Films based on a true story.

lardzeppelin

Big eyes...
Flash of genius...
Capturing the Friedmans...
Legend (Tom Hardy)...
Girl in a box...
Made in Dagenham...
A night to remember...
To catch a killer...
Jason Becker - not dead yet...
O J Simpson - an American crime story (mini series, and probably the best of its kind)...
Breach...
Apollo 13...
Good fellas...
Who killed the electric car...
United 93...
Parkland... (the hospital JFK was taken to post shooting)
JFK... (Oliver Stone with a bit of artistic licence)
Veronica Guiren...
and finally....
an honoury mention to the Christmas favourite when I was a kid... The Great Escape....

conorhal

The Elephant Man - Lynch at his most restrained and emotional without sacrificing artistic vision. Floods of tears, every damn time

24 Hour Party People - Hagiography at it's very best, funny, poignant and better at breaking the 4th Wall the a dozen Deadpools.

Ed Wood - Burton at his best, this time telling the story of a collection of oddballs and misfits that were wierder in real life then many were in the film.

Speilberg get two entries for me on my list: Catch Me if you Can and Schindler's List. That's how you tell a true life story, so many even acclaimed ones such as Walk the Line have a habit of feeling like 'Greatests Hit's: A life story', these however are stories really well told.

DickSwiveller

Schindlers List

City of God

I saw a documentary a few years ago about Joseph Kony, a warlord in Uganda. It was shot by a few young students. Very harrowing and definitely not for the faint hearted

Outlaw Pete

Watched Papillon again last night (biopic of Henri_Charrière) and forgot how exceptional it is.

His autobiography one of the best books I ever read also. Although it's widely disputed just how much of it is true.

They made a remake last year but I think it might be sacrilegious to watch it.

countrygirl123

Freedom Writers
The Counterfeiters
American Sniper

Edited to add
Hidden Figures
The Theory of Everything

lsjmhar

Of God's and Men
Mesrine (Two parts)

Great french films with subs

timthumbni

Films based on a true story are almost infinite.

If you are very loose you could even go Texas chainsaw massacre (based on a mix of serial killers such as ed gein)

Nearly every film would have a lot of directorial licence anyway and show things that did not happen or omit important things that did.

However I think Schindler’s list is a breathtaking film based on a real person at least, followed closely by starship troopers.

Scribbler100

"I, Tonya" is excellent. Allison Janney's performance in this won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress this year. I remember it all happening in 1994 but some of my younger friends couldn't believe it was a true story. The end credits are a revelation!

branie2

Michael Collins (albeit historically inaccurate)
My Left Foot
The Song of Bernadette
Angela's Ashes

Thomas_IV

I just like to Point out the two films I have got on DVD from Tile Media with the titles:

- A Terrible Beauty
- Fingal's Finest

Both are the only ones sold on DVD and both are dealing with Events from the Easter Rising 1916 and are documentaries with re-enactments. I was very satisfied with both films and like to use this thread to recommend them to anyone who is interested in these stories. The prices for each DVD are reasonable and I regard the making of them as professional.
As this is my first post and I can't post links yet, it is easy to find them via Google by simply typing in 'Tile Media' and one gets to the main page with other films on that too, just that the others aren't for sale on DVD but to watch online. All have historical backgrounds and are based on true stories.

Mrmoe

Alphadog, was impressed with it at the time, changed my opinion of Justin Timberlake.Yelchin was very good.

Mrmoe

Mrmoe wrote: »

Alphadog, was impressed with it at the time, changed my opinion of Justin Timberlake.Yelchin was very good.

Great movie

Everlong1

Has been mentioned a few times already but United 93 is a superlative film and probably the best "based on a true story" I've ever seen. Some the cast are actually the real people who were involved in the events of the day.

the purple tin

The Straight Story.
Jimmy's Hall.

Tony EH

Some lesser seen films...


Shooting Dogs

Waterloo

Missing

Dog Day Afternoon

Indictment: The McMartin Trial

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Breaker Morant

At Close Range

Battle of the River Plate

Champions

Citizen X

Man of a Thousand Faces

Sid and Nancy

The Spirit of St. Louis

La Reine Margot

To Hell and Back

Bronson

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

Chopper

Checkmate19

Will check these out. Seen quite a lot of them but good few haven't seen. I Tonya is excellent for anyone not seen it.

