The 20 Best Denzel Washington Movies

Denzel Washington is one of the great American actors, period. Boasting fruitful collaborations with filmmakers like Spike Lee, Norman Jewison, Tony and Ridley Scott, and—eventually—himself once he started directing, Washington has been a force of nature since leaping from St. Elsewhere to the big screen in the mid-’80s. With two Oscars already under his belt and with a whole new era of his career in full swing thanks to his continued directorial efforts and his latest, The Tragedy of Macbeth, which sees him return to filmed Shakespeare after 1993’s Much Ado About Nothing, Washington remains a titan in the film industry who we should all remember. So it’s time we looked at the best Denzel Washington movies ever made.

Here are the 20 best Denzel Washington movies:

20. The Tragedy of MacbethYear: 2021
Director: Joel Coen
Stars: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson, Corey Hawkins, Moses Ingram, Kathryn Hunter, Bertie Carvel, Harry Melling
Rating: R
Runtime: 105 minutes

Defined by stark minimalism, Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth is an undeniable directorial flex. Coen commands the film’s slickly sparse black-and-white visuals alongside his cast of renowned actors, yielding a final product saturated with artistic determination—but one stripped of any semblance of madness or mania. The highly stylized aesthetic of the film—coupled with regretfully restrained performances—transform Macbeth into an all too tedious tragedy. Though it hardly requires recapitulation, The Tragedy of Macbeth follows the eponymous ruthless Scottish general (Denzel Washington) and his Lady (Frances McDormand) in the wake of a jarring prophecy. Coen’s Macbeth attempts to distinguish itself in comparatively cautious ways: Washington and McDormand occupy roles typically filled by younger actors, while the film’s milky white and dense black contrast enhances the otherwise barren landscape. Macbeth lacks any clear innovative distinction aside from a visually malleable soundstage and long-established actors. The rigid imagery, coupled with drably subdued performances from the film’s leads, demonstrates an inability to capture an overwrought descent into insanity; it is mania preventatively quashed by SSRIs. McDormand’s intent to portray Lady Macbeth as macabrely muted results in a restrictive rigidity. Meanwhile, Washington’s Macbeth is somewhat more convincing in his trepidation, but the role ultimately feels miscast—after all, the text’s succinct nature positions the cunning Scottish King as an unlikable fiend. The Tragedy of Macbeth is nonetheless a well-executed adaptation. The film’s staging and cinematography are clever and compelling; the thespians involved are unequivocally talented; it is competently helmed by one of the most influential directors currently working in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the bar set so high by previous Coen efforts renders all of these successful components moot. Joel Coen’s Macbeth lacks risk, ingenuity and, most importantly, reward. For those who seek a safely satisfying rendition of the lean Shakespearean tragedy, this latest execution will surely suffice. —Natalia Keogan

19. Déjà VuYear: 2006
Director: Tony Scott
Stars: Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, Bruce Greenwood, Adam Goldberg, Jim Caviezel
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes

Déjà Vu is one of umpteen collaborations between Denzel Washington and Tony Scott, though it might be their best. In it, Washington plays Doug Carlin, a gruff ATF agent who’s spent his entire career trying to catch people after they’ve committed crimes and, like any good cop, would love to one day catch these same people before. Save some federal dollars, right?! In order to stop a bomber, Carlin gets mixed up with a program called “Snow White,” which allows “present” folks to see 4 days, 6 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds, and 14.5 nanoseconds into the past, a technology that of course is so much more than it seems. A clusterfuck of alternate timelines, a mean-mugging Jim Caviezel and a bonkers car chase straight out of H.G. Wells’s wet dreams, Déjà Vu does what any time travel movie of its stripe should do: Abandon all logic and sense to play with time in a gritty, cosmos-sized sandbox. —Paste Staff

18. The Mighty QuinnYear: 1989
Director: Carl Schenkel
Stars: Denzel Washington, James Fox, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Robert Townsend
Rating: R
Runtime: 98 minutes

