Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Comic-Con 2022: Stars strike a pose in EW's photo studio

      Comic-Con 2022: Stars strike a pose in EW's photo studio

      From the casts of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever  and The Walking Dead  to Chris Pine and Regé Jean-Page, see who dropped by EW's Comic-Con headquarters at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego. Read More
    • Power players: Inside The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

      Power players: Inside The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

      Go behind the scenes of Amazon Prime Video’s ambitious fantasy epic, which hopes to introduce J.R.R. Tolkien to a new generation. Read More
    • Biggest bombshells in unsealed Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard court docs: Erectile dysfunction, nude photos, and Marilyn Manson

      Biggest bombshells in unsealed Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard court docs: Erectile dysfunction, nude photos, and Marilyn Manson

      Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be more to learn about the high-profile defamation trial, more than 6,000 pages of court docs were released over the weekend. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. 25 Best Biopics Ever

25 Best Biopics Ever

With ''Julie & Julia'' a weekend hit, we look back at the gold standards for big-screen life stories; after yesterday's countdown of No. 50-26, see where ''Malcolm X,'' ''GoodFellas,'' and ''Milk'' rate
By EW Staff Updated August 06, 2015 at 06:32 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

25. WALK THE LINE (2005) SUBJECT: Johnny Cash

25. WALK THE LINE (2005) SUBJECT: Johnny Cash
Credit: Suzanne Tenner

From his signature opening line (''Hello, I'm Johnny Cash'') at concerts to his iconic black attire, Cash lived life with style. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was constantly in the public eye, whether it was for his drug use or his advocacy of prison reform. James Mangold's take on the Cash legend delves deep into the ups and downs of his rise to fame, and Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon's harmonious covers of Cash's tunes are worth the price of admission alone. — Saba Mohtasham

1 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

24. YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939) SUBJECT: Abraham Lincoln

Henry Fonda, Young Mr. Lincoln (Ford at Fox Collection) | A great American playing a great American, Henry Fonda sees beyond the reverent aura surrounding Abraham Lincoln to find the real human being underneath. It…
Credit: Everett Collection

A great American playing a great American, Henry Fonda sees beyond the reverent aura surrounding Abraham Lincoln to find the real human being underneath. It helps that John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln only focuses on Lincoln's early law career — specifically, as he defends two men accused of murder from a lynching-happy community — in Springfield, IL in the 1830s. Fonda's Lincoln is slightly unformed, clearly possessing the potential for greatness, but not yet the legend who would be enshrined in marble. — Christian Blauvelt

2 of 25

3 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

23. ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000) SUBJECT: Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts | As a lowly assistant at a California law firm in the 1990s, Brockovich investigated an environmentally neglectful power company and ultimately won a $333 million…
Credit: Bob Marshak

As a lowly assistant at a California law firm in the 1990s, Brockovich investigated an environmentally neglectful power company and ultimately won a $333 million class action settlement. Under the direction of Steven Soderbergh, Julia Roberts has great fun playing the sassy single mom who knows the key to getting men to help her: ''They're called boobs.'' — Jeff Labrecque

3 of 25

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

22. RAY (2004) SUBJECT: Ray Charles

Jamie Foxx, Ray | Jamie Foxx won a well-deserved Oscar for playing the pioneer who powered through physical limitations and crippling addictions to invent the music that we'd call…
Credit: Ray: Nicola Goode

Jamie Foxx won a well-deserved Oscar for playing the pioneer who powered through physical limitations and crippling addictions to invent the music that we'd call soul. Taylor Hackford's film manages to be honest about both Brother Ray's genius and his demons, while also taking us on a grand tour of some of the 20th century's greatest music. — Marc Bernardin

4 of 25

Advertisement

5 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

21. COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER (1980) SUBJECT: Loretta Lynn

Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner's Daughter | Married at 14, a mother of four by 18, Loretta Lynn's journey was infinitely longer than the 300 miles from Kentucky poverty to the Grand…
Credit: Everett Collection

