Recommended movies for classroom viewing
by shadaif | created - 12 Aug 2014 | updated - 13 Jan 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Dead Poets Society (1989)
PG | 128 min | Comedy, Drama
Maverick teacher John Keating returns in 1959 to the prestigious New England boys' boarding school where he was once a star student, using poetry to embolden his pupils to new heights of self-expression.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles
Votes: 545,820 | Gross: $95.86M
2. The Crucible (1996)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama, History
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Director: Nicholas Hytner | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, Joan Allen
Votes: 40,172 | Gross: $7.34M
3. Romeo and Juliet (1968)
PG | 138 min | Drama, Romance
When two young members of feuding families meet, forbidden love ensues.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery, Milo O'Shea
Votes: 34,762 | Gross: $38.90M
4. Stand and Deliver (1988)
PG | 103 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Jaime Escalante, a high school teacher who successfully inspired his dropout-prone students to learn calculus.
Director: Ramón Menéndez | Stars: Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Mark Phelan, Virginia Paris
Votes: 22,329 | Gross: $13.99M
5. The Quiet Man (1952)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in 1920s Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond
Votes: 42,394 | Gross: $10.55M
6. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,863 | Gross: $12.10M
7. Little Women (1994)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The March sisters live and grow in post-Civil War America.
Director: Gillian Armstrong | Stars: Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes
Votes: 63,571 | Gross: $50.08M
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
PG-13 | 178 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean
Votes: 2,006,730 | Gross: $315.54M
9. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Approved | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama, defends a Black man against an undeserved rape charge, and tries to educate his young children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 332,819
10. Moby Dick (1956)
Not Rated | 116 min | Adventure, Drama
The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice
Votes: 21,890 | Gross: $10.40M
11. E.T. (1982)
PG | 115 min | Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace
Votes: 437,429 | Gross: $435.11M
12. Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
PG | 143 min | Drama, Music
A frustrated composer finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, Jay Thomas, Olympia Dukakis
Votes: 41,702 | Gross: $82.57M
13. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
PG | 152 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Richard Harris
Votes: 855,903 | Gross: $317.58M
14. The Outsiders (1983)
PG | 91 min | Crime, Drama
In a small Oklahoma town in 1964, the rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, heats up when one gang member accidentally kills a member of the other.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze
Votes: 97,512 | Gross: $25.60M
15. Footloose (1984)
PG | 107 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A city teenager moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 92,238 | Gross: $80.04M
16. Jane Eyre (2011)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A mousy governess who softens the heart of her employer soon discovers that he's hiding a terrible secret.
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga | Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, Su Elliot
Votes: 93,017 | Gross: $11.24M
17. My Girl (1991)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Vada is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. When Vada's father hires Shelly, a makeup expert, and begins to fall in love, Vada is outraged and does everything in her power to split them up.
Director: Howard Zieff | Stars: Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis
Votes: 88,884 | Gross: $59.85M
18. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,064
19. Rudy (1993)
PG | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame.
Director: David Anspaugh | Stars: Sean Astin, Jon Favreau, Ned Beatty, Greta Lind
Votes: 69,068 | Gross: $22.75M
20. Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
PG-13 | 125 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Author P.L. Travers reflects on her childhood after reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen.
Director: John Lee Hancock | Stars: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Rose Buckley, Colin Farrell
Votes: 170,028 | Gross: $83.30M
21. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
PG | 136 min | Drama, Romance
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 125,696 | Gross: $43.18M
22. Pride & Prejudice (2005)
PG | 129 min | Drama, Romance
Sparks fly when spirited Elizabeth Bennet meets single, rich, and proud Mr. Darcy. But Mr. Darcy reluctantly finds himself falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can each overcome their own pride and prejudice?
