20 Best Movies About The American Dream You Need to Watch
The American Dream, a popular term describing the aspirations of people in the U.S. for social and financial success, depicted in various films over the years showing the struggles of characters trying to achieve it. A variety of films explore this theme, offering powerful and nuanced portrayals of the American Dream, the obstacles it brings, and its impact on people’s lives.
This article examines some of the best films that have tackled the American Dream, featuring the stories of immigrants and everyday people working hard to achieve their goals, it covers different genres of films, giving readers a fresh perspective on the American Dream.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Chris Gardner (Smith) is a family man struggling to make ends meet. Despite her efforts to keep the family together, the mother (Newton) of their five-year-old son Christopher lives under constant stress due to financial difficulties. As she can no longer cope with it, she decides to leave the family. Chris, now a single father, is determined to find a better paying job using all his skills.
He finally becomes an intern at a prestigious brokerage house, so even though he doesn’t get paid for it, he stays at work in the hope of getting an education and thus finding a promising job. Without any financial help, Chris and his son are kicked out of their apartment and forced to sleep in homeless shelters, bus stops, toilets, wherever they can find a place to spend the night.
Despite his troubles, Chris tries to be a careful and conscientious father, and his son’s love and trust will help him overcome all difficulties on the way to a better life.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Spoiled and neurotic, southerner Blanche DuBois, trying to escape her past that includes heavy alcohol addiction, the loss of an inherited plantation, and the seduction of a minor, goes to her sister Stella Kowalski. Soon he will find himself in conflict with Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski, a vulgar and dirty member of the new industrial-immigrant generation.
In other words, a raw man who drinks and smokes excessively and behaves like the master of the house. Stanely, who is actually sensual on the inside, will forcefully confront Blanche with her problems from the past, which will result in her having a nervous breakdown.
Spanglish (2004)
Mexican woman Flor (Paz Vega) has a 12-year-old daughter Christina (Shelbie Bruce). She starts working as a maid in a rich family that has a lot of problems. John Clasky (Adam Sandler) is a wonderful father and husband.
He is the head chef and owner of the restaurant, while his wife Deborah (Tea Leoni) has recently lost her job and her insecurity is disrupting the marital idyll. When the Claskys rent a summer house in Malibu, which is impossible to reach by bus, Flor and Cristina are forced to move in.
The Social Network (2010)
One fall evening in 2003, Harvard student and genius computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg sat down at his computer and began working on a new idea. Soon, what started in his student room turned into a global social network, and eventually into a real communication revolution.
Six years later and with more than 500 million new friends, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… But this businessman’s success will lead him into a world of private and legal complications…
Gangs of New York (2002)
Five Points is a notorious part of old New York. It is ruled by gangs and the streets are often the site of bloody clashes between natives and newcomers. The most powerful are the Irish immigrants, the Dead Rabbits, led by the charismatic leader Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). In a bloody street battle, the notorious native leader William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), known as Bill the Butcher, kills Priest and takes over the streets of New York.
Followed by years of his ruthless rule. But he does not suspect that his life will soon be threatened by young Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) who will do everything to avenge his father Priest’s death. With the help of Bill’s protegee, a skilled street thief, Amsterdam mercilessly claws his way towards his goal, trying to preserve his own soul…
Of Mice and Men (1992)
The film opens with a scene where George and Lennie are running away from a woman with a torn dress who has sent a gang of wreckers to drive them out of the county. After a long bus ride and a long walk, George and Lennie arrive at a migrant farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley where they look for work. George dreams of saving enough money to buy a piece of land for him and Lennie to build a home on. He hopes that the two of them will be able to realize their dream in California.
Unfortunately, ranch foreman Curley (Casey Siemaszko) enjoys torturing Lennie, and Curley’s frustrated wife (Sherilyn Fenn) seduces him with her charms. George warns Lennie to stay away from Curley’s wife, but Lennie decides to follow her to the barn where tragedy strikes and both George and Lennie’s dreams are destroyed.