Married at 14, a mother of four by 18, Loretta Lynn's journey was infinitely longer than the 300 miles from Kentucky poverty to the Grand Ole Opry. Like Lynn, Sissy Spacek is perfectly sweet but sturdy, and her up-and-down marriage forms the backbone of the film. —Jeff Labrecque

5 of 25

6 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

20. THE LAST EMPEROR (1987) SUBJECT: Pu Yi

The Last Emperor | An achingly beautiful epic from Italian maestro Bernardo Bertolucci, and the first film to ever be shot in Beijing's Forbidden City, The Last Emperor encompasses…
Credit: Everett Collection

An achingly beautiful epic from Italian maestro Bernardo Bertolucci, and the first film to ever be shot in Beijing's Forbidden City, The Last Emperor encompasses the life of Pu Yi, who became Emperor of China 100 years ago at the age of two and abdicated at six. John Lone sensitively portrays Pu Yi's adult years, when the Japanese installed him as the puppet Emperor of Manchukuo in 1932, through his post-war internment and eventual life as a Beijing gardener. — Christian Blauvelt

6 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Warren Beatty

Warren Beatty, Reds | Heaven Can Wait (1978) Beatty's directing debut was this sparkling romantic comedy, a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan , in which Beatty also…
Credit: Everett Collection

Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Beatty's directing debut was this sparkling romantic comedy, a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, in which Beatty also stars as Joe Pendleton, a jock who is spirited to Heaven due to a celestial snafu and is forced to return to Earth in the body of a doomed tycoon.

Reds (1981)
Beatty won a directing Oscar for this biopic, an epic like no other. The story of American journalist John Reed (Beatty), who enthusiastically reported on the Russian Revolution, only to become disillusioned by the Soviet government's totalitarianism, is interspersed with talking-head testimony from real-life witnesses to the events of the film.

Bulworth (1998)
Beatty's corrosive satire about the sclerotic cynicism of Washington politics didn't find an audience — maybe because politically-minded moviegoers were preoccupied with the stranger-than-fiction Lewinsky scandal, or because they didn't get Beatty's character, a senator who suddenly starts speaking in awkward, hip-hop rhymes. —Gary Susman

7 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

18. HOTEL RWANDA (2004) SUBJECT: Paul Rusesabagina

Hotel Rwanda, Don Cheadle | Maybe it's an overly sanitized depiction of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda — and maybe it arrived 10 years too late — but Terry George's…
Credit: Frank Connor

Maybe it's an overly sanitized depiction of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda — and maybe it arrived 10 years too late — but Terry George's Hotel Rwanda was still a wake-up call to an American public that knew little about the events it depicts, even when they were happening. Don Cheadle plays savvy hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan Oskar Schindler who in real life sheltered 1,268 Tutsis from the Hutu militias who killed over 800,000 people. — Christian Blauvelt

8 of 25

Advertisement

9 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

17. SILKWOOD (1983) SUBJECT: Karen Silkwood

Cher, Meryl Streep, ... | Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician at an Oklahoma nuclear plant in the 1970s. After she tested positive for plutonium contamination, Silkwood was ready to…
Credit: Silkwood: Everett Collection

Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician at an Oklahoma nuclear plant in the 1970s. After she tested positive for plutonium contamination, Silkwood was ready to publicly discuss the many safety violations she witnessed at the plant. Yet, while on her way to meet with a reporter, Silkwood died in an unexplained car accident. Mike Nichols' film is admirable for not reducing her story to a mere good guy/bad guy conflict, and it benefits from a predictably sturdy performance by Meryl Streep. — John Young

9 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

16. LA VIE EN ROSE (2007) SUBJECT: Edith Piaf

Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose | Perhaps the most popular French singer of the 20th century, Piaf is best known for the songs ''La vie en rose'' and ''Non, je ne…
Credit: Bruno Calvo

Perhaps the most popular French singer of the 20th century, Piaf is best known for the songs ''La vie en rose'' and ''Non, je ne regrette rien.'' Although her life included numerous hardships — four years of childhood blindness, the death of lover Marcel Cerdan, and an extended addiction to morphine — Piaf cherished performing on stage, and Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard was miraculously able to channel that artistic fervor. — John Young

