The Top 10 Uplifting Films

With movie theatres gone dark and no new films to see for a very long time, the time is ripe to dive into our favorite back-catalogs. Last week, Reel Speak ranked the best comedy films (HERE), and this week, it’s time to look at the films that are the most uplifting. The movies that make us feel like a million bucks, the ones that inspire us to keep on keeping on, the ones that teach us resilience is the key to overcoming, and ultimately the things that really matter in life.  

The movies can inspire an uplift more than any other medium; sometimes all it takes is a swell of music to hit us in the heart. Cinema has done this across many genres; comedy, animated kid’s films, sci-fi, and sometimes even horror. But the drama films have the most work to do to get there. A drama beats us down to a pulp and then works hard to bring us back up, making that climax even more meaningful and powerful. With that in mind, and for the purposes of this blog, comedies and kids’ films don’t fit the criteria…these are the films that take us on an emotional journey…and do the best job to bring us all up when we’re down. It is this Blogger’s hope that this will inspire a few of you to revisit these films and be reminded that we can all overcome. 

So let's find a way to make that medicine go down...

10. MARY POPPINS RETURNS (2018)

From STAR WARS to Marvel to Pixar to Circle of Life, no one can provide an uplift like Disney, and their 2018 sequel to their 1965 classic provides a journey that goes from an extraordinary emotional low-point to an inspiring high. The early goings of the film have the grown-up Michael Banks in mourning, and soulfully wondering out loud “where did you go” to his departed wife. Later, thanks to the presence of a returning Mary Poppins, the Banks family overcomes their grief and literally soar to the clouds in the stirring number Nowhere to Go But Up. The difference between the two numbers is remarkable and allows the finale to offer many lessons in overcoming sadness. 

9. THE NATURAL (1984)

Nothing can inspire us better than an underdog story, because let’s face it…we are all underdogs…and no genre can tell those stories better than sports. Robert Redford stars as Roy Hobbs, a ballplayer who has his dream of playing in the big leagues taken away from him. He returns decades later and overcomes his age to give it one last try. It’s a tale of accomplishing dreams despite the passage of time, loaded with a lot of heart…and capped off with one of the best endings in all of cinema. 

8. APOLLO 13 (1995)

The race to the moon has provided some excellent, reach-for-the-stars inspiring cinema, from THE RIGHT STUFF (1984) to the recent HIDDEN FIGURES (2018). Ron Howard’s true tale of the failed Apollo 13 mission, which had three astronauts hurtling out-of-control in the vastness of space with depleting oxygen, gave us the broad picture of an entire planet’s worth of support combined with the professional and herculean efforts of NASA to bring the astronauts home safely. The odds were stacked high against them, and by the time the high-tension ending comes, it is an applause-worthy emotional landing. Harrowing and exhilarating even if the true-story outcome is known in advance. 

7. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989)

A love story had to be chosen in a list of films that are supposed to make our hearts soar. There are plenty of options; TITANIC (1997), THE NOTEBOOK (2004), CASABLANCA (1942), and LOVE ACTUALLY (2003)…for starters. Rob Reiner’s romantic comedy, led by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, raises the question of the friendships between men and women, and takes the question into places that have become permanent ideas in culture today. Where most rom-coms can be corny, this stays grounded and realistic, while still managing to make us smile and care. A genuine love story. 

6. RUDY (1993)

The game of American football has not been given its definitive film like baseball and boxing have, but RUDY comes close. Based on the true story and life of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, a five-foot-nothing dreamer with the goal of playing football for Notre Dame, is a little-engine-that-could story that invests us into the main character early and keeps us there. It’s a movie about a dreamer made for dreamers, and the rousing finale is enough to light a spark in anyone who has yearned for something out of grasp. 

5. THE AVENGERS (2012)

Superheroes have the ability to inspire us in many ways, with the most important lessons showing us how good we can be, and how helping those who can’t help themselves is the true definition of heroism. There are a lot of options in this genre, with SUPERMAN (1978), and recently WONDER WOMAN (2018) as shining examples. But its Marvel’s first super-team up that had audiences whooping and cheering as if they were at the Super Bowl with one fist-pumping moment after another. Plenty of eye-popping spectacle, but also a lesson of overcoming differences to work together. 

4. INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

Roland Emmerich’s alien-invasion film was basically a b-movie with a large VFX budget and an ensemble cast, and today many circles look at as just that; a b-movie. But the fighting spirit that the film carries makes it one of the most rousing viewing experiences; with people coming together from all walks of life to fight off an alien attack that has decimated the Earth. The film spends much of its running time with the good guys getting their asses kicked, and finds a slim, yet hopeful chance at victory…a victory that very much feels earned after the last big explosion. Those of us who experienced ID4 on the big screen in 1996 can certainly remember leaving the theatres ready to take on the universe. 

3. STAR WARS (1977)

There are many sports films that end with the hero getting that preverbal gold medal at the end, but very few sci-fi and fantasy films have done that. STAR WARS in 1977 not only gave us a bell-ringing victory with the destruction of the dreaded Death Star by a former farm-boy, but it went a step further and gave said farm-boy and his compatriots a medal ceremony. John Williams’ magnificent closing Throne Room score is reason enough to rank STAR WARS high on the uplifting list. 

2. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)

On the surface, a drama about a man who is falsely imprisoned for 20 years for killing his wife doesn’t seem like it would be very uplifting, and for most of the film it really isn’t…but that’s the genius of the film because it eventually sneaks up on us. Resilience is the key term here for poor Andy Dufresne as he fights to keep his humanity in a place where he doesn’t belong, and the final iconic line of “get busy living or get busy dying” is enough for this Frank Darabont-directed film to inspire anyone to get off their ass. 

1. ROCKY (1976)

The 1976 Best Picture winner that would catapult Sylvester Stallone into stardom, and the character of “The Italian Stallion” Rocky Balboa into permanent world culture as the icon of all underdogs. The simple story of a small-time club boxer who gets a shot at the greatest title in the world has more heart in any one scene than most movies have in their entire runtime, and the main character of Rocky, who has no vain ambitions to get rich or win championships, has that guy-next-door vibe that everyone can relate to. There is a little bit of Rocky in all of us, and as the film showed, we can all get up when knocked down. And as the topper, there are many films in which the hero/main character loses the battle and wins the war (BRAVEHEART, for example), and ROCKY’s ending, with Balboa not really caring that he lost the fight and just wanting to be with his beloved Adrian…shows us the things in life that really matter. 

REEL SPEAK'S TOP 10 UPLIFTING FILMS

1. ROCKY
2. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
3. STAR WARS
4. INDEPENDENCE DAY
5. THE AVENGERS
6. RUDY
7. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
8. APOLLO 13
9. THE NATURAL
10. MARY POPPINS RETURNS