Special Report
50 Best Movies Based on True Events
Published:
Last Updated:
Audiences often go to the movies to escape the humdrum of day-to-day monotony. Yet some of the greatest movies are based on everyday life stories. While added drama may occasionally be necessary to bring these stories up to cinematic standards, the fact remains that the truth is often more interesting than fiction.
Though these movies are based on true events, they are often based on the lives of exceptional individuals. Such is the case with David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), which is based on the life of British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence, and “Amadeus” (1984), which is based on the life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Characters with the nuances of living persons can be far more compelling than an invented character such as Superman, as evidenced by the Academy Awards and critical praise these films often win.
Other films, including Steven Spielberg’s World War II-based “Saving Private Ryan” — one of the best movies of all time, according to a 24/7 Tempo rank — may take a less direct approach to interpreting true events. While the movie is based on an actual soldier named Fritz Niland — the titular character, James Francis Ryan — Niland was never lost and did not require rescue. Spielberg more loosely uses Niland’s story as a way to represent the events of the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the army’s “sole-survivor policy.”
24/7 Tempo has identified the 50 best movies that are based on true events. The ranking is based on audience and critic ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and Internet Movie Database.
Click here to see the 50 best movies based on true events.
To determine the best movies based on true stories, 24/7 Tempo ranked movies within the biography genre and those tagged on IMDb as being “based on a true story.” For each movie, we considered the Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes’ average audience rating, and IMDb average user rating. To be considered, each film had to have at least 10,000 user ratings on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes and 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews.
We averaged the user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and weighted them by the number of votes for each. The combined user rating was then averaged with the Rotten Tomatoes critic rating. Box office data came from IMDb and is not adjusted for inflation.
50. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
> Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
> Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto
Matthew McConaughey stars as homophobic Dallas hustler Ron Woodroof, who learns that he is HIV positive and that a then-experimental drug to treat the condition is unavailable. He finds a way to obtain the life-saving medication, and begins to supply it to others with the same affliction. The film got six Academy Award nominations. McConaughey took home the Oscar for Best Actor, and his co-star, Jared Leto, won Best Supporting Actor.
[in-text-ad]
49. Henry V (1989)
> Favorable reviews: 89% of audiences
> Director: Kenneth Branagh
> Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Simon Shepherd
Kenneth Branagh’s film, based on William Shakespeare’s play about King Henry V of England, has a perfect critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
48. The Revenant (2015)
> Favorable reviews: 84% of audiences
> Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter
This account of frontiersman Hugh Glass’s ordeal in the 1820s after he was attacked by a bear and left for dead by his companions won Oscars for Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Director, and Best Cinematography, and received nine other Academy Award nominations.
47. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
> Favorable reviews: 82% of audiences
> Director: Martin Scorsese
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed “The Wolf of Wall Street” is based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir of the same name. Belfort was a millionaire stockbroker who was sent to jail for securities fraud and money laundering.
[in-text-ad-2]
46. 127 Hours (2010)
> Favorable reviews: 85% of audiences
> Director: Danny Boyle
> Starring: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara
Danny Boyle’s retelling of the story of a mountain climber who resorts to desperate measures when he is trapped beneath a boulder scored 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, with the site’s critics consensus describing it “As gut-wrenching as it is inspirational.”
45. Memories of Murder (2003)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: Joon-ho Bong
> Starring: Kang-ho Song, Sang-kyung Kim, Roe-ha Kim
Before directing the Netflix original “Okja,” South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho made “Memories of Murder,” based on the unsolved murders of 10 women in Hwaseong, South Korea. These are considered to be the work of the first serial killer in South Korean history.
[in-text-ad]
44. My Left Foot (1989)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Jim Sheridan
> Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan
Daniel Day-Lewis gave an Oscar-winning performance as Dublin-born Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy but became a celebrated painter and author using the only part of his body he could control, his left foot. Day-Lewis’s co-star, Brenda Fricker, took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
43. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
> Favorable reviews: 80% of audiences
> Director: Kathryn Bigelow
> Starring: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt
Director Kathryn Bigelow’s dramatization of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden was a financial as well as critical hit, grossing more than $95 million at the domestic box office against its $40 million budget.
