Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Dream'

The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Shining (1980), American Beauty (1999), Citizen Kane (1941), There Will Be Blood (2007), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Last Picture Show (1971) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Dream movies.

#16. Watchmen (2009)

Storyline: In a gritty and alternate 1985 the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so discover a deeper and far more diabolical plot.

Plot Keywords: rape, masked vigilante, conspiracy, nihilist, false promise of the american dream, female rear nudity, female nudity ...

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#17. The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Storyline: The path of Francesca Johnson's (Meryl Streep's) future seems destined when an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she had come to expect from life. While her husband and children are away at the Illinois State Fair in the summer of 1965, Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) happens to turn into the Johnson farm and asks Francesca for directions to Roseman Bridge. Francesca later learns that he was in Iowa on assignment from National Geographic Magazine. She is reluctant seeing that he's a complete stranger, and then she agrees to show him to the bridges and gradually she talks about her life from being a war-bride from Italy which sets the pace for this bittersweet and all-too-brief romance of her life. Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the details of her life consume her, she writes her thoughts of the four-day love affair which took up three journals. The journals are found by her children after the lawyer ...

Plot Keywords: based on novel, photography, flashback, revelation, rural setting, sex in a bathtub, husband wife relationship ...

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#18. American Psycho (2000)

Storyline: Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments with fear and violence.

Plot Keywords: narcissism, materialism, serial murder, 1980s, violence, business card, chainsaw ...

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#19. The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Storyline: In the final installment of the Godfather Trilogy, an aging Don Michael Corleone seeks to legitimize his crime family's interests and remove himself from the violent underworld but is kept back by the ambitions of the young. While he attempts to link the Corleone's finances with the Vatican, Michael must deal with the machinations of a hungrier gangster seeking to upset the existing Mafioso order and a young protege's love affair with his daughter.

Plot Keywords: opera, father son relationship, father daughter relationship, italian american, sicily, organized crime, mob hit ...

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#20. West Side Story (1961)

Storyline: West Side Story is the award-winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, "Romeo and Juliet". The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding. But when Riff's best friend (and former Jet) Tony and Bernardo's younger sister Maria meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. Then the Sharks and Jets plan a rumble under the highway - whoever wins gains control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence. It goes terribly wrong, and before the lovers know what's happened, tragedy strikes and doesn't stop until the climactic and heartbreaking ending.

Plot Keywords: interracial romance, hate, juvenile delinquency, urban setting, singing, policeman, boyfriend girlfriend relationship ...

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#21. Pleasantville (1998)

Storyline: David Wagner is a kid whose mind is stuck in the 1950s. He's addicted to a classic 50's sitcom television show called "Pleasantville". Pleasantville is a simple place, a place where all of its citizens are swell and simple-minded folks, a place where the word "violence", and life outside of Pleasantville, is unbeknownst to its inhabitants; things are perfect down in Pleasantville. One evening, the life of David and his obnoxious sister Jennifer take a bizarre turn when an eccentric repairman hand them a supposed magical remote. After a quarrel between the siblings, they inexplicably zap themselves into the world of "Pleasantville". Now, David and Jennifer must adjust to a 50s lifestyle of repressed desires and considerably different societal values while trying to find their way home.

Plot Keywords: 1950s, censorship, symbolism, rebellion, art, apple, alternate dimension ...

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#22. Milk (2008)

Storyline: Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco's growing gay community, and organizes gays' purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city's conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk's relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to bar gays and their supporters from public school jobs.

Plot Keywords: civil rights, year 1977, year 1973, year 1975, year 1972, year 1970, year 1976 ...

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#23. House of Sand and Fog (2003)

Storyline: An emotionally broken woman, Kathy, suddenly finds herself homeless after her house is wrongly repossessed and auctioned. Seeking respite from his marriage, Lester, a sympathetic sheriff's deputy comes to the aid of Kathy and becomes intimately involved in her situation. Soon, Behrani, a proud emigrant Iranian and his family move into the house only to find their new lives burdened by harassment from Lester and Kathy as they attempt to reclaim her former home. The once prosperous colonel denies Kathy's pleas for he knows his recent purchase promises a profitable return and a better future for his adolescent son and his wife. But latent consequences lie beneath Behrani's well intentioned plan as Kathy's emotions spiral out of control and her actions spark a tragic chain of events that will leave no resident unscathed in the House of Sand and Fog.

Plot Keywords: tragedy, based on novel, suicide, depressed woman, family abandonment, loss of son, maid ...

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#24. Running Scared (2006)

Storyline: After a drug-op gone bad, Joey Gazelle is put in charge of disposing the gun that shot a dirty cop. But things go wrong for Joey after a neighbor kid stole the gun and used it to shoot his abusive father. Now Joey has to find that kid and the gun before the police and the mob do.

Plot Keywords: girl in panties, corrupt cop, female frontal nudity, undercover agent, prostitute, strip club, female rear nudity ...

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#25. American Splendor (2003)

Storyline: Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait...

Plot Keywords: comic book, movie reality crossover, based on comic book, cult figure, husband wife relationship, dark horse comics, 1980s ...

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#26. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Storyline: Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan. With both humor and outrage, the film explores the question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore goes into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal...and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story also presents what a more hopeful future could look like. Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?—Overture Films

Plot Keywords: capitalism, american dream, critique of capitalism, rebellion, unemployment, false promise of the american dream, labor union ...

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#27. The Great Gatsby (2013)

Storyline: An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Long Island-set novel, where Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby's nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

Plot Keywords: extramarital affair, obsessive love, 1920s, fatal accident, party, based on novel, adultery ...

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#28. Revolutionary Road (2008)

Storyline: It's 1955. Frank and April Wheeler, are in the 'seven year itch' of their marriage; they're not happy. April has forgone her dream of being an actress, and Frank hates his job. One day, April suggests they move to Paris as a means to rejuvenate their life.

Plot Keywords: abortion, sex scene, sex in car, infidelity, husband wife relationship, female nudity, based on novel ...

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#29. Ragtime (1981)

Storyline: The story runs in the 1910's New York. Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a black piano player. He has won fame and fortune playing with a jazz band. Some white men do not like this situation, and one day they assault him and spoil his brand new car. Walker tries by all means to get justice, without an answer...—Michel Rudoy <mdrc@hp9000a1.uam.mx>

Plot Keywords: racial slur, immigration, husband wife relationship, fireman, director, atlantic city new jersey, anarchist ...

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#30. A Better Life (2011)

Storyline: Carlos Galindo is a decent man, a Mexican single parent working as a gardener in California to raise Luis, his fourteen-year-old son, whom Carlos is frightened will drift into local gang culture. Carlos buys a truck for his work with money loaned by his sister but a shifty new employee steals it from him and, though Carlos and Luis track the thief down, he has sold the truck. Father and son bond as they reclaim the vehicle from the pound but Carlos attracts police attention, making his future in America uncertain when it is discovered that he is an illegal immigrant.

Plot Keywords: bare chested male, crying, lawyer, coming of age, jail, pride, american flag ...

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