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- There’s a reason there have been so many incredible movies based on true stories: It’s because the truth is more fascinating than fiction a lot of the time. What also helps our appreciation is just knowing that these stories actually happened, so we’re able to relate to the characters on a much deeper level.
www.rd.com/list/movies-based-on-true-stories/40 Best Movies Based on True Stories to Watch Right Now [2024]
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Feb 4, 2018 · Out of the top ten highest grossing movies of all-time (adjusted for inflation), five of them are loosely or entirely based on a true story — The Sound of Music, Titanic, The Ten Commandments, Doctor Zhivago, and The Exorcist.
- All the President's Men (1976) Film. Drama. Wait, you’re telling us Watergate is an actual thing that happened, and in 1974 two reporters really did take down a sitting US president?
- In Cold Blood (1967) Film. Before true crime podcasts and Dateline NBC marathons, there was Truman Capote, whose account of the 1959 massacre of a family in rural Kansas shocked a nation not yet desensitised to random acts of unspeakable violence.
- Hustlers (2019) Film. Drama. A rare depiction of a r ecession that’s neither a teary drama about farmers losing their homes nor a political screed against greedy one-percenters, Hustlers is instead a hyperkinetic story of economic survival, set in a world hit particularly hard by the 2008 financial crisis: New York strip clubs.
- Argo (2012) Film. Drama. It’s one of those stories too far-fetched for even the most inventive screenwriter to make up. At the onset of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a movie-loving CIA agent hatched a plot to smuggle six diplomats out of the country by pretending to be a Canadian film crew shooting a fake Star Wars-alike sci-fi flick there.
- 3 min
- TIME Staff
- Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Al Pacino has played many criminal masterminds over the course of his career, but John Wojtowicz isn’t one of them. On a scorching 1972 summer day, the Vietnam War veteran made a clumsy attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank, only to be penned in with hostages for a 14-hour standoff.
- All the President’s Men (1976) A younger generation might know Bob Woodward for his exhaustive chronicles of the Trump Administration in his books Fear: Trump in the White House and Rage.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Paul Newman and Robert Redford stole hearts and set a new standard for the buddy film when they portrayed notorious real-life outlaws Robert “Butch Cassidy” LeRoy Parker and Harry “The Sundance Kid” Longabaugh in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
- Spotlight (2015) Starring Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Michael Keaton as members of a real team of investigative journalists at the Boston Globe,Spotlight shows the efforts of reporters to uncover the history of systematic sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Boston.
- 3 min
- Francesca Gariano
- ‘Moneyball’ (2011) “Moneyball” brought Michael Lewis' 2003 book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” to the silver screen in 2011. The movie starred Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, a manager taxed with a small budget and an unconventional approach to beating the wealthier teams.
- ‘The Social Network’ (2010) “The Social Network” is based on the 2009 book “The Accidental Billionaires” about the founding of Facebook. Jesse Eisenberg takes on the role of Mark Zuckerberg, who in 2003 worked on a concept that ultimately became Facebook.
- ‘Hidden Figures’ (2016) “Hidden Figures” tells the true stories of three Black mathematicians at NASA. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.
- ‘Spotlight’ (2015) Back in 2001, the editor of The Boston Globe assigned a team of journalists to investigate allegations made against a priest who was accused of molesting more than 80 boys.
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) The most electrifying, fully realized cinematic take on an August Wilson play to date, George C. Wolfe‘s 1927 Chicago-set drama depicts a fateful recording session of the “Mother of Blues” and her band.
- Schindler’s List (1993) At once one of the most harrowing movies you’ll ever see—and one of the most inspiring. Steven Spielberg’s period piece stars Liam Neeson as the titular real-life merchant-turned-wartime-hero.
- Just Mercy (2019) Michael B. Jordan stars opposite Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson in Destin Daniel Cretton's biographical legal drama about Harvard Law graduate Bryan Stevenson and the trial of wrongfully accused Walter McMillian.
- Bonnie & Clyde (1967) 1967 was a landmark year for Hollywood, when age of innocence ended. No movie embodies this watershed moment better than Arthur Penn‘s graphically violent, potently sexy biographical crime film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as infamous bank robbers.
From historical epics to horror tales and inspirational dramas, true stories have served as the basis for some of the most memorable movies out there. Many of the selections on this list, like Apollo 13 and The Social Network, are based on well-known true stories. But others may surprise you.
May 11, 2023 · In Hollywood and beyond, great movies directly inspired by true stories are plentiful. They're weird, and shocking, and romantic, and downright too wild to be true – and here are the best.