The Founder (2016)
The story follows Ray Krock as he teams up with two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald, to start what will soon become an international chain of fast food restaurants that today serves 68 million patrons every day.
In addition to Keaton, one of the main roles is also played by Laura Dern, as Ray’s suffering and neglected wife, Ethel, from whom Krock divorced in 1961.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
In this fierce screen adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s book, journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) goes to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, and he takes with him a lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro).
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The year is 1971 and Duke and Gonzo are on their way to Sin City, with a scared hitchhiker (a barely recognizable Tobey Maguire) and a trunk full of drugs, which they keep taking.
Hustle & Flow (2005)
Dissatisfied with his life as a small-time hustler and a not-too-successful pimp, DJay (Terrence Howard) dreams of real success in life, as well as a music career as a rapper. With the help of his friends Key (Anthony Anderson) and Shelby (D.J. Qualls), DJay begins recording hip-hop songs, which clearly show his gift for lyrics, which abound in the frustrations and hopes of the little man on the street.
When he learns that famous Memphis rapper Skinny Black (Ludacris) is coming back to the neighborhood for a party, DJay decides to approach him and ask for his help, but the party doesn’t end the way anyone wanted it to. DJay just can’t seem to get out of the vicious circle of street life, but maybe his love for pregnant Shug (Taraji P. Henson) gives him some hope.
Minari (2020)
The film MINARI, as a tender and sentimental story about family roots, follows a Korean-American family that moves to a farm in the state of Arkansas in search of their own American dream.
However, the family situation changes completely with the arrival of a cunning, simple-minded, but incredibly caring grandmother. In the whirlwind of instability and challenges of their new life in an unfriendly area, the film MINARI shows the undeniable resilience of one family and shows us what home really is.
Citizen Kane (1941)
The news that the famous tycoon Charles Foster Kane (O. Welles) has died in his luxurious mansion Xanadu in Florida has extremely excited the American public and the media. After learning that the deceased died alone and that his last words were “a rosebud”, Mr. Rawlston (P. Van Zandt), the editor of a New York newspaper, sends his reporters to the scene with the task of finding out as many spicy details as possible about Kane’s life.
Among them is Jerry Thompson (W. Alland), a reporter who decides to talk to the closest friends and associates of a man who some media posthumously declared a communist and even a fascist. Thompson decides to talk to Kane’s manager Bernstein (E. Sloane), second wife Susan Alexander (D. Comingore), Kane’s guardian and banker Walter Parks Thatcher (G. Coulouris), best friend and colleague Jedediah Leland (J. Cotten) and gradually puts together a picture of the deceased. And Kane was anything but a simple man…
Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
Eddie Murphy plays the role of Rudy Ray Moore, a real-life comedy and rap legend, in the portrayal of Moore’s alter ego, Dolemite. Dolemite is an obscene, kung-fu fighting character who was a 1970s Blaxploitation sensation despite the doubters.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
The recording session in 1920s Chicago becomes increasingly heated and charged as the band of musicians wait for the legendary performer, Ma Rainey (played by Academy Award® winner Viola Davis), also known as the “Mother of the Blues.” Ma is late to the session, but when she arrives, she engages in a power struggle with her white manager and producer over control of her music.
The band members are trapped in the studio’s cramped rehearsal room, and the ambitious trumpet player Levee (played by Chadwick Boseman) – who has designs on Ma’s girlfriend and wants to make his own mark on the music industry – stirs up conflicts that lead to the revelation of truths that will change their lives forever.
The Great Gatsby (2013)
It’s a time of easy morals, sparkling jazz and sky-high stock values. Nick Carraway, who wants to become a writer, leaves the Midwest and arrives in New York in the spring of 1922, in the era of decaying moral values, the flourishing of jazz and bootleg alcohol, and the incredible growth of stocks. Nick settles next to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the street from his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan.
He gets drawn into the attractive world of the super rich, their illusions, love and fraud. At the same time, he writes a story about impossible love, incorruptible dreams and terrible tragedy and shows the world – our modern world and its challenges.
