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'
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
6.9/10
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Starring: Cher , Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin, Baird Wallace, Cha...
This poignant autobiographical tale from director Franco Zeffirelli is set in Florence, Italy and covers the years 1935 to 1945 in the life of a boy n... Read more
Ted Bundy (2002)
7.2/10
Director: Matthew Bright
Starring: Michael Reilly Burke, Boti Ann Bliss, Steffani Brass
Stylish and disturbing, this dramatisation provides insight into the complex and profoundly disturbed life of the notorious serial killer. From his pr... Read more
Temple Grandin (2010)
8.3/10
Director: Mick Jackson
Starring: Catherine O'Hara, Claire Danes, David Strathairn, Julia Ormond
Claire Danes gives a powerful, Emmy-winning performance in the role of Temple Grandin, the young, high-functioning autistic woman who faces misunderst... Read more
Testimony (1987)
7.1/10
Director: Tony Palmer
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Terence Rigby, Ronald Pickup
The enthralling study of the life and times, the artistry and the anguish of the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich - a Russian who fell from grace... Read more
That Hamilton Woman (1941)
7.3/10
Director: Alexander Korda
Starring: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray
AKA 'Lady Hamilton'. An excellent film about Nelson's lifelong relationship with Emma Hamilton that is somewhat glamorised and stiff but generally ex... Read more
The 15:17 to Paris (2018)
5.1/10
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Judy Greer, Tony Hale, Jenna Fischer, Thomas Lennon
In the early evening of August 21, 2015, the world watched in stunned silence as the media reported a thwarted terrorist attack on Thalys train #9364... Read more
The 33 (2015)
6.9/10
Director: Patricia Riggen
Starring: Antonio Banderas, James Brolin, Juliette Binoche, Lou Diamond Phillips, Rodrigo...
In 2010, the eyes of the world turned to Chile, where 33 miners had been buried alive by the catastrophic explosion and collapse of a 100-year-old gol... Read more
The 47 Ronin ( aka Chushingura ) (1962)
7.6/10
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
Starring: Yuzo Kayama, Koshiro Matsumoto, Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Mihashi, Yosuke Natsuki,...
One of the most retold stories in Japanese cinema is this historical samurai saga set at the turn of the 18th century, in which 47 loyal ronin seek ve... Read more
The Accused (1988)
7.1/10
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Starring: Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis, Bernie Coulson
A young woman is gang-raped in a bar while onlookers cheer on the attack. The subsequent court trials question her 'easy' lifestyle and whether she in... Read more
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
7.2/10
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento
The battle of wills between Michelangelo and Pope Julius II over the artist's painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling is turned into a sumptuous histor... Read more