the San Francisco Films
by HSaid | created - 5 months ago | updated - 5 months ago | Publican ultimate list of iconic films that are shot or feature san francisco as a major part of the story. A must watch!
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1. This Is Your Song (2023)
125 min | Drama, Romance
On the night of their wedding anniversary, a bohemian theatre actress and a beatnik inspired writer confront the truth of their relationship, dreams, and the city they once loved.
Director: Hassan Said | Stars: Eve Richards, Jordan Potch, Tucker Bowers, Joanna Kay
Votes: 47
2. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 427,294 | Gross: $3.20M
3. The Game (1997)
R | 129 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn
Votes: 429,833 | Gross: $48.32M
4. Bullitt (1968)
M/PG | 114 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon
Votes: 75,881 | Gross: $42.30M
5. The Rock (1996)
R | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A mild-mannered chemist and an ex-con must lead the counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer
Votes: 358,368 | Gross: $134.07M
6. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
R | 121 min | Drama
A young man searches for home in the changing city that seems to have left him behind.
Director: Joe Talbot | Stars: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Rob Morgan, Tichina Arnold
Votes: 21,972 | Gross: $4.52M
7. Zodiac (2007)
R | 157 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards
Votes: 598,903 | Gross: $33.08M
8. Blue Jasmine (2013)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister. She looks like a million dollars but isn't bringing money, peace or love.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Sally Hawkins
Votes: 212,638 | Gross: $33.41M
9. The Conversation (1974)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 121,965 | Gross: $4.42M
10. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
PG-13 | 117 min | Biography, Drama
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career
Director: Gabriele Muccino | Stars: Will Smith, Thandiwe Newton, Jaden Smith, Brian Howe
Votes: 561,435 | Gross: $163.57M
11. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
PG | 112 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau
Votes: 147,567 | Gross: $43.00M
12. Dirty Harry (1971)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
When a man calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath.
Directors: Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni
Votes: 168,451 | Gross: $35.90M
13. Pacific Heights (1990)
R | 102 min | Thriller
A couple work hard to renovate their dream house and become landlords to pay for it. Unfortunately, one of their tenants has plans of his own.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, Michael Keaton, Mako
Votes: 22,793 | Gross: $29.38M
14. Final Analysis (1992)
R | 124 min | Drama, Thriller
A psychiatrist becomes romantically involved with the sister of one of his patients, but the influence of her controlling gangster husband threatens to destroy them both.
Director: Phil Joanou | Stars: Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Uma Thurman, Eric Roberts
Votes: 15,309 | Gross: $28.59M
15. Basic Instinct (1992)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A violent police detective investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Votes: 219,347 | Gross: $117.73M
16. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
PG-13 | 125 min | Comedy, Drama
After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein
Votes: 291,260 | Gross: $219.20M
17. Hardcore (1979)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama
A religious businessman from Michigan has to venture into the world of pornography in California, desperately searching for his runaway teenage daughter.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent
Votes: 13,880
18. Milk (I) (2008)
R | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of American gay activist Harvey Milk, who fought for gay rights and was elected as California's first openly gay official.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna
Votes: 179,893 | Gross: $31.84M
19. Big Eyes (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 106 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter
Votes: 99,152 | Gross: $14.48M
20. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
PG-13 | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A rough-and-tumble trucker and his side kick face off with an ancient sorcerer in a supernatural battle beneath Chinatown.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong
Votes: 154,143 | Gross: $11.10M
21. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,669 | Gross: $2.11M
22. San Francisco (1936)
Passed | 115 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A Barbary Coast saloonkeeper and a Nob Hill impresario are rivals for the affections of a beautiful singer, both personally and professionally, in 1906 San Francisco.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt
Votes: 6,107
23. What's Up, Doc? (1972)
G | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars
Votes: 27,091 | Gross: $10.47M
24. The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder after she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan, Fay Baker
Votes: 3,850
25. Barbary Coast (1935)
Approved | 91 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Mary Rutledge arrives from the East, finds her fiance dead, and goes to work at the roulette wheel of Louis Charnalis' Bella Donna, a rowdy gambling house in 1850s San Francisco.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan
Votes: 2,051
26. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,591 | Gross: $104.95M
27. Harold and Maude (1971)
PG | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack
Votes: 81,881
28. Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Romance
Twenty-four hours in the tentative relationship of two young San Franciscans also dealing with the conundrum of being a minority in a rapidly gentrifying city.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggins, John Thurgood, Brent Weinbach
Votes: 2,622 | Gross: $0.11M
29. A View to a Kill (1985)
PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
The recovery of a microchip from the body of a fellow British secret agent leads James Bond to a mad industrialist scheming to cause massive destruction.
Director: John Glen | Stars: Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones
Votes: 104,969 | Gross: $50.33M
30. La Mission (2009)
R | 117 min | Drama
A single-parent ex-con in a tough minority neighborhood finds his personal values challenged when he discovers his son is gay.
Director: Peter Bratt | Stars: Benjamin Bratt, Alex Hernandez, Christopher Borgzinner, Jeremy Ray Valdez
Votes: 1,989 | Gross: $1.04M
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