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Best Biopics Ever Made, Ranked

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The silver screen is a faithful and loyal servant to a good biographical film; the genre is undisputedly the darling of both the Academy Awards and Tinseltown, with over a dozen biographical dramas winning Best Picture and numerous actors winning for their portrayals of real-life historical figures. Biopics are a tried and true style of movie-making that are more often than not slam dunks with both the box office and critics alike. Despite the genre being brought to the big screen more frequently in recent years, its effectiveness and impact remains consistent.

Whether depicting the life of an esteemed physicist, Wild West outlaws, or even United States President Abraham Lincoln himself, biopics are the cream of the crop in Hollywood cinema. Many of these films helped skyrocket the careers of both their director and actor duos , serving as stepping stones in their lucrative and successful careers. These are some of the best biopics ever made.

Updated July 4, 2024: This list has been updated by Rachel Johnson with even more great biopics featuring stellar performances that movie lovers should check out.

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Reading of the murder of a Kansas family, New York City novelist Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) decides to cover the story himself, and travels to the small town with his childhood friend, aspiring novelist Harper Lee (Catherine Keener). When Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) are arrested and charged, Capote forms an emotional bond with Smith during his jailhouse interviews despite the young criminal's apparent guilt.

The late and great Philip Seymour Hoffman was undeniably one of Hollywood's most illustrious performers, brilliantly transforming himself for every role he took on. Hoffman knocked it out of the park when he appeared as famed American novelist Truman Capote in the engrossing biopic Capote that chronicled the writer's research and creation of his trailblazing true crime hit In Cold Blood. Capote travels to the small Kansas town where the gruesome Clutter family murders occurred in 1959, doing so with fellow writer and friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to investigate the shocking crime.

Hoddman Soared as Truman Capote

Hoffman masterfully commands the screen and completely embodies the peculiar Capote, spending four months preparing and researching for the role in an effort to capture his distinct voice and mannerisms. The gifted star felt it was extremely important to "express the vitality and the nuances" of Capote and stayed in character the entire time during production. Hoffman's dedication to the role ultimately paid off, as he was the recipient of numerous prestigious accolades, like an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for his performance, and he became deeply regarded as one of the cinema's most talented actors because of it.

Depicting the fascinating life of worldwide film icon Charlie Chaplin, 1992’s Richard Attenborough biopic Chaplin stars Robert Downey Jr. as “The Little Tramp” in a searing performance. The film features an elderly Chaplin as he recollects his incredible life journey for his autobiography , from his poverty-stricken roots to worldwide success. With a talented supporting cast including Dan Aykroyd, Marisa Tomei, and even Chaplin’s real life daughter Geraldine Chaplin, the movie was released on the fifteenth anniversary of the beloved star’s death.

Chaplin Is One of Downey Jr.'s Best Roles

Despite mixed reviews for the biopic itself, Downey Jr.’s performance was lauded and garnered critical acclaim. It is arguably his finest role to date (outside of his Oscar-winning role in Oppenheimer ) and won him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, along with an Academy Award nomination. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Downey becomes Chaplin, re-creating his character and his chilly soul so precisely that even the comedian’s daughter Geraldine, a featured player here, was both impressed and unnerved.”

17 12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave

The Steve McQueen-directed poignant and deeply powerful drama 12 Years a Slave tells the devastating true story of Solomon Northup, a free African-American who was brutally kidnapped by two white men and sold into slavery in Louisiana in 1841, leaving his beloved wife and two children behind in New York. Chiwetel Ejiofor was fantastic as Northup, who experienced unfathomable violence and cruelty at the hands of one of his owners, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), before eventually finding an unexpected savior in Canadian abolitionist Samuel Bass (Brad Pitt) who would help grant him his freedom.

12 Years a Slave Made History

Both McQueen and the producers went to painstaking lengths to ensure that 12 Years a Slave was historically accurate, utilizing the help of African-American culture and history scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to consult on the film. According to the data and visual blog Information is Beautiful , the drama was 88.1% accurate, with the publication summarizing: "While there are a touch of dramatic license here and there, the most gut-wrenching scenes really happened." 12 Years a Slave garnered universal acclaim and made cinema history when McQueen won Best Picture, becoming the first black filmmaker to win the Academy Award.

16 The Pianist

The Pianist

In this adaptation of the autobiography "The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945," Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Polish Jewish radio station pianist, sees Warsaw change gradually as World War II begins. Szpilman is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but is later separated from his family during Operation Reinhard. From this time until the concentration camp prisoners are released, Szpilman hides in various locations among the ruins of Warsaw.

Adapted from the autobiographical book of the same name, Roman Polanski's The Pianist stars Adrien Brody as Polish-Jewish composer and pianist Władysław Szpilman, who is forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II and was heartbreakingly separated from his family, spending two years in hiding after the invasion of Poland. Szpilman evaded capture by the Nazis multiple times during this horrific period, finding an ally in German officer Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann) as the war raged on around him.

The Director's Personal Connection Made For a Spectacular Movie

Polanski himself had escaped from the Kraków Ghetto as a child after losing his mother during the war and being separated from his father, finding refuge in a Polish farmer's barn. Polanski felt a deep connection with Szpilman and his story and wanted to pay his respects to the Holocaust survivor by directing the film, doing so spectacularly. The Pianist premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and took home the highly-coveted Palme d'Or, and the drama also went on to win three Academy Awards, including Best Director. Polanski's vision, Brody's raw performance, and the screenplay attracted widespread praise from fans and critics alike.

15 The Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything

2014’s critically acclaimed biopic The Theory of Everything is a poignant portrayal of the relationship between renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife, Jane. The film was adapted from Jane Hawking’s 2007 memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen , and she provided input and insight for the script. The Theory of Everything stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as the famous couple, with the former spending six months researching Hawking’s life and mastering his accent and speech patterns.

A Great Movie About the Hawkings

Though some creative liberties were taken surrounding the early days of Stephen and Jane's relationship and the renowned physicist's temperament, the biopic was a massive hit both commercially and critically, with Redmayne specifically receiving immense praise and winning the Academy Award for Best Leading Actor. Director James Marsh described the essence of the biopic's story as, "a very unusual love story in a very strange environment, a very strange sort of landscape... It is how these two characters, these two real people transcend all the complications and curveballs that life throws at them."

14 The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland

While in Uganda on a medical mission, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) becomes the personal physician and close confidante of dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Although at first Dr. Garrigan feels flattered by his new position of power, he soon comes to realize that Amin's rule is soaked in blood, and that he is complicit in the atrocities. Garrigan faces the fight of his life as he tries to escape Amin's grasp.

Touting a phenomenal ensemble cast led by Forest Whitaker , James McAvoy, and Kerry Washington, the captivating historical drama The Last King of Scotland recounts the life and legacy of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. After overthrowing President Milton Obote, he assumes power and begins a reign of terror that lasts from 1971 to 1979. McAvoy appears as the fictional character Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, who serves as Amin's private physician in the film and witnesses the disturbing atrocities committed by the ruthless leader.

The Last King of Scotland Features Whitaker in a Chilling Role

Garrigan was inspired by two real-life figures: Amin's associate and colonial officer Bob Astles and Scottish doctor Wilson Carswell, both of whom saw firsthand the violence and blood Amin left in his wake. In The Last King of Scotland , Whitaker was a force to be reckoned with, delivering a chilling and downright brutal performance as the notorious dictator. He became the fourth Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, and The Daily Mail wrote in their review that he "fully captures the menace of the man who murdered more than 300,000 of his fellow citizens, but also - and this is the difficult part - his humor, charm and charisma."

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13 Walk the Line

Walk The Line (2005)

Telling the story of famous American country musician Johnny Cash, James Mangold's 2005 biopic, Walk the Line sees Joaquin Phoenix take on the role of the "Ring of Fire" singer. The film uses two of Cash's autobiographies as the basis for the script, 1975's Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words and 1997's Cash: The Autobiography , and details the late singer-songwriter's rise to fame, his two marriages, and his addiction to drugs.

Joaquin Phoenix in One of His Best Roles

Co-starring Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Robert Patrick, the movie was a box office hit and gained rave reviews from critics. It also earned five Academy Award nominations, with Phoenix taking home the award for Best Actor. Though the film is solid, like many biopics, it's the performance of the leading man that makes Walk the Line truly great. Phoenix completely transforms into Cash, even managing to expertly imitate the singer's infamous voice. It is a subtle yet charismatic performance that stands out as among the best of Phoenix's career .

12 The Elephant Man

The Elephant Man

Dr. Frederic Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers Joseph (John) Merrick (John Hurt) in a sideshow. Born with a congenital disorder, Merrick uses his disfigurement to earn a living as the "Elephant Man." Treves brings Merrick into his home, discovering that his rough exterior hides a refined soul, and that Merrick can teach the stodgy British upper class of the time a lesson about dignity. Merrick becomes the toast of London and charms a caring actress (Anne Bancroft) before his death at 27.

1980's The Elephant Man tells the real-life story of an English man, Joseph Merrick, who adopted the cruel nickname "The Elephant Man" owing to his severe facial deformities as a result of a rare genetic disease. Set in Victorian London, the film portrays the friendship between Merrick (John Hurt) and Frederick Treves, a surgeon who rescues Merrick from a freak show and who sees the disfigured man for the kindhearted and intelligent person he truly is.

A Haunting Tale From David Lynch

Directed by David Lynch , the film garnered critical acclaim upon its release and went on to receive eight Academy Award nominations at the 53rd annual ceremony. Hurt's performance, in particular, was lauded by critics, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times calling his portrayal "truly remarkable." The Elephant Man is a haunting yet beautifully moving tale of compassion, acceptance, and seeing beyond another's appearance.

11 Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton

When it was released in cinemas in 2015, F. Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton almost instantly became a financial success and a modern-day classic. Set in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, the film revolves around the formation and break-up of the hip-hop group N.W.A, whose members consist of rappers Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. Titled after the group's debut album, it depicts their early success in the music industry, their rise to mainstream popularity, and the feuds, disputes, violence, and deaths that surrounded the group.

Straight Outta Compton Is a Provocative Biopic

Straight Outta Compton is different from the average musical biopic . In fact, it's so much better. With N.W.A members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre serving as producers, along with Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, the film is raw, honest, and provocative, and doesn't shy away from the more unpleasant aspects of hip-hop culture. Ultimately, though, it is a well-acted and superbly directed celebration of the genre.

10 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Starring two of Hollywood’s most talented and revered actors, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, 1969’s American western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was initially met with a mixed response but, over time, has become a distinguished classic. Loosely based on Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry Longabaugh (the “Sundance Kid”), it features the infamous duo on the run from a crack US posse after an extensive string of train robberies.

One of the Greatest Western Films of All Time

Numerous A-list actors were initially tied to the iconic picture, such as Jack Lemmon, Warren Beatty, and Steve McQueen, but it was Newman and Redford who nabbed the roles and dished up iconic performances as the American legends. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is now regarded as being among the greatest Westerns of all time and its screenplay has also been singled out as one of cinema's finest, with screenwriter William Goldman taking home the Oscar for his dazzling contributions.

9 Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer

Acclaimed director, Christopher Nolan, is no stranger to taking on films that deal with real-life figures or events. After all, he previously directed 2017's Dunkirk , which told the story of the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II, as well as 2006's The Prestige that, although largely a fictional story, featured real-life inventor Nikola Tesla, among its main characters. 2023's Oppenheimer , however, can be classed as Nolan's first true biopic.

What Makes It Great

Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the Oscar-winning film depicts the life and career of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the inventor of the nuclear bomb. Told across several different timelines in a non-linear style, it follows the titular character's early life in academia, his recruitment to the Manhattan Project and the development of the nuclear bomb, the bomb's use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and subsequent hearings that see Oppenheimer accused of communist sympathies.

A three-hour R-rated biopic about the father of the nuclear bomb should've been alienating to a general audience. However, with Nolan's attachment, an all-star cast, rave reviews, and its link to the social media phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer ," Oppenheimer has become one of the highest-grossing biopics ever. Fortunately, it lives up to the hype.

This acclaimed biographical drama presents major events in the life of Mohandas Gandhi (Ben Kingsley), the beloved Indian leader who stood against British rule over his country. Dedicated to the concept of nonviolent resistance, Gandhi is initially dismissed by English officials, including the influential Lord Irwin (John Gielgud), but eventually he and his cause become internationally renowned, and his gatherings of passive protest move India towards independence.

Detailing the life of the lawyer who would go on to become the famed leader of the nonviolent revolts against British rule, 1982’s Gandhi stars Ben Kingsley in the titular role. The biopic focuses on Mahatma Gandhi’s life from a defining moment in 1893, in which he was thrown off a South African train for being in a whites-only compartment. The film concludes with his tragic assassination and subsequent funeral in 1948.

Gandhi Is Historically Accurate

The stunning picture was praised for its historical accuracy upon its release, as was Kingsley's outstanding performance and production values. It received 11 Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Actor (for Kingsley), Best Picture, and Best Director. Gandhi is a deeply moving and enlightening epic that features an emotionally driven performance by Ben Kingsley and beautifully depicts the civil rights leader’s riveting life.

7 The Social Network

The Social Network

When David Fincher's The Social Network was released in 2010, the social media platform Facebook had only been around for six years. In that time, the website had amassed an impressive 500 million global users and had become the third-largest web company in the US. A film that documented the company's meteoric rise was, therefore, a no-brainer. With a script by Aaron Sorkin , the movie depicts Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), who initially develops a website called "Facemash" that allows users to rate the attractiveness of female students on campus. This soon grew in popularity, spreading to other colleges and attracting the attention of wealthy investors.

The Social Network Is Expertly Crafted

The Social Network is a gripping story that is surprisingly small and contained, given the scale of its subject matter. Though a few artistic liberties were clearly taken, Fincher's direction, Sorkin's script, and Eisenberg's lead performance ensure the film is an expertly crafted and entertaining one, even if it's not always historically accurate. And with an Academy Award-winning score by Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network is undoubtedly one of the best biopics of the twenty-first century that still has a lot of relevance today .

10 Best Oscar-Nominated Biopics of All Time, Ranked

These Oscar-nominated biopics capture different personas and different times. They all play significant roles in the cinematic world.

6 Malcolm X

Spike Lee’s epic biography Malcolm X portrays the life of the controversial and highly influential Black Nationalist leader, from his beginnings as a small-time gangster to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam. The dynamic Denzel Washington stars as the infamous African-American activist and features the additional talent of Hollywood greats Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, and Al Freeman Jr.

Malcolm X Is an Amazing Biopic

Spike Lee told The New York Times that he never envisioned any other actor in the lead role, saying that Denzel “really captured Malcolm” in his Off-Broadway portrayal of him. Largely based on the 1965 book The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the film earned rave reviews, with famed critic Roger Ebert raving that the biopic was "one of the great screen biographies, celebrating the sweep of an American life that bottomed out in prison before its hero reinvented himself."

Heavily regarded as one of the most diverse and gifted actors of all time, Daniel Day-Lewis added another feather to his impressive cap when he starred as United States President Abraham Lincoln in the 2012 historical biopic Lincoln . Known famously for his method acting approach, Day-Lewis spent a year preparing for the role, reading over 100 books on Lincoln and speaking in his voice throughout the entire shoot.

Lincoln Combines the Best of Spielberg and Day-Lewis

The dynamic star teamed up with renowned director Steven Spielberg for Lincoln , which was lauded upon its release, with Day-Lewis and his co-star Sally Field garnering particular praise for their exceptional work. The actor’s dignified and regal portrayal of the 16th president was impressive and inspiring, and he would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, once again proving to the masses how unparalleled he is as a leading man. Lincoln is heavily cited as one of Spielberg's best films and was a shining moment for both the legendary director and actor.

4 Goodfellas

Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece biographical crime film Goodfellas narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill, covering his relationship with wife Karen Hill and his ill-fated ties with mob partners Tommy DeVito and Jimmy Conway. Some of the silver screen’s finest stars headline the film, with Ray Liotta portraying Henry Hill, Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, and Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway.

Goodfellas Is Full of Suspense and Authenticity

Depicting 25 years of the mobster’s life from 1955 to 1980, Goodfellas is jam-packed full of suspense, degradation, and intense violence that is critical to the authenticity of the biopic. The powerful performances of its talented cast and Scorsese’s masterful storytelling and directing were celebrated, and Goodfellas is heavily regarded as one of the greatest films ever made and a trailblazing feat in the gangster genre.

3 Raging Bull

Raging Bull

The biographical sports drama Raging Bull is another Martin Scorsese knockout that is considered the gifted director’s magnum opus. The classic film depicts the life of boxer Jake LaMotta, an Italian-American middleweight whose temper and violence led him to extreme success in the ring but destroyed his life outside it. Robert De Niro iconically leads the drama as LaMotta, and trained extensively with the real-life boxer in preparation for the role.

Raging Bull Put Joe Pesci on the Map

Frequent future Scorsese collaborator Joe Pesci co-stars as Jake’s younger brother and manager, Joey LaMotta. Pesci, at the time, was a struggling actor and was scouted by De Niro himself. Raging Bull debuted to an initial lukewarm response, mostly due to its violent content. Despite such a reception, De Niro’s performance garnered widespread acclaim, and he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. The drama was also ranked as the fourth-greatest American movie of all time by the American Film Institute.

2 Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List (1993)

Steven Spielberg’s heart-wrenching 1993 historical drama Schindler’s List is based on the Thomas Keneally novel Schindler’s Ark and follows German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who helped save more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. Spielberg approached Schindler’s List as a documentary and shot the film in black and white , despite his reservations on whether he was mature enough to create such a picture.The esteemed director famously forwent a salary for the project, declaring it “blood money."

Schindler's List Received Universal Acclaim

Liam Neeson took on the lead role of Oskar Schindler and was cast in part because he was a relative unknown; Spielberg did not want an actor’s star quality to overpower the character. Schindler’s List received universal critical acclaim with its atmosphere, directing, performances and tone heralded. It was the recipient of seven Academy Awards and is considered one of the best films in cinema history, with The New Yorker calling it a picture that “will take its place in cultural history and remain there.”

1 Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia

The 1962 epic British historical drama Lawrence of Arabia details the life of T.E. Lawrence, an English officer who triumphantly united and led the often tumultuous Arab tribes during World War I . Acting great Peter O’Toole stars as Lawrence, and the film stunningly depicts his emotional struggles with the violence of war and his conflicted allegiance with his home of Britain and his Arabian comrades.

Lawrence of Arabia Is a Groundbreaking Biopic

Lawrence of Arabia was an adored phenomenon among critics and viewers alike, with its screenplay, visuals, and performance by O’Toole all lauded. The groundbreaking biopic is considered a cinematic masterpiece and rightfully won seven Academy Awards. It is regarded as one of the most influential films ever crafted, with O’Toole’s portrayal touted as one of the finest in all cinema history, perfectly tapping into what makes a biographical performance great.

• Movie Lists

100 best biopics of all time

The grand sweep of history is perhaps more easily told through a narrower lens, which is one reason why biopics (biographical pictures)—which can tell the story of a movement, era, or idea through one individual's life—have become so popular in recent years. Filmmakers have increasingly preferred to work in the genre over the past several decades, finding that the unique challenges in condensing a life can embolden creativity and experimentation, resulting in extraordinary movies. Take "Persepolis," for example: The 2007 film explores the Iranian revolution through the life of an ordinary teenage girl via cartoons, weaving snapshots of an ordinary lift in the midst of social upheaval to make one of the most impactful and influential films of the decade.

While the genre has turned out some truly excellent films, not all biopics are created equal. The biggest criticism leveled against them is that they often blend fiction with fact in an irresponsible or misleading manner. J.R.R. Tolkien's estate essentially disowned the 2019 film "Tolkien," feeling the author's character and related facts were misrepresented. Another frequent complaint is that the movies trot out only the best-known facts about an individual's life, failing to offer anything new or revelatory, as with the Grace Kelly biopic "Grace of Monaco." So, which movies in this high-risk, high-reward genre are worth a watch?

Stacker compiled data on biopics to come up with a Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores. To qualify, the film had to be listed as "biography" on IMDb and have a Metascore. Ties were broken by Metascore, and further ties were broken by IMDb user rating. Every film on the list has been considered within the context of the history and development of the genre.

