Best English Drama Movies of 1998

Steven Spielberg · 169 min · Amblin Entertainment / Mutual Film Company

Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother...

Cast: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore

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AI verdict: Based on aggregated scores (8.6/10 on IMDb (1,635,552 votes), 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, 91/100 on Metacritic), this is a data-driven snapshot rather than an editorial take.

Tony Kaye · 119 min

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for brutally killing two black men who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his 14 yr old brother's, Danny Vineyard, narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo

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AI verdict: Based on aggregated scores (8.5/10 on IMDb (1,271,167 votes), 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, 62/100 on Metacritic), this is a data-driven snapshot rather than an editorial take.

Gus Van Sant · 126 min · Miramax Films / Be Gentlemen{{cite web / url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60750 / title=Good Will Hunting (1997) / work=AFI Catalog of Feature Films / access-date=January 19, 2018 / archive-date=January 19, 2018 / archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119175520/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60750 / url-status=live / A Band Apart / Lawrence Bender Productions

A touching tale of a wayward young man who struggles to find his identity, living in a world where he can solve any problem, except the one brewing deep within himself, until one day he meets his soul mate who opens his mind and his heart.

Cast: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck

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AI verdict: Based on aggregated scores (8.4/10 on IMDb (1,213,877 votes), 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, 71/100 on Metacritic), this is a data-driven snapshot rather than an editorial take.

Peter Weir · 103 min · Scott Rudin Productions

Since birth, a big fat lie defines the well-organised but humdrum life of the kind-hearted insurance salesman and ambitious explorer, Truman Burbank. Utterly unaware of the thousands of cleverly hidden cameras watching his every move, for nearly three decades, Truman's entire existence pivots around the will and the wild imagination of the ruthlessly manipulative television producer, Christof--the all-powerful TV-God of an extreme 24/7 reality show: The Truman Show. As a result, Truman's picturesque neighbourhood with the manicured lawns and the uncannily perfect residents is nothing but an elaborate state-of-the-art set, and the only truth he knows is what the worldwide television network and its deep financial interests dictate. Do lab rats know they are forever imprisoned?

Cast: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney

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AI verdict: Based on aggregated scores (8.2/10 on IMDb (1,356,843 votes), 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, 90/100 on Metacritic), this is a data-driven snapshot rather than an editorial take.

James Cameron · 194 min · United States, Mexico · 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Lightstorm Entertainment

84 years later, a 100 year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane

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Box office: $2,264,812,968 worldwide ($674,354,882 domestic; $28,638,131 opening weekend) · Awards: Won 11 Oscars; 126 wins & 84 nominations total.

AI verdict: Titanic's 11 Oscar wins, $2.26B worldwide gross, and enduring 8.0 IMDb average from 1.4M votes make it one of the few films to dominate simultaneously at the box office, the awards circuit, and in lasting cultural memory — a combination almost no other film has matched since.

Griffin Dunne · 104 min · Di Novi Pictures / Fortis Films

Sally and Gillian Owens, born into a magical family, have mostly avoided witchcraft themselves. But when Gillian's vicious boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly, the Owens sisters give themselves a crash course in hard magic. With policeman Gary Hallet growing suspicious, the girls struggle to resurrect Angelov -- and unwittingly inject his corpse with an evil spirit that threatens to end their family line.

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing

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AI verdict: Based on TMDb's aggregated score (6.8/10 on TMDb (1775 votes)), this is a data-driven snapshot rather than an editorial take.