Which are the Top 10 Best Motivational Hollywood Movies of All Time?
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In this blog post, we are recommending the top 10 best motivational Hollywood movies of all time. Before we move further, we would like to clarify that this is just a recommended list of Hollywood movies by the Net Worth Guide. We, in no way, recommend that these are the best movies and others do not stand close by. This is based on our personal preference.
Moreover, motivational and inspirational does not necessarily mean they have to be emotional or romantic. All the genres of movies can be inspirational if we seek motivation from them. Be it drama, romance, war movies, or any other genre, there is something inspirational in all of them. Some inspire us to improve our relationships, some inspire us to handle the hardships better, and so on.
So with the disclaimer in place, we move ahead with a list of the top 10 best motivational Hollywood movies of all time.
Top 10 Best Motivational Hollywood Movies of All Time – Preface
Who more suited to judge the best movies of all time than the people who make them? Studio chiefs, Oscar winners, and TV royalty all were viewed as THR publishes its first definitive entertainment-industry ranking of cinema’s most excellent.
Is it wrong to already represent this on the No. 1 movie list of all time?
After all, there are other movie listings. Lots and lots of others. So many lists, you couldn’t place them all. But this is the first to ask the entertainment industry itself to choose its choices for the best pictures ever made. In May, THR sent an online poll all over town — to every studio, agency, publicity firm and production house on either side of the 405. Not everybody was originally thrilled to participate.
“I reject the idea,” Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan told THR. “To me, it’s the equivalent of having a party-size bag of Nacho Doritos, then being put to eat only five.” In the end, though, he sent in his picks (one of which is 1961’s Yojimbo), as did a total of 2,120 industry members, including Fox chief Jim Gianopulos, Disney’s Alan Horn, director Gary Ross, producer Frank Marshall, Warners’ Sue Kroll, agent Robert Newman, attorney John Burke, filmmaker John Singleton and many more. These are the results: the most famous movies ever made, according to Hollywood.
There are some wonders here. It’s a far more commercial list than the general critics’ picks. Who knew, for example, that Back to the Future would get more love than Lawrence of Arabia? There also are surprising omissions — The 400 Blows, La Dolce Vita, The Gold Rush, and dozens of other undeniably fabulous films. And there are striking differences of opinion along professional divides: Directors, writers, and agents all agreed on their choice for the greatest movie ever (hint: It rhymes with “Schmodfather”), while cinematographers chose 2001: A Space Odyssey and entertainment lawyers, the big softies, picked The Shawshank Redemption.
Whether you agree with their decisions or not, there are lots to enjoy on these pages, from the reunion photographs to the whereabouts of famous props to THR critic Todd McCarthy’s own assessment of Hollywood’s top pick. But keep in mind, movie lists aren’t always. As Michael Bay points out, “Your favorite film could change every day.”
Top 10 Best Motivational Hollywood Movies of All Time – The List
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The greatest film ever made started with the meeting of two brilliant talents: Stanley Kubrick and sci-fi seer Arthur C. Clarke. “I understand he’s a nut who lives in a tree in India somewhere,” noted Kubrick when Clarke’s name came up—along with those of Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury—as a possible writer for his projected sci-fi epic.
Clarke was actually living in Ceylon (not in India, or a tree), but the pair met, hit it off, and produced a story of technological progress and disaster (hello, HAL) that’s steeped in humanity, in all its brilliance, hunger, strength and mad passion. An audience of stoners, succeeded by its eye-candy Star Gate sequence and pioneering visuals, embraced it as a pet movie.
Were it not for them, 2001 might have faded into uncertainty, but it’s hard to believe it would have stayed there. Kubrick’s frighteningly clinical vision of destiny—AI and all—still feels portentous, more than 50 years on.
The film is written for its scientifically realistic depiction of space flight, pioneering unique effects, and enigmatic imagery. Kubrick avoided conventional cinematic and historical techniques; the dialogue is used sparingly, and there are long sequences followed only by music. The soundtrack includes many works of traditional music, among them Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, “The Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss II, and works by Aram Khachaturian and György Ligeti.
The film won several critical responses, ranging from those who saw it as darkly apocalyptic to those who saw it as a positive reappraisal of the hopes of humanity. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, with Kubrick winning for his way of visual effects.
The film is universally regarded as one of the greatest and most powerful films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10 (Based on a whooping 617K Reviews)
2. The Godfather (1972)
From the wise guys of Goodfellas to The Sopranos, all crime families that came after The Godfather are descendants of the Corleones: Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus is the last patriarch of the Mafia genre. A great opening line (“I believe in America”) sets the operatic Mario Puzo adaptation in action, before Coppola’s epic morphs into a chilling dismantling of the American dream.