Whether it's a gangster epic like "Goodfellas," a royal family drama like "The Queen," or one of the many chronicles of the lives of artists and musicians like "Endless Poetry" or "Amadeus," biopics offer something for everyone. Click through to discover the best cinematic portraits of extraordinary lives.

#100. Donnie Brasco (1997)

- Director: Mike Newell - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 127 minutes

Undercover FBI agent Donnie Brasco (real name Joseph D. Pistone) infiltrates the legendary Bonanno crime family in 1970s New York City in this true crime drama. Starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, the film was based on Pistone's book , "Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia." It's believed that Pistone's long career as an undercover agent generated over 200 indictments and 100 convictions of Mafia members.

#99. The Last Emperor (1987)

- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 163 minutes

Bernardo Bertolucci's " The Last Emperor " follows the life of Pu Yi, who took the throne when he was 3 years old and abdicated when he was 7. The film, shot entirely on location in China and its ancient Forbidden City palace complex, follows a country's move from feudalism through revolution to a peaceful republic, all through the lens of one man's life.

#98. Philomena (2013)

- Director: Stephen Frears - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 77 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 98 minutes

Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) spends 50 years searching for her forcibly adopted son with the help of a journalist, Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan). The film won four Oscar nominations and took home several trophies at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. While the film is certainly a tearjerker , it is balanced both by comedic moments and the real Ms. Lee's inspirational fortitude in the face of so much loss and grief.

#97. Lorenzo's Oil (1992)

- Director: George Miller - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 129 minutes

In the 1980s, Augusto and Michaela Odone experience every parent's worst nightmare when their son Lorenzo is diagnosed with an incurable nerve disease that will eventually paralyze and kill him. Failing to receive the help they needed from doctors, the Odones begin a desperate search for a cure themselves, eventually stumbling upon an oil they believe could reverse the most devastating effects of their son's illness. Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon star in this film about one couple's desperate struggle to save their family.

#96. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

- Director: Marielle Heller - Stacker score: 83.6 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 109 minutes

Tom Hanks stars as one of TV's most beloved personalities, Fred Rogers, in this 2019 biopic. Based on a 1998 Esquire article, the film doesn't delve into Roger's life story but rather focuses on the friendship between Rogers and the troubled journalist Tom Junod (renamed Lloyd Vogel in the film). The real-life Mrs. Joanne Rogers makes a brief cameo in the film, and it's a quote from her that reminds viewers that her late husband wasn't a saint, just an ordinary man who tried very, very hard to be better and kind.

#95. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

- Director: Ron Howard - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 72 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 135 minutes

John Nash Jr., a Nobel Prize winner, was one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever seen. He also struggled with schizophrenia. " A Beautiful Mind ," based on an unauthorized biography of the same name written by acclaimed journalist Sylvia Nasar, tells Nash's incredible, inspirational life story. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe, the movie won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and grossed over $313 million at the box office.

#94. Into the Wild (2007)

- Director: Sean Penn - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 73 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 148 minutes

Written, directed, and produced by Sean Penn, "Into the Wild" tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a loner who cashed in his law school fund and took off for the Alaskan wilderness in the 1990s. At first charmed by the slower pace of life, McCandless eventually found himself disillusioned with nature and attempted to return to society before making a grave mistake that would cost him everything. The story is based on a nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer, as well as information from McCandless' surviving sister, Carine McCandless.

#93. The Sea Inside (2004)

- Director: Alejandro Amenábar - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 74 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 126 minutes

A Spanish-language drama, " The Sea Inside " tells the story of Ramon Sampedro, a man who became a quadriplegic after a diving accident in the 1960s and fought for 30 years for the legal right to end his own life through euthanasia. Javier Bardem stars as Sampedro in an incredibly moving performance that focuses on one individual's definition of dignity. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film in 2004.

#92. American Gangster (2007)

- Director: Ridley Scott - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 157 minutes

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe co-star in " American Gangster ," a film that chronicles the life of Fred Lucas, a gangster who smuggles heroin into the United States, essentially instigating the drug epidemic that swept Harlem and all of New York City in the 1970s. Although the film brought in $266 million at the box office, those who were connected with the case in real life, including Lucas himself , have argued that it takes too many liberties and strays pretty far from the truth.

#91. The Killing Fields (1984)

- Director: Roland Joffé - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 141 minutes

Nominated for seven Oscars at the 57th Academy Awards, " The Killing Fields " tells the story of two journalists, American Sydney Schanberg and Cambodian Dith Pran, who are covering the country's civil war and find themselves trapped when Pol Pot begins his bloody Year Zero cleansing campaign. Critics loved the film, including Adrian Turner from Radio Times , who wrote, "Few feature films have captured a nation's agony more dramatically."

#90. Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

- Directors: John Frankenheimer, Charles Crichton - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 76 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 147 minutes

One of the looser retellings on our list, "Birdman of Alcatraz" is about a man (Burt Lancaster) serving a life sentence for murder who becomes an expert on birds while behind bars. The movie was based on Thomas E. Gaddis' book about Robert Stroud, the titular "birdman," and was nominated for four Academy Awards. The real Stroud died a year after the film was released, without ever seeing it .

#89. Endless Poetry (2016)

- Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 128 minutes

Surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky tells his own life story in " Endless Poetry ." The second installment of his cinematic memoir, the film is set in 1940s Chile, when Jodorowsky is a young man just breaking into the country's artistic circles. Very experimental in its form, the film doesn't accommodate casual viewing but offers a fascinating story for those willing to pay close attention.

#88. An Angel at My Table (1990)

- Director: Jane Campion - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 158 minutes

The story of New Zealand author Janet Frame's life, " An Angel at My Table " is based on Frame's three autobiographies and uses three different actresses to portray her at different points in her life, from her impoverished childhood through her time at a mental institution (wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia) to the beginning of her wildly successful writing career. The film swept awards in New Zealand and won a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

#87. Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

- Director: Phillip Noyce - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 94 minutes

From 1910 to 1970, Australia had an official child-removal policy that took biracial Aboriginal children from their homes and placed them in state-run schools and indentured servitude. " Rabbit-Proof Fence " tells the true story of three children from the Stolen Generation who escape their school and walk some 1,500 miles home, all while being pursued by police officers and trackers. Peter Gabriel provided the soundtrack for the heart-wrenching film.

#86. Love & Mercy (2014)

- Director: Bill Pohlad - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 121 minutes

For years, Brian Wilson, leader of the Beach Boys, struggled with mental illness , even spending a length of time in a controversial 24-hour therapy program. "Love & Mercy" chronicles Wilson's struggles in a way that Wilson himself called "very factual." Paul Dano and John Cusack both play the musician at different points in his life, and Elizabeth Banks gives an inspired performance as Wilson's second wife, Melinda.

#85. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

- Director: George Clooney - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 93 minutes

" Good Night, and Good Luck " demonstrates the immense power for change that journalists are capable of wielding in the United States. Directed by and starring George Clooney, the film is set in the 1950s, when a fear of communism led by Senator Joseph McCarthy was sweeping the nation. It tells the story of heroic reporter Edward R. Murrow and producer Fred W. Friendly, who used their news show to stand up to McCarthy and remove his cancerous lies from the public eye. The film and its message remain incredibly relevant to today's political polarization.

#84. Il Divo (2008)

- Director: Paolo Sorrentino - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 110 minutes

"Il Divo" translates to "The Divine Performer," a fitting title for this 2008 film that explores the life of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who had alleged ties to the Mafia. The story begins in 1992 as Andreotti is elected for the seventh time, then covers his failed presidency bid and bribe scandal, ultimately ending with his trial in 1995. The Guardian called the movie " a macabre masterpiece ."

#83. The General (1998)

- Director: John Boorman - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 124 minutes

Martin Cahill was an Irish criminal who managed to pull off two incredibly daring robberies (totaling about $60 million), a feat that turned him into a bit of a folk hero. " The General " tells the story of his life, including his murder by a member of the Irish Republican Army after he became involved in politics. While Cahill (played by Brendan Gleeson) was far from a good man, the 1998 movie will make you admire the way he stuck to his morals, even when they were questionable.

#82. Steve Jobs (2015)

- Director: Danny Boyle - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 122 minutes

Since his death in 2011, there have been several movies and documentaries about Apple co-founder and tech guru Steve Jobs, but this 2015 biopic is among the best . Michael Fassbender brings the turtleneck-loving visionary to life in the film, which covers three different product launches that took place between 1984 and 1998. Unlike many other Jobs films, this movie also focuses on his relationship with his daughter, Lisa, whom he had with ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan and refused to support for many years, despite his massive wealth.

#81. Vincere (2009)

- Director: Marco Bellocchio - Stacker score: 84.2 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 6.9 - Runtime: 128 minutes

Ida Dalser may be, in many ways, one of history's most important women, but her name and memory have largely been forgotten by the general public. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's first wife and the mother of his son Benito Albino, Dasler financed a newspaper in which Mussolini shared and expounded on his political views, garnering support for his fascist platform. Although the film occasionally steps away from the facts of the story, it's still a wonderful primer for those who wish to know more about the rise of the politician and those who shaped him.

#80. Rush (2013)

- Director: Ron Howard - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 74 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 123 minutes

The first sports film on our list, " Rush " chronicles the 1970s rivalry between two of Formula One's best-known drivers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The real Lauda has publicly stated that the film holds true to the reality of their lives, in spite of the fact that it omits the close friendship the men shared later in life. It also received accolades for the accuracy with which it portrays F1 racing and culture.

#79. Control (2007)

- Director: Anton Corbijn - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 122 minutes

Joy Division's late singer Ian Curtis is the focus of this 2007 biopic co-produced by his widow, Deborah. The film chronicles the rise of the band as well as Ian and Deborah's relationship, his epilepsy diagnosis, and the fallout from his affair with journalist Annik Honore. Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, the movie picked up several awards in the festival circuit and took home a British Academy Film Award.

#78. Missing (1982)

- Director: Costa-Gavras - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 122 minutes

In September 1973, American journalist Charles Horman disappeared during the Chilean coup that disposed of then-president Salvador Allende. " Missing " recounts the desperate search Charles' father and wife undertook to learn of his fate and their eventual realization that the United States government had not only aided the coup but had washed their hands of Horman. The Academy Award-winning drama stars Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.

#77. Selma (2014)

- Director: Ava DuVernay - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 128 minutes

Ava DuVernay directed this historical film that chronicles the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Hosea Williams. Covering a three-month period leading up to the march, the film largely focuses on King's role in the events without discrediting the role the other leaders had in shaping this important piece of American history. The film features the Oscar-winning song "Glory" by John Legend and Common.

#76. The End of the Tour (2015)

- Director: James Ponsoldt - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 106 minutes

" The End of the Tour " tells the famous story of Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky's five-day interview with novelist David Foster Wallace. Based on Lipsky's 2011 book "Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself," the movie is set just after the release of Wallace's epic novel "Infinite Jest," when the duo set off on a road trip. Wallace's estate and many of his living friends objected to the film , saying that it didn't capture the famous writer as he really was.

#75. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (2016)

- Director: Juho Kuosmanen - Stacker score: 84.7 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 92 minutes

Immensely talented Finnish boxer Olli Maki has a shot at the World Featherweight title in 1962, something he's been training for his entire life. But when the small-town boy falls in love with a local girl named Raija, he begins to question his dedication to the brutal sport. " The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki ," Finland's entry for the 2016 Academy Awards, features a cameo from the retired fighter and won the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

#74. Catch Me If You Can (2002)

- Director: Steven Spielberg - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 75 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 141 minutes

A runaway commercial success, " Catch Me If You Can " tells the stranger-than-fiction story of con man turned FBI assistant Frank Abagnale. The Steven Spielberg film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is based on the con artist's 1980 book, grossed more than $352 million at the box office. Abagnale himself makes a cameo as the officer who arrests DiCaprio's character on Christmas Eve, 1969.

#73. Inherit the Wind (1960)

- Director: Stanley Kramer - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 75 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 128 minutes

While it changes the names of all of the key players, 1960's " Inherit the Wind " is clearly about the Scopes Monkey Trial, which argued the legality of teaching evolution over creationism. Based on the play of the same name, the film starred veteran actors Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly, and Fredric March. In spite of the fact that the storyline of the film varies substantially from real-life events, it's had an outsized impact on the general public's opinion and beliefs about the case, inspiring debate over a biopic's obligation to stick to the hard facts of its topic.

#72. Glory (1989)

- Director: Edward Zwick - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 122 minutes

A stalwart of high school history classes, " Glory " tells the story of the first all-Black regiment in the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Starring big names like Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, the movie was an instant success with critics despite a middling performance at the box office. Historians agree that the film, which is based on Captain Robert Gould Shaw's personal letters, adheres pretty closely to the historical record.

#71. The Damned United (2009)

- Director: Tom Hooper - Stacker score: 85.2 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 98 minutes

"The Damned United" is another biopic whose adherence to real events is highly questionable . The film is based on a novel loosely inspired by Brian Clough's 44-day tenure as the manager of English football team Leeds United, and the Clough family has alleged that the film bears little resemblance to reality.

#70. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 75 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 180 minutes

It's no secret that Wall Street is full of would-be fraudsters and schemers, but few hold a candle to 1990s trader Jordan Belfort, whose company, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in corruption and fraud at never-before-seen levels. Martin Scorsese's smash hit " The Wolf of Wall Street " tells the true story of the unparalleled misconduct laid bare in Belfort's memoir of the same name. An awards season darling, the movie was nominated for five Oscars and won a Golden Globe for star Leonardo DiCaprio.

#69. Pride (2014)

- Director: Matthew Warchus - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 119 minutes

One of history's more unlikely events, the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign is chronicled in the British drama " Pride ." In the 1980s, both the U.K.'s LGBTQ+ community and its coal miners were being threatened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Party, a fact that inspired them to join together and fight for their rights, an unlikely alliance that paid off for both groups. This film would make an excellent watch for those interested in lesser-known corners of history.

#68. The Fighter (2010)

- Director: David O. Russell - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 116 minutes

Junior welterweight boxer "Irish" Micky Ward fights his way out from under the shadow of his older, more successful, and troubled brother Dicky Eklund in the sports drama " The Fighter ." The intense flick contains some extraordinary acting, as Mark Wahlberg shines as Micky, while Christian Bale and Amy Adams give Oscar-winning turns as brother Dicky and girlfriend Charlene, respectively.

#67. Frost/Nixon (2008)

- Director: Ron Howard - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 122 minutes

In 1977, three years after he left office, former President Richard Nixon agreed to a single, tell-all interview with British television personality David Frost. It is assumed that Nixon thought he'd be able to outfox the Brit, but he eventually found himself backed into a corner by questions about the Watergate scandal. This 2008 film tells the whole story of the legendary Frost-Nixon interviews and was based on a stage play of the same name, which also starred Frank Langella (Nixon) and Michael Sheen (Frost).

#66. 127 Hours (2010)

- Director: Danny Boyle - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 94 minutes

Academy Award winner Danny Boyle directed "127 Hours," an intense film about a hiker named Aron Ralston who found himself trapped by a boulder in a remote canyon in Utah. Over the course of his ordeal, Ralston examines his life and finds that he is willing to do whatever it takes to escape—even if it means cutting off his own arm. The real-life Ralston (played by James Franco) has said that the movie is incredibly true to his harrowing experience, if a little less gruesome .

#65. First Man (2018)

- Director: Damien Chazelle - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 141 minutes

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. This drama chronicles the decade of Armstrong's life leading to that historical moment, including the loss of his daughter and much of his intense training. Ryan Gosling stars in the film, which was nominated for major awards at the Golden Globes, Academy Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and British Academy Film Awards.

#64. Before Night Falls (2000)

- Director: Julian Schnabel - Stacker score: 85.8 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 133 minutes

An episodic look at the life of Cuban poet, novelist, and Castro supporter-turned-critic Reinaldo Arenas, " Before Night Falls " was based on the man's own autobiography. An openly gay man, Arenas spent much of his life under careful watch by the government and did several stints in jail before managing to escape to the United States in 1980, where he'd eventually die of AIDS. Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp both have leading roles in this visually arresting picture.

#63. Il Postino (1994)

- Directors: Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 108 minutes

A fictional tale peppered with facts, "Il Postino" follows the friendship that develops between a lowly Italian postman and the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who has been exiled from his home country for political reasons. Massimo Troisi, who played the postman, died of a heart attack the day after the film wrapped and was never able to bask in its critical and commercial success. He was, however, awarded a posthumous Oscar for his work.

#62. Hunger (2008)

- Director: Steve McQueen - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 96 minutes

A dramatic retelling of the hunger strike that took place in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison in 1981, " Hunger " follows the final days and death of Bobby Sands, an IRA member and the first prisoner to die in the strike. By turns unflinching and abstract, the film won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Steve McQueen directed the intense, harrowing picture, with Michael Fassbender starring as Sands.

#61. Henry V (1989)

- Director: Kenneth Branagh - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 137 minutes

Shakespeare's classic historical play " Henry V '' was brought to the screen in this 1989 film. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as the king, the movie chronicles the events of the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt, in which the English continued their Hundred Years' War against the French.

#60. BlacKkKlansman (2018)

- Director: Spike Lee - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 135 minutes

In another stranger-than-fiction tale, African American detective Ron Stallworth infiltrated a Colorado Springs branch of the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1970s. Wowed by Stallworth's story , Spike Lee set out to bring it to life, casting John David Washington as the young detective, Adam Driver as his Jewish colleague assisting in the sting, and Topher Grace as Grand Wizard David Duke. The finished project was widely praised by critics and won several prestigious awards, including Cannes' Grand Prix and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

#59. Seraphine (2008)

- Director: Martin Provost - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 125 minutes

A self-taught French painter who holds down a day job as a housekeeper and walks the line between genius and mentally ill is the subject of this 2008 French film. Today, Seraphine Louis' works hang in museums around the world, but her life was far from a happy one, and she died in the early 20th century in a mental institution, destitute and alone. This simple, subtle biopic, which stars Yolande Moreau, won seven Cesars (the French equivalent of the Academy Award).

#58. 24 Hour Party People (2002)

- Director: Michael Winterbottom - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 117 minutes

In the 1970s, Tony Wilson established Factory Records , which signed bands like Joy Division and the Happy Mondays and sparked a musical revolution, eventually leading to the development of the legendary Hacienda dance club in Manchester, England. A blend of real events, newsreel footage, urban legends, and completely fictional tidbits, this movie expertly tells the raucous story of a man, city, and movement that made up the rules as they went along.

#57. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

- Director: Marielle Heller - Stacker score: 86.3 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.1 - Runtime: 106 minutes

Melissa McCarthy stepped away from her typical comedic roles in " Can You Ever Forgive Me? " She plays Lee Israel, a failing writer who tries to revitalize her career by selling forged letters from dead celebrities. While the movie certainly has funny moments, it's a true crime tale that features an unlikable heroine, a gamble that paid off when McCarthy and co-star Richard E. Grant were nominated for their performances at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

#56. The Elephant Man (1980)

- Director: David Lynch - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 78 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 124 minutes

Set in Victorian London, " The Elephant Man " chronicles the relationship that formed between a surgeon named Dr. Frederick Treves and John Merrick, a severely disfigured man who earns his living as a freak-show performer called the Elephant Man. Adapted from two different books, one written by Treves himself, the story garnered praise for the way it handled disability and difference. It also inspired the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling after industry insiders complained that the film's incredible work wasn't given enough recognition.

#55. Gandhi (1982)

- Director: Richard Attenborough - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 191 minutes

The life of civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi has been portrayed in numerous ways via several media since his death in 1948, but perhaps never as movingly as in this 1982 biopic. The story begins with Gandhi being thrown off a South African train in 1893 and concludes with his assassination some 55 years later. Ben Kingsley played Gandhi and won an Academy Award (one of eight the film took home) for his efforts.

#54. Milk (2008)

- Director: Gus Van Sant - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 128 minutes

The life of an openly gay activist who becomes the first LGBTQ+ person elected to public office in California is the subject of " Milk ." Using archival footage of Harvey Milk's life, the movie covers the time period from Milk's 40th birthday until his shocking assassination in 1978. Sean Penn's performance as the title character was awe-inspiring and earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

#53. The Long Day Closes (1992)

- Director: Terence Davies - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 85 minutes

Terence Davies' autobiographical film follows a boy named Bud as he comes of age in 1950s Liverpool, fearing the ever-present eye of the Catholic Church and realizing both his love for cinema and his homosexuality. The film doesn't follow a straightforward narrative but rather jumps back-and-forth through time, infusing each moment with precisely chosen pieces of popular music and cinema.

#52. Lincoln (2012)

- Director: Steven Spielberg - Stacker score: 86.9 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 150 minutes

The final four months of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's life are explored in detail in Steven Spielberg's 2012 historical smash "Lincoln." Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the gentle, gangly leader, it primarily focuses on Lincoln's determination to abolish slavery and pass the 13th Amendment. Sally Field co-stars as Mary Todd Lincoln, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the 16th president's son, Robert. The movie was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning two, including Best Actor for Day-Lewis.

#51. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

- Director: Terry George - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 79 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 121 minutes

Tackling tough topics like genocide, violence, and political corruption, " Hotel Rwanda " is set during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when members of the Tutsi ethnic group were hunted down and murdered by armed militias. The movie brings to life the true story of a hotel manager named Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu who offers shelter to over 1,000 Tutsis in the Hotel des Mille Collines. While the Academy Award-winning film finishes on a relatively happy note, real life wasn't so kind: In late 2020, the real Rusesabagina was charged with "terrorism, complicity in murder, and forming an armed rebel group" by a Rwandan court.

#50. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

- Director: Jean-Marc Vallée - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 80 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 117 minutes

Ronald Woodroof was a womanizing, drug-using, homophobic electrician from Texas living a carefree life when his doctor announced that he had HIV/AIDS and would likely die in 30 days. After researching his illness, Woodroof uncovered an experimental drug that would potentially prolong his life and established the Dallas Buyers Club, whose mission was to import the drug from Mexico so that it could be easily accessible to everyone who needed it. Along the way, Woodroof (played by Matthew McConaughey in an Oscar-winning performance) became a compassionate friend and advocate for the legal rights of those with the disease.

#49. Captain Phillips (2013)

- Director: Paul Greengrass - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 134 minutes

In 2009, for the first time in 200 years, a U.S. container ship was hijacked by a group of Somali pirates some 145 miles off the Somali coast. This thriller, inspired by those events , stars Tom Hanks as the American captain of the ship and chronicles the tense relationship that develops between him and the pirate captain who holds him hostage, played by newcomer Barkhad Abdi. While Hanks' character is hailed as a hero in the film, the real-life crew of the ship argues that this wasn't the case in reality.

#48. Fruitvale Station (2013)

- Director: Ryan Coogler - Stacker score: 87.4 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 85 minutes

" Fruitvale Station " tells the true story of Oscar Grant, a Bay Area resident and young Black man who was killed by Oakland Police officers on New Year's Eve 2008. His murder would inspire protests and unrest in the California town, events that fall outside the scope of this film but testify to the heated controversy of the incident. Michael B. Jordan stars in the movie, which made its debut at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and collected a number of prizes there and elsewhere.

#47. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

- Director: Paul Schrader - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 120 minutes

Inspired by the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima , this biopic freely weaves fact, fiction, and portions of Mishima's own writing to create a stunning picture of the artist's life and death. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas worked as executive producers on the film, which earned director Paul Schrader a special prize at Cannes.

#46. The Wind Rises (2013)

- Director: Hayao Miyazaki - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 126 minutes

The first animated movie on this list, " The Wind Rises " follows the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of several of Japan's fighter planes during World War II. The anime film by Studio Ghibli became Japan's highest-grossing film in 2013, bringing in $116.1 million at the domestic box office. It was widely appreciated outside of Japan as well, winning Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and other animation prizes.

#45. Boys Don't Cry (1999)

- Director: Kimberly Peirce - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 118 minutes

Brandon Teena was a trans man from rural Nebraska who was passionately in pursuit of his true self and true love before becoming the victim of a vicious hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. " Boys Don't Cry " is a harrowing depiction of Teena's fate starring Hillary Swank and featuring Chloe Sevigny as Teena's girlfriend, Lana. While the movie was critically acclaimed, several people with links to the case, including the real Lana (who has been alleged to have been a part of the hate crime) have spoken out against it, saying that the on-screen story doesn't match the facts.

#44. Capote (2005)

- Director: Bennett Miller - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 114 minutes

Philip Seymour Hoffman won multiple awards, including an Oscar, for his portrayal of author Truman Capote in this 2005 biopic . The events of the film center around the time period in which Capote was writing "In Cold Blood" and include the friendship he developed with Perry Smith, one of the killers who is on death row. The movie marked Bennet Miller's directorial debut.

#43. The Madness of King George (1994)

- Director: Nicholas Hytner - Stacker score: 88 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 110 minutes

It is believed that King George III suffered from mental illness, a malady highly misunderstood in 1788 but that drove him to act erratically and rendered him unfit to rule a country. " The Madness of King George " focuses on the monarch's decline as well as the troubled relationship he shared with his son, the Prince of Wales. Rupert Graves and Helen Mirren both lent their talents to the acclaimed British production.

#42. Ford v Ferrari (2019)

- Director: James Mangold - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 81 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 152 minutes

In "Ford v Ferrari," American car designer Carroll Shelby and fearless British driver Ken Miles come together under the Ford Motor Company banner with hopes of defeating the dominant Ferrari racing team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. The movie, which tells the twisty story of the most bitter rivalry in auto racing history, stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale as Shelby and Miles, respectively.

#41. The Insider (1999)

- Director: Michael Mann - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 157 minutes

An industry insider appears on a "60-Minutes" expose on Big Tobacco, risking his own safety as well as the safety of his CBS producer in " The Insider ". Accurate in its broad strokes, the film demonstrates the influence of journalism as well as the power of those who choose to stand up for what's right. Director Michael Mann martialed an abundance of star power for this intense drama, casting Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, and Christopher Plummer in leading roles.

#40. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

- Director: Michael Apted - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 124 minutes

Based on country music star Loretta Lynn's biography, " Coal Miner's Daughter " spans from Lynn's birth into poverty and marriage at 13 to her emergence as one of the genre's leading voices. Sissy Spacek, who plays Lynn, accompanied the singer on tour in order to better embody the country queen's mannerisms and demeanor—a move that paid off when she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

#39. Richard III (1955)

- Director: Laurence Olivier - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 161 minutes

Another adaptation of a Shakespeare play, " Richard III " famously relates how and why Richard, Duke of Gloucester, stole the crown from his brother, King Edward IV. One of three films directed by Laurence Olivier to bring Shakespeare's work to the screen, the Criterion Collection deems it "ravishing" and "visually inspired."

#38. Mr. Turner (2014)

- Director: Mike Leigh - Stacker score: 88.5 - Metascore: 94 - IMDb user rating: 6.8 - Runtime: 150 minutes

The story of the last 25 years in the life of the talented, eccentric Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner (played by Timothy Spall) is explored in this drama. The New York Times described Mike Leigh's portrait as "loving" and "unsentimental," one that "patiently and thoroughly demolishes more than a century's worth of mythology about what art is and how artists work."

#37. Argo (2012)

- Director: Ben Affleck - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 120 minutes

No movie emphasizes the power of Hollywood quite like "Argo," which tells the story of a harebrained CIA scheme that sought to rescue six American diplomats from Iran (during the Iran hostage crisis) under the guise of shooting a science fiction movie. Based on the real-life accounts of the CIA operative Tony Mendez in his book "The Master of Disguise," the movie stars Ben Affleck, who also directs. 

#36. Moneyball (2011)

- Director: Bennett Miller - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 133 minutes

Professional sports are as much games of money as they are of talent, which means that the poorest teams are often the least competitive. One exception is the 2002 Oakland Athletics baseball team. " Moneyball " tells the truly impressive story of A's general manager Billy Beane, who uses statistical data to scout and pick players, creating an aggressively competitive team despite having the lowest salary constraints in Major League Baseball.

#35. Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

- Director: Steven Zaillian - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 109 minutes

" Searching for Bobby Fischer " focuses on Josh Waitzkin, a 7-year-old chess prodigy who loses his love for the game under a ruthless and strict coach, then finds it again with a much more relaxed tutor. Based on a book written by Waitzkin's father, the movie struck Roger Ebert as "a film of remarkable sensitivity and insight" and was nominated for an Academy Award for its Best Cinematography.

#34. Funny Girl (1968)

- Director: William Wyler - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 151 minutes

Loosely based on the life and career of Broadway star Fanny Brice and her relationship with Nicky Arnstein, "Funny Girl" was the highest-grossing film of 1968 . Barbra Streisand, in her feature film debut, won an Oscar for her portrayal of Brice.  

#33. The Tale (2018)

- Director: Jennifer Fox - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 114 minutes

Jennifer Fox's semiautobiographical " The Tale " explores long-buried, darker aspects of her relationships with two of her childhood coaches, which came to light as she worked on a documentary about child rape victims. Laura Dern stars as Fox in the movie, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival before receiving a wider release on HBO.

#32. Topsy-Turvy (1999)

- Director: Mike Leigh - Stacker score: 89.1 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 160 minutes

The musical " Topsy-Turvy " depicts the relationship between Victorian-era theatrical partners Sir Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert. After their show "Princess Ida" flops, the duo consider going their separate ways but agree to complete at least one more production, "The Mikado," which ends up becoming one of their greatest successes. An unexpectedly delightful period piece, the movie explores the difficult reality of the creative professions.

#31. Downfall (2004)

- Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 82 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 156 minutes

Set during WWII's Battle of Berlin, " Downfall " recounts Adolf Hitler's final days, spent in a bunker miles below the city. Based on a memoir by Traudl Junge, a secretary for Hitler, the movie brings Hitler's mental decline, which Junge observed firsthand, to life in a way few others have ever been able to. The movie sparked a serious conversation about the moral and ethical questions involved in portraying Hitler, one of the most monstrous villains in world history, with even a hint of humanity.

#30. The Miracle Worker (1962)

- Director: Arthur Penn - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 83 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 106 minutes

Annie Sullivan, a "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl," manages to teach the deaf, blind, and mute Helen Keller how to communicate in " The Miracle Worker ." An instant critical success in 1962, both Anne Bancroft, who played Annie Sullivan, and Patty Duke, who played Helen Keller, took home Academy Awards for their performances. The movie was adapted from the Broadway play of the same name, which also starred the same actresses.

#29. All the President's Men (1976)

- Director: Alan J. Pakula - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 138 minutes

The dramatic events surrounding Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's unveiling of the Watergate scandal lie at the center of " All the President's Men ." The award-winning political thriller was based on the 1974 book of the same name written by the two journalists, portrayed by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, respectively.

#28. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

- Director: Arthur Penn - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 86 - IMDb user rating: 7.8 - Runtime: 111 minutes

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway bring America's most notorious crime couple to life in this 1967 telling of the Bonnie and Clyde story. A landmark film and one of the first of the New Hollywood era, the movie became famous for the groundbreakingly realistic way it depicted violence and sex, something that wasn't done in cinema at the time. Upon its release, Roger Ebert even predicted that it will come to be seen as the "definitive film of the 1960s."

#27. Shine (1996)

- Director: Scott Hicks - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 105 minutes

Geoffrey Rush's breakout role was as pianist David Helfgott in the Australian drama "Shine." Rush's depiction of the musician, who was afflicted by schizophrenic disorder and spent years living in institutions, won him an Oscar and launched a successful, decades-long career. While the film was a critical success, Helfgott's real-life siblings were more divided in their reception of it, with one actively campaigning against it and the other two happy with its portrayal of their sibling and his tumultuous family life.

#26. Serpico (1973)

- Director: Sidney Lumet - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 130 minutes

In " Serpico ," a New York City cop blows the whistle on the corruption that runs rampant within the NYPD, which prompts an investigation by the Knapp Commission. Al Pacino plays Frank Serpico , who in real life experienced ostracization and hate from those both inside and outside the force, and saw his act as shameful rather than heroic.

#25. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

- Director: Frank Lloyd - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 132 minutes

One of the biggest hits of the 1930s, " Mutiny on the Bounty " may not be historically accurate, but it sure is fun to watch. The movie retraces the classic tale of the HMS Bounty, whose first mate (played by Clark Gable) launches a mutiny against the tyrannical Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton) on an 18th-century voyage from Tahiti. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1935.

#24. American Splendor (2003)

- Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 7.4 - Runtime: 101 minutes

A blend of documentary, animation, and live action, as well as fact and fiction, " American Splendor " relays the complicated story of Harvey Pekar, the creator of the titular comic book series. In spite of its complicated-sounding setup, the film is a mesmerizing, absorbing watch full of delightful details. Paul Giamatti plays Pekar and Hope Davis his wife, Joyce—except when the real-life couple steps in for various scenes.

#23. The Queen (2006)

- Director: Stephen Frears - Stacker score: 89.6 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.3 - Runtime: 103 minutes

Beginning with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, " The Queen " depicts Elizabeth II's struggle to publicly react to the news appropriately, as she realizes just how drastically the culture of her country has shifted, leaving her without a clear role. Helen Mirren won an Oscar and received exorbitant praise for her performance in the leading role, with the Queen herself praising her work and inviting her to dinner .

#22. In the Name of the Father (1993)

- Director: Jim Sheridan - Stacker score: 90.2 - Metascore: 84 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 133 minutes

The Guildford Four were a group of men who were wrongly convicted of the politically motivated 1974 Guildford pub bombings that killed several people. " In the Name of the Father " explores this complicated story and the way it impacted the lives of the four men, as well as those of others connected to them. Daniel Day-Lewis turns in an impressive early performance as one of the accused, Gerry Conlon, whose autobiography " Proved Innocent " provides the basis for the film.

#21. Reversal of Fortune (1990)

- Director: Barbet Schroeder - Stacker score: 90.2 - Metascore: 93 - IMDb user rating: 7.2 - Runtime: 111 minutes

A courtroom drama, " Reversal of Fortune " follows the real-life case of Claus von Bulow, a wealthy husband accused of trying to murder his socialite wife by giving her an overdose of insulin. Told from the perspective of the husband's lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who struggles with his own questions of the husband's innocence, the film's smart script was derived primarily from Dershowitz's memoir. The film stars Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Ron Silver.

#20. Spartacus (1960)

- Director: Stanley Kubrick - Stacker score: 90.7 - Metascore: 87 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 197 minutes

Hailed as an intellectual epic, " Spartacus " features a hero who is denied a typical victory and is instead consoled with the promise that his ideas will survive in his stead. The down-ending movie is about a Thracian slave who leads a violent revolt against the Roman Empire but ends up paying dearly for his actions. Although a huge moneymaker for Universal Studios and a critical success, director Stanley Kubrick hated the film and never included it in his canon.

#19. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

- Director: Michael Curtiz - Stacker score: 90.7 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 126 minutes

George M. Cohan was one of Broadway's biggest stars, a playwright, composer, actor, dancer, and singer who wrote his own shows in the earliest years of the 20th century. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a musical that honors the performer's life, though it strays pretty far from the truth despite Cohan himself briefly serving as a consultant.

#18. The Favourite (2018)

- Director: Yorgos Lanthimos - Stacker score: 90.7 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 119 minutes

A multiple award-winner and a box-office smash, "The Favorite" follows the rivalry between two cousins, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and Abigail Masham, a lady's maid, who are vying for the position of Queen Anne's court favorite. While some of the film's historical accuracy has been questioned, including the sexual and romantic relationships that exist between the women, the broad strokes of the film are certainly true to life. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone star in the period black comedy.

#17. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

- Director: John Ford - Stacker score: 91.3 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.6 - Runtime: 100 minutes

The second film on the list about Abraham Lincoln, "Young Mr. Lincoln" focuses on the early years of the 16th president's life, rather than his final months. The first collaboration between John Ford and lead Henry Fonda, the movie focuses on a definitive court case (the "Almanac Trial") in which the novice lawyer finds himself wrapped up, laying the groundwork for the philosophy and morality which would guide him as one of American history's most important figures.

#16. Quiz Show (1994)

- Director: Robert Redford - Stacker score: 91.3 - Metascore: 92 - IMDb user rating: 7.5 - Runtime: 133 minutes

Robert Redford directed the docudrama set in the 1950s about a young lawyer who discovers that quiz shows like "Twenty-One" are being fixed and begins to investigate, focusing on two former contestants, a working-class Jewish man from Queens and a member of one of America's leading literary families. A critical success, the movie was a commercial failure when it was released in 1994.

#15. The King's Speech (2010)

- Director: Tom Hooper - Stacker score: 91.8 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 118 minutes

"The King's Speech" tells the story of the friendship that existed between King George VI and his speech therapist, who helped the king overcome his stutter so that he could face his subjects with confidence. Earning nominations for almost every existing award, the star-studded film was far and away one of the biggest hits of 2010.

#14. In Cold Blood (1967)

- Director: Richard Brooks - Stacker score: 91.8 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 134 minutes

Based on Truman Capote's novel of the same name, "In Cold Blood" follows two drifters who murder an entire family in a robbery gone wrong. Described as a filmmaking masterclass, the movie boasts "clinically precise editing," according to the Criterion Collection, as well as evocative black-and-white cinematography and authentic, unshowy performances.

#13. The Pianist (2002)

- Director: Roman Polanski - Stacker score: 92.9 - Metascore: 85 - IMDb user rating: 8.5 - Runtime: 150 minutes

Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist and composer, wrote his life story in "The Pianist," which became the basis for this Roman Polanski film. As the lead in this incredibly intense story, lead actor Adrien Brody said in 2017 that he was still recovering from the emotional toll of the story, 15 years after its release. Still, the award-winning movie is an important watch for those who seek to understand just how much the Holocaust and its aftermath shaped the world.

#12. Persepolis (2007)

- Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi - Stacker score: 92.9 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 96 minutes

"Persepolis" is the story of an outspoken teenage girl named Marji who comes of age during the Iranian Revolution. Simple in an elegant way, the film was based on a series of graphic novels Marjane Satrapi wrote about her life. Making its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, "Persepolis" was a co-winner of the Jury Prize.

#11. Patton (1970)

- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner - Stacker score: 92.9 - Metascore: 91 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 172 minutes

Famous and controversial WWII tank commander Gen. George S. Patton is the subject of this 1970s biopic, which remains among the most iconic movies ever made. George C. Scott took on the role of Patton and won an Academy Award for it (one of seven the picture took home). The film was in the works for several years before production went underway, as the United States Department of Defense was not keen on signing off on the project.

#10. Amadeus (1984)

- Director: Milos Forman - Stacker score: 93.4 - Metascore: 88 - IMDb user rating: 8.3 - Runtime: 160 minutes

The premise of "Amadeus" hinges on a fictional rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri. Though the beef between the two is contrived, the details of Mozart's life that are woven into the film are, by and large, true. Accuracy aside, the film was quickly regarded as a classic and ended up winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

#9. Raging Bull (1980)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 93.4 - Metascore: 89 - IMDb user rating: 8.2 - Runtime: 129 minutes

Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" tells the story of prizefighter Jake LaMotta's rise and fall. The athlete's obsessive rage and animalistic appetite led him to incredible victories within the ring but destroyed almost every aspect of his life outside it. While initially a bit of a critical and commercial flop, the movie has come to be considered Scorsese's magnum opus.

#8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

- Directors: Julian Schnabel, Laura Obiols - Stacker score: 94 - Metascore: 92 - IMDb user rating: 8.0 - Runtime: 112 minutes

In "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a massive stroke that leaves him with locked-in syndrome, a condition where almost all the muscles in his body are paralyzed except for his left eye. The French film, based on Bauby's memoir, was called "a poignant reflection on what it means to be alive" by Empire's Alan Morrison .

#7. The Social Network (2010)

- Director: David Fincher - Stacker score: 94 - Metascore: 95 - IMDb user rating: 7.7 - Runtime: 120 minutes

Before Facebook became a dominant force in our lives and culture, monitoring our every move, it was a way for college students to connect and make new friends. "The Social Network" tells the story of the platform's early years, including the not-so-honorable moves of co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg). A critical and commercial success, the film was named one of the best films of 2010.

