While preachiness generally isn’t a quality people want to see in the movies they watch, a film presenting a strong message without overdoing it is usually a good thing. No one should use movies to dictate all their actions and thoughts in life, but learning the odd lesson or two from a film with a moral or message doesn’t hurt. Such messages are usually found front and center in family-friendly movies, but films targeted at adults contain life lessons, too.
The following movies can all be counted as morality plays of sorts, with some making their messages obvious and others being a little more subtle. They provide a snapshot of how many different moral issues can be tackled within the medium of film, and, in some cases, it may even be possible to find movies that contradict the messages below. Still, the following all teach persuasive lessons in interesting ways, and function as both entertaining movies and insightful morality plays.
10’Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' (1971)
Kindness & Honesty Are Everything
ThoughWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factoryis the sort of movie that may traumatize some young viewers, those who make it out of the infamous tunnel scene unscathed may well learn a good message from it. The plot sees five different children - and their adult guardians - win a competition that gives them access to Wonka’s bizarre, wonderful, and sometimes frightening chocolate factory, with the only kindhearted kid of the bunch being Charlie Bucket.
Buried underGene Wilder’scaptivating performance,the memorable musical numbers, and the imaginative set pieces is a message about how you should strive to be kind and honest, even if others around you do the opposite. The various other children find themselves punished within the chocolate factory for their various misdeeds, with Charlie winning out in the end because of his kindness and overall decent nature.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
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9’Scarface' (1983)
What Goes Up Must Come Down
The rise-and-fall narrative has always been a popular one within the gangster genre, but few tell this kind of story quite as dramatically and explosively asScarface. This 1980s remake harkens back to the version from the 1930s, where very blunt “crime isn’t good” movies were exceedingly common, as demonstrated by other classics likeLittle CaesarandThe Public Enemy.
Essentially, the 1980s version ofScarfacetakes the kind of gangster story popularized during the 1930s and dials everything up to 11, being the most in-your-face and uncompromising movie about the inevitability of something falling down after rising up.Al Pacinogives an incredible and bombastic performanceas Tony Montana, with his scenery-devouring acting blending perfectly with the stylish visuals, blaring pop music soundtrack, and unapologetically bloody violence.
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8’The Godfather: Part II' (1974)
Money & Power Aren’t Everything
The ultimate tragic moral takeaway ofThe Godfather: Part IIis similar toScarface(and both star Al Pacino), but this 1974 crime epic takes a different route to delivering such a message. It’s darker and more tragic than the firstGodfatherfilm from 1972, withPart IIbeing all about the moral downfall of Michael Corleone, who ends the first film having taken over the family empire from his father (memorably played in that film byMarlon Brando).
The downfall of this character is less flashy and explosive than it is inScarface, with the slowness of it all still feeling inevitable, but perhaps harder to watch as a result. Michael’s shown to become colder and more ruthless as things go on, and by the film’s end, those who once loved or cared for him are either dead or have turned their backs on him. The kicker is how effectivelydirectorFrancis Ford Coppolapairs this with the film’s flashback scenes, showing a young Vito Corleone (nowplayed byRobert De Niro) building his empire, starting a family, and making life-long connections, all intercut with his son more or less doing the opposite.
The Godfather: Part II
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7’City of God' (2002)
Crime Doesn’t Pay
As previously mentioned, crime movies showing the downsides of crime are common, butCity of Godmanages to have this message whilealso functioning as an emotional coming-of-age movie. It focuses on life in a Brazilian favela for various children, some of whom engage in a criminal lifestyle from an early age, and others who avoid it. At a certain point, the film jumps forward numerous years to show these characters as teenagers/young adults, with the choices they made as children continuing to affect them.
It’s a movie largely about young characters, but that doesn’t mean it’s family-friendly, asCity of Godis a tough, brutal, and very heavy film. But by juxtaposing characters who want to engage in crime and others who want to move away from it, the narrative does ultimately conclude with a strong anti-crime message. On top of that, it’s also a very thrilling and moving film, easily ranking up there asone of the best of the 2000s.
6’Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989)
Family Should Come First
The firstIndiana Jonesmovie,Raiders of the Lost Ark, mostly feels like pure action/adventure escapism, and largely succeeds because of that. Its sequel, the somewhat divisiveTemple of Doom, deals with darker themes and has some more gruesome violence, but it still functions as bold (and sometimes twisted) escapism. WhileThe Last Crusadedoesn’t get preachy by any means, it does feel like it has a little more emotional weight than the other twoIndiana Jonesmovies, and with that comes a stronger message.
