social reform ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't have led a life of crime if only he had had one friend as a child, Father Edward Flanagan decides to take action. An advocate of child rights and an opponent of the severe approach to juvenile delinquency at the time, Flanagan genuinely believes that there is no such thing as a bad boy. Starting with just a few boys in a rented house, Father Flanagan eventually establishes Boys Town on 200 acres of land 10 miles outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Much of the film focuses on Flanagan's attempts to influence one boy, Whitey Marsh, who will become a hoodlum if he doesn't change his ways. When Whitey is implicated in a bank robbery, it puts all of Boys Town at risk. Throughout it all Flanagan has to fight prejudice in those who believe delinquents should just be locked up and the never-ending shortage of money to accomplish his goals.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: drama, family, biography, social issues, orphans, education, youth ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Keshav and Jaya are from two villages near Mathura where at least 80% of households have no access to lavatories. Conflict comes knocking on the first day of their marriage, when Jaya discovers that Keshav's home has no toilet and she leaves. Distraught and desperate, Keshav embarks on a mission to win back his love by battling against the age-old traditions, mindset, and value system of his country.
Plot Keywords: romance, comedy, social issue, indian cinema, marriage, cultural conflict, rural life ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Edna marries Texan Sam Gladney, operator of a wheat mill. Edna discovers by chance how the law treats children who are without parents and decides to do something about it. She opens a home for foundlings and orphans and begins to place children in good homes, despite the opposition of "conservative" citizens, who would condemn illegitimate children for being born out of wedlock. Eventually Edna leads a fight in the Texas legislature to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from birth records in that state, while continuing to be an advocate for homeless children.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>
Plot Keywords: drama, biography, romance, family, social issues, female protagonist, orphans ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the upper crust town of Orbiston Parva which is ostensibly ruled by the wealthy Despard family who owns and operates the town's major employer, the local Tranquilax factory (the product a so-called restorative), the Church of England's Archdeacon Aspinall, who oversees among other churches Holy Trinity, recommends to widowed Lady Lucy Despard, the town's "matriarch", that they hire Reverend John Smallwood, whose family the Archdeacon has known most his life, to fill the currently vacant vicar position for Holy Trinity, Smallwood the type of man who would fit well into the town's upper crust sensibility. Through a clerical error, who the church hires instead is Reverend John Edward Smallwood, a totally different man in almost every respect beyond the job title of reverend, including being somewhat naive in mind. Through what is seen as his unconventional actions both from a church and Orbiston Parva community standpoint, such as hiring Matthew Robinson, a dustman and, gasp, black man, as the church's new warden, and taking into the vicarage the extremely large Smith family, who had been squatting on Tranquilax land now slated for factory expansion, and the adults of which who have decided living off the British welfare system more lucrative than actually working, Smallwood exposes the truly unchristian nature of the townsfolk as a collective, including members of this and other Christian denominational churches. While Smallwood does have a truly positive spiritual effect on some, his actions create an unintentional domino effect which leads to chaos as some cannot break with what they see as their traditions, however unchristian they are.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: comedy, satire, social, religious, british, black and white, 1960s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Struggle between a Liverpool Juvenile Liaison officer and a young and dangerous pyromaniac.
Plot Keywords: crime, social issues, police, gangs, violence, british film, film noir ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An immigrant coal miner finds himself in the middle of a bitter labor dispute between the workers and the mine owners.
Plot Keywords: working class, social justice, 1930s, workers' rights, social realism, political conspiracy, judicial injustice ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Newly inaugurated President Judson Hammond is content to live out the next four years exercising a hands-off approach and leaving the problems of Depression America to local authorities. But after a miraculous recovery from an auto accident, Hammond is ready to take on every social ill and neither Congress, gangsters nor the nations of the world will stop him.—Erik Gregersen <erik@astro.as.utexas.edu>
Plot Keywords: political allegory, great depression, dictatorship, american politics, social reform, idealism, corruption ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: During WWI, Ann Vickers, a humanitarian who is just starting the adult phase of her life, wants to make a difference in the world - using her friend Dr. Malvina Wormser as a role model - but she also wants a fulfilling personal life. She isn't sure if she can accomplish both at the same time. So after a failed relationship with soldier Captain Lafe Resnick which includes a deeper personal tragedy for her, Ann decides instead to focus solely on her career. With a background in nursing and social work, she decides the area of her work will be in prison reform. Her lofty goals do not sit well with many of the male traditionalists in the field, they who may stop her from accomplishing what she wants, at her own personal reputation at risk. Although she has a multitude of wannabe suitors, it isn't until she meets Supreme Court judge Barney Dolphin that she contemplates having that fulfilling personal life at the same time as having a career. But the road to a possible happy ending for Ann and Barney will be a difficult one as he is already married (although he has long wanted a divorce, even before meeting Ann) and as he goes through a career threatening issue which may tarnish his good name.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, female lead, social issues, prison, adaptation, novel adaptation ...
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