#6. The Irishman (2019)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 94.5 - Metascore: 94 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 209 minutes

Scorsese strikes again with "The Irishman," a gangster movie based on the book "I Heard You Paint Houses" about former mafia hitman Frank Sheeran. The film brings together some of the gangster genre's biggest heavyweights—Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel—who earned a host of accolades for their collective work. The film was released on Netflix in late 2019.

#5. My Left Foot (1989)

- Director: Jim Sheridan - Stacker score: 96.2 - Metascore: 97 - IMDb user rating: 7.9 - Runtime: 103 minutes

Christy Brown was an Irishman born with cerebral palsy and was only able to control a single limb, his left foot. Despite his substantial physical disabilities, Brown learned how to paint and write with his foot, providing an unlikely outlet for his creativity. Daniel Day-Lewis brings the cantankerous artist to life in this Oscar-nominated film based on Brown's memoir.

#4. Goodfellas (1990)

- Director: Martin Scorsese - Stacker score: 96.7 - Metascore: 90 - IMDb user rating: 8.7 - Runtime: 146 minutes

The final Martin Scorsese picture on our list and one of the best-loved gangster films of all time, "Goodfellas" chronicles the true-life story of Henry Hill, a small-time mobster turned informant. Starring frequent Scorsese collaborator Rober De Niro as well as Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci, the movie is based on crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy" and is widely considered one of the highest artistic peaks of Scorsese's career.

#3. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

- Director: Steve McQueen - Stacker score: 96.7 - Metascore: 96 - IMDb user rating: 8.1 - Runtime: 134 minutes

Solomon Northup was a New York-born free Black man who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and spent 12 years enslaved on plantations in Louisiana before being released. "12 Years a Slave," a realistic and violent depiction of Northup's experience, was based on his memoirs. The award-winning movie did what many before it failed to do: it demolished, once and for all, the idea that slavery was anything but a horrific, unjust, and unfair practice whose sins remain in America to this day.

#2. Schindler's List (1993)

- Director: Steven Spielberg - Stacker score: 100 - Metascore: 94 - IMDb user rating: 8.9 - Runtime: 195 minutes

A success on every level, Steven Spielberg's Holocaust masterpiece "Schindler's List" is, at its heart, two parallel character studies. On the one hand, there's Amon Goeth (played by Ralph Fiennes), a purely evil psychopath, and on the other Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a greedy businessman turned unlikely humanitarian. Haunting and powerful, the film insists that goodness and truth can prevail, even in some of humanity's darkest moments.

#1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

- Director: David Lean - Stacker score: 100 - Metascore: 100 - IMDb user rating: 8.3 - Runtime: 228 minutes

The best biopic of all time? This 1962 epic chronicling the life of British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence, who's tasked with serving as a liaison between Prince Faisal and the British government during their fight against the Turks. Earning 10 Oscar nominations, the movie is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential films in cinematic history . Still, there are always haters: Lawrence's brother A.W. reportedly hated the film so much that he refused to let David Lean use the title of T.E.'s memoir, " Seven Pillars of Wisdom. "

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The 25 best biopics of all time – ranked

From 'Malcolm X' to 'Oppenheimer': the greatest movies inspired by great lives

Hollywood has always loved a biopic – and not just Hollywood. Abel Gance’s legendary silent epic Napoléon and Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc both created early blueprints for biographical cinema. But let’s not kid ourselves: it’s American cinema that has developed the biggest passion for putting the lives of great men and women – and some not-so-great-ones – up in lights. And the early ’80s are when the biopic really kicked up a gear, with films like Raging Bull (about Jake LaMotta), Coal Miner's Daughter (Loretta Lynn) and The Elephant Man (Joseph Merrick) all vying for Best Picture at 1980’s Oscars. This year, Oppenheimer and Maestro have continued the awards season sideline in teaching us all about Important People. But not all biopics are created equal. The list below singles out the ones that do more than just offer a Wikipedia-like trawl through a life’s events, however eventfully lived. Those flavourless films – J Edgar , Diana etc – often prove far less illuminating than a good hour-long History Channel doc. Instead, we’ve picked films that put fresh spins on famous figures, reframe their lives in insightful ways, and use the language of cinema to lend them grandeur and context in all kinds of memorable ways. Welcome to the cinema of icons. 

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Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

1.  Napoléon (1927)

Move over Joaquin and Ridley , because Abel Gance’s iconic silent epic – all six-ish hours of it – is still the definitive depiction of the diminutive Corsican– yes, including Bill & Ted’s . Played by the gaunt Albert Dieudonné and taking in battles, politics and the young Bonaparte’s famous , it’s a tour de force of cinematic craft, with Gance employing an extraordinary array of techniques to bring this action-packed life to audiences in the late ’20s. Thanks to Kevin Brownlow’s loving restoration, it’s in fighting fettle nearly a century later. It doesn’t cover his entire life – Austerlitz, the retreat from Moscow and defeat at Waterloo were all destined to appear in further films Gance never got to make – but there’s enough Revolutionary-era detail for even the most dedicated sans culotte .

2.  Andrei Rublev (1966)

A bad biopic will just plod dutifully through history. For Andrei Tarkovsky, the form offered the chance to philosophise about creative and religious freedom, and explore the tension between his subject, the titular 15th century Russian icon painter, the chaotic medieval landscape he inhabited and the filmmaker’s own Communist homeland. In other words, to go full Tarkovsky. The result is one of the most stunning films of the ’60s, a black-and-white masterpiece embroidered with extraordinary visuals: the hot air balloon, the Tartars’ attack, the casting of the bell, and the weathered face of Rublev himself. Fun fact: his co-writer Andrei Konchalovsky went on to direct Tango & Cash . A tenner if you can find thematic overlap.

3.  Raging Bull (1980)

Some biopics cast such a long shadow they end up eclipsing their subject in public imagination. Old-school boxing fans know Jake LaMotta was a real fighter – and a real asshole – and not just a creation of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. But in the cultural consciousness, De Niro is Jake LaMotta. And really, he might as well be, given how deeply he inhabits the role of a violent man increasingly unable to differentiate between a prize fight and everything else in his life. It’s a brutal but necessary portrait of male ugliness, made beautiful by Scorsese’s equally operatic and hallucinogenic visual style.

4.  Malcolm X (1992)

If any figure’s life deserves the cradle-to-grave treatment, it’s Malcolm X – and if any director is qualified to film his story with the breadth it requires, it’s Spike Lee. Lee refuses to sand down the edges of the Civil Rights icon’s biography, and in the process revivifies the three-dimensional image of a complex leader that had been flattened into a militant caricature through decades of purposeful revisionism. But the ace, of course, is Denzel Washington, who so fully embodies the activist at each stage of his life – from hoodlum to revolutionary to martyr – that when younger generations think about Malcolm X, he’s the person they see. 

5.  Amadeus (1984)

Miloš Forman’s opulent, stormy period piece about maverick musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great biopics. Adapting his own play, writer Peter Shaffer keeps the ingenious framing device of capturing Wolfie’s life in flashback through the eyes of his bitter rival Salieri. It lets us see what he sees, but encourages us to take a lot more pleasure in it all, until the charm wears off and the story sours. It’s as light and effortless as a fairy tale – all grand balls, OTT costumes and gossipy salons – but as immaculately constructed as a Mozart concerto. The brilliant Tom Hulce plays Mozart as a giggly manchild, while the equally formidable F Murray Abraham drips venom as the scheming Salieri.

6.  Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Paul Schrader tackles the life, career and incredibly violent death of Japanese writer and artist Yukio Mishima in a film that shows a good biopic can make dramatic hay from even the most unlikeable figures. Because, make no mistake, Mishima is a bit of a douche: an avatar for toxic masculinity and regressive nationalism who’d no doubt be a social media superstar these days. Schrader’s cleverly constructed, wildly imaginative epic finds beauty in his art and lurid colour in his life, framing it via stagily avant garde dramatisations with Philip Glass’s legendary score lending it all added grandeur.

7.  The Elephant Man (1980)

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David Lynch tamped down his surrealist impulses for his first major studio film, but when the source material is the true story of a 19th century freakshow exhibit turned bon vivant, what dreamy embellishments do you really need? Born with severe physical deformities science still hasn’t fully explained, Joseph Merrick nevertheless became the toast of London in the late 1800s when he was discovered to be far more erudite than his appearance suggested. John Hurt works wonders under an intensely cumbersome amount of make-up, literally straining to bring Merrick’s humanity to the surface. And while it might play more conventionally than just about anything Lynch did after, the director still imbues the film with a signature sense of unease.

8.  Patton (1970)

Flawed geniuses make great biopic subjects. Flawed heroes maybe even more so. General George S Patton, a hard-charging tank commander during World War II, is definitely one of the latter and depending on which historian you ask, maybe the former too. Embodied by the hardly mild-mannered George C Scott, a role for which he won, and subsequently declined, an Oscar, his wartime experiences make an electrifying case study of almost deranged drive and purpose. The film also makes a fascinating case study in leadership, with the screenplay, co-written by Francis Ford Coppola, never excusing the man’s brutal excesses – including the shellshocked G.I. he infamously slapped.

9.  Lawrence of Arabia (2012)

Condensing a great man’s life into a bum-friendly two-plus-hours is the kind of daunting task that David Lean’s widescreen epic makes no effort to attempt. Instead, over 227 minutes this remarkable film recreates the rise of TE Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) from humble army office to leader of the Arab tribes in World War I on the biggest imaginable canvas. That’s not to say it’s all strictly accurate. Despite being based on Lawrence’s own account of the war, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’, it drew criticism for its depictions of Arabs in the story (Alec Guinness’s Prince Faisal, in particular), and it failure to include a single female character (British orientalist Gertrude Bell was a key figure in the story). But some British bias aside, much of what’s here is close to what happened IRL. 

10.  Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan’s doomy portrait of the father of the atomic age will be forever linked to a movie about a plastic doll come to life . But it’s not really such a harsh juxtaposition – for all its physics talk and Senate hearings and apocalyptic visions, Oppenheimer would still qualify as blockbuster movie-making even if it didn’t wind up half of the #Barbenheimer phenomenon. Cillian Murphy is simply that captivating as J Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the weapon that may still annihilate us all, and the movie is simply that big: a three-hour exploration of guilt, war, death and marriage that overwhelms your attention with sheer density.

11.  The Last Emperor (1987)

This sweeping epic about Aisin Gioro Puyi, China’s last monarch, is one for all the they-don’t-make-’em-like-they-used-to heads out there. And Bernardo Bertolucci’s sweeping, nine-Oscars-winning movie really does feel like an offering from another era – not least because China is unlikely to be lending 19,000 soldiers to a Hollywood studio anytime soon, or handing over the keys to Beijing’s Forbidden City. That’s the backdrop to the film’s most famous shot: a toddler-aged Puyi standing before a vast crowd of his subjects. Despite being based on Puyi’s autobiography – or maybe because of it – The Last Emperor was called out for soft-soaking his cruelty. But as an depiction of 60 years of chaos and change, it’s still jaw-dropping.

12.  Ed Wood (1994)

Ed Wood is often laughed off as the worst director of all-time, but as time has gone on, and we’ve seen filmmakers do far worse with much bigger budgets, it’s easier to appreciate him as one of cinema’s truest believers, driven to serve his vision as best he could. That doesn’t make his movies any better, nor his technical ineptitude any less funny. But Tim Burton’s loving reappraisal manages to laugh with admiration rather than derision, to the point of looking and feeling like one of Wood’s films, at least in terms of vibe and not, like, visible boom mics. Johnny Depp is enthusiastically daft in the lead, and finds true warmth in his friendship with Martin Landau’s ageing, broken-down Bela Lugosi.

13.  Spartacus (1960)

‘I’m Spartacus!’ ‘No, I’m Spartacus!’ The stand-up-and-cheer moment in Stanley Kubrick’s CinemaScope epic feels much more Tinseltown than Ancient Rome, but the film around it is all based on real events. Specifically, a slave revolt against the Romans led by a Thracian slave in 71 BC. Famously, Kubrick directed it as a hired gun at the behest of its star Kirk Douglas, and it’s Kubrickian more in spectacle than style or theme – with the big battles and colosseum scenes making it the Gladiator of its day. It came with uncanny historical resonance, too: screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood 10 and for a time, was denied credit on the film. His Spartacus moment took a lot longer to happen, but he got a much happier ending ( and a Bryan Cranston film made about him ). 

14.  Persepolis (2008)

There’s not a load of animated biopics but those there are, are great. Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises , about fighter plane pioneer Jiro Horikoshi, is one such. Flee , about Afghan refugee Amin Nawab, is another. But Marjane Satrapi's adaptation of her own graphic novel about her childhood in Iran may be the best of the lot. It follows a young Satrapi as she tries to coexist peacefully with the Iranian Revolution, a feat made much tougher by her, a) being a woman, and b) having a mind of her own. The animation, aping the style of the book’s black-and-white illustrations, gives this touching, but punky coming-of-age story an aesthetic all of its own. 

15.  A Hidden Life (2020)

It’s noteworthiness rather than just notoriety that drives a good biopic. Franz Jägerstätter, played with rugged stoicism by Inglourious Basterds’ August Diehl, probably wouldn’t have ended up with a film made about his life had fate not reached into his bucolic corner of the Austrian Alps in the early 1940s. But the sheer courage and spiritual principle displayed by this humble family man in the face of the moral depravity of the Nazi state provide Terrence Malick’s stirring  film with a chance to elevate him from history’s marginalia. A hidden life no more.

16.  Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

The tropes of the musical biopic had not yet been fully codified when Michael Apted adapted country icon Loretta Lynn’s rags-to-riches story, but even now that they’ve been trod into dust, Coal Miner’s Daughter remains uniquely moving. You know the major beats: a girl is born into poverty, marries young, survives abuse and myriad other hardships, then succeeds beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. But Apted and stars Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones string the familiar narrative together with such well-observed humanity that it feels less like standard Hollywood biography and something closer to a folk tale.

17.  Walk the Line (2005)

Casting is always crucial in biopics, but if you’re making a movie about Johnny Cash and June Carter, it’s everything : if the chemistry between your leads is less than electric, you’re done for. Thankfully, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon just about set the screen ablaze, he as country music’s ultimate voice of the voiceless, she as the beacon of light guiding him through his own personal darkness. Their shared authenticity – in both their onstage duets and offstage quarrels – elevates the film above its ‘behind the music’ cliches. That didn’t prevent it from being cut in half pretty bad by the hilarious parody Walk Hard – but if it helped bring the world Dewey Cox, that only makes it better.

18.  I'm Not There (2007)

Dylanology has been an unofficial field of academic study since the ’60s, so there’s little anyone could possibly gain from a straightforward Bob Dylan biopic. Wisely, in I’m Not There , Todd Haynes does the exact opposite of ‘straightforward’, taking a more symbolic approach in examining the towering musician’s muses and mythos. Six different actors portray various Dylanesque personae, none of them actually named Bob Dylan. Most memorable is Cate Blanchett as folk singer Jude Quinn, basically an alternate-reality version of Dylan circa his electric conversion. It’s a fascinating experiment that’s sometimes also inscrutable – as anything truthful to this particular subject should be.

19.  Lincoln (2013)

Actors have gone to great lengths in prepping to play historical figures before. Daniel Day-Lewis levelled up, however, as Abraham Lincoln, asking to be addressed as ‘Mr President’ on set and not breaking character for three months, even in the car to work. Which may, thinking about it, have been a carriage. But such is the burden of depicting a figure of the magnitude of Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s serious-minded history, and the results are extraordinary. The film isn’t too shabby either. Tony Kushner’s screenplay, based Doris Kearns Goodwin’s famous Lincoln biography ‘Team of Rivals’, saupercharges Congressional debates and policy-making summits with the urgency of a thriller. Legislation drafting has never been this exciting.

20.  I, Tonya (2017)

Not even the trashiest Lifetime screenwriter could script a scandal as perfect as the one that enveloped US figure skating in 1994: all-American ice princess Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the knee by an unknown assailant. The suspect? Her chief rival, trailer park roughneck Tonya Harding. It was world-class tabloid fodder – but tabloids, of course, have little use for nuance or empathy. Director Craig Gillespie doesn’t rehabilitate Harding, exactly, but brings the circumstances of her life into better view, while still recognising the dark absurdity of the controversy that made her famous. Margot Robbie proved her range in the lead role, but it was Allison Janney, as her abusive, chain-smoking mother, who rightly won all the awards.

21.  Control (2007)

Anton Corbijn is uniquely suited to make a movie about late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis: he jump started his photography career in the ‘70s by shooting the band for NME, and later directed a posthumous video for their song ‘Atmosphere’. No wonder, then, that the movie looks like how the band sounded: monochrome and austere, yet starkly beautiful. As you’d expect of a film about a musician who hung himself at age 23, the prevailing mood of Control is somber, but Sam Riley gives Curtis a detectable heartbeat, portraying him as a man capable of love (and even humour), but only from a distance.

22.  Ray (2005)

Narratively, Taylor Hackford’s look at the life and times of Ray Charles is Music Bio 101, charting the legendary entertainer’s rise from blind prodigy to American icon, with all the attendant battles against sin and vice in between. What earns it a place on this list is Jamie Foxx, who doesn’t so much embody Charles but fuse with his DNA like the alien in The Thing . Foxx doesn’t just burrow under his skin – although the surface-level impression is uncanny – but into his heart, brain and everything else, drawing far more out of the performance than the script seemed to offer him.  

23.  Man on the Moon (1999)

Self-described ‘song and dance man’ Andy Kaufman dedicated his life and career to inscrutability, to the point that the ‘real Andy’ became unknowable, perhaps even to the comedian himself. In lieu of separating fact from fiction, Milos Forman’s biopic simply reiterates the legend. Is there much to learn from restaging Kaufman’s greatest hits, like the wrestling matches and Mighty Mouse and the milk-and-cookies stunt from Carnegie Hall, even with the fine detail Forman provides them? Not really. But Jim Carrey famously poured himself into portraying Kaufman with such scary accuracy that it goes beyond movie acting and becomes a form of performance art in itself – perhaps the most appropriate tribute you can offer him.

24.  Rocketman (2019)

If you only watch one biopic about a flamboyant British musical superstar who loves a party, make it Rocketman rather than Bohemian Rhapsody . Dexter Fletcher ended up working, uncredited, to finish the Freddie Mercury movie just before he tackled Elton John’s life. He saved all the magic for this one, sketching out a vivid fantasia that feels entirely in keeping with the pop star’s bonkers life, and adopting the grammar of movie musicals to  swerve the tired clichés that blight so many biopics . Elton’s suicide attempt, flowing from swimming pool to hospital in one shot and accompanied by the title song, is sheer, drug-addled wonderment.

25.  Elvis (2022)

It might have been Harry Styles. It might even have been Miles Teller. The fact that it’s Austin Butler, a hitherto barely known actor with only a passing resemblance, who ended up playing Elvis demonstrates that charisma flows in both directions when you’re playing a superstar. Not to say that Butler doesn’t have the goods: he’s magnetic, whether gyrating on stage and rocketing up the hit parade, or being believably damaged during the crash landing of the Vegas years. Tom Hanks’s rubbery Colonel Parker aside, Baz Luhrmann’s rock ‘n’ roll Babylon is the best kind of gaudily OTT real-life spectacle.

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The 140+ Best Biography Movies

Biographical films explore the fascinating lives of historical figures and cultural icons. The best biography movies offer viewers a detailed look into the lives of these people, skillfully recreating stories that have shaped history and left a lasting impact on the world. With unforgettable narratives to explore, you will find these films showcase exceptional storytelling, nuanced performances, and unparalleled cinematic vision. 

The best biography movies offer not just boring history, but gripping, groundbreaking, and original narratives. For instance, films like Catch Me If You Can follow the high-stakes exploits of a charming con artist, bringing together thrilling action with intriguing character development. Schindler's List, on the other hand, tackles the harrowing subject of the Holocaust, masterfully capturing the heroic efforts of one man to save lives during a dark time in history. Then there's A Beautiful Mind, which delves into the complex life of renowned mathematician John Nash, showcasing the challenges and triumphs associated with his brilliance. These films are but a few examples of the best biographical movies that excellently capture the essence of their subjects and the genre. 

