Best movies set in U.S. deep South
by leifeng_2003 | created - 01 Aug 2011 | updated - 15 Sep 2022 | PublicUS Deep South representation, from the Great Depression to Today.
Feel free to recommend any other good movie.
NB: I have included films with sets at the periphery of the Deep South, more a matter of look and atmosphere than geography. Thanks for the comments.
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1. The Skeleton Key (2005)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Director: Iain Softley | Stars: Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant, Gena Rowlands
Votes: 122,845 | Gross: $47.81M
2. A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
R | 119 min | Drama
A headstrong young woman returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother.
Director: Shainee Gabel | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, John Travolta, Gabriel Macht, Deborah Kara Unger
Votes: 27,185 | Gross: $0.16M
3. Deliverance (1972)
R | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
Votes: 119,108 | Gross: $7.06M
4. Southern Comfort (1981)
R | 106 min | Action, Thriller
During a routine exercise, a team of National Guardsmen are threatened by angry and violent locals.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales
Votes: 21,848 | Gross: $5.00M
5. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
R | 155 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jack Thompson, Irma P. Hall
Votes: 41,430 | Gross: $25.08M
6. Eve's Bayou (1997)
R | 108 min | Drama
What did little Eve see--and how will it haunt her? Husband, father and womanizer Louis Batiste is the head of an affluent family, but it's the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies and mystic forces.
Director: Kasi Lemmons | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Good, Lynn Whitfield
Votes: 11,592 | Gross: $14.82M
7. Big Fish (2003)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange
Votes: 458,584 | Gross: $66.26M
8. 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: 110,715 | Gross: $34.60M
9. Walk the Line (2005)
PG-13 | 136 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick
Votes: 265,637 | Gross: $119.52M
10. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
PG-13 | 107 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman
Votes: 330,508 | Gross: $45.51M
11. The Man in the Moon (1991)
PG-13 | 99 min | Drama, Romance
A coming of age story set in the south of the U.S. when Elvis was King.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Sam Waterston, Tess Harper, Gail Strickland, Reese Witherspoon
Votes: 18,398 | Gross: $2.85M
12. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
PG | 122 min | Drama
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Votes: 114,244 | Gross: $8.00M
13. The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)
PG-13 | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A road trip through Louisiana transforms three strangers who were originally brought together by their respective feelings of loneliness.
Director: Udayan Prasad | Stars: William Hurt, Maria Bello, Kristen Stewart, Eddie Redmayne
Votes: 8,898 | Gross: $0.32M
14. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant
Votes: 83,487 | Gross: $24.38M
15. Sunshine State (2002)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama, Romance
A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Angela Bassett, Edie Falco, Alex Lewis, Alan King
Votes: 4,237 | Gross: $3.06M
16. In the Electric Mist (2009)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A detective in post-Katrina New Orleans has a series of surreal encounters with a troop of ghostly Confederate soldiers while investigating serial killings of local prostitutes, a 1965 lynching, and corrupt local businessmen.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 19,849
17. Wild at Heart (1990)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, J.E. Freeman
Votes: 100,844 | Gross: $14.56M
18. Hustle & Flow (2005)
R | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Music
With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.
Director: Craig Brewer | Stars: Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning
Votes: 43,201 | Gross: $22.20M
19. Sling Blade (1996)
R | 135 min | Drama
Karl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.
Director: Billy Bob Thornton | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter
Votes: 98,734 | Gross: $24.48M
20. Wise Blood (1979)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama
Fresh out of the army, Hazel Motes attempts to open the first Church Without Christ in the small town of Taulkinham.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Brad Dourif, John Huston, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton
Votes: 6,453
21. The Apostle (1997)
PG-13 | 134 min | Drama
After his happy life spins out of control, a preacher from Texas changes his name, goes to Louisiana and starts preaching on the radio.
Director: Robert Duvall | Stars: Robert Duvall, Todd Allen, Paul Bagget, Lenore Banks
Votes: 14,887 | Gross: $20.73M
22. The Gift (2000)
R | 111 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A fortune teller with extrasensory perception is asked to help find a young woman who has mysteriously disappeared.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi
Votes: 74,712 | Gross: $12.01M
23. 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: 332,595
24. Cape Fear (1962)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin
Votes: 31,846
25. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Drama
An old Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur in the American South have a relationship that grows and improves over the years.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti LuPone
Votes: 117,463 | Gross: $106.59M
26. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama
Evelyn, an ordinary housewife, visits a nursing home and befriends the old lady Ninny. Together, they bond over stories from the past about two intrepid women of Whistle Stop Cafe.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker
Votes: 83,384 | Gross: $82.42M
27. Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
R | 98 min | Drama
A mother and daughter find their lives adversely affected when a new man enters the picture. Will their family ever be what they expect?
Director: Anjelica Huston | Stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ron Eldard, Glenne Headly, Lyle Lovett
Votes: 4,803
28. The Intruder (1962)
PG-13 | 84 min | Drama
A charismatic "social reformer" rallies the white populace of a Southern town to oppose school integration, but he soon finds himself in a situation that he cannot control.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: William Shatner, Frank Maxwell, Beverly Lunsford, Robert Emhardt
Votes: 3,891
29. The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama
Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles
Votes: 12,399
30. Places in the Heart (1984)
PG | 111 min | Drama
In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan
Votes: 13,468 | Gross: $34.90M
31. Down by Law (1986)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two men are framed and sent to jail, where they meet a murderer who helps them escape and leave the state.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi
Votes: 55,241 | Gross: $1.44M
32. The Miracle Worker (1962)
Approved | 106 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory, Inga Swenson
Votes: 20,482 | Gross: $5.45M
33. Goodbye Solo (2008)
R | 91 min | Drama
Two men form an unlikely friendship that will change both of their lives forever.