42. The Big Sick (2017)
> Favorable reviews: 88% of audiences
> Director: Michael Showalter
> Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter
“The Big Sick” is based loosely on the true-life story of standup comic Kumail Nanjiani and his wife writer Emily V. Gordon, who collaborated on the screenplay. This romantic comedy shot up to a 98% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating.
[in-text-ad-2]
41. The Straight Story (1999)
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
> Director: David Lynch
> Starring: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Jane Galloway Heitz
David Lynch — best known for directing offbeat, often dark films such as “Eraserhead” — crafted a different, more gentle movie with 1999’s “The Straight Story.” The film tells the true story of Alvin Straight, an elderly man who drove a riding lawn mower 300 miles across the Midwest to visit his sick brother.
40. Nobody Knows (2004)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
> Starring: Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura
A 12-year-old boy in Tokyo must care for his three siblings when their mother abandons them. Critics gave the film a 92% score, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The Detroit Free Press called it “a sweet salute to the tenacity and courage of children who are blithely mistreated by adults…”
[in-text-ad]
39. Waltz With Bashir (2008)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Ari Folman
> Starring: Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag
In “Waltz With Bashir,” director Ari Folman explores his memories, and those of old friends, of the 1982 Lebanon War. The animated film is uniquely powerful and original.
38. Selma (2014)
> Favorable reviews: 86% of audiences
> Director: Ava DuVernay
> Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth
Critics gave this stirring account of the three months leading up to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. an almost perfect 99% Tomatometer score. Critics hailed it as “beautifully observed” and “a truly fine film.”
37. A Night to Remember (1958)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Roy Ward Baker
> Starring: Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres
Nearly 40 years before the release of James Cameron’s “Titanic” came “A Night to Remember,” also based on the fated ship. The film is based on a popular book by Walter Lord of the same title.
[in-text-ad-2]
36. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: George Roy Hill
> Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
George Roy Hill’s 1969 Western teams Paul Newman and Robert Redford in two of their most iconic roles — Butch Cassidy and the “Sundance Kid” Harry Longabaugh. The film is a defining piece of 1960s’ American cinema.
35. Gandhi (1982)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Richard Attenborough
> Starring: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi
This historical epic recounts the life of the famed Indian leader as he fights against British rule. The movie won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Richard Attenborough and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley.
[in-text-ad]
34. Captain Phillips (2013)
> Favorable reviews: 89% of audiences
> Director: Paul Greengrass
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman
The eponymous Phillips was captain of the MV Maersk Alabama, seized by Somali pirates in 2009 — the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in 200 years. With Tom Hanks in the title role, critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes hails the film as “Smart, powerfully acted, and incredibly intense.”
33. Persepolis (2007)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
> Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands
“Persepolis” is an animated autobiographical film by co-writer and director Marjane Satrapi. The Iranian Satrapi comes of age during the Islamic Revolution.
32. The Great Escape (1963)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: John Sturges
> Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough
This classic adventure tale about prisoners of war escaping from a German prison camp during World War II was hailed by Variety as “a motion picture that entertains, captivates, thrills and stirs.”
[in-text-ad-2]
31. The Killing Fields (1984)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Roland Joffé
> Starring: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich
“The Killing Fields” tells the story of Pol Pot’s genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Specifically, the film is based on the experiences of New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg and Cambodian journalist Dith Pran.
30. Argo (2012)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Ben Affleck
> Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman
Ben Affleck directed and starred in this film about a true if unlikely story of a faux Hollywood producer who rescues six Americans from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979 hostage crisis. The movie was named Best Picture at the 2013 Academy Awards.
[in-text-ad]
29. Downfall (2004)
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
> Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
> Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes
“Downfall” depicts the final days of Adolf Hitler’s life, largely from inside his Berlin bunker and based on the memoir of his secretary. While the controversial film inspired debate, it has widespread positive reviews, including 91% positive ratings from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 94% from audiences.