The corruption-soaked story follows a great immigrant family fighting with the contradictory values of region and religion; those pure contradictions are formed in a customary baptism sequence, superbly edited in correspondence to the murdering of four rivaling dons. With many iconic details—a horse’s severed head, Marlon Brando’s wheezy voice, Nino Rota’s catchy waltz.
The Godfather premiered at the Loew’s State Theatre on March 14, 1972, and was nationally released in the United States on March 24, 1972. It was the highest-grossing film of 1972 and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever produced, earning between $246 and $287 million at the box office. The film initiated universal acclaim from critics and audiences, with regard to the reviews, particularly those of Brando and Pacino, the directing, screenplay, cinematography, editing, score, and portrayal of the mafia. The Godfather played as a catalyst for the flourishing careers of Coppola, Pacino, and other relative novices in the cast and crew. Additionally, the film revitalized Brando’s career, which had descended in the 1960s, and he went on to star in films such as Last Tango in Paris, Superman, and Apocalypse Now.
At the 45th Academy Awards, the film won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Puzo and Coppola). In addition, the seven other Oscar nominations involved Pacino, Caan, and Duvall for Best Supporting Actor and Coppola for Best Director. Since its release, The Godfather has been universally regarded as one of the most famous and most influential films ever made, particularly in the gangster genre.
It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” and is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by the American Film Institute. It was followed by the series The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).
IMDB Rating: 9.2/10
3. Citizen Kane (1941)
Back in the leader’s thanks to David Fincher’s brilliantly acerbic making-of drama Mank, Citizen Kane always finds a way to reiterate itself for a new generation of film lovers. For newbies, the journey of its bulldozer of a protagonist – played with active force by actor-director-wunderkind Orson Welles – from unloved child to hitting entrepreneur to press baron to populist feels completely au courant (in unconnected news, Donald Trump came out as a superfan).
You can bathe in the film’s groundbreaking methods, like Gregg Toland’s deep-focus photography, or the limitless self-confidence of its platform and its investigation of American capitalism. But it’s also just a damn good story that you surely don’t need to be a hardened cineaste to enjoy.
Citizen Kane is especially praised for Gregg Toland’s cinematography, Robert Wise’s editing, Bernard Herrmann’s music, and its narrative structure, all of which have been recognized as innovative and precedent-setting.
The quasi-biographical film examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, a composite character based in part upon American media barons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick, as well as aspects of the screenwriters’ own lives. Upon its release, Hearst banned mention of the film in any of his newspapers.
While a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recover its costs at the box office. The film faded from view after its release but was finally returned to the public’s attention when it was praised by such French critics as André Bazin and given an American revival in 1956.
The film was released on Blu-ray on September 13, 2011, for a special 70th-anniversary edition. Citizen Kane was chosen by the Library of Congress as an inductee of the 1989 inaugural group of 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important”
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
4. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Long considered a feminist gem, Chantal Akerman’s quietly ruinous portrait of a widow’s daily routine—her chores slowly returning to a sense of pent-up frustration—should take its rightful place on any all-time list. This is not simply a niche film, but a window onto a universal condition depicted in a concentrated structuralist style.
More soothing than you may realize, Akerman’s continuous takes turn the simple acts of dredging veal or cleaning the bathtub into subtle analyses of moviemaking itself. (Pointedly, we never see the sex work Jeanne schedules in her bedroom to make ends meet.) 
Lulling us into her routine, Akerman and actor Delphine Seyrig build an extraordinary sense of sympathy rarely equaled by other movies. Jeanne Dielman represents a total commitment to a woman’s life, hour by hour, minute by minute. And it even has a twist ending.
Upon its release, critic Louis Marcorelles called it the “first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the movie”. It has become a cult classic and was the 19th-greatest movie of the 20th century in a critics poll led by The Village Voice.
Jeanne Dielman explores a single mother’s regimented schedule of cooking, cleaning, and mothering over three days. The mother, Jeanne Dielman (whose name is only obtained from the title and from a letter she reads to her son), has sex with male clients in her house daily for her and her son’s subsistence.
Like her other activities, Jeanne’s sex work is part of the routine she performs every day by rote and is monotonous. But on the second and third day, Jeanne’s routine begins to explain subtly, as she overcooks the potatoes that she’s preparing for dinner, and drops a newly washed spoon. These alterations to Jeanne’s existence prepare for the climax on the third day, during which she kills a client.
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Starting with a dissolve from the Paramount logo and ending in a shed inspired by Citizen Kane, Raiders of the Lost Ark celebrates what movies can do more joyously than any other film. Intricately created as a tribute to the craft, Steven Spielberg’s funniest blockbuster has it all: rolling boulders, a barroom brawl, a 
sparky heroine (Karen Allen) who can hold her drink and lose her temper, a treacherous monkey, a champagne-drinking villain (Paul Freeman), snakes (“Why did it have to be snakes?”)cinema’s greatest cart chase and a barnstorming fabulous finale where heads explode.