Believe it or not, there was a time when Denzel Washington wasn’t a universally-beloved mega-superstar. One of his first leading roles, The Mighty Quinn, was largely responsible for putting Washington on the map. Directed by Swiss filmmaker Carl Schenkel and written by Hampton Fancher, the film is an adaptation of A. H. Z. Carr’s lauded 1971 crime novel Finding Maubee. The Mighty Quinn follows Xavier Quinn (Washington), the charismatic police chief of a small tropical island, who is on a mission to acquit his childhood friend Maubee (Robert Townsend) from murder accusations. Of course, this doesn’t quite go as planned, and what starts out as a cop flick quickly metamorphoses into a delightful number of things: It’s a spy thriller, a philosophical endeavor, a laugh-out-loud comedy. And this is carried, in large part, by Washington, whose performance is subtle, effortless, and wise beyond his years. I can’t imagine that there was a single person who watched this movie when it came out and didn’t imagine that Washington was going to become one of the biggest stars of his generation.—Aurora Amidon

17. Mo’ Better BluesYear: 1990
Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Dick Anthony Williams, Cynda Williams
Rating: R
Runtime: 129 minutes

Mo’ Better Blues is a prime example of Lee’s problem with cramming too many ideas into one movie, diluting them all. Bleek (Denzel Washington) is a jazz club trumpeter whose music is his religion, but how much longer can he put off the pleasures of his personal life in pursuit of musical perfection, especially as he sees his band partner (Wesley Snipes) having loose fun with his craft while capturing a different but also legitimate soul for jazz? Simple enough premise to delve into, yet Lee adds a fairly predictable love triangle and an overwrought sub-plot about Bleek’s manager (Spike Lee) owing money to gangsters. The jazz performance sequences are a delight, and the film captures a smooth tone that matches the music well, but it’s too overcrowded for its simple message. The identical bookending scenes of the film pose the question: How much should an artist sacrifice for their work? —Oktay Ege Kozak

16. The HurricaneYear: 1999
Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Denzel Washington, John Hannah, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber, Vicellous Reon Shannon, David Paymer, Dan Hedaya, Harris Yulin, Rod Steiger
Rating: R
Runtime: 146 minutes

Norman Jewison’s exploration of the life and incarceration of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter—the infamous subject of Bob Dylan’s song of the same name—came with a lot of baggage and social uproar. Carter was an up-and-coming middleweight bruiser in the ’60s, when his career was cut short by a racially motivated arrest and false imprisonment for a robbery/homicide. By 1999, when the film was made, he had been acquitted after serving nearly 20 years in prison, and vast ongoing protests had been organized in his name for years. In spite of a dramatic story seemingly ready-made for cinema, Jewison renders the material strangely inert; he bookends it with too much exposition and unnecessarily complicates things with extended flashback sequences. Nonetheless, the film goes a long way on the charisma of Denzel Washington in the lead role.

15. Mississippi MasalaYear: 1991
Director: Mira Nair
Stars: Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, Roshan Seth
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 minutes

A red-hot yet levelheaded romance, Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala remains a trenchant look at hypocrisy and racism—as well as the capital driving its hatred and the love somehow still able to overcome. When a bootstrapping entrepreneur (Denzel Washington) meet-cutes a local hotel worker (Sarita Choudhury), their passionate affair rips through the Black and Indian communities of Greenwood. Choudhury and Washington have never been steamier, and Nair imbues their scenes with a constant, sexy low flame. Her ability to flip that heat to emphasize the other qualities of the oppressive South, where tradition and gossip and poverty and all the problems of the past sweat under the sun, makes it one of her most confident efforts. The shadows of slavery, of British imperialism, of Uganda’s racist expulsions all haunt the corners of the warm film and the nightmares of its characters. And yet their affection for their homelands, the ones in which they were born and those which they adopted, remains palpable—even if it isn’t reciprocated. If it sounds too heady for a star-crossed tale (it’s not), Washington and Choudhury’s chemistry is elemental enough to even hook the cynics.—Jacob Oller

