On a recurring basis, the cinema has been in charge of capturing true events from the chronicle of Humanity in some of the best films based on real events.
Thanks to many of these titles, we have been able to learn about chapters of history that, either due to ignorance or because we were not born, we did not know how they had happened, why or who they involved.
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15 movies based on real events
Biographies about important personalities, decisive events in history or events that shook the world. These are the 15 best movies based on real events.
15. All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
The Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Nixon, was an issue that shook American society in 1972 and would have great repercussions later. It would be thanks to the work of two savvy journalists from the Washington Post , that this case became known.
A very young Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, give life to the intrepid leading reporters.
14. My name is Harvey Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2009)
The chameleonic Sean Penn played Harvey Milk, a politician and homosexual activist for the rights of this group, at a time when no one raised their voice for people of this condition. Harvey Milk was not intimidated and was quite a personality who managed to mobilize the masses.
He directs the particular Gus Van Sant, whom many people will remember for Elephant (2003), another of his films inspired by real events such as the tragic Columbine High School massacre.
13. My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989)
The life of the painter Christy Brown was brought to the cinema thanks to the Irishman Jim Sheridan , who had the brilliant idea of selecting the interpretive monster, Daniel Day-Lewis for the title role.
Although she spent her entire life with cerebral palsy that made it impossible for her to speak or move her body, except for her left foot, Christy Brown managed to dedicate herself to painting and typing. In this way, he managed to shut the mouths of those who believed that he was sentenced to being unable to do anything.
12. 127 Hours (Danny Boyle, 2010)
Danny Boyle directs this agonizing film based on true events, starring James Franco as Aaron Ralston, a hiker and climber who gets trapped in a crack in the Utah canyons. . As the days go by, he realizes that he cannot wait forever to be rescued, so his options are drastically reduced.
NOTICE: this is a crude movie that includes one of the most graphic and unbearable scenes seen in the cinema lately, which caused several fainting spells in theaters, including that of a server.
11. Spotlight (Thomas McCarthy, 2015)
A social denunciation film that is as good as it is necessary is this Spotlight, which premiered at the right time, basically because it was a pioneer in its “focus” (if we are permitted the grace) of interest: the abuses committed by various priests of the Church.
Specifically, the winner of the 2015 Oscar for best film recounts the scandal uncovered by journalists from the Boston Globe, about several cases of pederasty that occurred in 2002 and that involved important personalities from the archdiocese of that city.
That moment was key for many victims to be encouraged to report later, bringing to light new abuses that, unfortunately, are still being made known today .
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10. Zero Dark Thirty: the darkest hour (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
Great proposal by the director Kathryn Bigelow, who went behind the camera to bring to the general public how the secret operation that allowed hunting had been carried out. the most wanted terrorist since 9/11: Osama Bin Laden.
The American directs one of the most realistic movies based on real events about special operations.
9. Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)
James Cameron’s macro-production was a box-office success of such proportions that even today, more than 20 years after its premiere, Titanic remains unbeaten as the second highest-grossing film in the history of celluloid (curiously enough behind another “gigantic” Cameron production, Avatar).
Cameron’s vision of the most famous sinking of all time earned him no less than 11 Oscars, an honor he holds along with Ben-Hur (1955) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). However, what makes it one of the best movies based on real events is the realism with which the director captured the shipwreck, surpassing for many the previous film versions.
8. Rush (Ron Howard, 2013)
This is one of Ron Howard’s most underrated titles, overshadowed by his other best-known works, such as A Beautiful Mind (2001).
However, this film about the rivalry between two Formula 1 greats, such as Niki Lauda and James Hunt, deserves to be claimed as one of the best movies inspired by real events in recent years. And it is said by someone who in his life has never seen a race or been interested in this sport.
7. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
The young stockbroker Jordan Belfort arrives on Wall Street moved by the American dreamto amass a great fortune and to make oneself. He soon discovers that money doesn’t come from being honest, so he changes his perspective from wanting to help his clients win, to trying to get as much money out of them as possible through phone scams. From that moment on, he begins a life of excesses, characterized by his addiction to drugs, women and parties; but especially, for the dollars.
She was accused of overly explicit scenes, being frivolous in her treatment of substance abuse and encouraging paid sex; but The Wolf of Wall Street is one of the best titles based on true events, about the rise and fall from grace of a young man who allowed himself to be corrupted.
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6. The Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
Few movies have portrayed the figure of Adolf Hitler with such precision as this movie did , which is set during the last days of the Fuhrer alive and about his plans to bequeath his empire of terror in someone you trust.
Entrenched in an underground bunker, with his wife and children and some of his followers, Hitler prepares for his end, while Russian troops penetrate Berlin.
A brilliant movie based on real events as hard as the Second World War and the Holocaust.
5. Live! (Frank Marshall, 1993)
They live! is an adaptation of the biographical book of the same name, which recounts the horrific experience lived by the survivors of the Los Andes air tragedy.
It was in 1972, when the plane that was transporting the members of an entire Uruguayan rugby team , crashed in the middle of the Andean mountain range. The few who were left alive had to feed on the bodies of their companions who had perished in the accident, while trying to devise a plan to escape from that white hell.
An incredible story of overcoming that shakes.
4. The social network (David Fincher, 2010)
The great David Fincher was encouraged to tell how the process ofcreation of the social network with the most followers ever created: Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg, the computer genius and Harvard student, must deal with several legal proceedings in which he is accused of having stolen the idea from the Winklevoss twins, who demand financial compensation for the profits made with Facebook. In a film that takes place back and forth in time, Fincher tells us about the power of ambition and the limits of ethics to achieve what one sets out to do.
The Social Network is, without a doubt, one of the best movies based on real events of the last decade and one of the best titles in the director’s filmography.
3. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)
We have already talked on previous occasions about this magnificent film based on real events by Roman Polanski, but The Pianist is really a film worth mentioning in any aspect .
The Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman wrote about his experiences during the occupation of the Warsaw ghetto. Forcibly separated from his family, whom he never saw again, and with the help of some of his friends, he had to live in hiding from the Nazi troops, trying to avoid being found.
The pianist is a heartbreaking testimony about the horror of the Jewish genocide lived in the first person.
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2. City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
The drama that exists in the favelas of Brazil has been a recurring theme that the cinema could not avoid capturing in what is one of the most superb films, capable of overshadowing any another Hollywood billed title.
City of God is surely one of the films that helped raise awareness about this problem, thanks to the good hand of the filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, who tells us about the rise of organized crime in one of these marginal neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro.
Through a choral story, we see how dangerous drug dealers take control of the favela that gives the film its name.and impose their cruel laws, while the majority of the police force turns a blind eye and profits from their illegal activities.
1. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
From the late 1960s to almost the 1980s, “the Zodiac killer” took the lives of several people throughout different states of the United States. During that time, the police were on the trail of him, collecting evidence and trying to find out the identity of Zodiac, who boasted of his ability not to be hunted by sending several letters to the newspapers. The criminal seemed smarter than all the police forces put together .
Zodiac is one of David Fincher’s best films (also one of the least valued, something very unfair) and the best film based on real events of recent times, about the adventures of one of the most famous serial killers of the 20th century.
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