28. Patton (1970)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
> Starring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young
On its critics consensus, Rotten Tomatoes called George C. Scott’s portrayal of one of America’s most famous generals in this military epic “as definitive as any performance in the history of American biopics.” Scott won Best Actor, and the film won Best Picture at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. “Patton” won five additional Oscars as well.
27. The Lion in Winter (1968)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Anthony Harvey
> Starring: Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins
“The Lion in Winter” — which is based on a Broadway play — portrays the marriage of Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he kept as a prisoner the majority of the time. The film has been praised for its dialogue of actors Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole.
[in-text-ad-2]
26. The French Connection (1971)
> Favorable reviews: 87% of audiences
> Director: William Friedkin
> Starring: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey
The legendary car chase in this cops-and-drug-smugglers movie has been called the best in cinematic history. Members of the Motion Picture Academy liked “The French Connection” well enough to award it Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Hackman played detective Popeye Doyle, a fictionalized stand-in for real-life cop Eddie Egan.
25. The Elephant Man (1980)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: David Lynch
> Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft
David Lynch’s sophomore effort is a mostly accurate recounting of the life of Joseph Merrick — a physically deformed Englishman. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards but failed to win.
[in-text-ad]
24. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Sidney Lumet
> Starring: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Penelope Allen
With a 95% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score, critics consensus on the site describes the film as “tension-soaked drama shaded in black humor.” The movie about a bank robbery that turns into a hostage stand-off received six Academy Award nominations, winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
23. The Pianist (2002)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: Roman Polanski
> Starring: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay
Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” is based on the autobiography of Polish composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman, during World War II. The film earned Polanski — currently a U.S. fugitive — an Academy Award for Best Director.
22. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: Steven Spielberg
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore
Steven Spielberg won the Oscar for Best Director (the film won four more, too) for this inspiring account of a group of GIs in WWII. The soldiers push into enemy territory to save a paratrooper whose three brothers have been killed in action. The critic consensus Rotten Tomatoes calls it an “unflinchingly realistic war film [that] virtually redefines the genre.”
[in-text-ad-2]
21. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Otto Preminger
> Starring: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara
“Anatomy of a Murder” is a courtroom drama crime film starring James Stewart. The film is based on a book by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker — written under a pen name — that details a real-life trial for which he served as defense attorney. It currently holds a perfect critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
20. Dunkirk (2017)
> Favorable reviews: 81% of audiences
> Director: Christopher Nolan
> Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance
“Masterful visual storytelling on an epic scale,” said Bob Mondello of NPR about this heroically scaled account of the dramatic evacuation of Allied forces from France in the face of a German advance during World War II.
[in-text-ad]
19. The Right Stuff (1983)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Philip Kaufman
> Starring: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris
Based on Tom Wolfe’s book of the same name, “The Right Stuff” recounts the true story of test pilots such as Chuck Yeager and Gordon Cooper as they break the sound barrier. The 193-minute film has been critically praised since its release, despite not doing well at the box office in 1983.
18. The King’s Speech (2010)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Tom Hooper
> Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter
This historical drama about King George VI of England and the speech therapist who helped him overcome his stammer won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth as the titular king), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
17. Badlands (1973)
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
> Director: Terrence Malick
> Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates
Terrence Malick’s debut film is his take on teenagers Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate’s 1950s killing spree. The crimes were also the inspiration behind the 1994 film “Natural Born Killers.”
[in-text-ad-2]
16. All the President’s Men (1976)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Alan J. Pakula
> Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden
This account of the Washington Post reporters — played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford — who exposed presidential skullduggery in the Watergate scandal has a 93% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. Newsday called it “a quintessential American movie.”
15. The Social Network (2010)
> Favorable reviews: 86% of audiences
> Director: David Fincher
> Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
Social media has touched nearly every aspect of our lives, including providing the basis for movies as is the case with David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” The movie portrays the beginning of Facebook and its rise under the control of co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
[in-text-ad]
14. Amadeus (1984)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: Milos Forman
> Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge
Based on Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play of the same name, this account of the life and successes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — told through the eyes of his rival, Antonio Salieri — dominated the 1985 Oscars. “Amadeus” won eight Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.
