Films based on a true story.

DickSwiveller

Earlier in this thread I mentioned a documentary about Northern Uganda and children there trying to escape from a terrifying Militia, The Lord's Resistance Army. It was released as 'Kony' in 2012. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the filmmakers subsequently. However, if people would like to see the original documentary they can do so here. The original is called 'invisible children' and is 30 minutes longer than Kony.

WARNING: It is an extremely harrowing and disturbing documentary. Definitely not for the faint hearted. You've been warned.....

RabbleRouser2k

DickSwiveller wrote: »

Earlier in this thread I mentioned a documentary about Northern Uganda and children there trying to escape from a terrifying Militia, The Lord's Resistance Army. It was released as 'Kony' in 2012. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the filmmakers subsequently. However, if people would like to see the original documentary they can do so here. The original is called 'invisible children' and is 30 minutes longer than Kony.

WARNING: It is an extremely harrowing and disturbing documentary. Definitely not for the faint hearted. You've been warned.....

I thought the most harrowing part was when the guy in the video (not Kony, the white guy) was caught running around naked and masturbating.

Still...the parodies were ingenius.

Checkmate19

Anyone not seen it Kill Team is very good. Not a film but documentary on american soliders in Afghanistan who unlawfully killing civilians.

birdwatcher

The Big Short
Steve Carell playing a serious role and carrying it off fairly well.

the purple tin

Checkmate19 wrote: »

Anyone not seen it Kill Team is very good. Not a film but documentary on american soliders in Afghanistan who unlawfully killing civilians.

Check out Brian De Palma's film Redacted if you liked that. Loosely based on the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl and her family by US troops.

RabbleRouser2k

Checkmate19 wrote: »

Anyone not seen it Kill Team is very good. Not a film but documentary on american soliders in Afghanistan who unlawfully killing civilians.

4 Hours in MyLai is another great documentary-it's human horror at its worst...absolutely devastating.

The soldiers interviewed are broken men, plain and simple. They were forever changed aftwards. I googled what happened to them, after watching it-you'd be hard pressed to disagree with the choices they made.

Another great documentary is 'How to Survive a Plague'-all about the AIDS crisis.

Moving, heartbreaking, and reminded me of how terrifying the disease was and still is to those who cannot afford treatment. I was a child when the word 'AIDS' emerged, and I just knew 'you get it-you're dead'. The documentary is brutal at times-but brilliant to watch.

gingernut79

The Wolf of Wall Street. Absolutely briliant.
Wild - with Reese Witherspoon, though into the wild is a really good film too.
Titanic

In the name of the Father

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Tony EH

That "Mommy Dead and Dearest" is one f*cked up story.

Mebuntu

For something completely different I recommend "Yesterday's Children" filmed in Co. Wicklow notably in Enniskerry, Newcastle and Greystones.

The only change made to the original true story was that the lead female and her family are American rather than English. An extraordinary story.

gmisk

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

4 Hours in MyLai is another great documentary-it's human horror at its worst...absolutely devastating.

The soldiers interviewed are broken men, plain and simple. They were forever changed aftwards. I googled what happened to them, after watching it-you'd be hard pressed to disagree with the choices they made.

Another great documentary is 'How to Survive a Plague'-all about the AIDS crisis.

Moving, heartbreaking, and reminded me of how terrifying the disease was and still is to those who cannot afford treatment. I was a child when the word 'AIDS' emerged, and I just knew 'you get it-you're dead'. The documentary is brutal at times-but brilliant to watch.

How to survive a plague is an outstanding doc imo... Had me in floods of tears

buried

Embrace of The Serpent

CatFromHue

Ex Machina, or well I can't look at Alicia Vikander and not see Eva enjoying her freedom.

The Crowman

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

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.

Good enough movie though the real life guy was no oil painting, he looked nothing at all like Leo. Ditto the real life Donnie Brasco, no Johnny Depp in the looks department. I remember going to a film festival to see the movie The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz which was the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac , a UN worker who exposed abuses by peacekeepers in Bosnia. The real Kathryn Bolkovac came out and spoke after the movie and I was struck straight away that she bore no physical resemblance to Rachel Weisz whatsoever. Not a bad looking woman but very tall, blond and athletic build while Rachel in the role is dark haired and petite. An interesting insight into casting of actors playing real life people who might not be recognizable to many, as opposed to famous historical figures like Churchill or JFK or whoever.

Wedwood

Tombstone
Catch Me If You Can
The French Connection
Apollo 13
Raging Bull
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Munich
Lincoln
JFK
Born on the Fourth of July
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Heart of the Sea

RabbleRouser2k

Watched 'Dear Zachary: A letter to a son from his father' last night...

Absolute gut punch of a documentary. I went in blind, as I think you should in these cases, and the more the film goes on, the more frustrated and angry you get.

I can't say too much about it tho-otherwise, I'd spoil the whole thing. Someone uploaded it to youtube, so feel free to watch.

Waara Rex

Papillon
Midnight Express
The People vs Larry Flint
Milk
The Pianist
Schindler's List
The Corporations
Erin Brockovich
Grizzly Man
Into the Wild
Colony (documentary, bees)
The Last Emperor
Lawrence of Arabia
Steve Jobs
Citizen Four
Snowden
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
Downloaded (Napster documentary)

The Crowman

thebull85 wrote: »

Summer of Sam or To catch a killer. Both about serial killers. Decent films.

Summer Of Sam was full of anachronisms especially in it's portrayal of punk subculture, no one on that scene was sporting multi coloured mohawks in 1977 . That look didn't really come about till 79/80.

valoren

Spotlight.
All the Presidents Men.
The Wolf of Wall St.
Raging Bull.
The Elephant Man.
The Right Stuff.
Quiz Show.

Going Clear.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

gmisk

Schindlers List

Hard to watch but a fantastic film.

RabbleRouser2k

The Crowman wrote: »

Summer Of Sam was full of anachronisms especially in it's portrayal of punk subculture, no one on that scene was sporting multi coloured mohawks in 1977 . That look didn't really come about till 79/80.

Spike Lee certainly took liberties there. There's more anachronisms too-its no Malcolm X.

The bits with 'Son of Sam' are really, really good-and well researched. The story around it, the fictionalised parts, bring that movie to a skreeching halt.

sinnerboy0

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas