The Best Movies Based on Real Events or People

Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for his performance as boxing champ Jake LaMotta in this unsparing biopic. It follows the boxer’s rise and fall while also depicting the domestic repercussions of his violent lifestyle. The real-life LaMotta asked his wife if he really was like his negative portrayal, to which she replied, “You were worse.”

This biographical dramedy tells the story of Irish artist Christy Brown (played by Daniel Day-Lewis), who suffered from cerebral palsy and used his left foot to create. Day-Lewis went deep into character during production and reportedly refused to perform any action that Brown himself couldn’t have performed. It earned the actor his first Academy Award.

This pre-code drama, adapted from a memoir of the same name, helped expose the cruelty of America’s once-common chain gang system. Actor Paul Muni plays James Allen, a wrongfully convicted prisoner who flees to Chicago but can’t escape his past. To prepare for the role, Muni spent considerable time with his character’s real-life counterpart.

Director Stanley Kubrick adapted a 1979 novel called “The Short-Timers” when creating this legendary Vietnam War drama. Soldiers are stripped of their humanity at boot camp and then sent overseas to kill a largely unseen enemy. Writing for the Globe and Mail, critic Jay Scott called it “violent, caustic, ironic, and cold.”

The book upon which this courtroom drama was based took inspiration from an actual event. James Stewart plays small-town lawyer Paul Biegler, who squares off against a savvy prosecutor (George C. Scott) in a high-stakes murder trial. UCLA Law School professor and author Michael Asimow once wrote that it was “probably the finest pure trial movie ever made.”