Letterboxd is a social media app principally designed for film buffs to review movies and keep track of all the titles they watch, but that doesn’t mean it’s exclusively centered on theatrically released films. There are various miniseries that premiered on television as well as TV movies that can be rated and reviewed, with most of the latter being marked as such and therefore excluded from some of the app’s all-time lists, including itsOfficial Top 250 Narrative Feature Films list.
Essentially, TV movies are feature-length titles that aremade for television, instead of getting distributed theatrically. They tend to be smaller in scale and often have reduced budgets, butthis doesn’t mean they’re less worthy of attention or acclaim, with the greatest TV movies offering comparable experiences to great theatrically released movies. Some of the all-time best - according to Letterboxd users - are ranked below, starting with the great and ending with the greatest.
10’Deadwood: The Movie' (2019)
Letterboxd Rating: 3.8/5
Back when it was airing on HBO,Deadwoodwasan acclaimed historical drama serieswith fantastic dialogue and countless memorable characters, but didn’t find quite as much success as some other heavy-hitters on that network. It ran for a respectable three seasons between 2004 and 2006, but found itself canceled abruptly after its third and regrettably final season. For 13 years,it was one of those great shows bemoaned for ending before its time, and prior to it getting a proper finale.
Deadwood: The Movie, as such, was a long time coming, but a welcome feature-length finale for the show that succeeded in providing closure to the most prominent characters living in the titular Old West town. It sacrificed a certain amount of historical accuracy to wrap things up, but such an approach was needed to be an effective send-off that could clock in at under two hours. It’s safe to say those not familiar withDeadwoodwould be lost watching this, but it’s a must-watch for the show’s fans.
Deadwood: The Movie
Watch on Max
9’Meantime' (1983)
Mike Leigh’sa well-regardedBritish filmmaker who found success making feature filmsin the early 1990s and beyond, but he got his start making short films and TV movies. Of these earlier titles in his filmography,Meantimeis perhaps his most celebrated, and was a TV movie that showed his directorial style and unique blending of comedy and drama feeling more well-defined than it ever had before.
It stars several actors who found breakout success in subsequent years- includingTim Roth,Gary Oldman, andAlfred Molina- and focuses on a working-class family struggling to get by during the divisive Premiership ofMargaret Thatcher. Leigh specializes in highlighting the lives of people who don’t often get to be front-and-center in more mainstream movies, and this can be seen inMeantime, which is a sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad TV movie… as one can expect from something by Mike Leigh.
Watch on Criterion
8’Duel' (1971)
If you want to get technical, the first feature filmSteven Spielbergever made was anamateur effort in 1964 calledFirelight, though it was apparently only screened once and isn’t available to watch today. He also made several short films before the release of theaction-packed TV movie thriller that isDuel, but with a runtime of 74 minutes (or 90 minutes, if you watch the longer version), it’s this 1971 film that stands as his directorial feature film debut.
The premise ofDuelis about as simple as set-ups thrillers get, as the protagonist is a lone man driving through the desert who crosses paths with the aggressive driver of a large tanker. Much of the film is like an extended car chase with just two people involved, and there’s a surprising amount of suspense for something so simple, and with such a stripped-back budget. It’s a solid watch, and also holds tremendous value for showing what a very young Spielberg was capable of.
7’Elephant' (1989)
The most well-known film with the titleElephantnowadays isGus Van Sant’s2003 Palme d’Or winning film, which tells a bleak story that has parallels to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. It’s certainly not a direct remake of 1989’sElephant, a TV movie byAlan Clarke, though it takes a certain amount of inspiration from Clarke’s film, with the earlierElephantalso being an uncompromising and eerily realistic look at a series of brutal and seemingly senseless murders.
There’s essentially no context given for the killings shown inElephant, and the film - which runs for just 38 minutes but feels a good deal longer -simply shows one disturbingly matter-of-fact murder after another, all presented in a minimalist and uncinematic way. It’s an understandably harrowing and challenging watch, but serves broadly as an effective condemnation of violence, and leaves enough up to each viewer’s perception of the evens to allow for analysis and differing interpretations.
Rent on Amazon
6’Saraband' (2003)
Letterboxd Rating: 3.9/5
Ingmar Bergman’scareer trajectory as a filmmaker stands in contrast to the aforementioned Mike Leigh’s career, asBergman made a series of acclaimed theatrical releasesthroughout the first few decades of his time as a director, and more often than not made television productions in his last two to three decades of work. One of these TV movies of Bergman’s wasSaraband, which stands as a sequel to hisintense romance movie about love breaking down:Scenes from a Marriage.