Muppet Man

I thought Adam & Paul was based on a true story for a long time, but apparently it isnt. But it may as well be. Happening in Dublin fairly regularly. Ultimately, its an eye opener to the drug scene in Dublin - the movie is short enough to be watch, Hilarious in places and utterly depressing in some parts. The end was terribly sad. I had something stuck in my eye that evening. Some really great acting.

the purple tin

Muppet Man wrote: »

I thought Adam & Paul was based on a true story for a long time, but apparently it isnt. But it may as well be. Happening in Dublin fairly regularly. Ultimately, its an eye opener to the drug scene in Dublin - the movie is short enough to be watch, Hilarious in places and utterly depressing in some parts. The end was terribly sad. I had something stuck in my eye that evening. Some really great acting.

The attempted mugging scene really depressed me.

Muppet Man

the purple tin wrote: »

The attempted mugging scene really depressed me.

Ya, was a little taken aback that they were allowed to film that... and then depressed when I realised its probably not that uncommon.

The Golden Miller

Amadeus. Think it's a wee bit fictionalised though

igCorcaigh

A House of Fools

In the midst of the Chechen War, a remote psychiatric institution is left without staff leaving the patients to fend for themselves. Based on a true story.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0332605/?ref_=m_nm_knf_i1

PS: Quite a surreal film this, it stars Bryan Adams

prinzeugen

Worlds fastest Indian.

RabbleRouser2k

I'm always a bit...hesitant to watch true life movies-they're nearly always fictionalised to some extent.

But a few-In the Name of the Father.
My Left Foot- (tho we know his wife was a horrible human being).
Goodfellas-tho some of the characters are amalgamations, including Joe Pesci's wonderful role in the movie.
The Pianist-tho it's hard going in some places
Catch Me if you Can-I remember that getting either glowing or negative reviews, no in-between. It's a movie I go back to quite often. Definitely better with time.

I think Monster was largely changed from the truth-as in it was made look like 'self-defence' rather than these guys were innocent. If you take it with a grain of salt, it's not bad.

Black Hawk Down caused controversy because they had to change one real-life person's name. The real guy was in jail for raping a 12 year old girl at the time.
I've tried watching it...I'm not a fan. It doesn't grab me.

The Hurricane is comical in how much it lied. Denzel's good in it.

A rare one, or one people might not know of, is 'Compliance'. I kept trying to google stuff with regards to 'that can't have happened' and yet it did. Not an easy film to watch-most definitely not. So be warned.


Born on the 4th of July-again, tough to watch at times. Not bad, just tough.

The Insider is almost forgotten but is really good.

Apollo 13 was a film I didn't like when I saw it as a kid-now I love it.

igCorcaigh

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

A rare one, or one people might not know of, is 'Compliance'. I kept trying to google stuff with regards to 'that can't have happened' and yet it did. Not an easy film to watch-most definitely not. So be warned

That seems interesting, might give it a watch. Cheers RR.

Sam Quentin

The Perfect Storm.
Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned!? Awww well, it is my favourite movie and I am biased as I love the sea and also respect it and realise how small and vulnerable it can make you feel even in a decent sized boat!?
Anyway the movie is about the sword fishing boat Andrea Gail and it's crew captained by Billy(George Clooney)and their last fishing trip to make a good season, you probably guessed it ends in tragedy as they are caught in 'The Perfect Storm' off the coast of Newfoundland in 1991.

Checkmate19

Seen compliance. Yes hard watch at times but on the whole i taught a good watch.

Wanderer78

May have been mentioned, 'solo', a difficult watch

The Crowman

Blood On The Blackboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKlAlz4KAWw

storker

(Thanks to previous posters who jogged my memory on a few of these...)


Movies:

• A Bridge too Far
• A Night to Remember
• Alive
• Apollo 13
• Black Hawk Down
• The Boat
• Citizen X
• City of God
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Downfall
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Lone Survivor
• Munich
• Schindler's List
• Serpico
• The Siege of Jadotville
• Valkyrie
• Wyatt Earp
• Waterloo
• Zulu

TV series:

• American Crime Story: The People vs O J Simpson
• Generation Kill

RabbleRouser2k

igCorcaigh wrote: »

That seems interesting, might give it a watch. Cheers RR.

Yeah, just, be careful-it's not and easy film and while I can tolerate a lot, it disturbed me.

If anyone wants to read the true events, below gives a really great summary-but be warned, it's also spoilers.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/compliance-new-movie-tells-true-1779908