Best Post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) cinema — measured across 2,077 indexed frames from 32 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) films over-index on soldier, military uniform and blood — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
William WylerDP Gregg TolandIMDb 8.1TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →
The story concentrates on the social re-adjustment of three World War II servicemen, each from a different station of society. Al Stephenson returns to an influential banking position, but finds it hard to reconcile his loyalties to ex-servicemen with new commercial realities. Fred Derry is an ordinary working man who finds it difficult to hold down a job or pick up the threads of his marriage. Having had both hands burnt off during the war, Homer Parrish is unsure that his fiancée's feelings are still those of love and not those of pity. Each of the veterans faces a crisis upon his arrival, and each crisis is a microcosm of the experiences of many American warriors who found an alien world awaiting them when they came marching home.
- 2
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Adrian LyneDP Jeffrey L. KimballIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →
After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rapidly falls apart as the world and people around him morph and twist into disturbing images. His girlfriend, Jezzie, and ex-wife, Sarah, try to help, but to little avail. Even Singer's chiropractor friend, Louis, fails to reach him as he descends into madness.
- 3
Forrest Gump (1994)
Robert ZemeckisDP Don BurgessIMDb 8.8TMDB 8.5See in full on FrameThrower →
Forrest Gump is a simple man with a low I.Q. but good intentions. He is running through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze, creates the smiley, writes bumper stickers and songs, donates to people and meets the president several times. However, this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran, who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone.
- 4
Born On The Fourth of July (1989)
Oliver StoneDP Robert RichardsonIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.
- 5
Die Another Day (2002)
Lee TamahoriDP David TattersallIMDb 6.1TMDB 6.0See in full on FrameThrower →
Pierce Brosnan gives one last mission as James Bond 007. Starting off in North Korea, Bond is betrayed and captured. Fourteen months later, Bond is set free, but traded for Zao (Rick Yune) who was captured by MI6. When back in his world, Bond sets off to track down Zao. Bond gets caught up in yet another scheme which sends him to millionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens). Another MI6 Agent known as Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) is also posing as a friend of Graves. Bond is invited to a presentation held by Graves about a satellite found in space which can project a huge laser beam. Bond must stop this madman with a fellow American Agent, known as Jinx Johnson (Halle Berry). While Bond tries to stop Graves and Zao, will he finally reveal who betrayed him?
- 6
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Michael CiminoDP Vilmos ZsigmondIMDb 8.1TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →
Michael, Steven, and Nick are three best friends who enjoy going deer hunting quite often. They get enlisted to head to Vietnam to fight for their country and celebrate with a farewell party, as well as Steven marrying a pregnant woman named Angela. After the horrors during the war and edge-grabbing games of Russian Roulette that they are forced to play, Michael returns home and realizes that his deer hunting outings aren't the same as they used to be, because of the war and he eventually finds out that Steven is handicapped and Nick hasn't returned from Vietnam, and in response, he heads back there to rescue him.
- 7
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Damien LeoneDP George SteuberIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Five years after surviving Art the Clown's Halloween massacre, Sienna and Jonathan are still struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they're safe, Art returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.
- 8
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Gregg ArakiDP Steve GainerIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →
Joseph Gordon-Levittas Neil McCormick
Brady Corbetas Brian Lackey
Michelle Trachtenbergas Wendy Peterson
A gay teenage prostitute and another teen, both from the same small town in Kansas, narrate separate stories from their childhoods. The prostitute's story is about a disturbing homosexual encounter with his pedophile baseball coach, and the other teen's story revolves around an amnesia blackout during which he thinks he may have been abducted by aliens. Later, the second teen finds clues linking the gay prostitute (now living in New York City) to his possible alien abduction, so he tracks him down to finally seek out the truth.
- 9
Civil War (2024)
Alex GarlandDP Rob HardyIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
In a dystopian future, four journalists travel across the United States during a nation-wide conflict. While trying to survive, they aim to reach the White House to interview the president before he is overthrown.
- 10
Mudbound (2017)
Dee ReesDP Rachel MorrisonIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →
In the aftermath of WWII, somewhere in the muddy Mississippi Delta, two families--one black, the Jacksons, and the other white, the McAllans--are forced to share the same patch of land, keeping a frail race-based peace with each other. However, as they both struggle with hardship and dire poverty, the long-awaited return of two war veterans--Ronsel, the Jacksons' eldest son, and Jamie, Henry McAllan's younger brother--will unexpectedly nurture a budding friendship that transcends prejudice and race. But, in the end, against a backdrop of fevered Mississippi sunsets and vitriolic racism, life can be hard when the law of the land is still segregation and hatred. And then, no one can be safe.
What post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — soldier is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- soldier3.9×
- military uniform3.1×
- blood2.4×
- bed2.0×
- pillow1.9×
- curtains1.8×
- lamp1.6×
- curtain1.6×
How post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 2,077 frames from 32 films carrying the post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd
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