13. City of God (2002)
> Favorable reviews: 97% of audiences
> Director: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
> Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele
The gritty Brazilian film “City of God” tells the true story of two children who grow up in Brazil’s favelas during the 1960s. The movie has near universal audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
12. Spotlight (2015)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: Tom McCarthy
> Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams
Child molestation and cover-ups by the Catholic Church in Boston, as exposed by the Boston Globe, form the theme of this unsettling film, which is described by the Sydney Morning Herald as possibly “the best newspaper film since All the President’s Men.” A Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 97% bears out that judgment.
[in-text-ad-2]
11. Raging Bull (1980)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: Martin Scorsese
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci
Martin Scorsese’s artful “Raging Bull” follows the story of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. The film’s script is more specifically based on LaMotta’s autobiography, “Raging Bull: My Story.”
10. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
> Director: Steve McQueen
> Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender
In pre-Civil War New York state, a free black man named Solomon Northrup is kidnapped and sold into slavery, where he remains for more than a decade. Northrup’s memoir of the experience, published in 1853, is the basis for this “unflinchingly brutal” but “also brilliant” film — as Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls it. The movie has a 95% Tomatometer score.
[in-text-ad]
9. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
> Director: Werner Herzog
> Starring: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo
“Aguirre, the Wrath of God” was written and directed by German director Werner Herzog and is based on the travels of Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre in Peru. The story is influenced by the journals of a priest, Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, a fictionalized version of whom also appears in the film.
8. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
> Starring: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi
The Algerian struggle for independence from the French is the subject of this powerful film by Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo. Its Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score is an impressive 98%, and the site notes in its critics consensus that the movie “hasn’t aged a bit since its release…”
7. The General (1926)
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
> Director: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
> Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender
Buster Keaton’s “The General” is based on the story of the Confederate soldiers’ pursuit of the Union spies who commandeered a locomotive called The General. Critic Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader called the end result “an almost perfect entertainment.”
[in-text-ad-2]
6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
> Starring: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley
Daily Beast describes French actress Renee Jeanne Falconetti’s turn in this classic of the silent film era as “the greatest acting performance in movie history.” The original version, long believed to have been lost to fire, was rediscovered in perfect condition in a Norwegian mental hospital in 1981. With a 98% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, this is a film that — according to the Time Out — “remains one of the most staggeringly intense films ever made.”
5. Das Boot (1981)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: Wolfgang Petersen
> Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann
“Das Boot” — which translates to “The Boat” — is often considered the best submarine movie of all time. The film is based on a novel written by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. The novel, and film, tell his experiences aboard a German submarine called U-96 during World War II.
[in-text-ad]
4. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
> Director: David Lean
> Starring: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn
This stunning epic, almost four hours long, made stars of Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. O’Toole plays the title role of a British officer who rallies disparate Arab tribes against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The film also won seven Oscars, including those for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.
3. Goodfellas (1990)
> Favorable reviews: 97% of audiences
> Director: Martin Scorsese
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
Martin Scorsese’s mafia classic “Goodfellas” is based on Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction bestseller “Wiseguy.” The book tells the story of mobster Henry Hill — played by Ray Liotta in the movie — and his criminal associates.
2. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
> Director: Isao Takahata
> Starring: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Akemi Yamaguchi
Based on a semi-autobiographical short story by Japanese author Akiyuki Nosaka about the privations of World War II in Japan — including the death of Nosaka’s sister from malnutrition — this evocative animated masterpiece has a Tomatometer score of 97% from Rotten Tomatoes. The New York Times considers it “One of the most startling and moving animated films ever.”
[in-text-ad-2]
1. Schindler’s List (1993)
> Favorable reviews: 97% of audiences
> Director: Steven Spielberg
> Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” tells the true story of German factory owner Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 Jews from concentration camps during World War II. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Ever wanted an extra set of eyes on an investment you’re considering? Now you can speak with up to 3 financial experts in your area for FREE. By simply
clicking here you can begin to match with financial professionals who can help guide you through the financial decisions you’re making. And the best part? The first conversation with them is free.
Click here to match with up to 3 financial pros who would be excited to help you make financial decisions.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.