True Stories
True Stories are those based (sometimes loosely!) on fact. They cover topics as diverse as drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness and other human struggles. Meet some of history's most intriguing characters, find out what it's really like to climb a mountain or paint a masterpiece. Truly, the True Story is one of cinema's most engaging and enthralling genres.
Bio-pics feature in this section and are also gathered together separately under the 'Biography' sublink left.
Pictured: Inside the Las Vegas mob, Scorsese's unromantic 'Goodfellas'
Denial (2016)
6.6/10
Director: Mick Jackson
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall, Tom Wilkinson
Historian Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) has written a book about Holocaust deniers. After dedicating a few harshly worded paragraphs towards revisio... Read more
Desert Flower (2009)
7.4/10
Director: Sherry Hormann
Starring: Juliet Stevenson, Timothy Spall, Anthony Mackie, Sally Hawkins, Liya Kebede
The true story of Somalian supermodel Waris Dirie is told in this adaptation of her autobiography of the same name. A victim of female circumcision at... Read more
Destiny of a Man ( Fate of a Man ) (1959)
8.1/10
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Starring: Sergei Bondarchuk, Pavel Boriskin, Zinaida Kirienko, Pavel Volkov
The story of a man (Andrey Sokolov) whose life was ruthlessly crippled by World War II. Sergei Bondarchuk directs and acts in this screen adaptation o... Read more
Devil's Knot (2013)
6.1/10
Director: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Alessandro Nivola, Bruce Greenwood, Colin Firth, Elias Koteas, Reese Witherspoon...
It is May 5, 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three young boys playing in the nearby woods never come home for dinner. Their bodies are found the next... Read more
Diana (2013)
5.5/10
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Naomi Watts, Naveen Andrews
"Diana" takes audiences into the private realm of one of the world's most iconic and inescapably public women - the Princess of Wales, Diana (Naomi Wa... Read more
Dillinger (1945)
6.6/10
Director: Max Nosseck
Starring: Anne Jeffreys, Lawrence Tierney, Edmund Lowe
One of the first Hollywood crime dramas based on an actual figure (although the script strays somewhat from the true story), this bullet-riddled saga... Read more
Doc (1971)
6.1/10
Director: Frank Perry
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Harris Yulin, Stacy Keach
An unusually accurate portrayal of famous Western personalities - a group so important in American legend they are generally glorified whatever their... Read more
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
8/10
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Carol...
Incredible-but-true story of a loser who holds up a Brooklyn bank to raise money for his lover's sex-change operation, and sees simple heist snowball... Read more
Dog Day Afternoon ( Blu-ray ) (1975)
8/10
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Al Pacino, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, James Broderick, John Cazale
A man (Al Pacino) stages a bank robbery so that his homosexual lover can pay for a sex-change operation. He bungles the robbery and is caught up in a... Read more
Dolphin Tale (2011)
6.9/10
Director: Charles Martin Smith
Starring: Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr, Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman, Nathan Gamble
Inspired by a fascinating true story, this moving drama for the whole family focuses on Winter, a dolphin who loses her tail after being injured by a... Read more