All the President's Men (1976)
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Director: Alan J. Pakula
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden
To call All the President’s Men a movie about the Watergate scandal would be to miss its point entirely. Because while the downfall of a president is certainly part of the film’s resolution, the 137 minutes preceding that are about the nitty-gritty of the newspaper business. And viewers have Ben Bradlee, executive editor of The Washington Post (played by Jason Robards in the film) during the time of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s investigation into Richard Nixon’s clandestine dealings, to thank for that as much as they do star/producer Robert Redford.
Concerned about the light in which the film might paint his profession and the reporters and editors who inhabit it, Bradlee realized that the mere act of cooperation could help shape the film’s direction. “We’re all in the position that we didn’t have any choice about this movie—it would be made regardless—and I could see that,” Bradlee stated in a 1975 interview with his own paper. “Lacking that choice, it seemed to make more sense to try to influence it factually than to just stick our heads in the sand.” As a result, the filmmakers made sure every detail—from the mounds of research, articles and documents collected by Woodward and Bernstein to the desks their big-screen counterparts sat at—were perfectly replicated. The result is a painstakingly accurate recounting of two reporters’ bumpy path to uncovering an ugly truth.
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
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Director: Oliver Stone
Stars: Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
There are two things any moviegoer should know about Oliver Stone: 1) He loves to tell stories based on true events, and 2) He has a tendency to rewrite history, sometimes egregiously (see JFK). The one subject where he leans more toward the realistic side is the Vietnam War. Stone’s own tour of duty is explored in the semi-autobiographical Platoon, with Charlie Sheen assuming the director’s identity (a privileged white kid who volunteers to go to war).
In Born on the Fourth of July, Stone tells the story of Ron Kovic, who joined the Marines as an enthusiastic young patriot and came home a paralyzed anti-war activist. Tom Cruise earned his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Kovic, which required him to play against Movie Star type for much of the movie, in which the wheelchair-bound and newly politicized Kovic leads a series of anti-Vietnam War protests to bring attention to the young men who were ripped from the comforts of home—voluntarily or otherwise—and literally dropped into a jungle to defend their country. So moved was even Kovic by Cruise’s portrayal of him that he gifted the actor with his Bronze Star on the final day of filming.
My Left Foot (1989)
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Director: Jim Sheridan
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan
If they handed out Oscars for simply walking down the street, Daniel Day-Lewis would have a closetful of them. But his first brush with Academy Award glory came courtesy of My Left Foot, the story of Christy Brown, a man who was born with cerebral palsy yet found success as an artist and writer utilizing the one limb over which he had control.
While it’s a story that could be considered easy Oscar bait in the hands (or foot) of most other actors, Day-Lewis’ performance is at once heartbreaking and inspiring. (Though one would hardly expect less from the man who would be Lincoln.) The film also kick-started the actor’s longtime collaboration with director Jim Sheridan, with whom he successfully partnered again on the equally praise-worthy In the Name of the Father (also based on a true story) and The Boxer.
GoodFellas (1990)
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Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
In the pantheon of great mob movies, GoodFellas is as good as it gets. And realistic. Which is exactly what attracted Martin Scorsese to the project in the first place. Legend has it that after reading Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy, the story of Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill’s life as a gangster-turned-rat, the director immediately picked up the phone, called Pileggi and told him, “I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life.” Pileggi’s reply? “I’ve been waiting for this phone call my entire life.”
Having grown up in New York City’s Little Italy at the height of the city’s mafia influx, Scorsese’s fascination with the book was in the authenticity of the everyday life of a mobster. Whereas over-the-top interpretations of gangsterdom, like Scarface, portray a sort of “party all the time” atmosphere, Pileggi’s book got the minutiae right—the scams (big and small) and how they worked, the challenges facing middle-management mobsters and their lack of upward mobility and the delicate balance between family life and “family” life. And Scorsese utilizes every trick in his moviemaking toolkit to pull it off, which earned the film six Oscar nominations (with one win for Joe Pesci) and the most famous tracking shot in cinema history.
Schindler's List (1993)
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Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
To call Schindler’s List “a movie” seems like an understatement, as few films have ever presented as effective—or harrowing—an accounting of the Holocaust as Steven Spielberg’s epic retelling of Oskar Schindler, the German business owner who saved the lives of thousands of concentration camp-bound refugees by offering them employment in his factories. While many consider Schindler’s List the film that Spielberg was born to make, the director himself worried that he did not have the maturity to pull off such a massive undertaking, and so it was originally pitched to Roman Polanski, Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese (who was officially attached).
But then Spielberg reconsidered. And from the moment he took the reins, he was clear about one thing: the film would be shot like a documentary, which meant that he did not want any stars in the key roles (both Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were still relative unknowns at the time) and that it would be shot in black and white using mostly handheld cameras. It would also be filmed in as many of the actual locations as possible (with the exception of Auschwitz, which they were forbidden from entering). And it’s from these elements precisely that Schindler’s List draws its cinematic power.
Apollo 13 (1995)
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Director: Ron Howard
Stars: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon
It takes a talented director to keep an audience on the edge of its seat while watching a film in which they already know the ending. Which is exactly what Ron Howard was able to do in Apollo 13, the story of NASA’s 1970 moon landing-turned-rescue mission when an on-board explosion threatened the safety of its astronauts, Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Fred Haise (Bill Paxton). Howard’s secret? Create a film that is as educational as it is entertaining.
Howard worked hand in hand with NASA to create a spot-on retelling of the events, which meant that his stars got to experience every little boy’s fantasy: space camp! The trio spent time inside simulated command and lunar modules, all under the tutelage of Lovell, and filmed in a reduced gravity aircraft in order to create the weightlessness the astronauts would contend with in space. For his role as NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, Ed Harris listened to the audio communications between flight control and the astronauts, was given access to hundreds of NASA documents, took a class in physics and enrolled in flight control school. But Howard, ever the filmmaker, did take one creative liberty: editing a back-and-forth dialogue between Apollo and flight control down to one simple—and memorable—line: “Houston, we have a problem.”
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey
The Conjuring (2013)
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor
12 Years a Slave (2013)
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn