# Great Dramas w/ Homeless Protagonist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 8, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621 "2021-04-08T20:22:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/21 "2021-04-09T19:34:00Z")
“The Saint of Fort Washington” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/22 "2021-04-13T02:49:20Z")
Titanic - Jack Dawson won his ticket in a card game and specifically tells his dinner companions that at the moment his “address” is HMS Titanic. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/23 "2021-04-14T04:15:22Z")
Oooh, I think _Wendy and Lucy_ is a strong entry here in terms of being a quality drama about homelessness. The protagonists of _Sound of Metal_ spend good chunks of the movie in various states of housing insecurity. > **[Sound of Metal (2019) - IMDb](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5363618/)** > > Sound of Metal: Directed by Darius Marder. With Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff. A heavy-metal drummer's life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing. It’s unclear whether the punk band in _Green Room_ have homes to go back to, but they are on a shoestring couch-surfing tour that seems to have been going on way too long. Plus it’s just a fun, wackadoo movie. > **[Green Room (2015) - IMDb](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt4062536/)** > > Green Room: Directed by Jeremy Saulnier. With Anton Yelchin, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner. A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/24 "2021-04-14T14:52:00Z")
It kind of depends on one’s definition of “homeless”. Two that have families who choose to live unconventionally, off the land: **Leave No Trace** **Captain Fantastic** One could argue that in each of these, they’ve created a “home”, so may not technically be “homeless”. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/25 "2021-04-14T14:58:45Z")
“The Stone Pillow” is reportedly good [Stone Pillow - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Pillow) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/26 "2021-04-14T15:29:47Z")
> [@DeathPool](#): > > I was going to say Hobo with a Shotgun, but then I forgot about the Drama, part, I would say it’s more of a Trauma. Starring Rutger Hauer, who was also in “Surviving the Game”, where a homeless Ice-T is hunted by Rutger and Gary Busey. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/27 "2021-04-14T17:46:41Z")
“Man’s Castle” - pre-code starring Spencer Tracy… It’s on YouTube… ---
**Author:** ![DeathPool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e95f7d/32.png) [@DeathPool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathPool)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/28 "2021-04-14T19:07:29Z")
Oh yeah I remember that and thought it was pretty good at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/29 "2021-04-14T19:11:04Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Lady and the Tramp? 😉 Aladdin. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/30 "2021-04-14T19:24:20Z")
Jane Eyre - Jane is living with her aunt and cousins at the beginning, shipped off to Lowood to hopefully die, a servant at Thornfield Hall, wandering homeless on the moor until taken in by the Rivers siblings (unknowingly cousins of hers) until she inherits a fortune and returns to Rochester. Many movie adaptations. StG ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/31 "2021-04-15T00:00:46Z")
Would Art Carney’s role in the sublime _Harry and Tonto_ qualify? In most of _Going Down the Road_, the two protagonists manage to rent out what looks like the most disgusting hole-in-the-wall apartment in the History of All Apartments, but eventually they can’t make rent, and are bascially going down the road, once again. Bleak, but absolutely riveting in its grainy, depressing bleakness. Seen it a bunch of times. But if you want bleak? Yeah? May I fashion you, then, with: _Edna, the Inebriate Woman_ And here’s the full movie! [Lucky you!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYK322pWyks) This one just _drips_ with osmotic indigent toxicity. You will requre a hazmatting after viewing. _“I’M NOT A VAGRANT!!!”_ Would Chauncey Gardiner qualify? The rootlessness of Nicholson’s character in _Five Easy Piece_s or …_Cuckoo’s Nest_? The excellent Richard Farsnworth in _Straight Story_. Sarrazin and Fonda in _They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?_ ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/32 "2021-04-15T01:51:09Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Would Chauncey Gardiner qualify? > The rootlessness of Nicholson’s character in _Five Easy Piece_s or …_Cuckoo’s Nest_? > The excellent Richard Farsnworth in _Straight Story_. > Sarrazin and Fonda in _They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?_ I would say definitely yes to Chance. When the movie begins he is living in his employer’s townhouse. Once he dies he is on the street with no where to go. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/33 "2021-04-15T01:56:38Z")
True, but then I was thinking that he’d most likely, by film’s end, be ending up - possibly for good - in some not bad digs. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/34 "2021-04-15T02:34:05Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > True, but then I was thinking that he’d most likely, by film’s end, be ending up - possibly for good - in some not bad digs. Depends on if the “rules” are that the protagonist is homeless throughout the movie. He was homeless at the beginning with only the old suit on his back. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/35 "2021-04-15T02:42:03Z")
Indeed, point taken. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/36 "2021-04-15T05:02:30Z")
Forgive me for a “what’s this movie?” post, but there was a silent (except for the last moment) film from around 1990 where the protagonist was a homeless man who finds a lost little girl. When he can’t find a parent, he begins taking care of her. At the end her mother is found and he returns to the homeless encampment alone. The lead actor, who also wrote and directed IIRC, is Black, as was the little girl. I remember his first name being Charles. I originally saw it at an arthouse and have never seen it since. That’s all I got. A little help? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/37 "2021-04-15T05:08:28Z")
does my man Godfrey count as drama? Also, there was a french movie done as a documentary in which a college-aged girl ends up a homeless vagrant who has “misadventures” until she dies from exposure in a vineyard … ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/38 "2021-04-15T05:25:38Z")
The main characters in _Midnight Cowboy_ spend most of the movie illegally squatting in an apartment of an abandoned building, but they appear to have multiple rooms and are more or less protected from the elements and unknown to authorities. I’m not sure if you can really call them “homeless” in the way that the word is typically used, because of this situation. They’re not living on “the street” exactly, although they spend most of their time literally on the street, but they have a place to go back to. Not sure if they qualify or not. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/39 "2021-04-15T11:42:06Z")
You named my #1 and #4 favorite movies ever, with “Harry and Tonto”, who I don’t think would qualify. He had his apartment, and the minute he left, he always had somewhere to go. Visiting each kids, and having enough to stay in a motel in between his drives. Wonderfully acted, written, and some good social commentary with a nice free-flowing story. A good time capsule. “Who’s Vice-President this week?” “Who cares?” “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” would qualify. To me, it was a last effort, especially for Fonda’s character. I think it’s a great metaphor for the American system of exploitation, the spectator who pays to see them run in circles, with no point in sight… Even the winner is a loser! We see Gig Young corrupt Fonda’s character sexually, just to win, after losing so much. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621/40 "2021-04-15T11:56:02Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > Forgive me for a “what’s this movie?” post, but there was a silent (except for the last moment) film from around 1990 where the protagonist was a homeless man who finds a lost little girl. When he can’t find a parent, he begins taking care of her. At the end her mother is found and he returns to the homeless encampment alone. > > The lead actor, who also wrote and directed IIRC, is Black, as was the little girl. I remember his first name being Charles. I originally saw it at an arthouse and have never seen it since. > > That’s all I got. A little help? Sidewalk Stories. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-dramas-w-homeless-protagonist/939621.md?page=3)