Sure, it’s great to seeSean ConneryandHarrison Fordat their respective peaksinteracting, but with the former introduced as the latter’s son,The Last Crusadeends up feeling surprisingly heartwarming. Father and son go on a great journey and connect like never before, with Henry Jones eventually telling his son to quiteliterally “let go” of the Holy Grailhe’s been spending the whole movie trying to get, which saves his life. It might sound corny, but family ends up being the real treasure all along, which is a wholesome moral to come away with at the end of what was originally intended to be the finalIndiana Jonesfilm.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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5’Macbeth' (1971)
Evildoers Can’t Escape Fate
The plays ofWilliam Shakespeareare filled with explorations of morality, particularly his tragedies, which deliver their messages in effectively blunt ways. As such, the various movie adaptations of his plays reliably deliver such things on the big screen, as seen again and again withall the adaptations ofHamletthat have been made. But Shakespeare’s most direct and powerful tragedy is arguablyMacbeth, and few film adaptations of it are quite as visceral as 1971’s.
Macbeth’sa tale all about one man’s relentless pursuit to gain all the power in the world through any means necessary, misunderstanding the disastrous implications of a prophecy he receives. Everything the titular character inMacbethdoes leads to his dramatic downfall near the play’s end, and with the dark atmosphere and graphic violence present in the 1971 film, arguably no other adaptation has driven home the idea that no one can escape their fate quite so powerfully.
4’Uncut Gems' (2019)
The House Always Wins
“This is how I win,“Howard Ratner memorably states at one point inUncut Gems, an anxiety-filled and stomach-churning movie about how Howard Ratner cannot win.Uncut Gemsdrives home the idea that when it comes to gambling, no one wins but the house, be it literal or figurative. Sure, someone who gambles can score one win, maybe several… but the nature of gambling will ultimately push that person back to score again, and the cycle repeats.
Uncut Gemsis an exciting and sometimes darkly funny movie, but it’s arguably a tragic one, and is particularlyuncompromising when it comes to exploring gambling addiction. The film’s paced in a way where it feels like it never slows down, and neither does Howard, who keeps desperately pushing his luck further and further, until the movie has to end, and his constant schemes backfire in the most dramatic way possible. Howard’s not the house; he can never win.
Uncut Gems
3’Pulp Fiction' (1994)
It’s Never Too Late to Seek Redemption
Fans ofPulp Fictiontend to love it because ofhow surprisingly funny it is, how many lines of quotable dialogue it has, how stylish the entire thing is, and how intricately plotted/assembled it ends up being. It cleverly interweaves three different crime-related plots, but it does more than just entertain. What sometimes goes overlooked inPulp Fictionis the ultimate message of the film, which is a redemptive - and arguably even anti-violence - one.
The film ends withSamuel L. Jackson’scharacter having an epiphany and renouncing his life as a hitman. Thanks to the non-chronological order, we see what happens to his partner (John Travolta) as a result of his not renouncing his violent ways at the same time. Both did bad things, but one sought a change in his life, and it ended up being for the best, perhaps optimistically suggesting that even hitmen aren’t too far gone. One can always attempt to better themselves, and potentially gain the benefits that come with doing so.
Pulp Fiction
2’Oldboy' (2003)
Revenge is a Vicious Cycle
Like withPulp Fiction, the more arresting and extreme moments ofOldboyare what help make it initially stand out.It blends arthouse sensibilities with compelling action/thrillsto expert effect, and the mystery-heavy narrative is constantly engrossing. The protagonist ofOldboyis imprisoned for 15 years without knowing why, or who’s kept him confined, and when he’s suddenly released, the audience might find themselves just as determined to get answers as he is.
Part of the protagonist’s quest is also revenge-oriented, given having that many years taken away would naturally make anyone vengeful. But his journey for revenge has him realize that he may have wronged someone else previously in his life, and himself have become a target for another’s revenge. The cycle goes on and on, with no one coming out of things by the movie’s end unscathed.
1’The Irishman' (2019)
A Violent Life Will Eternally Haunt You
Throughout thevaried and compelling filmography ofMartin Scorsese, there have been plenty of films that grapple with morality while presenting persuasive and powerful messages. His gangster movies sometimes follow a rise-and-fall narrative, but with more nuance and realism than was seen in the 1930s classics and 1983’sScarface. But there are also movies likeRaging BullandThe Departed, where those who commit wrongs generally get what’s coming to them eventually.
Still, it might beThe Irishmanthat provides Scorsese’s most impactful moral statement to date. It feels appropriately like a movie from an older filmmaker, and one that he likely couldn’t have madeuntil he was in his 70s. The film sees an elderly man namedFrank Sheeranlooking back at his life as a hitman, seemingly filled with regret and remorse for many of his violent actions. His memories seem to haunt him, and as he’s one of the few characters whose death isn’t shown or described to the audience through text, there’s a sense that Sheeran never finds peace. Eerily, the viewer leaves him hanging in some sort of emotional or spiritual limbo right before the end credits roll. Sheeran can do nothing; he’s damned to his fate.
