63 Sydney Pollack Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

This drama film takes us to the time of the Great Depression. The film tells the story of a manipulative emcee named Rocky who enlist several contestants for a dance marathon, offering a cash prize of $ 1,500 to the winner. However, the competition drags on for weeks, and turns out to be inhumanely grueling.

When Condor, a bookish CIA analyst tasked with reading all kinds of publications from around the world, comes across an unusual thriller novel, he decides to file a report on it. Then one day he returns to the office to find all his coworkers dead. Rattled, he tries to contact the headquarters; but it results in more bloodshed and personal danger. 

Jeremiah Johnson decides to become a mountain man and live as a hermit in solitude. However, the Crow Tribe disturbs his peace, and forces him to engage in combat.

The Swimmer is a drama film which tells the story of Ned Merill, who is visiting a friend of his, when he notices the abundance of backyard pools in their suburb. He therefore makes up his mind to swim across every pool in his town.

Although a highly respected actor nobody wants to hire Michael Dorsey because of his perfectionism. In desperation, he decides to pose as a woman and audition for the role of Dorothy Michaels in a popular soap opera. He soon becomes popular, not only with the audience, but also with his fellow actors, who take him to be a woman. To make matters worse, he falls for his costar, Julie. 

The awards-winning movie features Katie Morosky, a Jewish idealistic political activist, and Hubbell Gardiner, an easy-going, talented writer. Though opposite in their views, they are drawn towards each other in college, then falling passionately in love, they get married when they meet again after WWII. Hubbell prospers as a Hollywood screenwriter, but Katie’s activism creates trouble for him during the ‘Blacklist era,’ separating the two. 

This Property Is Condemned is a romantic drama film which tells the story of Alva, a young girl who clashes with her oppressive mother, when the latter asks her to get married to a wealthy man, although she has her eyes on another man named Owen, whom her mother disapproves of.  

An innocent man is maligned by a naïve reporter, Megan Carter. However, she helps him fight the authorities when she learns about his innocence.

Based on her autobiographical book, the movie tells the story of Baroness Karen Von Blixen, after she moves to Nairobi, under British rule, and marries Baron Bror Blixen. After Bror keeps being unfaithful to her, Karen develops a relationship with hunter Denys Finch Hatton, who becomes the love of her life but refuses to be married. 

Harry Kilmer is a retired detective, who is asked by his old friend George Tanner, to rescue his daughter. She has been kidnapped by the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia, as a Japanese gangster wants to put pressure on George over a business deal. Kilmer makes his way to Japan, and he decides to take the help of an old acquaintance named Ken, who feels that he has a lifelong obligation to Kilmer.

In the 1950s Germany, a young Michael Berg has a passionate affair with a much older woman, Hanna Schmitz. The affair ends abruptly but years later, the two meet again. This time Michael is a law student while Hannah is defending herself for her activities as concentration camp guard. While attending the trials, he realises that she is holding back a secret that can help her.

Based on Jane Austen’s epic novel of the same name, Sense and Sensibility narrates the story of Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters. After the demise of Mr. Dashwood, she has to leave the house to her stepson and begin a new life with her daughters in a small cottage. All ends well when her two daughters, Elinor, who symbolizes sense, and Maranne, who represents sensibility, find true love. 

The Player is an American satirical black comedy film, which tells the story of Hollywood film producer Griffin Mill, who starts receiving threats anonymously. However, he is certain that David, a scriptwriter is behind it. He invites the latter to sort things out, but things take an ugly turn, and he ends up murdering him.  

Tom Ripley, who is talented in lying, impersonating and forging, pretends to know recently graduated Princeton student Dickie Greenleaf and promises Dickie's wealthy father to bring him back home from vacationing in Italy. Once there, he becomes obsessed with Dickie's leisurely and extravagant lifestyle and goes to extreme lengths to assume that lifestyle as his own.

Gabe, a professor, and his wife, Judy, are shocked to hear that their best friends Sally and Jack are splitting up. Eventually, this makes them question their own relationship as well.

Josh is a regular kid, who likes playing football. However, his father notices that he is quite good at chess. Therefore, he starts encouraging his son, and helps him in developing his tactics.

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After his wife confesses to having sexual fantasies about a stranger, reputable physician Bill Hartford strolls through the streets of night desperately searching for random sexual encounters, and eventually sneaks into an invite-only masked party full of temptations. Despite his disguise, he is recognized and confronted for the misadventure, which puts his entire family in danger.