Director: Ramin Bahrani | Stars: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Lane 'Roc' Williams
Votes: 6,154 | Gross: $0.87M
34. Louisiana Story (1948)
Approved | 78 min | Adventure, Drama
The idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.
Director: Robert J. Flaherty | Stars: Joseph Boudreaux, Lionel Le Blanc, E. Bienvenu, Frank Hardy
Votes: 2,150
35. Waitress (2007)
PG-13 | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Jenna is a pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep south. She meets a newcomer to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness.
Director: Adrienne Shelly | Stars: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines
Votes: 48,797 | Gross: $19.07M
36. Baby Doll (1956)
Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Drama
An immature, naive teenage bride holds her anxious husband at bay while flirting with an amorous Sicilian farmer.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock
Votes: 8,289
37. Honeydripper (2007)
PG-13 | 124 min | Crime, Drama, History
1950. Rural Alabama. Cotton harvest. It's a make-or-break weekend for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner, piano player Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Deep in debt to the liquor man, the ... See full summary »
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Danny Glover, LisaGay Hamilton, Yaya DaCosta, Charles S. Dutton
Votes: 2,191 | Gross: $0.27M
38. Shotgun Stories (2007)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Thriller
Set in Arkansas, this poetic and powerful film directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter) tracks a blood feud that erupts when two sets of half-brothers come to blows at their father's funeral.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Michael Abbott Jr.
Votes: 11,234 | Gross: $0.05M
39. Undertow (2004)
R | 108 min | Drama, Thriller
Pig farmer and widower John Munn is raising his two sons in an isolated farmhouse, until his troubled brother arrives and changes their lives forever.
Director: David Gordon Green | Stars: Jamie Bell, Josh Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, Devon Alan
Votes: 9,358 | Gross: $0.02M
40. Shy People (1987)
R | 118 min | Drama
New York journalist visits her distant cousin for the first time to write an article about her hard life in the bayous of Louisiana. Journalist's wild drug addicted daughter just adds to tensions between two families' cultures.
Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey, Martha Plimpton, Merritt Butrick
Votes: 1,523 | Gross: $0.77M
41. Passion Fish (1992)
R | 135 min | Drama
After an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nurse, who has struggles of her own.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Angela Bassett, Lenore Banks
Votes: 6,078 | Gross: $5.41M
42. Welcome to the Rileys (2010)
R | 110 min | Drama
On a business trip to New Orleans, a damaged man seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman.
Director: Jake Scott | Stars: James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo, David Jensen
Votes: 25,263 | Gross: $0.15M
43. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
G | 123 min | Drama
When deaf-mute Singer moves to a new town to be near his hospitalized friend, he makes an indelible impression on the lives of those around him.
Director: Robert Ellis Miller | Stars: Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, Chuck McCann, Peter Mamakos
Votes: 4,724
44. Mud (2012)
PG-13 | 130 min | Adventure, Drama
Two young boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the vigilantes that are on his trail and to reunite him with his true love.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Sam Shepard
Votes: 188,673 | Gross: $21.59M
45. Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, History
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to finally bring a white racist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Whoopi Goldberg, Virginia Madsen
Votes: 12,140 | Gross: $13.05M
46. Joe (I) (2013)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-con, who is the unlikeliest of role models, meets a 15-year-old boy and is faced with the choice of redemption or ruin.
Director: David Gordon Green | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter, Ronnie Gene Blevins
Votes: 51,164 | Gross: $0.37M
47. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
PG-13 | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.
Director: Benh Zeitlin | Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Lowell Landes
Votes: 85,044 | Gross: $12.80M
48. Sounder (1972)
G | 105 min | Drama, Family
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews
Votes: 4,818 | Gross: $3.10M
49. Wild River (1960)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, History, Romance
A TVA bureaucrat comes to the river to do what none of his predecessors have been able to do - evict a stubborn octogenarian from her island before the rising waters engulf her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Salmi
Votes: 6,172
50. Rambling Rose (1991)
R | 112 min | Drama
A young woman who exudes sexuality battles temptation.
Director: Martha Coolidge | Stars: Laura Dern, Robert Duvall, Diane Ladd, Lukas Haas
Votes: 5,451 | Gross: $6.27M
51. Daughters of the Dust (1991)
TV-PG | 113 min | Drama, History, Romance
A languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902.
Director: Julie Dash | Stars: Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbarao, Trula Hoosier
Votes: 3,278 | Gross: $1.64M
52. Get Out (I) (2017)
R | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
Director: Jordan Peele | Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
Votes: 695,077 | Gross: $176.04M
53. Cockfighter (1974)
R | 83 min | Drama
In the Deep South, a trainer of fighting cocks takes a vow of silence and gambles his loves and possessions in a bid to win a championship.
Director: Monte Hellman | Stars: Warren Oates, Richard B. Shull, Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley Jr.
Votes: 2,614
54. 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: 569,308 | Gross: $85.08M
55. My Cousin Vinny (1992)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Crime
Two New Yorkers accused of murder in rural Alabama while on their way back to college call in the help of one of their cousins, a loudmouth lawyer with no trial experience.
Director: Jonathan Lynn | Stars: Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Macchio, Mitchell Whitfield
Votes: 140,338 | Gross: $52.93M
56. Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Not Rated | 133 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 16,023 | Gross: $7.63M
57. Cross Creek (1983)
PG | 127 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editor and confused neighbors, but soon she connects and writes The Yearling, a classic of American literature.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter Coyote, Dana Hill
Votes: 2,028 | Gross: $0.20M
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