The lasting impact of these movies demonstrates how well they resonate with audiences, transcending time and cultural boundaries. Biographical movies not only accurately depict the lives of their subjects, but they also elevate the art of storytelling by blending truth with cinematic drama. Through these exceptional films, viewers gain fresh perspectives on the world, history, and the individuals who have shaped it, marking these biographical movies as the very best in their field. 

Catch Me If You Can

Schindler's List

A Beautiful Mind

The Social Network

20 Biopics That Are Actually Worth Watching

Most true-story films are functional to a fault. These ones break the mold.

Every Oscars season brings new surprises: first-time nominees, snubbed Hollywood veterans, a list of honorees spanning blockbusters to indies. But one kind of movie is always a contender: the biopic. A true-story film is one of the most reliable forms of awards catnip; seven of the past 10 winners for Best Actor in a Leading Role were nominated for their portrayal of a real figure, sometimes a well-known celebrity, such as Freddie Mercury or Winston Churchill. The movies housing those performances tend to be functional to a fault. But some biographical films break the form and attempt something artistically challenging while also telling their protagonist’s story. Here are 20 of my favorites.

Tick, Tick … Boom! (2021, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Jonathan Larson’s musical Tick, Tick … Boom! was autobiographical when he first performed it in 1990. But the version that Miranda brought to screens more than 30 years later is even less coy about the fact that the central Jon character is Larson, while conceding that the story depicted is true “except for the parts Jonathan made up.” Tick, Tick … Boom! is about Larson (played by Andrew Garfield) striving to break out in New York’s theater scene, but it’s more broadly a work about the tricky act of balancing ambition and sanity in the arts world. The film acknowledges that Larson tragically died before receiving wide recognition for his musical Rent , but that’s part of what makes Tick, Tick … Boom! such a compelling watch: Miranda pairs that sad awareness with the vibrant, yearning energy of Larson’s original text.

Shirley (2020, directed by Josephine Decker)

Another biopic that mixes fiction with fact, Shirley is a portrait of the author Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss), set around the time she was writing her second novel, Hangsaman , published in 1951. Decker’s dreamy film sees a married couple arrive at Bennington College and get sucked into Jackson’s tempestuous relationship with her preening husband, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg); together, the two writers are an entrancing nightmare—Shirley’s alcoholism and agoraphobia clash with Stanley’s philandering and social pomposity. Moss’s performance is particularly energetic and raw, representing both the haunted nature of Jackson’s storytelling and the author’s own troubled life.

A Hidden Life (2019, directed by Terrence Malick)

After several years spent working on abstract projects such as Knight of Cups and Song to Song , the philosophical maestro Malick turned his attention to a real-life subject for his next film: Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian conscientious objector who was executed by the Nazis for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler after being conscripted. It’s a Malick movie, so A Hidden Life is filled with striking scenery and a voice-over narration questioning the relationship between God and man, between free will and fate. Malick’s ongoing fascination with the natural world, which he can represent better than practically anyone, is paired with stunning imagery of storm clouds gathering and the industry of war corrupting the peaceful Austrian mountains. Still, the personal fortitude of Jägerstätter (August Diehl) is the film’s strongest element.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019, directed by Marielle Heller)

Adapted from an article written by the Esquire journalist Tom Junod, Heller’s film takes a clever approach to depicting the children’s-TV host Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks), whose life and perspective on entertainment has already been well covered in documentaries. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood instead stars Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel, a journalist assigned to profile Rogers who’s initially unconvinced of his subject’s genuine goodness. Heller understands that many viewers might be similarly skeptical that Rogers was as saintly as he appeared, so Vogel plays the role of the cynic, an embittered reporter trying to uncover Rogers’s dark side while also coming to terms with his own personal struggles. Hanks’s performance is beatific, but also a little weird. Though Heller is firm in portraying Rogers’s powerful and therapeutic aura, she also grasps how unnerving it might have felt to be in his presence.

From the December 2019 issue: My friend Mister Rogers

First Man (2018, directed by Damien Chazelle)

It’s obvious why it took so long to make a definitive film about Neil Armstrong, whom Ryan Gosling portrays in First Man . The astronaut was taciturn, nervy, and intensely private, and the stakes of the Apollo 11 mission, which every viewer knows will be a success, aren’t especially dramatic. But Chazelle’s brilliance comes from digging into how unknowable Armstrong was, even to his close friends and family, and how desperately tense so much of the Apollo program was despite its eventual triumph. First Man is stressful, often frustrating, and then deeply moving in its final act on the moon, which was particularly incredible to view on an IMAX screen.

A Quiet Passion (2016, directed by Terence Davies)

Terence Davies is kind of a specialist in biographical films about poets, which is to say he’s made two of them (the other, the Siegfried Sassoon–focused Benediction , is also worth a watch). His methodical storytelling approach is a perfect match for Emily Dickinson, whom Cynthia Nixon plays as much more complicated than her reputation as an inscrutable recluse. Davies portrays Dickinson’s slow withdrawal from public life over the years, starting with her time as a whip-smart teenager at a Christian boarding school, and moving on to her navigation of family drama and her challenges to the religious hegemony of the day. A Quiet Passion conveys the fractured, piercing nature of Dickinson’s poems, illustrating her creativity while avoiding clichéd scenes of her sitting at a desk pondering what line to write next.

Jackie (2016, directed by Pablo Larraín)

The Chilean filmmaker Larraín’s recent output has mostly concentrated on true stories; one of his best films, the Oscar-nominated No , dramatizes Chile’s national 1988 referendum on whether the Pinochet regime should stay in power. Of late, he’s moved on to portraits of powerful women that mix fact with imagination, including 2021’s divisive Spencer and an upcoming Maria Callas film starring Angelina Jolie. Jackie is the best example of his style: Natalie Portman portrays Jackie Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s assassination in a film that explores the narrative she created about her family and the darker truths nested within it. Larraín’s mournful vision is meditative and at times nightmarish, but even the most abstract material is anchored by Portman’s self-aware, imposing performance.

Steve Jobs (2015, directed by Danny Boyle)

Many biopics cleverly zero in on a specific moment in a subject’s life, picking a story that represents their wider impact on history. Steve Jobs , written by Aaron Sorkin and based on Walter Isaacson’s biography, adjusts that tendency by focusing on three major launches during the Apple founder’s life: the first Macintosh computer, his Apple rival NeXT, and the famed iMac. This brilliant meta-structure captures the boom-bust-rebound cycle so familiar to the tech world, and Sorkin’s gift for blending exposition with witty banter brings those action-packed segments to life. It’s an astounding portrayal of a figure whose charisma and prickliness existed side by side, with Michael Fassbender doing bravura work in the lead role.

Mr. Turner (2014, directed by Mike Leigh)

Mike Leigh has a particular creative process for his films, in which he improvises scenarios with his cast and builds out the story with them instead of writing a traditional screenplay. Many of his movies are more mundane slice-of-life dramas, but this approach works surprisingly well for biographical stories, lending a sense of authenticity to films such as Topsy-Turvy (about the musical-theater duo W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan) and Peterloo (about a notorious massacre of protesters in 1819 England). Mr. Turner might be my favorite of Leigh’s period biopics: It delves into the life and works of the brilliant but cantankerous artist J. M. W. Turner, whose impressionistic landscapes were decades ahead of their time and thus both celebrated and decried. Timothy Spall is wonderful and belligerent in the leading role, but the film is an unflinching look at life with an artist whose genius is inseparable from his personality flaws.

Selma (2014, directed by Ava DuVernay)

Selma , a thunderous historical drama that made DuVernay one of the most discussed directors of the decade, tackles a monumental subject with grace. The film depicts Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in organizing the Selma-to-Montgomery voting-rights marches of 1965. David Oyelowo is perfectly pitched in the lead role, capturing all of King’s charisma without overwhelming the ensemble. But Selma is also a story of community-based political progress, rendering the backroom meetings and widespread activism that laid the groundwork for the landmark protests. DuVernay’s camera remains intimate throughout, relying on close-ups to keep the real-life figures feeling, well, real, instead of like the formal portraits that viewers might know from their history books.

Read: From Selma to Black Power

The Wind Rises (2013, directed by Hayao Miyazaki)

As a historical narrative, The Wind Rises is only vaguely rooted in truth. Its protagonist, Jiro Horikoshi, was a real person, the designer of Japan’s Zero fighter planes and other aircraft used during World War II. But the story is partially fictionalized, blended with details from The Wind Has Risen , a novel about a man contending with his fiancée’s tuberculosis diagnosis. The great Japanese animator Miyazaki seems to insert this personal plotline as a way of imagining the kind of work-life conflict Jiro likely faced, torn between his calling and his home, a challenge Miyazaki himself has said he wrestled with. But the film is driven by an even knottier moral dilemma: the idea that one’s creations are being used for evil. Jiro’s passion for creating beautiful aircraft is equal only to his horror at the fact that his designs support machines of death and warfare. The Wind Rises is a knotty, spiritually conflicted work, and maybe the most complicated effort of Miyazaki’s storied career.

The Grandmaster (2013, directed by Wong Kar-wai)

The Grandmaster dramatizes the life of Ip Man, a revered martial artist who trained many future stars, most famously Bruce Lee. Directed by the leading Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, the film features the frequent Wong collaborator Tony Leung in the lead role and is steeped in both history and philosophy. The Grandmaster moves through Ip Man’s adolescence, early training years, marriage, and navigation of major events such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the 1951 closing of the border between Hong Kong and mainland China. The film is a lavish production, and multiple versions have been released—including a very streamlined American cut that tries, clumsily, to provide further context for international viewers—but the 130-minute “Chinese Cut” is the one worth seeking out.

Bernie (2011, directed by Richard Linklater)

True crime is a subgenre that can be given to lurid controversy. But Linklater’s retelling of the 1996 murder of the Texas multimillionaire Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) by her far younger companion, Bernie Tiede (Jack Black), is downright whimsical. There’s no mystery to the murder itself, which Tiede commits after his relationship with the unpleasant and demanding Nugent breaks down; Linklater is far more interested in the aftermath, when local townspeople start rallying to Tiede’s defense because of their hatred of his victim. Linklater places some of the real-life residents alongside professional actors, lending verisimilitude to the proceedings. Black gives one of the best performances of his career, bouncing off Matthew McConaughey, who plays a frustrated district attorney.

Moneyball (2011, directed by Bennett Miller)

Maybe the best sports movie of the 21st century is about an executive: Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who used advanced statistics to spin gold from one of the smallest budgets in Major League Baseball and stay ahead of his richer competitors. Adapted from Michael Lewis’s book about the team’s 2002 season, the film turns a data-driven quest into a war with the hard-bitten classicists of America’s pastime. It’s a compelling portrait of a divorced, aloof, intensely stubborn person who sometimes feels at odds with the sport he loves. Miller understands that the tension between change and tradition is what makes baseball such a uniquely American topic.

Bright Star (2009, directed by Jane Campion)

Like Terence Davies, Campion has directed multiple excellent biopics of poets and writers, and her 1990 film about Janet Frame, An Angel at My Table , warrants a look. But Bright Star might be her most singular work in a career filled with idiosyncratic triumphs. It tracks the last three years of the brief life of John Keats (Ben Whishaw), focusing on his romance with Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), a woman who inspired some of his verse but whom he could not marry because of his lack of income. Bright Star is swooningly romantic and deeply tragic, steeped in Whishaw and Cornish’s natural chemistry and Keats’s connection to the natural world; it’s a heartbreaker of a film, but a worthy one.

I’m Not There (2007, directed by Todd Haynes)

While making a biographical movie about Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes seemed completely aware that the task before him—or at least any conventional approach—would be impossible. So he instead presents six short story lines that take on specific aspects of Dylan’s life or personality. Different actors (Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw) portray the singer in some form or another. Blanchett’s performance as Dylan the mid-’60s folk rebel, spikily razzing the press about his switch to the electric guitar, is probably the best-remembered section. But Ledger’s work as Dylan around the time of his famed breakup album, Blood on the Tracks , is among the best of his sadly short career.

Read: The rock band that redefined counterculture

Marie Antoinette (2006, directed by Sofia Coppola)

For her follow-up to the Oscar winner Lost in Translation , Coppola tackled a difficult subject: the French queen Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), whose reign before the French Revolution was famed for its debauchery. Coppola’s take has a modern sheen, featuring a pop soundtrack and a cast of actors who mostly use their natural American accents. It’s also tinged with sympathy, noting the Austrian Marie’s alienation from her husband, Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), and from the strange French court she was shipped to at the age of 14. The film is so light and fizzy that it seems to almost forget how badly things will soon start to curdle—but the lack of self-awareness is, of course, part of the point.

The Insider (1999, directed by Michael Mann)

Mann’s other biographical films are the fascinating yet challenging Ali (2001) and Public Enemies (2009), and he has another one, about the carmaker Enzo Ferrari, due out this year. But The Insider is probably the best biopic he’ll ever make. It fictionalizes the story of the whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), who exposed a company’s secret efforts to make cigarettes more addictive. Al Pacino plays Lowell Bergman, the 60 Minutes producer trying to coax Wigand to make his claims public, and Mann gives their relationship operatic force, turning a story about good, hard journalism in drab offices into an entrancing visual marvel.

Nixon (1995, directed by Oliver Stone)

Stone has made many films about real-life figures, and his relationship to the truth has long been blurry at best. Alexander , his epic about the Macedonian conqueror, is his most formally daring work, but Nixon might be my personal favorite. Anthony Hopkins plays Richard Nixon in a film that takes a sweeping look at the disgraced president’s life and career. Though Stone is obviously politically opposed to Nixon, he seems to still feel deep sympathy for the complex, aggrieved outsider who struggled with personal demons and the grim circumstances of his impoverished youth. Nixon is also crammed with the kind of conspiratorial thinking about the U.S. government that suffuses many a Stone film, but that tone suits its protagonist, as he descends into paranoiac anger and the Watergate scandal erupts around him.

Bird (1988, directed by Clint Eastwood)

Eastwood has made several movies about real, ordinary folk who emerge as heroes, such as Sully and Richard Jewell . But his masterpiece of the biopic genre is Bird , an offbeat account of the life of the jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (Forest Whitaker). Mimicking the improvisational structure of jazz, Bird is a montage that jumps forwards and backwards in Parker’s life. Across timelines, it’s most interested in his relationship with his wife, Chan (Diane Venora), and fellow musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Red Rodney. Whitaker’s performance is extraordinary, and Eastwood’s experimental approach is too.

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14 Best Biopics on Netflix (August 2024)

Biopics are an aspirational genre of filmmaking that arouses feelings ranging from tragedy to triumphant joy inside all of us. They serve as a reminder of the achievements of real-life people and the hardships endured while trying to accomplish something. Naturally, we are drawn to these shining examples of endeavor, perseverance, and grit. Most biopics depict personalities who are driven by something greater than them, showing us what it means to strive for higher objectives. Their life and experiences, told through a dramatic lens, inspire us to look at our own while dissecting the complexities of theirs. As such, to cater to your need for stories about real-life figures, here is a list of the best biopics available on Netflix.   

14. Blonde (2022)

‘ Blonde ’ tells the story of Hollywood and film industry icon Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) , whose rise to stardom is punctuated by internal conflicts and pressure to live up to a pristine image as she winds down a circuitous path of torment. Writer and director Andrew Dominik presents a more fictionalized version of her life based on the 2000 eponymous biographical novel by Joyce Carol Oates. 

Although it is not the most authentic tale owing to its deviations from the real-life story of Monroe, the film’s portrayal of mental health challenges and its uncommon narration style make it an intriguing watch for those who want an inside look into the famed actresses’ life. Separating fact from fiction is a different matter altogether, but it should not detract from an otherwise solid viewing experience. It can be streamed here.    

13. Big George Foreman (2023)

Directed by George Tillman Jr., ‘ Big George Foreman, ’ also known as ‘Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World,’ follows the remarkable life of boxer George Foreman (Khris Davis). The narrative covers his retirement from boxing, his new life as a preacher, and his return to the Heavyweight Division of boxing. Owing to the vast yet astounding events surrounding his achievements, the narrative picks up on Foreman’s incredible feats when everyone thinks he is done and dusted. The underdog story of blood, sweat, and tears may be a well-versed motif, but it’s present in abundance to make the audience root for Foreman every step of the way . Watch the film here.

12. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)

In ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ director Kasi Lemmons shines the spotlight on the life, legacy, and career of celebrated singer Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie). The film chronicles her rise from a church choir singer to the legendary vocalist she later became. The biopic dives into the major successes of her professional life and the failures that arose in her personal one, including her struggles with addiction, fame, and relationships. As such, the intimate portrayal provides a more holistic glimpse into the complexities of her superstar persona without much of a filter and what it took to get there. The film can be streamed here.

11. Victoria & Abdul (2017)

Adapted from the 2010 non-fiction book by Shrabani Basu, ‘ Victoria and Abdul ’ tells the unlikely but true story of friendship and maternal affection between Queen Victoria and her Munshi Abdul Karim. After arriving from India, Abdul strikes an accord with the Queen, challenging the societal norms of the time present in British culture. Subsequently, the narrative captures their deep alliance and trusted bond as the Queen herself learns more about Abdul’s culture and the restrictions of her own. Helmed by Stephen Frears, ‘Victoria and Abdul’ taps into a forgotten piece of history as it delves into an extraordinary bond between two people from different worlds, whose views change as they influence one another to strive for more. The film is available to watch here.

10. Roxanne Roxanne (2017)

Living in the Queensbridge housing projects during the 1980s was not easy . In the Michael Larnell-directed film, ‘Roxanne Roxanne,’ the iconic hip-hop figure, Roxanne Shanté, has to navigate the difficulties of an impoverished beginning in the projects while plotting her eventual rise to stardom amidst a whole host of challenges. 

The film depicts her challenges with making a name for herself in a male-dominated industry, the complexities of her interpersonal relationships, and her familial responsibilities. Roxanne’s journey presents a rousing tale of overcoming obstacles, achieving success, and aspiring to be the best no matter what. Although life is rarely easy, Roxanne showcases the determination and optimism it takes to push through the struggle. ‘Roxanne Roxanne’ can be streamed here.    

9. Harriet (2019)

‘Harriet’ uncovers the heroic exploits of famed American abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo), who was a huge proponent of anti-slavery struggles during the 1800s. The Kasi Lemmons directorial depicts Harriet’s extraordinary fight and the methods she employed to save the lives of those who had been enslaved around the country. The film highlights her work conducting the Underground Railroad, which helped save other enslaved people  and her contributions during the Civil War.

Few figures in history could hold a candle to Harriet’s accomplishments, which have not only stood the test of time but influenced people’s attitudes going forward. Her willingness to put herself in the line of danger is a testament to her greatness, which is portrayed sincerely in the film. Viewers will especially resonate with the movie’s core message of strength, courage, fighting spirit, selflessness, and faith in a future where equality prevails. Check it out here.

8. Srikanth (2024)

The Indian Hindi-language film, ‘Srikanth,’ tells the story of successful entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla (Rajkummar Rao), who defies all odds to turn an eco-friendly products manufacturing company, Bollant Industries, into a viable, profitable business in the modern market. Director Tushar Hiranandani depicts the struggles faced by the eponymous business leader after being born visually impaired in a rural village in the former state of Andhra Pradesh, India. 

The film is a sparkling reminder of the perceived limitations of individuals and how Srikanth turns the adversity in his life into a force for change. The narrative brilliantly showcases his drive, motivation, and inability to give up as he fights to achieve his ambitions despite a whole world of naysayers stacked against him. It is a rousing and inspiring entry that can be watched here.

7. Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022)

In ‘ Gangubai Kathiawadi, ’ a young girl named Ganga is duped into traveling to Mumbai, India, by her boyfriend under the lure of a career in the film industry. Once there, she is sold into sex work at a brothel. However, she rises to power within the ranks and becomes the madam of the establishment, fighting for the rights of her sex workers and the equality of women who are overlooked by society.

Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ is an adaptation of a chapter from the non-fiction novel ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of Women from the Ganglands’ by Hussain Zaidi. The Bhansali directorial is a powerful exploration of resilience in the darkest corners of the world as the real-life protagonist climbs her way out of obscurity to fight for the freedoms she never had. It highlights her work and how formidable she was despite the cards dealt in her favor. You can watch her journey here.

6. On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Directed by Mimi Leder, ‘ On the Basis of Sex’ depicts the trials and tribulations of young fledgling lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Felicity Jones), whose personal challenges with her husband’s health and being a woman in a primarily male-led legal industry during the mid-1900s forces her to fight against the prevailing attitude to prove her worth. The film mainly revolves around Ginsburg’s early life and her work promoting gender equality through her cases.

It is an insightful look into the life of a pioneering individual in a demanding field with various trappings. Ginsburg’s struggles and accomplishments form the tapestry of the film’s emotional core, further enhanced by the presence of those who helped her along the way and her growing influence as a powerful figure. You can savor the movie here.    

5. Maestro (2023)

‘Maestro’ chronicles the life and career of famed American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. Written, directed, and produced by Bradley Cooper, who also plays Bernstein, the film dives into the complexities of the composer’s inner battles with sexuality and his complicated relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre. His turbulent bond with her plays a pivotal role in his personal life as he tries to come to grips with his identity and musical genius. 

The film is an intricate mosaic examining the various facets that made Bernstein who he was, making it an intriguing watch with a sharp performance by Cooper in the lead role. While it may not have a definite plot, watching a man’s life unfold over several decades, alongside his musical ambitions, presents a sense of deep poignancy to the narration and the humanity at its center. The film is available for streaming here.  

4. Rustin (2023)

The George C. Wolfe-directed film, ‘Rustin,’ unearths the real-life story of a lesser-known figure in history named Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), who played an integral role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech. The film explores how, as a Black gay man, Rustin’s work and influence were diminished as he tried to fight against the discrimination of the time.

The narrative alights upon several critical moments within the Civil Rights Movement, providing an unseen perspective into the affair through the eyes of Rustin, who makes enormous contributions to the struggle despite never gaining attention. His unending work, beliefs, vision, and optimism are faithfully brought to the fore through the prescient movie and Colman Domingo’s stellar portrayal of a complicated man torn by the forces of his time but looking ahead all the same. Stream the film here.

3. Darkest Hour (2017)

With fears surrounding World War II gathering in Western Europe, the world looks for comfort and leadership in a precarious period. Newly appointed British prime minister Winston Churchill faces a difficult task in ‘ Darkest Hour ’ when he has to navigate the treacherous waters of parliament while trying to fight Hitler’s growing power, which threatens the rest of Europe, including his home nation. 

Helmed by Joe Wright, the film explores the strength, caliber, and legacy of the iconic leader facing the impossible task of unification against a turbulent tide of War. The film is graced by a mesmerizing performance by Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, who evokes the great man with deftness. Additionally, the film provides a fresh vantage point into World War II, one led through politics, making it a unique exploration of an otherwise well-covered subject. Watch it here.  

2. Tick, Tick … Boom! (2021)

In his directorial debut, ‘ Tick, Tick… Boom! ’ Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the story of Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield), a composer in his early 30s who hears a strange ticking sound in his head that sounds akin to the expiring time limit on his life. Larson is worried about the pressures of his career, constantly wondering if he made the wrong choice. While battling his inner fears, he discovers what it means to be an artist who is caught in the web of achieving success without finding any triumph.  

Based on the eponymous semi-autobiographical stage musical by the real-life Jonathan Larson, the film explores his doubts, relationships, and anxieties about an uncertain future in which nothing seems to go to plan. The narrative is a meditation on a person’s dreams and what it takes to see them through, regardless of the countless failures on the path. Larson’s life is one that many aspiring career professionals will latch on to as they find moments of levity, joy, and creativity in a story about human perseverance. Check it out here.  

1. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

‘ Hacksaw Ridge ’ delves into the miraculous true story of Pfc. Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), a drafted soldier in World War II who refuses to bear arms and wage violence against the enemy owing to his religious formation. Desmond is ostracized by his fellow soldiers, who ridicule his pacifism. However, when push comes to shove, he single-handedly saves the lives of 75 men in the Battle of Okinawa, earning the admiration and respect of those who shun him.

Directed by Mel Gibson, the film is based on the documentary film ‘The Conscientious Objector’ by Terry Benedict, which chronicles the extraordinary heroism of Desmond Doss. ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ is a deep, introspective look into the power of faith, love, and forgiveness in a harrowing and impossible situation. The film earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Sound Editing at the Academy Awards and is a must-watch for those looking for a genuinely complex but entertaining biopic brimming with all kinds of emotions. You can stream it here now.   

Read More: Best Historical Movies on Netflix

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The 28 best biographical films of all time

Hollywood loves churning out biographical films, releasing dozens of major motion picture biopics every year. Some become critically acclaimed classics, while others end up as total flops - even if the star nails their portrayal of the famous figure. Let’s take a look at some successful stories based on box office numbers, critical reception, audience approval, and the awards they won. Here are the 28 best biopics of all time.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

  2013’s “12 Years a Slave” is the kind of film that couldn’t possibly fail. From its outstanding cast (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, and Brad Pitt) to its director (Steve McQueen) to its screenplay (by John Ridley) to its music (courtesy of Hans Zimmer), “12 Years a Slave” succeeded in every aspect and won three Oscars. Although the film isn't that old, it's based on a memoir of the same name that was written all the way back in 1853 by Solomon Northup.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Based on the life of Nobel Laureate John Nash and a 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar, “A Beautiful Mind” explores the battle that was fought within Nash’s own head, which pitted his brilliance against his paranoid-schizophrenic tendencies. The film starring Russell Crowe won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Ron Howard), Best Adapted Screenplay (Akiva Goldsmith), and Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly), and earned four additional nods.

Amadeus (1984)

Although Antonio Salieri’s jealousy and conspiracy against composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is fictionalized and very much exaggerated, 1984’s “Amadeus” still serves as a solid biography for the brilliant musician, and is a fantastic film nonetheless - as evidenced by the 40 accolades it won, including eight Academy Awards.

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

The biggest win for Spike Lee 's "BlacKkKlansman" was an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, but it nabbed five other Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture), four Golden Globe nods (including Best Drama), and the Grand Prix at Cannes. The true story of Ron Stallworth, a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, also owns a 96-percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic teamed up with director and fellow Vietnam vet Oliver Stone to pen the screenplay for “Born on the Fourth of July,” an adaptation of Kovic’s memoir of the same name that chronicles how he was injured and paralyzed in battle, and later became an anti-war activist. The film marked Tom Cruise ’s first Oscar nomination, and although he failed to win, “Born on the Fourth of July” still picked up two Academy Awards.

Braveheart (1995)

Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight who led his country in the First War of Scottish Independence against England (1296–1328) and inspired 1995’s “Braveheart,” which was written and directed by Mel Gibson , who also starred in the film. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, “Braveheart” won five, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Capote (2005)

In the 2005 biopic “Capote,” Philip Seymour Hoffman blew audiences away with his portrayal of Truman Capote and the writer's work on the 1966 non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood.” Hoffman rightfully won a best actor Oscar, Golden Globe, and SAG Award, among numerous other accolades.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

  Matthew McConaughey lost 47 pounds and stayed indoors for six months in order to play AIDS patient and activist Ron Woodruff in 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club.” Woodruff smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs across the Mexican border into his home state of Texas during the 1980s, a time when HIV and AIDS were under-researched, misunderstood, and highly stigmatized. McConaughey and co-star Jared Leto both won Oscars for their roles, making “Dallas Buyers Club” only the fifth film to ever nab both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor honors.

Gandhi (1982)

When it was first announced that a biopic about the life of Mahatma Gandhi would be made, there was a lot of speculation as to who would play the famed leader of the Indian independence movement. English actor Ben Kingsley (who has Indian heritage on his father’s side) was selected and astonished audiences with his performance. “Gandhi” earned a whopping 11 Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture and Best Director (Richard Attenborough).

Goodfellas (1990)

“Goodfellas” is often considered one of the greatest crime films ever made, mostly thanks to the spectacular direction of Martin Scorsese and the all-star cast that includes Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro , Joe Pesci, and Paul Sorvino. Although the 1990 film is widely beloved, some people don’t realize that Henry Hill was actually a real person, and “Goodfellas” is an adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi’s 1986 non-fiction book “Wiseguy,” which tells Hill’s tale. The movie earned nearly $47 million at the box office, won an Oscar (for Pesci), and has since been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Hidden Figures (2016)

Everyone knows about the Space Race, but few knew about the critical work of the black female mathematicians that made it happen at NASA before the release of "Hidden Figures" in 2016. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe led the cast of this acclaimed drama, which earned Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the Academy Awards.

In the Name of the Father (1993)

If Sir Daniel Day-Lewis appears in a biopic, look out, because it’s sure to be a strong performance that will almost certainly lead to some Oscar attention. (If you didn’t know that already, you’ll be convinced by the end of this slideshow.) In 1993’s “In the Name of the Father,” Day-Lewis plays Gerry Conlon, an Irishman who, along with three others, was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for an IRA bombing that killed five people and wounded 65 others in 1975. Although the Jim Sheridan-directed film didn’t win any Academy Awards, “In the Name of the Father” had seven nominations.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Behind the starpower of Peter O’Toole, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, and Sir Alec Guinness, “Lawrence of Arabia” earned seven Oscars while bringing the life and times of British military officer and diplomat T.E. Lawrence to the big screen. Often referred to as one of the greatest films of all time, the David Lean-directed biopic chronicled Lawrence’s fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Arab Revolt, which culminated in the 1918 capture of Damascus.

Lincoln (2012)

Remember all that stuff we said about biopics starring Daniel Day-Lewis? In 2012, DDL starred in “Lincoln” (directed by Steven Spielberg), which focused on the 16th President of the United States and the last four months of his life, including his efforts to pass the Thirteenth Amendment and abolish slavery. Day-Lewis’ performance earned him his third Academy Award for Best Actor, the only person to ever achieve the feat.

Malcolm X (1992)

Director Spike Lee and veteran actor Denzel Washington have teamed together on four films, but the best has to be the 1992 biopic “Malcolm X.” Washington stars as the famous human rights activist in the film, which covers everything from Malcolm’s childhood and early life to his assassination and legacy. Largely based on Alex Haley's 1965 book “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” the movie’s script was penned by Lee and screenwriter Arnold Perl, but included the assistance of Haley himself. This, on top of a Oscar-nominated performance by Washington, made the film accurate, educational, and engrossing.

Milk (2008)

Coincidentally, “Milk” is the third film in a row in this slideshow that deals with someone who was assassinated while fighting for equality. In this 2008 Gus Van Sant film, Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, the former San Francisco Board of Supervisors member who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. He and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor, in 1978. Penn won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Milk, and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black earned one for Best Original Screenplay.

My Left Foot (1989)

The last Daniel Day-Lewis film in this slideshow, “My Left Foot” was also the actor’s first of three Academy Awards for Best Actor. Although somewhat fictionalized, the 1989 biopic is based on the life of Christy Brown, an Irishman who suffered from cerebral palsy but taught himself how to write, type, and paint using only the toes of his left foot. In fact, “My Left Foot” is based on Brown’s 1954 autobiography of the same name.

Patton (1970)

1970 film “Patton” brought General George S. Patton’s role in World War II to the big screen, and the Franklin J. Schaffner film ended up winning seven Academy Awards, including a Best Actor honor for the biopic’s star, George C. Scott. Scott, however, famously refused to accept the award, citing his disdain for the voting process and the competition among actors in general. He was the first actor ever to do so.

Raging Bull (1980)

Jake LaMotta was a World Middleweight Champion boxer who amassed a 83-19-4 record thanks to a notoriously vicious fighting style. LaMotta had a turbulent life both in and out of the ring, as chronicled in his 1970 memoir, “Raging Bull: My Story.” When it was turned into a movie, Martin Scorsese was at the helm with Robert De Niro playing LaMotta and Joe Pesci playing Joey, Jake’s brother/manager. As you surely already know, the Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci formula almost always leads to Oscar gold, and “Raging Bull” took home two honors (out of eight total nominations) at the 53rd Academy Awards.

Jamie Foxx absolutely shined in his role as legendary musician Ray Charles in the 2004 film “Ray,” winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award in the best actor categories. However, the victories were bittersweet. Ray Charles personally participated in the production of the film, but sadly passed away from liver disease just months before it was set to premiere, and thus never saw the finished product. We think he would have been overjoyed by the end result, as “Ray” is often considered one of the best biopics ever made.

Rocketman (2019)

Taron Egerton absolutely shined as Elton John in the 2019 biopic "Rocketman," crocodile rocking his way to a Golden Globe win for Best Actor. The Elton John and Bernie Taupin picked up Golden Globes for Best Song, with the film itself earning a best picture nod. Elton & Bernie also won the same award at the Oscars, too!

Schindler’s List (1993)

The Holocaust was filled with an unfathomable amount of pain, death, and heartbreak - but there were some beacons of light that shined through the darkness. One such story was that of Oskar Schindler, who personally saved the lives of more than a thousand Jews in Poland. His story was brought to big screen as the 1993 film “Schindler’s List,” which starred Liam Neeson , Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, and Caroline Goodall, and was directed by Steven Spielberg. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay (the script was based on Thomas Keneally’s 1982 novel “Schindler’s Ark”).

Serpico (1973)

Putting both his career and life on the line, officer Frank Serpico bravely blew the whistle on corruption within the New York Police Department in the 1960s and 1970s. Although he received a bullet to the face mostly thanks to a few fellow officers who controversially refused to back him up during a drug sting, Serpico was eventually seen as a hero, was awarded an NYPD Medal of Honor, and had a movie starring Al Pacino made about his life. Based on a biography written by Peter Maas, 1973’s “Serpico” was directed by Sidney Lumet and earned two Oscar nods, as well as a Best Actor Golden Globe for Pacino.

Spartacus (1960)

Starring veteran actors Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Ustinov, Stanley Kubrick’s epic 1960 biopic “Spartacus” was, at one time, the most successful film in Universal Studios history. Written by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, “Spartacus” won four Academy Awards and was so popular that President John F. Kennedy crossed American Legion picket lines to view the film.

The Aviator (2004)

The 2004 Howard Hughes biopic “The Aviator” has a whole lot going for it. The film features an all-star cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale , Jude Law, Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin , Willem Dafoe, and John C. Reilly) and had Martin Scorsese in the director’s chair, and it earned a startling 11 Academy Award nominations. “The Aviator” won five of these, but Cate Blanchett was the only one to earn a major prize. Still, this epic drama is often referred as a biographical masterpiece.

The King’s Speech (2010)

“The King’s Speech” only deals with a very brief portion of the life of King George VI, but the snappy script, a fantastic performance by Colin Firth (not to mention those of Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, and Guy Pearce), and the direction of Tom Hooper earned the 2010 film a dozen Oscar nominations, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.

The Last Emperor (1987)

“The Last Emperor” holds quite an impressive distinction. Not only was the 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci film nominated for nine Oscars at the 60th Academy Awards, but it won every single one. It also holds a 92-percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88-percent audience score, meaning the film - a biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China - is almost universally loved by all.

The Pianist (1992)

Based on an autobiographical book of the same name by Jewish composer Władysław Szpilman, “The Pianist” focuses on Szpilman’s life during World War II, when he was forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto, narrowly avoided a concentration camp, became separated from his family (who were all later killed), and spent the remainder of the war in the bombed-out city of Warsaw struggling to survive. In addition to being awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, “The Pianist” also won three Oscars for Best Director (Roman Polanski), Best Actor ( Adrien Brody ), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood). 

Matt Sulem has been writing and editing professionally for more than a decade. He has worked for BubbleBlabber, The Sportster, and The Daily Meal, among other publications, but has called Yardbarker home since 2006. Matt’s writing combines a love for nostalgia with a passion for promulgating interesting, informative, and lesser-known facts about pop culture. And he’s always down to share a solid slow cooker, air fryer, or dessert recipe. Matt currently lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife and young son. 

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25 Best Bollywood Biopic Films of all time

1. Sardar Udham

2. The Legend of Bhagat Singh

3. Paan Singh Tomar

4. 12th Fail

5. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

6. Shershaah

7. Manjhi: The Mountain Man

10. Gangubai Kathiawadi

11. Sam Bahadur

12. M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

13. Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior

14. Bandit Queen

15. Super 30

16. Kaun Pravin Tambe?

17. Sarbjit

19. Pad Man

20. Mary Kom

21. The Dirty Picture

24. Mangal Pandey

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• Key Differences

Know the Differences & Comparisons

Difference between Biography and Autobiography

Both of these two presents the view of, what happened in the past where the author lived. These are non-fiction books, written in chronological order, tells a story about the person who made a significant contribution in a specific field. Many think that the two writing forms are one and the same thing, but there are noticeable difference between the two, that are presented in the given article.

Content: Biography Vs Autobiography

Comparison chart.

Definition of Biography

A biography also referred as ‘bio’ is a detailed account of a person’s life written or produced by another person. It gives an elaborate information regarding the birthplace, educational background, work, relationships and demise of the person concerned. It presents the subject’s intimate details about life, focusing on the highs and lows and analysing their whole personality.

A biography is usually in the written form but can also be made in other forms of a music composition or literature to film interpretation.

It is the recreation of the life of an individual composed of words by another person. The author collects every single detail about the subject and presents those facts in the biography, which are relevant and interesting, to engross the readers in the story.

Definition of Autobiography

An autobiography is the life sketch of a person written by that person himself or herself. The word auto means ‘self.’ Therefore, autobiography contains all the elements of a biography but composed or narrated by the author himself. He/She may write on their own or may hire ghostwriters to write for them.

An autobiography presents the narrator’s character sketch, the place where he is born and brought up, his education, work, life experiences, challenges, and achievements. This may include events and stories of his childhood, teenage, and adulthood.

Key Differences Between Biography and Autobiography

The difference between biography and autobiography are discussed in detail in the following points:

• Biography is a detailed account of a person’s life written by someone else, while an autobiography is written by the subject themselves.
• Biography can be written with (authorised) or without permission (unauthorised) from the person/heir’s concerned. Therefore, there are chances of factual mistakes in the information. On the other hand, autobiographies are self-written and therefore doesn’t require any authorization.
• Biographies contain information that is collected over a period of time from different sources and thus, it projects a different outlook to the readers. On the other hand, autobiographies are written by the subject themselves, therefore, the writer presents the facts and his thinking in his own way, thus providing an overall narrow and biased perspective to the readers.
• In an Autobiography, the author uses the first narrative like I, me, we, he, she, etc. This, in turn, makes an intimate connection between the author and the reader since the reader experience various aspects as if he/she is in that time period. As opposed a biography is from a third person’s view and is much less intimate.
• The purpose of writing a biography is to introduce and inform the readers about the person and his life whereas an autobiography is written in order to express, the life experiences and achievements of the narrator.

Video: Biography Vs Autobiography

There are several autobiographies which are worth mentioning like ‘The Story of My Life’ by Helen Keller, ‘An Autobiography’ by Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank, ‘Memoirs of the Second World War’ by Winston Churchill, ‘Wings of Fire’ by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and much more.

Examples of some famous biographies are- Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlett, His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis, Einstein: The Life and Times by Ronald William Clark, Biography of Walt Disney: The Inspirational Life Story of Walt Disney – The Man Behind “Disneyland” by Steve Walters, Princess Diana- A Biography Of The Princess Of Wales by Drew L. Crichton.

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Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21

The 30 best biographies of all time.

Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”

At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction .

All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels , if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great biographies out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized biography recommendation  😉

Which biography should you read next?

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1. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

This biography of esteemed mathematician John Nash was both a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize and the basis for the award-winning film of the same name. Nasar thoroughly explores Nash’s prestigious career, from his beginnings at MIT to his work at the RAND Corporation — as well the internal battle he waged against schizophrenia, a disorder that nearly derailed his life.

2. Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film The Imitation Game - Updated Edition by Andrew Hodges

Hodges’ 1983 biography of Alan Turing sheds light on the inner workings of this brilliant mathematician, cryptologist, and computer pioneer. Indeed, despite the title ( a nod to his work during WWII ), a great deal of the “enigmatic” Turing is laid out in this book. It covers his heroic code-breaking efforts during the war, his computer designs and contributions to mathematical biology in the years following, and of course, the vicious persecution that befell him in the 1950s — when homosexual acts were still a crime punishable by English law.

3. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton is not only the inspiration for a hit Broadway musical, but also a work of creative genius itself. This massive undertaking of over 800 pages details every knowable moment of the youngest Founding Father’s life: from his role in the Revolutionary War and early American government to his sordid (and ultimately career-destroying) affair with Maria Reynolds. He may never have been president, but he was a fascinating and unique figure in American history — plus it’s fun to get the truth behind the songs.

Prefer to read about fascinating First Ladies rather than almost-presidents? Check out this awesome list of books about First Ladies over on The Archive.

4. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

A prolific essayist, short story writer, and novelist, Hurston turned her hand to biographical writing in 1927 with this incredible work, kept under lock and key until it was published 2018. It’s based on Hurston’s interviews with the last remaining survivor of the Middle Passage slave trade, a man named Cudjo Lewis. Rendered in searing detail and Lewis’ highly affecting African-American vernacular, this biography of the “last black cargo” will transport you back in time to an era that, chillingly, is not nearly as far away from us as it feels.

5. Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert

Though many a biography of him has been attempted, Gilbert’s is the final authority on Winston Churchill — considered by many to be Britain’s greatest prime minister ever. A dexterous balance of in-depth research and intimately drawn details makes this biography a perfect tribute to the mercurial man who led Britain through World War II.

Just what those circumstances are occupies much of Bodanis's book, which pays homage to Einstein and, just as important, to predecessors such as Maxwell, Faraday, and Lavoisier, who are not as well known as Einstein today. Balancing writerly energy and scholarly weight, Bodanis offers a primer in modern physics and cosmology, explaining that the universe today is an expression of mass that will, in some vastly distant future, one day slide back to the energy side of the equation, replacing the \'dominion of matter\' with \'a great stillness\'--a vision that is at once lovely and profoundly frightening.

Without sliding into easy psychobiography, Bodanis explores other circumstances as well; namely, Einstein's background and character, which combined with a sterling intelligence to afford him an idiosyncratic view of the way things work--a view that would change the world. --Gregory McNamee

6. E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis

This “biography of the world’s most famous equation” is a one-of-a-kind take on the genre: rather than being the story of Einstein, it really does follow the history of the equation itself. From the origins and development of its individual elements (energy, mass, and light) to their ramifications in the twentieth century, Bodanis turns what could be an extremely dry subject into engaging fare for readers of all stripes.

7. Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

When Enrique was only five years old, his mother left Honduras for the United States, promising a quick return. Eleven years later, Enrique finally decided to take matters into his own hands in order to see her again: he would traverse Central and South America via railway, risking his life atop the “train of death” and at the hands of the immigration authorities, to reunite with his mother. This tale of Enrique’s perilous journey is not for the faint of heart, but it is an account of incredible devotion and sharp commentary on the pain of separation among immigrant families.

8. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

Herrera’s 1983 biography of renowned painter Frida Kahlo, one of the most recognizable names in modern art, has since become the definitive account on her life. And while Kahlo no doubt endured a great deal of suffering (a horrific accident when she was eighteen, a husband who had constant affairs), the focal point of the book is not her pain. Instead, it’s her artistic brilliance and immense resolve to leave her mark on the world — a mark that will not soon be forgotten, in part thanks to Herrera’s dedicated work.

9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Perhaps the most impressive biographical feat of the twenty-first century, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about a woman whose cells completely changed the trajectory of modern medicine. Rebecca Skloot skillfully commemorates the previously unknown life of a poor black woman whose cancer cells were taken, without her knowledge, for medical testing — and without whom we wouldn’t have many of the critical cures we depend upon today.

10. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, hitchhiked to Alaska and disappeared into the Denali wilderness in April 1992. Five months later, McCandless was found emaciated and deceased in his shelter — but of what cause? Krakauer’s biography of McCandless retraces his steps back to the beginning of the trek, attempting to suss out what the young man was looking for on his journey, and whether he fully understood what dangers lay before him.

11. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families by James Agee

"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.” From this line derives the central issue of Agee and Evans’ work: who truly deserves our praise and recognition? According to this 1941 biography, it’s the barely-surviving sharecropper families who were severely impacted by the American “Dust Bowl” — hundreds of people entrenched in poverty, whose humanity Evans and Agee desperately implore their audience to see in their book.

12. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Another mysterious explorer takes center stage in this gripping 2009 biography. Grann tells the story of Percy Fawcett, the archaeologist who vanished in the Amazon along with his son in 1925, supposedly in search of an ancient lost city. Parallel to this narrative, Grann describes his own travels in the Amazon 80 years later: discovering firsthand what threats Fawcett may have encountered, and coming to realize what the “Lost City of Z” really was.

13. Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang

Though many of us will be familiar with the name Mao Zedong, this prodigious biography sheds unprecedented light upon the power-hungry “Red Emperor.” Chang and Halliday begin with the shocking statistic that Mao was responsible for 70 million deaths during peacetime — more than any other twentieth-century world leader. From there, they unravel Mao’s complex ideologies, motivations, and missions, breaking down his long-propagated “hero” persona and thrusting forth a new, grislier image of one of China’s biggest revolutionaries.

14. Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted by Andrew Wilson by Andrew Wilson

Titled after one of her most evocative poems, this shimmering bio of Sylvia Plath takes an unusual approach. Instead of focusing on her years of depression and tempestuous marriage to poet Ted Hughes, it chronicles her life before she ever came to Cambridge. Wilson closely examines her early family and relationships, feelings and experiences, with information taken from her meticulous diaries — setting a strong precedent for other Plath biographers to follow.

15. The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

What if you had twenty-four different people living inside you, and you never knew which one was going to come out? Such was the life of Billy Milligan, the subject of this haunting biography by the author of Flowers for Algernon . Keyes recounts, in a refreshingly straightforward style, the events of Billy’s life and how his psyche came to be “split”... as well as how, with Keyes’ help, he attempted to put the fragments of himself back together.

16. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

This gorgeously constructed biography follows Paul Farmer, a doctor who’s worked for decades to eradicate infectious diseases around the globe, particularly in underprivileged areas. Though Farmer’s humanitarian accomplishments are extraordinary in and of themselves, the true charm of this book comes from Kidder’s personal relationship with him — and the sense of fulfillment the reader sustains from reading about someone genuinely heroic, written by someone else who truly understands and admires what they do.

17. Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Here’s another bio that will reshape your views of a famed historical tyrant, though this time in a surprisingly favorable light. Decorated scholar Andrew Roberts delves into the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his near-flawless military instincts to his complex and confusing relationship with his wife. But Roberts’ attitude toward his subject is what really makes this work shine: rather than ridiculing him ( as it would undoubtedly be easy to do ), he approaches the “petty tyrant” with a healthy amount of deference.

18. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson IV by Robert A. Caro

Lyndon Johnson might not seem as intriguing or scandalous as figures like Kennedy, Nixon, or W. Bush. But in this expertly woven biography, Robert Caro lays out the long, winding road of his political career, and it’s full of twists you wouldn’t expect. Johnson himself was a surprisingly cunning figure, gradually maneuvering his way closer and closer to power. Finally, in 1963, he got his greatest wish — but at what cost? Fans of Adam McKay’s Vice , this is the book for you.

19. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

Anyone who grew up reading Little House on the Prairie will surely be fascinated by this tell-all biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Caroline Fraser draws upon never-before-published historical resources to create a lush study of the author’s life — not in the gently narrated manner of the Little House series, but in raw and startling truths about her upbringing, marriage, and volatile relationship with her daughter (and alleged ghostwriter) Rose Wilder Lane.

20. Prince: A Private View by Afshin Shahidi

Compiled just after the superstar’s untimely death in 2016, this intimate snapshot of Prince’s life is actually a largely visual work — Shahidi served as his private photographer from the early 2000s until his passing. And whatever they say about pictures being worth a thousand words, Shahidi’s are worth more still: Prince’s incredible vibrance, contagious excitement, and altogether singular personality come through in every shot.

21. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

Could there be a more fitting title for a book about the husband-wife team who discovered radioactivity? What you may not know is that these nuclear pioneers also had a fascinating personal history. Marie Sklodowska met Pierre Curie when she came to work in his lab in 1891, and just a few years later they were married. Their passion for each other bled into their passion for their work, and vice-versa — and in almost no time at all, they were on their way to their first of their Nobel Prizes.

22. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

She may not have been assassinated or killed in a mysterious plane crash, but Rosemary Kennedy’s fate is in many ways the worst of “the Kennedy Curse.” As if a botched lobotomy that left her almost completely incapacitated weren’t enough, her parents then hid her away from society, almost never to be seen again. Yet in this new biography, penned by devoted Kennedy scholar Kate Larson, the full truth of Rosemary’s post-lobotomy life is at last revealed.

23. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

This appropriately lyrical biography of brilliant Jazz Age poet and renowned feminist, Edna St. Vincent Millay, is indeed a perfect balance of savage and beautiful. While Millay’s poetic work was delicate and subtle, the woman herself was feisty and unpredictable, harboring unusual and occasionally destructive habits that Milford fervently explores.

24. Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes

Holmes’ famous philosophy of “biography as pursuit” is thoroughly proven here in his first full-length biographical work. Shelley: The Pursuit details an almost feverish tracking of Percy Shelley as a dark and cutting figure in the Romantic period — reforming many previous historical conceptions about him through Holmes’ compelling and resolute writing.

25. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

Another Gothic figure has been made newly known through this work, detailing the life of prolific horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson. Author Ruth Franklin digs deep into the existence of the reclusive and mysterious Jackson, drawing penetrating comparisons between the true events of her life and the dark nature of her fiction.

26. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

Fans of Into the Wild and The Lost City of Z will find their next adventure fix in this 2017 book about Christopher Knight, a man who lived by himself in the Maine woods for almost thirty years. The tale of this so-called “last true hermit” will captivate readers who have always fantasized about escaping society, with vivid descriptions of Knight’s rural setup, his carefully calculated moves and how he managed to survive the deadly cold of the Maine winters.

27. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

The man, the myth, the legend: Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, is properly immortalized in Isaacson’s masterful biography. It divulges the details of Jobs’ little-known childhood and tracks his fateful path from garage engineer to leader of one of the largest tech companies in the world — not to mention his formative role in other legendary companies like Pixar, and indeed within the Silicon Valley ecosystem as a whole.

28. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Olympic runner Louis Zamperini was just twenty-six when his US Army bomber crashed and burned in the Pacific, leaving him and two other men afloat on a raft for forty-seven days — only to be captured by the Japanese Navy and tortured as a POW for the next two and a half years. In this gripping biography, Laura Hillenbrand tracks Zamperini’s story from beginning to end… including how he embraced Christian evangelism as a means of recovery, and even came to forgive his tormentors in his later years.

29. Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) by Stacy Schiff

Everyone knows of Vladimir Nabokov — but what about his wife, Vera, whom he called “the best-humored woman I have ever known”? According to Schiff, she was a genius in her own right, supporting Vladimir not only as his partner, but also as his all-around editor and translator. And she kept up that trademark humor throughout it all, inspiring her husband’s work and injecting some of her own creative flair into it along the way.

30. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

William Shakespeare is a notoriously slippery historical figure — no one really knows when he was born, what he looked like, or how many plays he wrote. But that didn’t stop Stephen Greenblatt, who in 2004 turned out this magnificently detailed biography of the Bard: a series of imaginative reenactments of his writing process, and insights on how the social and political ideals of the time would have influenced him. Indeed, no one exists in a vacuum, not even Shakespeare — hence the conscious depiction of him in this book as a “will in the world,” rather than an isolated writer shut up in his own musty study.

If you're looking for more inspiring nonfiction, check out this list of 30 engaging self-help books , or this list of the last century's best memoirs !

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Every Biopic That Won Best Picture at the Oscars, Ranked

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Love them or hate them - or take a third option and fall somewhere in between - you can't deny that movies based on real-life people tend to do well come Oscar season. There's something about seeing actors recreating historical events and portraying figures from history that scratches an itch for many, viewers and voters alike. It's common to see actors nominated or winning for accurately portraying a real person on screen, and sometimes the films themselves also win big on Oscar night.

There are 21 Best Picture winners that can be classified as biopics, with the term used fairly loosely here to include any movie where at least the main character was a real person . As such, this disqualifies movies like Ben-Hur and Gladiator , which had fictional main characters but some others based on real-life figures, though films like Shakespeare in Love and Amadeus - which play around with history a decent amount but have protagonists who were real people - qualify. All these biographical movies are ranked below, starting with the middle of the road and ending with the great.

21 'The Great Ziegfeld' (1936)

Director: robert z. leonard.

Flo Ziegfeld might’ve been someone who did great things, but the film about his life, The Great Ziegfeld , is pretty far from greatness, even by the standards of the 1930s . It makes a decent enough choice to depict the life of a Broadway producer through the format of a movie musical , which can lead to some occasionally impressive instances of spectacle, but not enough to salvage the film as a whole.

The biggest problem with The Great Ziegfeld is that it’s far too long, running for approximately three hours, and inadvertently making you feel every single minute. On paper, a larger-than-life figure arguably deserves a rather grand runtime for their story to be told, but this is a tedious watch and a low point for Best Picture-winning biopics , even when taking into consideration its age.

Rent on Apple TV

20 'Green Book' (2018)

Director: peter farrelly.

There’s already a certain amount of infamy around Green Book , and it’s sort of joined the likes of 2005’s Crash as a somewhat awkward Best Picture winner that probably didn’t deserve that level of acclaim. That being said, this 2018 release is at least a little better than Crash , and there’s some likability and humor to be found here in its true story about two people of different backgrounds striking up an unlikely friendship in the 1960s.

Viggo Mortensen plays a bouncer/driver who’s tasked with driving Mahershala Ali’s character, who’s an African-American pianist trying to navigate the segregated and sometimes dangerous Deep South. Green Book handles themes around prejudice and race in a sometimes clumsy and potentially inauthentic way , but its better moments do make it watchable in parts, albeit ultimately a little forgettable.

Watch on DirecTV

19 'Shakespeare in Love' (1998)

Director: john madden.

Like the aforementioned Green Book and Crash , Shakespeare in Love is another example of a contested Best Picture winner , though when one approaches it on its own merits, it’s still a decent film. There may have been some level of over-excitement to its reception, but it delivers a breezy romantic comedy set hundreds of years ago, centering on William Shakespeare’s love life as he writes a play that eventually becomes Romeo and Juliet .

It's not a film too concerned with historical accuracy, and not all the characters within are directly representative of real people , though obviously Shakespeare was, even while elements of the story are more speculation than anything else. In contrast, Saving Private Ryan , which had been the favorite to win Best Picture that year, was historically accurate during some sequences (notably the harrowing D-Day opening), though most of the main characters in that film were fictional. Then in Shakespeare in Love , some characters were real people, but they get up to fictional/speculative things.

Shakespeare in Love

Watch on Max

18 'The King's Speech' (2010)

Director: tom hooper.

The King’s Speech tells a fairly interesting historical story in a competent way, though the more daring and interesting biographical Best Picture nominee of that year was The Social Network (it’s aged better since, too). Still, what you get here is decent and inoffensive stuff, with the narrative revolving around King George VI overcoming a speech impediment as the UK braces itself for the start of World War II .

It does everything a crowd-pleasing historical film needs to, accurately capturing a time and place, setting up some easy-to-understand stakes, and then showing how the protagonist eventually overcomes what once seemed like an insurmountable obstacle. The King's Speech is not the kind of Best Picture winner that’s going to stick with everyone, by any means, but there are far worse ways to spend 118 minutes .

The King's Speech

17 'the life of emile zola' (1937), director: william dieterle.

Coming out one year after the aforementioned The Great Ziegfeld , The Life of Emile Zola represents at least something of a step in the right direction for biographical awards contenders. It makes very plain from the title that this one’s going to be a straightforward story about the titular figure’s life, and presents just that over a runtime that’s mercifully a good hour shorter than the prior biopic that won Best Picture.

Emile Zola was a French writer who was an influential figure in the 1800s, and one whose line of work saw him crossing over into the political world as his life went on. The Life of Emile Zola is not particularly well-known by Best Picture winner standards , but when watched today it’s certainly not bad, and its influence on the biopic/life story genre within cinema can certainly be observed .

16 'Chariots of Fire' (1981)

Director: hugh hudson.

While it might not be the most popular sports movie of all time , Chariots of Fire is up there as a somewhat iconic one, perhaps mostly due to its memorable score from Vangelis and the theme that perfectly accompanies the slow-motion running. There is a whole movie beyond that, however, with the story overall recounting the lives of two runners as they train to be Olympic athletes in the 1920s .

Those two main characters were real people, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams , and so beyond being a historical drama, Chariots of Fire does also manage to function as a biographical film about the lives of two young/ambitious men. It doesn’t rewrite what a sports movie is capable of, by any means, but it is a well-made and rewarding watch, particularly for film fans who also find the (some would say underrated) sport of running interesting.

Chariots of Fire

15 'mutiny on the bounty' (1935), director: frank lloyd.

There have been a fair few movies called Mutiny on the Bounty released over the decades, but the best of them is arguably the one that won Best Picture: the 1935 version starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable . It’s a compelling blend of historical drama and adventure film , and given it centers on a real-life event and follows people who actually existed, it can arguably qualify as a biographical film.

As depicted in Mutiny on the Bounty , Fletcher Christian did indeed lead a revolt against the contentious William Bligh , with the film detailing how this came to happen and what the consequences were. It’s an old-fashioned film, sure – and an admittedly old one, coming out almost 90 years ago – but those who like classic, grand-scale films from this era will surely find things to like about Mutiny on the Bounty .

Mutiny on the Bounty

Watch on Tubi

14 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001)

Director: ron howard.

Russell Crowe has the distinction of starring in two Best Picture winners back to back: first with 2000’s action-packed Gladiator , and then the following year with A Beautiful Mind . The latter is far removed from the former, though, despite both taking home Best Picture, seeing as A Beautiful Mind centers on a mathematician named John Nash as he grapples with having schizophrenia.

You could label it Oscar bait, as it does hit all the notes it needs to with perhaps more intensity than it has to, but it still mostly works and delivers compelling drama while telling an engaging life story. At the end of the day, A Beautiful Mind might not be amazing, but neither is it anywhere close to bad , and it’s good by the standards of a very traditional crowd-pleaser.

13 'Spotlight' (2015)

Director: tom mccarthy.

The story told at the center of Spotlight is an important and unsettling one , and the acting is commendable all-around, even if you’d be hard-pressed to call the filmmaking on offer flashy. Perhaps that approach is deliberate, though, considering the film wants to be a no-nonsense look at how a team of journalists worked together to expose corruption and systemic abuse within the Catholic Church, despite the professional risks that came with doing so.

Spotlight feels like a modern take on something like All the President’s Men , taking a true story, centering it around journalists, and upping things a little stakes-wise to make the film overall perhaps more thrilling than reality. And, as the key characters here are based on the real-life people who worked on this monumental expose, it’s also possible to call Spotlight something of a biopic.

Watch on Starz

12 'The Sound of Music' (1965)

Director: robert wise.

It might be somewhat surprising for some to learn that there’s a degree of historical truth to the story at the center of The Sound of Music . Sure, in real life, things probably weren’t as dramatic as they are in the film, and it’s unlikely anyone would’ve broken out in song outside the context of giving a performance, but the characters at the film’s core were all real people.

It’s an interesting blend of old-fashioned musical numbers and a real-life historical narrative, following a young woman becoming governess for a widowed man and his seven children, inspiring the latter and eventually becoming romantically involved with the former. Those who don’t love old-school musicals should probably tread cautiously, and there is a sense that The Sound of Music is also a tiny bit long, but it’s otherwise easy to understand why it’s achieved classic status .

