Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "racial-tension"
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1. Django Unchained (2012)
R | 165 min | Drama, Western
With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
Votes: 1,692,481 | Gross: $162.81M
2. Green Book (2018)
PG-13 | 130 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver for an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.
Director: Peter Farrelly | Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco
Votes: 569,812 | Gross: $85.08M
3. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 492,150 | Gross: $169.71M
4. Oz (1997–2003)
TV-MA | 55 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its criminal inhabitants.
Stars: Ernie Hudson, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen, Dean Winters
Votes: 106,562
5. 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: 254,959 | Gross: $169.61M
6. A Time to Kill (1996)
R | 149 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 181,461 | Gross: $108.77M
7. Mississippi Burning (1988)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif
Votes: 110,762 | Gross: $34.60M
8. 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: 332,617
9. Gran Torino (2008)
R | 116 min | Drama
After a Hmong teenager tries to steal his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a disgruntled, prejudiced Korean War veteran seeks to redeem both the boy and himself.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley, Ahney Her
Votes: 814,342 | Gross: $148.10M
10. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
Votes: 740,713 | Gross: $56.67M
11. 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: 231,735 | Gross: $115.65M
12. Crash (I) (2004)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
Director: Paul Haggis | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandiwe Newton, Karina Arroyave
Votes: 448,858 | Gross: $54.58M
13. The Color Purple (1985)
PG-13 | 154 min | Drama
A tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery
Votes: 97,200 | Gross: $98.47M
14. Hairspray (2007)
PG | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show.
Director: Adam Shankman | Stars: John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Michelle Pfeiffer
Votes: 138,628 | Gross: $118.87M
15. The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama
Witness the making of Tony Soprano. The story that reveals the humanity behind Tony's struggles and the influence his family - especially his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti - had over him becoming the most iconic mob boss of all time.
Director: Alan Taylor | Stars: Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga
Votes: 63,175
16. Do the Right Thing (1989)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson
Votes: 112,291 | Gross: $27.55M
17. Glory (1989)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 144,279 | Gross: $26.83M
18. Just Mercy (2019)
PG-13 | 137 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
World-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson works to free a wrongly condemned death row prisoner.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Charlie Pye Jr.
Votes: 75,655
19. You People (2023)
R | 117 min | Comedy, Romance
Follows a new couple and their families, who find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences.
Director: Kenya Barris | Stars: Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Votes: 62,659
20. The Good Shepherd (2006)
R | 167 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 108,516 | Gross: $59.95M
21. Roots (1977)
TV-14 | 74 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of author Alex Haley's family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendants' liberation.
Stars: LeVar Burton, Robert Reed, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr.
Votes: 18,847
22. This Is England (2006)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim
Votes: 128,662 | Gross: $0.33M
23. 42 (2013)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and faces considerable racism in the process.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie
Votes: 102,602 | Gross: $95.00M
24. Monster's Ball (2001)
R | 111 min | Drama, Romance
After a family tragedy, a racist prison guard re-examines his attitudes while falling in love with the African-American wife of the last prisoner he executed.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Taylor Simpson, Gabrielle Witcher
Votes: 94,028 | Gross: $31.27M
25. Devotion (II) (2022)
PG-13 | 139 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A pair of U.S. Navy fighter pilots risk their lives during the Korean War and become some of the Navy's most celebrated wingmen.
Director: J.D. Dillard | Stars: Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson, Thomas Sadoski
Votes: 27,834
26. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,068 | Gross: $25.79M
27. The Hate U Give (2018)
PG-13 | 133 min | Crime, Drama
Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right.
Director: George Tillman Jr. | Stars: Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Anthony Mackie
Votes: 40,089 | Gross: $29.72M
28. Hairspray (1988)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A 'pleasantly plump' teenager teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry
Votes: 23,421 | Gross: $6.67M
29. Malcolm X (1992)
PG-13 | 202 min | Biography, Drama, History
Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee
Votes: 101,956 | Gross: $48.17M
30. Chained Heat (1983)
R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Young Carol Henderson ends up in prison where she must learn how to survive in an environment plagued by violence, murder, rape, racism, drugs and staff corruption and brutality.
Director: Paul Nicholas | Stars: Linda Blair, John Vernon, Sybil Danning, Tamara Dobson
Votes: 2,627 | Gross: $6.15M
31. Save the Last Dance (2001)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A white midwestern girl moves to Chicago, where her new boyfriend is a black teen from the South Side with a rough, semi-criminal past.
Director: Thomas Carter | Stars: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr
Votes: 65,934 | Gross: $91.06M
32. Juice (1992)
R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Four inner-city teenagers get caught up in the pursuit of power and happiness, which they refer to as "the juice".
