I love history. I love movies. And I really like fictionalized novels based on real historical events. So when we put those three items together we get this week’s list of greatness.
All the films on this list were based in some way on a novel that it was in turn based on a real historical event that took place.
- Forrest Gump
This 1994 Comedy seems (if only at first) just the heartwarming tale of a slightly off life of the titular character. However, it turns into so much more. This movie, based on the book by the same name by Winston Groom, takes the viewers and our lead character (and hero if you ask me) through many of the world’s major events and cultures, along with the countercultures, with him experiencing each of them.
In his early life he meets Elvis Presley and he becomes All-American football star where he gets to meet president JFK. While attending college he witnesses George Wallace’s attempt to prevent integration at the school. He then is shipped off to the Vietnam War where he becomes a war hero and receives the Medal of Honor from the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson. He then plays china in a Ping Pong match allowing him to meet yet another President of the United states, Richard Nixon. He is provided a room at a hotel and, of course, witnesses the Watergate Scandal from his hotel room. From there he goes on a television talk show and meets John Lennon, when he gives the musical superstar the idea for the famous song “Imagine”. And of course does his cross-country run that almost everyone knows from the film.
While the character is not real (although Tom Hanks does a fantastic job making him seem real) every event he experiences is real and is part of our history as a country and as a culture. The film even used real footage and added Forrest into it to make it real. I think they did a fantastic job.
This film is both heartwarming and heartbreaking with every character it presents. It also does a good job of presenting political topics and events fairly. Everyone should watch this film
- The Kings Speech
While this is a newer historical film, premiering in 2010, it still has a place in my heart where the historical films reside. This film is a portrayal of King George VI and his quest to overcome a stuttering speech impediment.
King George, portrayed by Colin Firth, works with Lionel Logue to help overcome his stuttering during public speeches. His wife is played the (always) lovely Helena Bonham Carter and Lionel portrayed by Geoffrey Rush.
This film is based on the real life problem that King George experienced during his lifetime. However, in reality, he worked with Logue for many years (almost a decade) rather than just months before he stuttering started clearing up. The produced used artistic licensing to create a more sympathetic portrayal of the King and his wife. Their performances were amazing and deserved every award they received.
It is based in part, on the notes and diary of Lionel Logue.
- The Counterfeiters
I have two words for this film. OH MY. I originally watched this 2007 film as part of an Intro to Film class in college. It is a subtitled foreign film, but one of the best I have ever seen. The film revolves around Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by the Nazis during the Second World War to destabilize Great Britain by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England notes. It follows Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon ‘Sally’ Sorowitsch, who is coerced into assisting the Nazi operation at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The film is based on a memoir written by Adolf Burger, a Jewish Slovak typographer who was imprisoned in 1942 for forging baptismal certificates to save Jews from deportation, and later interned at Sachsenhausen to work on Operation Bernhard. Ruzowitsky consulted closely with Burger through almost every stage of the writing and production.
After seeing so many movies about the brutality of the Nazi’s and the terrible things that happened, this film reveals that there was actually a lot more going on behind the scenes then most people probably realize. It is also beautifully shot (as much as it could be for a movie about war and death) every frame is colored amazingly and you cant tear your eyes away.
- Flags of Our Fathers
I seriously didn’t think I was going to like this movie when I was first coerced into seeing it. I am not sure why, but then in the spring of 2007 when I watched it… I adored it. It is based on the book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who were involved in raising the flag on Iwo Jima.
I could not pull myself away from this film (even to use the bathroom after drinking a venti caramel macchiato from Starbucks). I found all the actors so amazing in their roles and I wanted so bad to tell them so. The film had me feeling for the characters as if they were people I knew personally.
I think that Clint Eastwood did an AMAZING job directing this film and creating the world it takes place it. It feels so unique and inherently different then every war movie out there. If you watch war movies, then you HAVE to watch this one.
All these films are fantastic. They are all great for their own special reason. And yes, I realize I could have put so many different other movies on this list but I these are films that I enjoyed so much that they stuck with me.
Each film has its own space in the filing cabinet in my brain labled “Historical Fiction Films”.