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
The Chinese Bruce Lee (1940-1973) (J. S. Lee) was not only the most charismatic star of American-Hong Kong kung fu films, but also one of the greatest masters of this martial art. He died at the height of his career in somewhat mysterious circumstances. The film shows the most important periods of his life. He was born in San Francisco, but grew up in Hong Kong.
He studied kung fu from a young age, which for him was not only a martial art but also a thought system. As a teenager in Hong Kong, he beat up some white men who also racially insulted him in an argument over a girl. He was wanted by the police and his father advised him to go to America since he has American citizenship anyway. In San Francisco, he gets a job in a Chinese restaurant washing dishes, but he has to leave because of a fight. The owner of the bar gave him a slightly higher severance pay and advised him to get an education.
He enrolled in college, where he began teaching kung fu to whites and blacks. Among them is the beautiful blonde American Linda (L. Holly), whom he will fall in love with. Together, they will open a kung fu school, which, in turn, is opposed by the Chinese community because it believes that it is giving away their martial secrets to whites and blacks. In one fight with a leading Chinese kung fu fighter, he was seriously injured. Only thanks to Linda’s love will Bruce write a book about kung fu during his recovery in the hospital.
Afterward, they will also organize sports competitions. Linda, despite her mother’s opposition, marries Bruce. A son was born to them, and in 1966 Bruce was hired by producer Bill Krieger (R. Wagner) for a television series…
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
After learning that their bright and somewhat insecure seven-year-old daughter Olive (A. Breslin) has been accepted into the Miss California Children’s pageant, frustrated mother Sheryl (T. Collette) and father Richard Hoover (G. Kinnear) decide to take the girl to the town of Redondo Beach where an election is held.
Olive’s older brother Dwayne (P. Dano), a maladjusted young man who hasn’t spoken a word for nine months, and eccentric grandfather Edwin (A. Arkin), a man in poor health who openly snorts cocaine, and reclusive uncle Frank Ginsberg (S. Carell), a homosexual and unrealized suicide. After their vehicle soon breaks down during the journey, and they are all forced to start it by pushing, many details from the lives of each of them will gradually be revealed.
While Olive is a sensitive and insecure girl who believes that she is not beautiful enough to win the title of Miss, father Richard has been having business problems lately because his deal with his partner Stan Grossman (B. Cranston) fell through.
Young Dwayne is silent due to the fact that he despises his parents, whom he considers small-towners, and communicates through written messages, and Uncle Frank was driven to attempt suicide by breaking off his relationship with the much younger Josh (J. Shilton). Only Grandpa Edwin seems to have no problems.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
April and Frank Wheeler are a young, seemingly happy couple who live with their two children in suburban Connecticut in the 1950s. Their self-confidence is actually a mask they use to hide their dissatisfaction with their jobs and relationship.
Frank works a boring but well-paid job, and April is a housewife who wants to be an actress all her life. Determined to prove themselves better than others, they go to France expecting to realize their dreams there.
99 Homes (2014)
A single father who has just lost his job and family home is forced to work for an unscrupulous realtor who is also the source of his problems.
Scarface (1983)
Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is an exiled petty Cuban criminal who joins drug lord Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) in Miami. Tony is uncompromising, ruthless and determined to succeed in life at any cost. Together with his old friend Manny Ray (Steve Bauer), Montana rises from the bottom of the criminal chain to the very top of Florida’s criminal world.
When Tony sets his sights on Lopez’s beautiful wife Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer), who becomes his lover, and after Frank realizes that Tony wants to take his position, Frank tries to eliminate him. But the attempt ends in vain, and Tony is angrier than ever.
War Dogs (2016)
An incredible true story about two 20-year-olds, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, who managed to sign a contract worth 300 million with the Pentagon to supply weapons to the allies in Afghanistan.
In the film, we follow them on the path of absurdity and the political world of international arms trading, where they will end up accused of fraud.