14. A Soldier’s StoryYear: 1984
Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington
Rating: PG
Runtime: 101 minutes

Charles Fuller adapted his own Off-Broadway play for A Soldier’s Story, an incisive military mystery mired in racial politics. Actors like Larry Riley, William Allen Young, Adolph Caesar and Denzel Washington reprised their stage roles, with Caesar earning an Oscar nomination for his work as a murdered master sergeant (and self-appointed dictator of Blackness), but a young Washington is the blazing heart of the film. Out of a steallar cast standing sharp at attention, Washington’s stiff fury and accusatory eyes offer hints of the same power and pride that would come to define some of his best performances. As Howard E. Rollins Jr.’s straight-from-Washington captain conducts the investigation into the killing—which took place right outside a segregated Deep South Army base in the midst of WWII—Norman Jewison’s steady hand and ability to maintain clarity over multiple actions, reactions, revelations, and flashbacks keeps the story just as gripping as the revolving soldiers telling their tales.—Jacob Oller

13. Crimson TideYear: 1995
Director: Tony Scott
Stars: Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, Matt Craven
Rating: R
Runtime: 123 minutes

There really is nothing like a good submarine movie, and Crimson Tide is just about as good as they come. Directed by Tony Scott, the 1995 thriller is set in the throes of a nerve-wracking arms race between the U.S. and post-Soviet Russia. The film’s main conflict features old-fashioned U.S. missile submarine Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) butting heads with cool and collected Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington). This tension is emphasized by Hans Zimmer’s Grammy-winning synth-score, scenes of conflict between the two leads that are made even more tense by virtue of the fact that they are on a literal submarine and, of course, powerhouse performances (Washington is at the height of his powers here). Given that it’s a war film, Crimson Tide also has a refreshingly nuanced take on patriotism and good and evil, which is very refreshing.—Aurora Amidon

12. Remember The TitansYear: 2000
Director: Boaz Yakin
Stars: Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Donald Faison, Nicole Ari Parker
Rating: PG
Runtime: 120 minutes

It doesn’t matter if you’re as passionate about football as little Sheryl (Hayden Panettiere) or as ambivalent as Coach Boone’s daughter: We guarantee you’ll get a little weepy during this tale of a newly integrated high school team in 1971 Virginia. Between Denzel Washington delivering a monologue about the Battle of Gettysburg and the movie’s dramatic ending (which we won’t spoil for you), there are plenty of moments where busting out the tissues is appropriate. It’s not a total downer, however; there are a bunch of scenes that’ll bring a smile to your face, including whenever a young Ryan Gosling pops up as a goofy, Motown-loving defensive back. —Bonnie Stiernberg

11. Much Ado About NothingYear: 1993
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Robert Sean Leonard, Keanu Reeves, Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 111 minutes

In the history of film adaptations of Shakespeare, certain performances have so captured the essence of a character that the actor and role are forever linked afterwards. There is Olivier’s Hamlet, Olivier’s Richard III, Welles’ Othello, and Keanu Reeves’ Don John. Um, wait…did I say Keanu Reeves? How can I include the Maestro of the Monotone—the Duke of “Dude!” and the Wizard of “Whoa!”—in such company? Strangely enough, in Much Ado, Reeves’ performance is noteworthy not because he has been cast to his strengths but because he has been cast in a role that feeds upon his weaknesses. Don John, the melancholy, moping bastard brother of Don Pedro, is easily the most impotent of Shakespeare’s villains. Within the vestments of such a pallid villain, Reeves’ own shortcomings as an actor are completely concealed and even flattered. The result is casting and acting synergy fascinating to behold. Much Ado About Nothing merits viewing for a number of reasons—most of the performances are superb, and Branagh’s choice of a sun-drenched Tuscan backdrop is inspired. But as you enjoy the vigor and spirit of the film, please take a moment to appreciate the rare amalgam of poor acting and poor villainy that is Don Keanu. I mean, whoa. —Michael Burgin