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland
Votes: 330,633 | Gross: $38.41M
23. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 272,598 | Gross: $182.21M
24. Gettysburg (1993)
PG | 271 min | Drama, History, War
In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang, Richard Jordan
Votes: 31,299 | Gross: $10.77M
25. West Side Story (1961)
Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 121,170 | Gross: $43.66M
26. Back to the Future (1985)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Votes: 1,306,506 | Gross: $210.61M
27. Apollo 13 (I) (1995)
PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, History
NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise
Votes: 315,509 | Gross: $173.84M
28. Remember the Titans (2000)
PG | 113 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1971 Virginia high school football was everything to the people of Alexandria. But when the school board was forced to integrate an all-black school with an all-white one, the very foundation of football's tradition was put to the test.
Director: Boaz Yakin | Stars: Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst
Votes: 231,888 | Gross: $115.65M
29. The Blind Side (2009)
PG-13 | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.
Director: John Lee Hancock | Stars: Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Jae Head
Votes: 360,428 | Gross: $255.96M
30. October Sky (1999)
PG | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
Director: Joe Johnston | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen
Votes: 98,020 | Gross: $32.48M
31. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama
The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler
Votes: 864,828 | Gross: $4.36M
32. The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)
Passed | 86 min | Biography, Drama, History
The biography of the pioneering French microbiologist who helped revolutionize agriculture and medicine.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Paul Muni, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods
Votes: 3,151
Unfortunately it's not out on DVD
33. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, History
The world's greatest ever playwright, William Shakespeare, is young, out of ideas and short of cash, but meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 234,314 | Gross: $100.32M
WARNING: It's rated R. The last 20 minutes though are a great example of how Elizabethan Theater was performed.
34. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)
G | 88 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Thrilled by a performance she sees at a fair, Sonora Webster tries to land a spot as a daredevil who rides horses off of high dives.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: Gabrielle Anwar, Michael Schoeffling, Cliff Robertson, Dylan Kussman
Votes: 5,866 | Gross: $7.30M
35. The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
In the 1930s, a tomboy runs away from her guardian to join her single father who is 2,000 miles away, where he has found work.
Director: Jeremy Kagan | Stars: Meredith Salenger, John Cusack, Jed, Ray Wise
Votes: 6,882 | Gross: $2.14M
36. Raise Your Voice (2004)
PG | 103 min | Family, Music, Musical
Terri Fletcher is a small town girl with the voice of a big-time singer. When personal tragedy interrupts her steady life, Terri defies her father's wishes and secretly heads off to spend a summer at a Los Angeles performing arts academy.
Director: Sean McNamara | Stars: Hilary Duff, John Corbett, Rebecca De Mornay, Oliver James
Votes: 28,897 | Gross: $10.41M
37. National Treasure (2004)
PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A historian races to find the legendary Templar Treasure before a team of mercenaries.
Director: Jon Turteltaub | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean
Votes: 355,119 | Gross: $173.01M
While not very educational, it's a fun watch with little bad language and features many historical cities and monuments.
38. SpaceCamp (1986)
PG | 107 min | Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi
The young attendees of a space camp find themselves in space for real when their shuttle is accidentally launched into orbit.
Director: Harry Winer | Stars: Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson, Kelly Preston, Larry B. Scott
Votes: 15,854 | Gross: $9.70M
Hard to find on DVD, but great teen movie!
39. Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie (2013)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary, Family, History
Once a vibrant part of American culture, drive-ins reached their peak in the late 50s with almost 5,000 dotting the nation. Although drive-ins are experiencing a resurgence, today less than... See full summary »
Director: April Wright | Stars: Charles Bruss, Riley Cooke, Roger Corman, Dennis Cozzalio
Votes: 192
40. The Last Unicorn (1982)
G | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
A beautiful unicorn sets out to learn if she truly is the last of her kind in this sparkling animated musical.
Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, Alan Arkin
Votes: 29,529 | Gross: $6.46M
41. Iron Jawed Angels (2004 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
A little known, yet integral piece of American history: based on the lives of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, two young radical women who were instrumental in getting women the right to vote in America.
Director: Katja von Garnier | Stars: Hilary Swank, Margo Martindale, Anjelica Huston, Frances O'Connor
Votes: 6,426
42. Hidden Figures (2016)
PG | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
Director: Theodore Melfi | Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner
Votes: 255,208 | Gross: $169.61M
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