Michael Clayton works for a New York law firm and is their fixer in any messy situation. However, his financial situation is bad; he owes a huge sum to loan shark and his future in the company, undergoing a merger, is uncertain. To get a loan, he has to fix a situation wherein one of the firm's top attorney dealing with a complicated case has turned a whistle-blower.

Sonny, a rodeo star is being hired for an advertisement. When the shoot begins, Sonny gets to know that the horse is being doped to keep it docile. In order to protect the horse from being drugged, Sonny rides away the horse into the desert. 

Set in the Civil War era, Cold Mountain is a period drama that revolves around a Confederate soldier as he makes an epic journey back to his beloved, who is also trying to rebuild her life in the face of trouble and danger. Starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger, it is a touching saga of love and war.

Harvard Law graduate, Mitch McDeere,lands a high paying job at the Bendini, Lambert & Locke firm, only to realize that the firm helps to launder mob money. As Mitch tries to find proof and break out of the firm’s grips, he finds his and his wife’s lives threatened by the firm and the mob. 

Philippa, an English teacher in Turin, Italy, who has lost her husband to drug-overdose, witnesses many of her friends succumbing to drug-abuse. When her information about drug-dealers is ignored by the Carabinieri, she plants homemade bomb at drug-cartel leader’s office, but the failed attempt gets her arrested. Police-officer Fillipo, who falls in love with her, helps her escape, turning fugitive with her.

Novelist Irish Murdoch meets John while teaching at the Oxford University. They fall for each other and soon decide to get married. Despite having a happy married life, their lives take a turn when Iris is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. 

During the Vietnam War, a young American falls in love with a beautiful Vietnamese girl. However, she is dating an English reporter, who is unable to accept this. Therefore, in order to get him out of the way, the reporter decides to frame the American for bombings that take place in the city.

In 1949, a composer named Roman Strauss receives the death penalty for the murder of his  wife. In the 1990s, a detective finds out about a mute woman, who has also lost her memory, living in an orphanage. He also feels that she is somehow linked to the Strauss murder.

Presumed Innocent is a mystery thriller film, which tells the story of Rusty, who comes to know that he is being framed, as his blood type matches with the semen found in the victim of an apparent rape and murder. 

Set in 1951, an up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriter, Peter Appleton, is accused of being a communist. An accident after getting drunk, results in amnesia. Found near town of Lawson, he is mistaken as the MIA son of the community. He brings life to the town and rebuilds movie theater, the Majestic. As he regains his memory, the authorities also come looking for him.  

Frank and Jack, two brothers, are musicians who have been struggling for years, without much success. However, their lives change and they start gaining popularity after they team up with a beautiful singer named Susie. However, soon Susie and Jack find themselves attracted to each other, which threatens the stability of the trio.

Silvia Broome, who grew up in South Africa, is an expert in various languages and thus works as an interpreter in the United Nations. One day, she accidentally overhears a conversation around a plan to kill the African dictator Zuwanie who is accused of genocide. Secret Service agent Keller and Woods are tasked to protect him. Keller, however has his doubts about Silvia’s claim and intention.

At the end of the Korean War, Private, Roy Loomis, encounters a psychotic soldier named Raymond Endore who has a habit of crossing enemy lines at night and slitting their throats. When an armistice is declared, Loomis discovers Endore has been training a young orphan named Charlie and has no intention of leaving Korea. 

The movie follows the central character Helen Quilley’s life in two alternate storylines. In the first, she manages to catch a train, discovers her boyfriend Gerrys’s affair, breaks up, and starts a relationship with James. In the second, she misses the train, becomes pregnant with Gerry’s child only to later discover his infidelity.

Loosely based on the life of Willie Nelson, this is a satirical comedy-drama film about a country music composer entangled in a legal contract with a Nashville thug entrepreneur. Swindled of the publishing rights of his songs, he gets nothing for his efforts. The film then goes on to show how he plans to get out of the deal and reunite with his ex wife. 

Buck Bonham, a county singer, has a good family, but he is also struggling a little. Professionally, he still has to achieve national fame and personally he needs to find more time for his wife and son. Amidst all this, one of the band members decides to retire and is replaced by his beautiful daughter Lily who has had a crush on Buck ever since she was a child.

