With apologies to Disney fans, you won’t find on this list of the best movies based on true stories. Not because it’s animated, or because of the story’s distance from reality (her actual name !), but because there are simply much better movies based on real events: just see , , or . Sure, those movies have plenty of fictional elements, too; when it comes to translating “real” stories for the screen, artistic licence and composite characters are just par for the course.
What is important about the best movies based on true stories, though, isn’t that names and dates are precisely on the mark, but that the directors, writers, actors, set designers, and make-up artists create moments that bring us face to face with the events that have shaped our world. The best films have the power to make themes, characters, and lessons timeless and relevant to audiences today. Besides, reality, as it stands, can be a little much – and at the end of the day, the Hollywood version is often more fun.
We all need an escape sometimes, even if art mimics life and the truth is stranger than fiction. (1965) Based on a memoir by Maria von Trapp (née Kutschera), Robert Wise’s version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical absolutely six decades later. The songs are moving, Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer are charming, and the threat of Nazism is never not terrifying.
(1992) “There’s no crying in baseball!” That’s the memorable line from drunken, washed-up Jimmy Dugan (T.
