Movies based on real events
Fact transcends fiction in many cases. This is why real people and events have become the main achievements of cinema in the films we all once watched. There are many movies based on true events, and many are available on Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and other platforms. In the next few paragraphs, it’s time to relive some classics, learn about new stories, etc. We’ve rounded up some that you can rewatch online for.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Based on true events, the movie starring Leonardo di Caprio chronicles the life of Wall Street broker Jordan Belfort. A film that tells us how this character achieved the success and wealth to which he owes his nickname, in New York in the nineties. A young man chasing the American dream but immersed in a world of drugs, power, money and excesses.
Ali
The actor played by Will Smith plays Cassius Clay before he became Muhammad Ali, but has already become one of history’s greatest athletes, a boxer that will leave a mark in and out of the ring. A bographical film about life from the beginning. Besides sports, media figure, social figure and Clay’s struggle. Two and a half hours to tell us how he became one of the most important figures in US history for his social struggle, his fight against racism.
Lawrence of Arabia
Among the best biographies and best historical movies we’ve seen is Lawrence of Arabia. It’s an almost three-hour movie that was released in the early sixties and takes us back to the First World War. It follows Thomas Edwards Lawrence’s involvement in the Arab revolt, as well as how a journalist decided to investigate him after his death. If you are looking for one of the best movies in history, we can see it in this movie.
On the Basis of Sex
Felicity Jones plays Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg in A Matter of Gender. Available on Netflix, it’s actually a biopic about a United States Supreme Court Justice and the second woman to hold that position. Fighting for equality and ending gender discrimination is at the center of this excellent drama based on true events.
The Photographer Of Mauthausen
The Photographer of Mauthausen, starring Mario Casas, is a thriller based on true events that takes us back to the time of the Holocaust, going back to the 1940s. The protagonist is Francesc Boix, a prisoner who works in the photography lab but would not hesitate to stage it. He risks his life to expose everything the Nazis did. He will do this with his own images, photographs that can reveal the terror and try to save the rest.
La TrincheraInfinita
One of the best Spanish movies we could see on Netflix is also based on real events. Starring Antonio de la Torre and Belén Cuesta and directed by Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga have been nominated for fifteen Goya Awards in 2019. We take us to Spain of the Civil War to introduce Higinio and Rosa. He was only married for a few years when the conflict in Spain began. A great drama that will hide itself in a hole in its own house in a movie that keeps us in suspense for two and a half hours, with menace and horror.
Veda
The friendship that started from childhood in Thessaloniki first turned into a comrade in arms, then a half-century-old friendship that pursued the same ideals with the proclamation of the Republic, and a brotherhood that lasted until death. The friendship between them was so great that when one died, the other wanted to say goodbye to life. Farewell is the story of a death-defying generation. The movie not only tells the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, but also sheds light on a period. “Farewell” is the story of this friendship, the turning points of Atatürk’s life, and the commander of a generation who defies death to save the homeland, with the narration of Salih Bozok.
The Pianist
Nazism and II. One of the most popular movies based on true events among World War II classics is The Pianist. Taking us to Warsaw in the late thirties, the film tells how the Jewish-Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman fought to avoid being deported when the Germans invaded Poland, but that meant living in hiding. Starring Adrien Brody and directed by Roman Polanski, the film was unanimously acclaimed by critics and is one of the best historical biographies we can see today.
Schindler’s List
Schindler’s List, available now on Netflix, is one of the great classics. For many, the best movie ever. Or one of the best. Released in the early nineties, the film won seven Oscars (including best director or best picture) directed by Steven Spielberg, which takes us to World War II to tell the story of a real-life drama, Oskar Schindler. Schindler is a businessman trying to gain the sympathy of the Nazis and will run a factory in Krakow where hundreds of Jews will work. Working in the factory not only improves the factory, it also saves their lives.
Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan is the director and writer of this 2017 movie that plunges us into the war that gave it its name. On the beach of Dunkirk in World War II, hundreds of thousands of British and French soldiers were stranded on a beach in a harrowing drama that was nominated for eight Oscars and won the Best Editing, Sound or sound effects award.
Pentagon Papers
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this movie starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks tells the controversial drama about the archives that takes us back to the seventies and gives it its name. Two of the world’s largest media outlets, The New York Times and The Washington Post, must decide whether to disclose confidential data.
Citizen Kane
If we talk about journalism, Citizen Kane cannot be missing. A drama in the 1940s that earned nine Oscar nominations. A great power and journalistic film from 1941 directed and starring Orson Welles that we can see again today. Charles Foster Kane is the owner of a large communications group, but he died and left only one clue, the word “Rosebud”. What does the boss’s last word mean? What’s behind this mystery? They are not real characters, but the movie recreates the life of William Randolph Hearst.
Spotlight
A team of investigative journalists from the Boston Globes will manage to uncover the pedophilia cases of Catholic priests in Massachusetts, despite their insistence on hiding it. Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo or Rachel McAdams are some of the actors and actresses who give life to these genuine and determined pastry chefs who will do anything possible to broadcast the events that shook the Catholic Church. It earned six Oscar nominations and two awards for best picture and best screenplay.