The movie is about terrorism in apartheid-era South Africa. A young lad, who works at an oil refinery, and a policeman carry out attacks against the apartheid regime.

Jan is a lawyer who takes up a case involving a major company which is responsible for contaminating a town’s water supply, eventually causing a lot of people to be diagnosed with leukemia. However, this case may bankrupt his firm as well as his career.

When Wall Street lawyer Gavin Banek and insurance agent Doyle Gipson, both running late for their vital court appointments, collide in an automobile accident on busy FDR Drive, the delay leads to grievous repercussions in their lives. This turns the two total strangers into bitter, vengeful antagonists who don’t hesitate to resort to unscrupulous, illegal ways to create destruction in the other man’s life. 

Sabrina Fairchild, the Larabee family chauffeur's daughter, loves David, the younger Larrabee son. Linus, his older brother, has business interests in David's marriage to a billionaire. In a bid to save it, Linus diverts Sabrina's affections to himself and ends up falling in love with her.

Miro is a teen who is hired by a group of thieves to help them break in and steal computers from an architectural firm owned by Will Francis. Will eventually finds out about Miro, who is living a humble life with his mother Amira, but decides not to report to the police.    

Lisa Cohen interacts with a bus driver, running alongside his bus, but this makes him distracted which leads to a fatal accident. Lisa accuses the driver of being responsible for the accident and the death of the woman who died in her arms. She files a lawsuit against the driver as well, but she ends up losing.

Max Baron is a Jewish advertising executive in his 20s, whose wife passed away. He is still unable to get over her death. He soon gets attracted to an older waitress named Nora, who enjoys the wilder side of life. However, their class and age difference becomes a problem since Max can’t keep their relationship a secret forever.

Havana is a drama film which takes us to the time of the Cuban Revolution. A gambler arrives in Cuba, hoping that he can win something big in poker games. He soon falls for a woman, who happens to be the wife of a communist revolutionary. She and her husband Arturo is eventually arrested and tortured, and Arturo is soon reported to be shot while trying to escape. Although Jack manages to get her freed from prison, the woman is unwilling to step away from her involvement in the revolution, and she keeps putting herself in danger again and again.

An actress and a writer, two friends turned rivals who are vying for the affection of the same man, secretly drink a miracle potion to stay young. They both plot and plan to kill each other. However, due to the side-effect of the potion, even after their death the two continue to move around as ‘living dead,’ making the matters worst.  

Blow Dry is a romantic comedy drama film which revolves around a young woman named Shelley, who runs a small salon in a small town, along with her partner. When the British Hairdressing Champions are announced in her town, Shelley approaches her ex-husband and her son and asks them to join her.  

Arlis finds himself madly attracted to a woman named Kay, without being unaware of the fact that it was his father who had massacred her family years ago.

Shy and reticent bank clerk John Buckingham arranges to get online mail-order bride Nadia from Russia. Though Nadia’s inability to speak English creates communication difficulties, inhibited John is happy with sexually bold Nadia. But when her cousin Yuri and his friend Alexei arrive unexpectedly to celebrate her birthday, everything turns topsy-turvy. as John gets pulled into a vortex of deceit and crime. 

Leatherheads is a romantic comedy sports film which tells the story of an enterprising pro football player who convinces a college football star to play for his team.  

Serial-dater, Tom Bailey. has been best friends with Hannah for years. When Hannah meets her Mr. Right in Scotsman Colin McMurray and informs Tom of her desire to marry him, Tom realizes he really loves Hannah. Tom now reaches Scotland to sabotage the wedding and win Hannah. 

Bright Lights, Big City is a drama film which tells the story of a young aspiring writer living in New York, who is forced to turn to drugs and drinking, in order to forget his dead mother as well as his wife who has left him. Meanwhile, he also struggles to deal with his unfulfilling job at a magazine.

After a plane crash, where all are killed, police Sgt. Dutch Van Den Broeck realizes that his wife was traveling with Congresswoman Kay Chandler’s husband, and suspects an affair. He meets Kay to know more, but she avoids, fearing publicity. However, later she meets him to find the details. The stress of unexpected discoveries affects their careers, but gradually brings them closer.

King Ralph is a romantic comedy film which tells the story of an ordinary guy Ralph, who just loses his job as a lounge singer. However, he is soon informed that he has royal blood, and since the Entire British Royal Family was recently killed in an accident, he decides to make a claim for the throne.