The Sound of Music

Watch on Disney+

11 'Out of Africa' (1985)

Director: sydney pollack.

A film worth watching for the sheer fact that it pairs an actress as iconic as Meryl Streep with an actor as iconic as Robert Redford , Out of Africa mostly delivers when it comes to being a large-scale, sweeping romantic epic. The story is based on the life of Karen Blixen , particularly focusing on how she went to live in Africa during the early 20th century and fell in love with a hunter named Denys Finch Hatton .

It's not always accurate, like many historical/biographical films, and those who read Blixen’s autobiography might be surprised at some of the deviations and omissions within Out of Africa . But, if one takes the film on its own merits and judges it as its own thing, it delivers on being an old-fashioned romance film with an interesting historical setting and simple yet moving central story.

Out of Africa (1985)

10 'argo' (2012), director: ben affleck.

Argo has one of those true stories that feels hard to believe, making it easily one of the most thrilling biopics/historical dramas to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards . It revolves around an ambitious CIA plan to rescue hostages during the Iran hostage crisis (which occurred between 1979 and 1981), principally by pretending to be a film crew shooting a sci-fi movie near where the hostages were being held.

If you want to research the parts of Argo that occurred differently in real life from how they occurred in the movie, you could be reading for a while, so perhaps it’s better just to let a few things slide. It captures what happened well enough, condensing it enough and shifting some things around to stay entertaining, and perhaps at the end of the day, that’s what’s most important, seeing as Argo is supremely engaging.

9 'The Last Emperor' (1987)

Director: bernardo bertolucci.

The one genre Academy Award voters seem to love just as much as the biopic genre is the humble (or, more often than not, not-so-humble) epic. As such, it’s easy to see why The Last Emperor had appeal for those behind the Oscars, giving it runs for 163 minutes, spans multiple decades , and tells one historical figure’s dramatic life story. Admittedly, the fact it’s also extremely well-made helped its success, too.

The titular last emperor is a man named Pu Yi , with The Last Emperor following how he became ruler of China as a young boy before political/social upheaval changed everything, and put his life on an entirely different and far more tumultuous course. The Last Emperor skillfully covers a great deal of time, always moving forward and telling its story in a way that remains interesting throughout the rather lengthy runtime .

8 'Gandhi' (1982)

Director: richard attenborough.

Like The Last Emperor , Gandhi is another 1980s epic that takes place predominantly throughout decades of the 20th century, with the central figure here being lawyer turned anti-colonialist/political ethicist Mahatma Gandhi . It’s a truly ambitious sort of approach to telling a life story , indeed capturing much of its titular figure’s life, covering his formative years and building to his assassination in 1948.

Gandhi is a film that clocks in at over three hours, so sitting down to watch it can be something of a commitment, though thankfully a worthwhile one. It’s comprehensive and fittingly epic, and earns its runtime through showing so many years in the life of a man who achieved a great deal during his 78 years on Earth . That it also has a fantastic lead performance from Ben Kingsley as Gandhi helps immensely, too.

7 'A Man for All Seasons' (1966)

Director: fred zinnemann.

A Man for All Seasons is underrated, as far as Best Picture winners go, because though many who’ve seen it have sung its praises, it doesn’t seem to be watched or talked about particularly often nowadays, even compared to other winners from the 1960s . Perhaps it’s because it does sound a little dry on paper, with the premise involving a political/religious dispute between King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More , his Lord Chancellor.

Anyone not interested in royal or political stories might be starting to doze off already, but A Man for All Seasons proves surprisingly gripping thanks largely to how well it’s written, and how fantastically acted it is , with Paul Scofield as More being the standout. It takes a real-life event involving actual people from the 1500s and makes everything surprisingly snappy and interesting, ensuring this feels like a fairly overlooked Best Picture winner.

6 'Braveheart' (1995)

Director: mel gibson.

Delivering brutal and gripping action scenes while also telling an explosive and emotional historical story, Braveheart is a winning blockbuster overall that proved popular with both audiences and Oscar voters alike. Its central figure is William Wallace , a Scottish warrior who swears revenge on English soldiers for murdering his wife, and then eventually ends up leading an army during a wide-scale rebellion against English rule in Scotland.

To repeat a phrase that might sound familiar by now , there are dramatic liberties taken within Braveheart for the sake of making the story… well, dramatic, but people are unlikely to argue that the film lacks entertainment value or a sense of true emotional weight. Braveheart does exactly what a historical action film needs to do, and that it is loosely based on real events is really just icing on the cake; nothing more, and nothing less.

Watch on Paramount+

5 'Patton' (1970)

Director: franklin j. schaffner.

By the end of Patton , you might well believe that George C. Scott is somehow the reincarnation of General George S. Patton , or that he was somehow channeling the very essence of the man while playing him on screen. For nearly three hours, Scott absolutely demands your attention , chewing scenery but never to the point of things becoming ridiculous , all the while successfully capturing a larger-than-life historical figure through a larger-than-life performance.

Patton is a comprehensive look at the titular figure’s exploits during the Second World War, and how his aggressive style of leadership got him success on the battlefield and in hot water with some individuals in the U.S. Army. It’s a long sit, but a worthwhile one to be sure, and deserved Best Picture for the scale of its war sequences and Scott’s all-time great lead performance.

4 '12 Years a Slave' (2013)

Director: steve mcqueen.

Another Best Picture winner that tells a difficult but essential story , 12 Years a Slave is based on the life of Solomon Northup , and adapted from Northup’s memoir of the same name. He was a man who, during the early 1840s, ended up being kidnapped and sold into slavery, forced to work on a brutal plantation for more than a decade before surviving, being rescued, and living to tell – and write down – the tale.

There are no punches pulled when it comes to depicting the brutal conditions slaves were forced to live and work under in 12 Years a Slave , and it’s undeniably difficult to watch much of the film, becoming even more troubling because it’s a true story. Still, it’s exceptionally well-acted and crafted overall, and even if it’s not an easy watch, it is the kind of film most should dedicate at least one viewing to during their lives.

12 Years a Slave

Watch on Hulu

3 'Amadeus' (1984)

Director: miloš forman.

It’s not always easy to call a movie perfect , or even near-perfect, but Amadeus is one of those rare movies that comes dangerously close to achieving perfection. It’s an ambitious film that looks at the supposed rivalry between two composers: one the immature, young, genius, and better-remembered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , and the other older, bitter, jealous, and less well-known, Antonio Salieri .

For as brilliant as it can be, it’s hard to call Amadeus a biopic in the traditional sense, given there’s some speculation involved, given both composers lived during the 1700s, and because the two subjects are placed further at odds for dramatic effect. But when the drama’s this compelling, and the exploration surrounding themes of madness, obsession, and creativity are so thorough , it can be hard to complain too much about some historical liberties (especially given the whole film is framed as an elderly Salieri remembering and recounting things that happened decades earlier).

2 'Schindler’s List' (1993)

Director: steven spielberg.

Steven Spielberg has no shortage of historical movies within his filmography, but of them all, it’s quite plain to see that Schindler’s List stands tall as the best of the lot. It’s one of the greatest war movies ever made , spanning three hours and providing insight into the life of Oskar Schindler , and how he used his fortune amassed as a successful industrialist to save more than 1000 Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

Schindler’s List explores one of the most horrific historical events of all time in stark and unflinching detail, though ultimately finds some hope by the end of it all through centering on the victory Schindler was able to achieve. It was no easy task to both tell an uncompromising story accurately and find some way to highlight a small amount of good within the horror, but Spielberg pulls it off with Schindler’s List , and it’s overall a film that lives up to its remarkable reputation.

Schindler's List (1995)

That Super-Controversial Trump Biopic Finally Has A Release Date: Report

General Assignment Reporter, HuffPost

The Donald Trump biopic that prompted the former president to threaten legal action has a planned Oct. 11 release date, according to The Hollywood Reporter .

The show biz trade outlet reported Friday that Briarcliff Entertainment is distributing “The Apprentice,” and will enter the film in festivals before its theatrical premiere — just weeks before Election Day, when Republican nominee Trump seeks to regain the White House against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris .

“Soooo excited to show the movie to its home audience!!!” director Ali Abbasi gushed on X on Friday. “America here we come.”

“The Apprentice” paints an unflattering portrait of the real estate mogul-turned-president as he rises to power. The plot follows a young, impressionable Trump, played by Sebastian Stan, learning from right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) about the ruthlessness of Big Apple politics.

The film received an eight-minute ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and caught the attention of its subject as salacious details about its contents emerged.

One scene depicts Trump raping his wife, Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova), after she insults his appearance. The alleged incident was based on her 1990 divorce deposition, in which she accused her former husband of rape, but she said later she didn’t mean that charge literally.

“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said amid the Cannes premiere uproar. He added that Trump would file suit against “false assertions” by “pretend filmmakers.”

Abassi apparently wasn’t frightened by the threat. He said at a Cannes press conference : “I mean, everybody talks about him suing a lot of people. They don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?”

Trump’s team did issue a cease-and-desist letter to threaten potential distributors.

The film also highlights Trump’s vanity, including claims he got liposuction on his love handles and scalp reduction surgery for his bald spot, Inside Edition reported in the segment below:

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website .

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Signature Accomplishments

Governor walz's signature accomplishments.

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan took office in January 2019 on the promise of One Minnesota: the vision that, while we are not all the same, we are at our best when we work across lines of difference to improve the lives of all Minnesotans. Facing unprecedented challenges, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan led with a focus on investing in the things that matter most: children and families, economic opportunity, health and safety, and strong local communities. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor continue building on the accomplishments of their first term to improve the lives of Minnesotans across the state. 

Historic investments in education

Governor Walz signed a $2.3 billion education budget into law – the single-largest investment in public education in state history. Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan also provided Minnesota students free breakfast and lunch at school, created thousands of new pre-k seats, expanded access to mental health resources for students, and made significant investments to improve child literacy.

Protecting Personal Freedoms

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan established ironclad reproductive freedom, protections for Trans individuals, and gender-affirming care as fundamental rights in Minnesota. Governor Walz also banned the cruel, outdated practice of “conversion therapy” and ended book bans based on ideology.

Improving Public Health and Safety

Governor Walz banned the use of hand-held cell phones while driving and raised the age to purchase tobacco to 21. The Governor provided $300 million for public safety needs across the state to combat crime and broke ground on a new, centralized Minnesota State Patrol headquarters. Governor Walz took meaningful action to protect communities from gun violence, signing bills establishing a red flag law, expanding background checks, increasing criminal penalties for straw purchasing guns, and banning deadly binary trigger guns.

Expanding Workers’ Rights

To make Minnesota the best state for workers, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan established paid leave, ensured paid sick days, banned non-compete agreements, and increased protections for workers in Amazon warehouses, construction sites, hospitals, nursing homes, and public schools.

Strong Communities and Infrastructure

Governor Walz signed the largest infrastructure bill in Minnesota’s history into law to rebuild roads and bridges, repair fire stations and water treatment plants, and upgrade veterans’ homes, fish hatcheries, and flood mitigation systems – all while creating good-paying union jobs for Minnesotans. Governor Walz also provided funding to remove and replace lead pipes across the state.

Tax Cuts for Working Families and the Middle Class

Governor Walz has cut taxes with every one of his budgets. Governor Walz has delivered a variety of rebate checks up to $1,300 to seniors, students, workers, and middle-class families. He also lowered taxes for small businesses and fully exempted state taxes on social security for more than three quarters of seniors.

Workforce Development

Governor Walz has invested millions in workforce development to connect Minnesotans to high-growth, high-demand career fields like manufacturing, education, and public safety. To lower costs and grow Minnesota’s workforce, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan provided free college for students with a family income under $80,000. They also invested over $1 billion in child care and early learning opportunities.

Expanding Voting Rights

Governor Walz signed into law the largest expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in the last half century, restoring voting rights for over 55,000 formerly incarcerated people in Minnesota, establishing automatic voter registration, creating a permanent absentee voting status, and pre-registering 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. Governor Walz also signed the Minnesota Voting Rights Act into law – prohibiting standards that would deny or limit any citizen’s right to vote based on their race, color, or language.

Lowering Prescription Drug Costs

In 2023, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan took new action to significantly lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors and middle-class families. They also enacted the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act to provide Minnesotans with emergency assistance and hold insulin manufacturers accountable.

Protecting Our Environment

Governor Walz signed a bipartisan bill to lead Minnesota to 100% clean electricity by 2040 all while creating good-paying jobs for Minnesotans. In 2023 alone, he signed over 40 climate initiatives into law – including provisions banning PFAS “forever chemicals,” expanding Minnesota’s electric vehicle infrastructure, and providing a tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. And in 2024, he cut red tape for clean energy projects to put a downpayment on rapid clean energy job growth.

CUTTING CHILD POVERTY

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan established a nation-leading child tax credit to cut child poverty in Minnesota by up to one-third.

INCREASING ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Governor Walz signed a historic $1 billion investment in housing into law – building a foundation for safety, stability, and economic growth across the state. Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan also took new action to protect tenants’ rights.

LEGALIZING ADULT-USE CANNABIS

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan legalized adult-use cannabis and expunged nonviolent cannabis convictions in Minnesota.

PROTECTING MINNESOTA CONSUMERS

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan helped more Minnesotans recover from medical debt – banning medical debt from impacting credit scores, preventing medical providers from withholding medically necessary care due to unpaid debt, and eliminating automatic transfers of medical debt to a patient's spouse. Governor Walz also signed a bill into law banning hidden junk fees and cracking down on fraudulent ticket sales.

PROTECTING SENIORS

To protect Minnesota seniors, Governor Walz signed historic, bipartisan elder abuse legislation to regulate assisted-living centers for the first time. He also allocated $173 million in direct funding for 340 nursing homes across the state.

How Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” Speech Launched His Political Career

Reagan was primarily known as an actor until 1964 when a televised address for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater changed his life.

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Ronald Reagan is now considered one of the best public speakers in U.S. political history. Holding an impressive distinction as the “Great Communicator,” he delivered a number of pivotal speeches in office—most notably his 1987 address telling Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall.

Reagan’s comfort behind a microphone became one of the defining aspects of his presidency, which is examined in the new biopic Reagan in theaters Friday. Starring Dennis Quaid in the titular role and Penelope Ann Miller as his wife, Nancy Reagan , the movie spans Reagan’s life from his childhood in Illinois to his ascension to the White House and his eventual diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.

However, there was a time very few knew of Reagan’s oratory ability or potential within the Republican party. In the early 1960s, he was a political nobody just starting his transition out of Hollywood. That is, until one important address in October 1964 informed Americans of “A Time for Choosing” and changed everything.

Reagan’s movie career had fizzled out by the 1960s

Long before he was U.S president or even governor of California, most Americans knew Reagan from the big screen during his decades-long film career. Starting in 1937, Reagan appeared in more than 50 movies—highlighted by his early performances as George Gipp in the 1940 sports drama Knute Rockne, All American and amputee Drake McHugh in 1942’s Kings Row . Later nominated for the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest movie stars , Reagan was known as an onscreen charmer who had what The Dissolve editor Scott Tobias called “bland, uncomplicated affability.”

But his roles eventually dwindled. Reagan appeared in only two feature-length films from 1957 through 1963, and his last movie, The Killers , became memorable for unfavorable reasons. Reagan played gangster Jack Browning in the 1964 crime drama based on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway . The movie was controversial from the outset; it was originally supposed to air on NBC, but the network felt its subject matter was too violent. Instead, Universal Pictures released the movie theatrically on July 7 of that year.

In one particularly infamous scene, Browning slaps character Sheila Farr, played by Angie Dickinson , hard across the face in a stark contrast from Reagan’s good guy persona. According to Tobias , Reagan reportedly hated his lone villainous role and regretted joining the project.

With his professional life ripe for transition, Reagan had already begun to explore other career opportunities.

He became increasingly involved in politics

According to the Reagan Presidential Library , Reagan had started a side career as a public speaker by this time. He regularly delivered speeches to Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and many other civic groups.

At the same time, Reagan became much more outspoken politically. A longtime Democrat, he felt the party had become too liberal on economic issues. He campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon in 1960 before officially switching parties two years later.

“My views haven’t changed an awful lot since I was a Democrat,” Reagan said in 1966. “I believed then that anything—whether it came from labor, management, or government—that anything imposed unfairly on the individual, the freedom of the individual, was tyranny and should be opposed.”

Seeing an opportunity to help struggling presidential nominee Barry Goldwater who was facing Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 election, California Republicans asked Reagan to use his speaking ability to assist Goldwater with a televised speech. He accepted with one stipulation: that he give the address in front of a live audience, as he had grown accustomed to doing.

Reagan worried he “let down” Goldwater with his speech

Reagan spent weeks tweaking and practicing the speech. It was scheduled to air on October 17, 1964, from an NBC studio as part of a pre-taped TV program called Rendezvous with Destiny .

Employing elements of the speech in prior speaking engagements, Reagan was confident listeners would be receptive. However, Goldwater wasn’t as sure and even called Reagan days before the air date. “He sounded uneasy and a little uncomfortable,” Reagan later wrote in his 1990 autobiography An American Life , explaining that Goldwater proposed airing a pre-recorded talk he had with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower instead. “I’d seen the film showing Barry’s meeting with Eisenhower at Gettysburg and didn’t think it was all that impressive.” Despite Goldwater’s hesitance, they stuck with the original plan.

Known as “A Time for Choosing,” Reagan’s speech avoided the most inflammatory rhetoric and policy ideas Goldwater previously touted. The far-right-leaning candidate had advocated for the use of tactical nuclear weapons during the Vietnam War and argued Social Security should become voluntary. Instead, Reagan took a more straightforward tone as he criticized big government and pitched a better future to Republican voters.

“We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny,” Reagan concluded .

According to National Review , the Reagans watched the speech at the home of friends. Despite their positive reaction, Ronald was in no mood for celebrating as he went to bed later that night. “I was hoping I hadn’t let Barry down,” he later wrote in his autobiography.

In reality, the speech launched Reagan’s political career

According to The Washington Post , the speech quickly raised more than $1 million for Goldwater’s campaign, then a “staggering” sum equivalent to more than $10 million today. Unfortunately, it did nothing to help him at the ballot box. Goldwater carried only six states and lost to LBJ in one of the biggest electoral college landslides ever.

Reagan, meanwhile, became an overnight political sensation. Journalist David Broder lauded the address as “the most successful political debut since William Jennings Bryan” and his 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic Convention.

For Republicans—who, according to former journalist and biographer Louis Cannon, had a dismal performance in the election beyond Goldwater’s rout—Reagan’s emergence was a chance for the party to start over. “We are now in 1965, and there aren’t any Republican leaders left in office,” Cannon said during a 2014 panel discussion . “If there had been a lot of Republicans in office still, I don’t know that everybody would have turned to Reagan. But they did.”

Within months of the speech, Reagan performed an exploratory speaking tour throughout California while eyeing a possible gubernatorial campaign. In 1966, he ran and easily defeated Democratic incumbent Pat Brown, whose crude comparison of Reagan to assassin John Wilkes Booth (both actors) during the campaign greatly backfired.

Reagan held the office until January 1975, which put him on a path to the presidency with his 1980 victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter . However, none of that might have happened without the successful appeal of “A Time for Choosing.”

“I didn’t know it then, but that speech was one of the most important milestones of my life,” Reagan later wrote .

See Reagan in Theaters August 30

Dennis Quaid—who has now played a U.S. president three times, including Bill Clinton in the made-for-TV movie The Special Relationship and the fictional Joseph Staton in the 2006 satire American Dreamz —said he was initially hesitant to portray Reagan because the role took him out of his comfort zone.

“I had a tinge of fear grow up my spine,” the 70-year-old actor told The Hollywood Reporter . “Fear is really very valuable. But I didn’t say yes right away because I wanted to make sure I could feel him as a person instead of doing an impersonation. I went to the Reagan ranch and I could feel him up there. It was really quite something.”

See how well Quaid emulates the former president’s oratory skills when Reagan reaches theaters on Friday. The movie also stars Penelope Ann Miller, Nick Searcy, and Jon Voight .

Get Tickets

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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