Interestingly,Scenes from a Marriageexists as both a three-hourtheatrical release and a significantly longer miniseries cut, thoughSarabandhas just the one cut. It sees the couple from the earlier film reuniting after about 30 years, with thenarrative exploring the complex feelings they still have for each other in old age. It feels a little like how a fourthBeforemovie might feel, ifRichard Linklater,Ethan Hawke, andJulie Delpywere to make one in say the 2040s, and stands as a well-acted and brutally honest movie about growing both old and apart from someone who once meant a lot to you.
Buy on Apple TV
5’Culloden' (1964)
In a runtime that clocks in at just under 70 minutes,Cullodenmanages to ambitiously work its way into an eclectic range of genres. It’s presented using documentary conventions, and is about the 1746 Battle of Culloden, depicting events as if they were being filmed by a TV news crew of the 1960s.This makes it a gripping war moviealongside being a decidedly serious mockumentary of sorts, with the realistic presentation of the battle also making it a hard-hitting historical drama.
It’s a unique way to look at a historical event, and that novel approach alone makesCullodenworth watching. It covers the titular battle well, and even features mock interviews with various people involved on both sides of the conflict.Cullodenis a strange beast of a TV movie, and certainly not perfect, but at the very least, it is fascinating and undoubtedly unique.
4’The War Game' (1966)
Letterboxd Rating: 4.0/5
Two years after directingCulloden,Peter Watkinsmadethe short but memorableThe War Game, another TV movie that had a docudrama/mockumentary approach to its main subject. However, whileCullodendid this to unpack an event from the past,The War Gamelooks to what could be a bleak future, being all about the effects that a devastating nuclear attack might have on Britain.
ThoughThe War Gamewas made for TV,it was deemed too shocking - or perhaps too effective - for the BBC, andit was banned from being screened on televisionin Britain until the 1980s. It was screened elsewhere, though, and picked up acclaim for how disturbing, bleak, and effectively anti-war it was. Even when watched today,The War Gamestill packs a punch, and holds up as one of the most uncompromising war dramas of its era, or perhaps any era, really.
3’Threads' (1984)
Letterboxd Rating: 4.1/5
For as gripping and devastating as 1966’sThe War Gamewas, it’s arguably a film that walked so thatThreads- released almost 20 years later - could run.Threadsissignificantly longer and even more intense, and aims to be as realistic as possible in its depiction of a world-ending nuclear war. It begins in the days before the attacks start, shows said devastating attacks in shocking detail, and then concludes byimagining a terrifying future worldwhere society has fallen apart entirely.
The idea of such a thing happening is harrowing enough to think about, but seeing it captured with such vivid detail inThreadsmakes it all even worse. Sure,The War Gameis still incredibly unsettling, butThreadsis the kind of movie that’s likely to still cause nightmares for even the most hardened of horror buffs, and even those who think it sounds intriguing should still tread carefully.
Watch on Shudder
2’Goodbye, Farewell and Amen' (1983)
Letterboxd Rating: 4.2/5
MASHran for an impressive 11 seasons,and was a groundbreaking sitcom(that also worked as a great drama) about surgeons and other medical staff serving during the Korean War.MASHwas as funny and quotableas it was sad and brutally honest about the cost of war, and was populated withplenty of great main and recurring characters. The large cast needed a grand and fittingly climactic send-off after more than a decade on the air, which is just what “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” offered.
The episode was a feature-length TV movie, and ended up running for two hours (roughly five times longer than the average episode ofMASH). It feels bigger in scope, more emotional,and a good deal more serious than most of the episodes that came before, and it’swidely loved for being a wonderfully bittersweet farewellto a beloved show. LikeDeadwood: The Movie, you do have to watch the preceding show to fully appreciate it, but it’s ultimately hard to think of a better wayMASHcould’ve ended.
Watch on Hulu
1’Twin Peaks' (1989)
Letterboxd Rating: 4.6/5
Now, things get a little complicated when it comes to the highest-rated “TV movie” on Letterboxd. Officially, it’s this extended/alternate pilot ofTwin Peaks, thebeloved - and weird - show co-created byDavid Lynch, with a remarkable rating of 4.6/5 from Letterboxd users. As the story goes, there was a chance the pilot ofTwin Peakswouldn’t get picked up, and so thisalternate version of the pilot episode was madein the event that happened. It has an extra few scenes added on to the end of the regular pilot (itself a double-length episode), withthese scenes hastily - and somewhat awkwardly - resolving the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer.
All the things that make the pilot episode great are still intact, and it’s only the understandably rushed ending that feels a bit silly. So, as a standalone “what could have been” forTwin Peaks, this alternate movie-length pilot - simply calledTwin Peakson Letterboxd - is still compelling and worth seeking out for the show’s fans. However, the high rating likely comes from Letterboxd users using this title to rate the first two seasons ofTwin Peaksas a whole, as there’s a good argument to be made that the show’s first two seasons are worthy of 4.5/5 and perhaps even 5/5 ratings. But as for this extended pilot? It’s unlikely people rating it for what it is would result in a 4.6/5.
