Al Weisel - CDNow's 10 Essential Dramas
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| The 10 Essential Dramas
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By
Al Weisel
CDNOW Senior Editor, Movies
Every genre encompasses drama; even comedies can have
dramatic elements and vice versa. The word drama, after
all, comes from the Greek word meaning "to do," which means
any movie that has characters doing something could be
considered a drama. But drama has come to refer to "serious"
films, that is, films that aren't strictly played for laughs.
Because the category is so broad, the task of selecting
just 10 great dramas is daunting. The films on this list are
distinguished by interesting characters and compelling
stories. While some may fall under other genres, the focus of
these films is not on stunts and special effects as it would
be for an action picture or jokes, as it would be in a comedy.
Although The Seven Samurai could be considered an
action movie and The Rules of the Game has many comic
sequences, ultimately those elements are not as important as
the stories they tell.
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| 1. Citizen Kane (1941) |
 It's quite a burden to be called the greatest film
ever made as Citizen Kane often is, but it's a burden
Orson Welles' film bears quite comfortably. Loosely based on
the life of tycoon publisher William Randolph Hearst,
Citizen Kane uses just about every cinematic technique
available to tell its narrative, which is fractured through
the points of view of several narrators being interviewed by a
newsreel reporter trying to discover the secret behind Kane's
mysterious last word: "Rosebud."
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| 2. Rules of the Game (1939) |
 Jean Renoir mixes comedy and tragedy so adroitly in
this film about a weekend in the country among the fading
upper class that what seems at first to be a light social
comedy turns out to be something much more profound. The main
story about an aviation hero who romances a married woman
whose husband also has a mistress is only one of several
intersecting plots that come to a tragic climax by the end of
the weekend.
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| 3. Seven Samurai (1954) |
 On
one level Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is a
rousing, entertaining action film, yet at the same time it's
an epic story about good versus evil featuring memorable
characters and great performances from such actors as the
legendary Toshiro Mifune. By fusing elements of the Hollywood
Western with a traditional Japanese samurai story, Kurosawa
has created a film that crosses all borders.
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| 4. The Godfather (1972) |
 Francis Ford Coppola's saga of a Mafia family takes
the gangster film and elevates it to a work of art about class
and power in America. One of the best films of the '70s, it
stars Marlon Brando in the Oscar-winning title role as the
immigrant who lives out a perverse version of the American
dream. Its sequel The
Godfather Part II, which has a simultaneous narrative
about events both before and after this film, is a rare
instance of a sequel being as good as the film that came
before it.
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| 5. Brief Encounter (1946) |
 Brief Encounter is based on the Noel Coward
play called Still Life, and just as Cézanne was able to
paint bowls of fruit and vases of flowers and instill them
with an almost mystical beauty, director David Lean takes the
story of two ordinary, middle-class married people who fall in
love and transforms it into something transcendent. From its
evocative opening image of a steam locomotive speeding by to
its final heart-rending moment set to the music of
Rachmaninoff, Brief Encounter is an unparalleled work
of art.
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| 6. 8 ½ (1963) |
 Marcello Mastroianni stars as a director looking back
over his life and career in this semi-autobiographical film by
director Federico Fellini (the title refers to the fact that
Fellini had made two shorts, directed six full-length films,
and co-directed one before this one, adding up to eight and a
half). Filled with the director's idiosyncratic surrealism and
quirky characters, the film is a love letter to the art of
cinema.
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| 7. Sunset Boulevard (1950) |
 Narrated from beyond the grave by a down-on-his-luck
writer (William Holden) who is hired by a has-been movie star
(Gloria Swanson, in a bravura performance), Sunset
Boulevard is director Billy Wilder's exploration of the
dark side of Hollywood. The film is full of memorable scenes,
from the funeral for a monkey presided over by her butler and
former director (Erich von Stroheim, who really did direct her
in the film she screens for the writer) to the final,
heart-breaking scene when Swanson descends a staircase and
says to director Cecil B. De Mille (playing himself), "I'm
ready for my close-up, Mr. De Mille."
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| 8. Casablanca (1942) |
 This perfectly crafted film starring Humphrey Bogart
and Ingrid Bergman as two former lovers who meet again in a
gin joint in Morocco during World War II is so well-written
nearly every line is quotable. Bogart is perfect as the
cynical café owner confronted with choosing between the woman
he loves and making a noble sacrifice for the greater
good.
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| 9. Raging Bull (1980) |
 Martin Scorsese's biopic of Jake La Motta -- a
violent, self-destructive boxer who became champion of the
world and threw it all away by throwing a fight -- is a
riveting, unblinking character study. Robert De Niro actually
gained weight to make the boxer's later years look more
realistic for his obsessive performance that took Method
acting to a new level.
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| 10. It's a Wonderful Life
(1946) |
 Although It's a Wonderful Life has become a
Christmas staple, Frank Capra's masterpiece is not the usual
light holiday fare. It's a haunting look at a man (James
Stewart) who has been brought to the verge of suicide when he
realizes that none of the dreams he once had are going to come
true. When an angel gives him the chance to see what life
would have been like had he never lived, he discovers what a
profound impact each of us has on other's lives.
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