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson | Stars: Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins, Khalil Kain
Votes: 30,319 | Gross: $20.15M
33. Men of Honor (2000)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Carl Brashear, the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver, and the man who trained him.
Director: George Tillman Jr. | Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr., Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Votes: 125,059 | Gross: $48.82M
34. The Young Riders (1989–1992)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance, Western
The adventures of the riders of the Pony Express.
Stars: Stephen Baldwin, Josh Brolin, Ty Miller, Gregg Rainwater
Votes: 2,478
35. The Forever Purge (2021)
R | 103 min | Action, Crime, Horror
All the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end.
Director: Everardo Gout | Stars: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas, Leven Rambin
Votes: 43,374 | Gross: $44.54M
36. Fritz the Cat (1972)
X | 78 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
Fritz drops out of college, starts a riot in Harlem and hits the road with an ex-girlfriend before getting mixed up with domestic terrorists.
Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Skip Hinnant, Rosetta LeNoire, John McCurry, Judy Engles
Votes: 14,322 | Gross: $25.00M
37. Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
R | 144 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In 1950s New York, Lionel, a private detective with Tourette syndrome, sets out to uncover the mystery behind his mentor and only friend Frank's murder. Scouring the jazz clubs and slums of Brooklyn, he soon uncovers a web of secrets.
Director: Edward Norton | Stars: Edward Norton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe
Votes: 62,768
38. Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
R | 126 min | Biography, Drama, History
Offered a plea deal by the FBI, William O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton.
Director: Shaka King | Stars: LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback
Votes: 91,392
39. The Butler (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 132 min | Biography, Drama
As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man's life, family, and American society.
Director: Lee Daniels | Stars: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda
Votes: 119,703 | Gross: $116.63M
40. In Living Color (1990–1994)
TV-14 | 30 min | Comedy, Music
The Wayans siblings present an African-American focused sketch comedy show.
Stars: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jim Carrey, Kelly Coffield Park, Terrence Brown
Votes: 12,743
41. Race (I) (2016)
PG-13 | 134 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Jesse Owens' quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy.
Director: Stephen Hopkins | Stars: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree, Shanice Banton
Votes: 40,887 | Gross: $19.10M
42. Radio (2003)
PG | 109 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of a high school coach and the developmentally challenged man who he took under his wing.
Director: Michael Tollin | Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris, Debra Winger, S. Epatha Merkerson
Votes: 43,962 | Gross: $52.33M
43. Selma (2014)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 95,430 | Gross: $52.08M
44. Suburbicon (2017)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
As a 1950s suburban community self-destructs, a home invasion has sinister consequences for one seemingly normal family.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac, Noah Jupe
Votes: 47,183 | Gross: $5.78M
45. Balls of Fury (2007)
PG-13 | 90 min | Comedy, Crime, Sport
Down-and-out former professional ping-pong phenom, Randy Daytona, is sucked into a maelstrom when FBI Agent Ernie Rodriguez recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and win, and to smoke out his father's killer -- arch-fiend Feng.
Director: Robert Ben Garant | Stars: Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, George Lopez, Maggie Q
Votes: 44,859 | Gross: $32.84M
46. Till (I) (2022)
PG-13 | 130 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1955, after Emmett Till is murdered in a brutal lynching, his mother vows to expose the racism behind the attack while working to have those involved brought to justice.
Director: Chinonye Chukwu | Stars: Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett
Votes: 15,179
47. Detroit (2017)
R | 143 min | Crime, Drama, History
Fact-based drama set during the 1967 Detroit riots in which a group of rogue police officers respond to a complaint with retribution rather than justice on their minds.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: John Boyega, Anthony Mackie, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore
Votes: 55,917 | Gross: $16.79M
48. Glory Road (2006)
PG | 118 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.
Director: James Gartner | Stars: Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols, Jon Voight
Votes: 48,785 | Gross: $42.64M
49. Dark Blue (2002)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A robbery homicide investigation triggers a series of events that will cause a corrupt LAPD officer to question his tactics.
Director: Ron Shelton | Stars: Kurt Russell, Ving Rhames, Scott Speedman, Michael Michele
Votes: 24,044 | Gross: $9.06M
50. Mississippi Masala (1991)
R | 118 min | Drama, Romance
An ethnic Indian family is expelled from Idi Amin's Uganda in 1972 and lives in Mississippi 17 years later. The dad sues Uganda to get his property back. The grown daughter falls in love with a Black man.
Director: Mira Nair | Stars: Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, Roshan Seth, Sharmila Tagore
Votes: 6,189 | Gross: $7.31M