And it’s all topped off by Harrison Ford’s pitch-perfect Indiana Jones, a model of uncertain but active heroism (look at his face when he shoots that swordsman). In short, it’s cinematic perfection.
In the years since its release, the film has gained in esteem, and many now consider it to be among the most prominent films of all time, one of the greatest films of the 1980s, and one of the most famous action-adventure films ever made. It had a meaningful impact on popular culture; the film’s success spawned a host of followers across several media and inspired a family of filmmakers.
IMDB Rating: 8.4/10
6. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Made in the middle of Italy’s boom years, Federico Fellini’s runaway box-office hit came to define fused glamour and celebrity culture for the entire planet. It also made Marcello Mastroianni a star; here, he plays a gossip reporter caught up in the frenzied, freewheeling world of Roman nightlife. 
Ironically, the movie’s depiction of this milieu as vapid and soul-corroding hedonistic seems to have passed by many viewers. Perhaps that’s because Fellini films everything with so much cinematic verve and wit that it’s often hard not to get caught up in the crazy happenings on screen. So much of how we see fame still dates back to this film; it even gave us the word paparazzi.
IMDB Rating: 8.0/10
7. Seven Samurai (1954)
It’s the most comfortable 207 minutes of cinema you’ll ever sit through. On the simplest of frameworks—a poor growing community pools its resources to hire samurai to protect them from the brutal bandits who steal its harvest—Akira Kurosawa mounts a finely drawn epic, by turns engaging, funny, and exciting.
Of course, the action sequences stir the blood—the final confrontation in the rain is unforgettable—but this is really a study of human strengths and weaknesses.
Toshiro Mifune is excellent as the half-crazed self-styled samurai, but it’s Takashi Shimura’s Yoda-like leader who gives the film its fiery center.
Since replayed in the Wild West (The Magnificent Seven), in space (Battle Beyond the Stars), and even with activated insects (A Bug’s Life), the original still reigns supreme.
IMDB Rating: 8.6/10
8. In the Mood for Love (2000)
Can a film really be an immediate classic? Anyone who watched In The Mood for Love when it was released in 2000 may have said yes. 
The second this love story opens, you sense you are in the hands of a genius. Wong Kar-wai guides us through the small streets and stairs of ’60s Hong Kong and into the lives of two neighbors (Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung) who find their spouses are having an affair.
As they think—and partly reenact—how their partners might be behaving, they fall for each other while remaining firm to respect their wedding vows. Loaded with longing, the film benefits from no less than three cinematographers, who collectively create an intense sense of intimacy, while the faultless performances shiver with sexual tension.
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
9. There Will Be Blood (2007)
On the road to becoming the most important filmmaker of the last 20 years, Paul Thomas Anderson changed from a Scorsesian chronicler of debauched L.A. life into a hard-nosed researcher of the American confidence man.
The pivotal point was There Will Be Blood, an epic about a certain kind of hustler—the oil baron and prospector. Daniel Plainview is, in the final study, an ultra-scary Daniel Day-Lewis who will drink your milkshake. Scored by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood (himself emerging as a better composer), Anderson’s mournful epic is the true heir to Chinatown’s bone-deep cynicism.
As Phantom Thread makes fair, Anderson hasn’t lost his sense of fun, not by a long shot. But there once was a moment when he needed to get grave, and this is it.
IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Forget The Artist—sorry Uggie—and relish instead of the sheer, serotonin-enhancing verve of MGM’s 
great epitaph to cinema’s silent era. Its trio of dancers—rubber-faced (and heeled) Donald O’Connor, sparkling newcomer Debbie Reynolds and co-director and head act Gene Kelly—are a triple threat, nailing the stellar songs, intricate and actually demanding dance routines, and selling all the comic beats with perfect skill.
But kudos also goes to Betty Comden and Adolph Green, whose active screenplay provides the beat for the spectacle to move to, and Jessica Hagen, whose often-overlooked turn as croaky silent star Lina Lamont is the movie’s funny-sad counterpoint. Not forgetting co-director Stanley Donen, who was always happy to let his stars take the credit but deserve an equal share for a musical that never puts a hoof wrong.
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
Top 10 Best Motivational Hollywood Movies of All Time – Conclusion
So this concludes our list of Top 10 best motivational Hollywood movies of all time.
The list might not be awesome, there can be many more movies that could have made into the list or everyone could create their own list. This post is only meant for entertainment purposes and we do not promote or endorse any of these movies.
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