United is a sports film about the 1958 Manchester United football team who were involved in a plane crash where members were killed. It follows six players, mainly Bobby Charlton, and coach Jimmy Murphy. Zero Dark Thirty follows the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden from its beginning through finding and killing him. Titanic is based on the sinking of the real RMS Titanic in 1912, though the main characters are fictional. Deepwater Horizon is based on the 2010 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and gained praise for its realistic feel from survivor accounts. The films are based on real events, people, and disasters but contain fictionalized elements in their storytelling.
2. United is a sports film about the 1958 Manchester Utd team who were involved in a plane crash
where members of the team were killed. It also tells the story of the Busby babes which was the
nickname given to the team.
The narrative of the story is set from 1957-1958, and mainly credits six
of the players in the team, with the main character being Bobby Charlton
played by Jack O’Connell, also the film follows the United coach
Jimmy Murphy who was played by David Tennant.
Zero Dark Thirty is a film that’s based on the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden
the man behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is also a political/action thriller.
The film follows a linear narrative by having a beginning, middle and end,
it all starts with the manhunt and evidence that leads up to this.
Ending with them finding Bin Laden and killing him just as it happened in real life.
3. Titanic is a romance/disaster film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
The film is based on the true story of the ship RMS Titanic
which sunk after hitting an iceberg in 1912, however, the characters that DiCaprio
and Winslet portray are actually fictional.
The incident has many documentaries about it, but to many reviewers,
the film gives a better account of what may have happened despite
the fictional elements it has to it.
The Conjuring is a supernatural horror film which is said to be
based on a true story of the case files put together by
Ed and Lorraine Warren who were paranormal investigators and the whole idea
of the film came about because one supposed incident involving a family of five.
There is one underlying problem with horror movies and that is
how believable they are, so while the film was marketed as a true story,
it may be questionable whether that is true or not.
4. Deepwater Horizon is a film based on
2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico. The film has gained a lot of positive
reviews from a technical point of view and less of a
character standpoint.
They had also learnt more about the story from real life
survivors which was good because it gave the movie
a more realistic and accurate feel.
6. 8 Mile is a true story of the rapper Eminem, who plays himself in the childhood story
of how he struggled to get where he is today, this involved tackling certain obstacles
in his life, and taking part in rap battles which he won, which helped him
get recognized.
There isn’t really one narrative to the film, because if we already knew
how his career started, then the film didn’t need to have conflicting narratives.
Many reviewers praised how committed to the idea the cast and crew were to
the film, which did help the overall presentation as the grittiness of it all,
benefited it.
12 Years a Slave is a film about the Slave Trade set from 1841, where
a New York born African man is sent into slavery for 12 years.
The main character is Solomon Northrup played by Chiwetel Ejiofor
who published a slave memoir in real life which is the main idea behind the film.
Many people believed the film did give a good account of what it was like
and that all information was accurate.
7. Schindler’s List is the story of a German business owner who helped thousands
of concentration camp bound refugees by offering them employment in his factories.
The film was set during the holocaust times during World War II
It seems as if the story is told from the point of view of Oskar Schindler
who is the main character played by Liam Neeson.
The narrative is linear; the beginning starts mass terror and murder,
the middle shows the change of attitude that Schindler
has; and the end shows the end of the war and the aftermath of how he
goes on the run as a war criminal.
127 hours is a film that tells the story of Aron Ralston who was a daredevil
who released a memoir telling the story of his life-or-death ordeal after
being trapped by a boulder at the Canyonlands National Park in Utah.
The style of director Danny Boyle helped give the film more artistic prowess
and the editing, camerawork and soundtrack helped to establish a steady pace
and good tone.
8. The Wolf of Wall Street is a film based on the memoir of former
stockbroker Jordan Belfort who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film.
The film received positive reviews and DiCaprio even managed to
get nominated for the best actor award at the Oscars.
What’s interesting about the film is that there are moments
where the main character does interact to the audience
by talking to the camera at certain points of the movie.
And at other points there also sometimes voiceover
commentaries from the main character as well.
10. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is a film and book series
set in the fictional world of Middle Earth. The film
had huge success with the trilogy winning 17 Academy
Awards. The books were first written back in the 1950s
by J.R.R Tolkien, and when this was adapted into a
film from 2001-2003, they had changed a few minor
details for the movie.
Macbeth is a play that was written by William Shakespeare
and is about a Scottish general who receives a prophecy
from three witches who tell him that one day he will
become King of Scotland. He then murders the current
King and takes the throne for himself. He commits
more murders to protect himself and is wife, and then
civil war begins which leaves him and his wife going mad
with both eventually being killed.
11. Along Came a Spider is a novel that was created by James Patterson
about a Forensic Psychologist named Alex Cross. The film
was adapted in 2001 and starred Morgan Freeman.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a book by British author
Roald Dahl about a young boy named Charlie Bucket and an
eccentric choclatier called Willy Wonka. There have been
two film adaptations of the book, the first created in 1971
starred Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and the second remake in
2005 starred Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
12. The Harry Potter Series consisted of 7 books written by
J.K Rowling which were then adapted into
a film series. The main story involves a young
wizard’s struggles against another powerful wizard.
Both film and book series have had a lot of
critical success.
The Jason Bourne Films were first released in
2002, and since then their have been five films,
four of them starring Matt Damon.
The first books were released in the 1980s
and were created by Robert Ludlum who died in
2001, which led to Eric Van Lustbader carrying
on writing the series.
13. War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel that was
made by H.G Wells in 1897. The novel is about
a Martian invasion in London.
They had made a film about this in the 1950s and
later a remake was done in 2005 starring Tom Cruise.
The book is regarded as one of the best
science-fiction novels ever.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel published by Harper Lee
in 1960, it was an immediate success, and is regarded
as a classic of modern American literature.
A film was later released two years later, and was an
even bigger success winning three Oscars. The main story
deals with serious issues such as rape and racial
inequality which was a big issue in 1960s America.
14. The Woman in Black is a horror gothic novel created by Susan Hill
in 1983, which is about a solicitor who is recently widowed
after the death of his wife and is sent to a remote village to
deal with a deceased affairs, where he is then haunted by a
spirit of a woman who is trying to find someone that she
has lost and is killing children until she find them. There was
a film released in 2012 starring Daniel Radcliffe.
Romeo and Juliet is a popular play by William Shakespeare
about two lovers from different families who hate each
other. Because of this the two lovers will do anything
to be with each other which ends up with them killing
themselves leading to the families blaming themselves
and subsequently they start to get along.
A film was created in 1996 and took a more modern twist
on the story while still sticking to Shakespeare’s script
and language. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.