10 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

15. ED WOOD (1994) SUBJECT: Ed Wood

Sixteen years after his death, the hack behind Hollywood's most infamous debacle ( Plan 9 From Outer Space ) finally achieved the stardom he'd always…
Credit: Everett Collection

Sixteen years after his death, the hack behind Hollywood's most infamous debacle (Plan 9 From Outer Space) finally achieved the stardom he'd always craved. Johnny Depp captures the cross-dressing director's irrepressible optimism as he labors to fulfill cinematic dreams for his circle of Hollywood oddballs. — Jeff Labrecque

11 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

14. PERSEPOLIS (2007) SUBJECT: Marjane Satrapi

The Complete Persepolis | Adapting her own graphic-novel memoir (with codirector Vincent Paronnaud), Satrapi tells of growing up a teen rebel in repressive Iran, loving Iron Maiden as war…

Adapting her own graphic-novel memoir (with codirector Vincent Paronnaud), Satrapi tells of growing up a teen rebel in repressive Iran, loving Iron Maiden as war raged between Iran and Iraq; becoming a woman in Vienna, while shedding her Iranian identity in favor of European disaffection; and returning home to an even more totalitarian Tehran and a harrowing bout of depression. Most of this is presented in lush black-and-white animation that shifts and flows and swirls together with the seamless, inexorable pull of memory. —Marc Bernardin

12 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

13. MILK (2008) SUBJECT: Harvey Milk

Sean Penn, Milk | A fixture of 1970s San Francisco politics, Milk was assassinated in 1978, less than a year after winning a seat on the city's board of…
Credit: Phil Bray

A fixture of 1970s San Francisco politics, Milk was assassinated in 1978, less than a year after winning a seat on the city's board of supervisors as the first openly gay man elected to major office in the U.S. Director Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, though, wisely and poignantly focus on Milk's life, on his uncanny ability to make politics personal and the personal political. Aided by Sean Penn's transformative performance, the film delivers a remarkably timed homily on the vital importance of community organizers. —Adam B. Vary

13 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

12. MONSTER (2003) SUBJECT: Aileen Wuornos

Monster, Charlize Theron | Charlize Theron just about disappears into Wuornos, a prostitute who murdered seven men — who she alleged tried to rape her — over 12 months…
Credit: Everett Collection

Charlize Theron just about disappears into Wuornos, a prostitute who murdered seven men — who she alleged tried to rape her — over 12 months in 1989 and 1990. The actress gained weight and went through extensive makeup for the Oscar-winning role, but Theron's real feat was capturing Wuornos' damaged rootlessness, communicating a lifetime of abuse and rage in a burning blink of her eyes. —Adam B. Vary

14 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

15 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

11. THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) SUBJECT: Joseph Merrick

The Elephant Man, John Hurt | Some critics have unfairly dismissed The Elephant Man as one of David Lynch's more conventional films. Maybe it is. But if Lynch trades in some…
Credit: Everett Collection

Some critics have unfairly dismissed The Elephant Man as one of David Lynch's more conventional films. Maybe it is. But if Lynch trades in some of his usual obsessions, it's because the story of Joseph Merrick (called ''John Merrick'' in the film), the famously deformed Englishman relegated to living in a 19th century London freak show, is so affecting on its own. And who else could have rendered Merrick's sad end with such a sublime mix of heartbreak and transcendence as Lynch? —Christian Blauvelt

15 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

16 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

10. AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003) SUBJECT: Harvey Pekar

Paul Giamatti, American Splendor | The Cleveland cartoonist who famously chronicled his bout with cancer actually makes a cameo as himself in this surreal portrait of the artist. But it…

The Cleveland cartoonist who famously chronicled his bout with cancer actually makes a cameo as himself in this surreal portrait of the artist. But it is Paul Giamatti's cantankerous turn as the uncompromising schlub who eventually finds contentment, despite himself, that reveals the teddy bear beneath the scowl. —Jeff Labrecque

16 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

17 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

9. MALCOLM X (1992) SUBJECT: Malcolm X

Denzel Washington, Malcolm X | Spike Lee put every ounce of himself into telling the story of Malcolm Little, a two-bit hustler who would become the Islamic counter-point to Martin…
Credit: Everett Collection

Spike Lee put every ounce of himself into telling the story of Malcolm Little, a two-bit hustler who would become the Islamic counter-point to Martin Luther King. As the civil rights firebrand, Denzel Washington expertly holds the center of one of Lee's finest films. —Marc Bernardin

17 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

18 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

8. CAPOTE (2005) SUBJECT: Truman Capote

Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) was first famous for writing Breakfast at Tiffany's , and later infamous for his drug addled downward spiral in New York…
Credit: Capote: Attila Dory

Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) was first famous for writing Breakfast at Tiffany's, and later infamous for his drug addled downward spiral in New York high society. But this film chooses instead to tell the pivotal story of his life: the period from 1959 to 1965 when he researched and wrote the tale of two lowlife criminals who brutally murdered an entire family in a small Kansas town. The resulting book, In Cold Blood, was a seminal triumph, but as the movie makes clear, it was also its author's undoing. —Adam B. Vary

18 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

19 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

7. MY LEFT FOOT: THE STORY OF CHRISTY BROWN (1989) SUBJECT: Christy Brown

Born with severe cerebral palsy, Irish author and artist Christy Brown proved he didn't need a voice to speak to the world. With only control…
Credit: Everett Collection

Born with severe cerebral palsy, Irish author and artist Christy Brown proved he didn't need a voice to speak to the world. With only control of his left foot, Brown turned this impediment into a skill and became one of Ireland's leading intellectuals. Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker's heartfelt representations as Christy and his mother, respectively, leaves viewers with no doubt that anything is possible. — Saba Mohtasham

19 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

20 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

6. ELIZABETH (1998) SUBJECT: Queen Elizabeth I

Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth | Elizabeth's 44-year reign as Queen of England saw the reestablishment of the Church of England, the debut of many of Shakespeare's most acclaimed plays, and…
Credit: Alex Bailey

Elizabeth's 44-year reign as Queen of England saw the reestablishment of the Church of England, the debut of many of Shakespeare's most acclaimed plays, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Shekhar Kapur's 1998 film, however, focuses on the initial years of Elizabeth's rule, as the queen struggled to form her public identity. At times edited as rapidly as a music video, Elizabeth crackles with energy, and Cate Blanchett's commanding presence as ''The Virgin Queen'' is nothing but divine. —John Young

20 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

21 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

5. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) SUBJECT: Oskar Schindler

Schindler's List, Ben Kingsley, ... | A German war profiteer savvy enough to realize Jewish labor would come dirt cheap during WWII, Schindler (Liam Neeson) only gradually realizes that he simply…
Credit: David James

A German war profiteer savvy enough to realize Jewish labor would come dirt cheap during WWII, Schindler (Liam Neeson) only gradually realizes that he simply must use his pull with high placed Nazi officers to save those workers from the death camps and gas chambers of the Holocaust. Shot in stark black-and-white, and staged with haunting verisimilitude, director Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winner uses this one man's uplifting tale to make terribly plain the uncompromising brutality of this period in history. —Adam B. Vary

21 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

22 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

4. GOODFELLAS (1990) SUBJECT: Henry Hill

GoodFellas, Lorraine Bracco, ... | In GoodFellas , the tale of real-life mobster Henry Hill, Scorsese perfects his knack for neither condemning nor glamorizing his characters. Drawing upon Nicholas Pileggi's…
Credit: Barry Wetcher

In GoodFellas, the tale of real-life mobster Henry Hill, Scorsese perfects his knack for neither condemning nor glamorizing his characters. Drawing upon Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, Scorsese presents the life of a gangster from the inside-out, as he shows Hill's start as a kid selling cigarettes on the street to his eventual middle-age unraveling in the drug trade. At the end, when Hill finds himself living a humdrum suburban life in the federal witness protection program, it doesn't feel so much a judgment as a bitter irony. — Christian Blauvelt

22 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

23 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

3. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) SUBJECT: T.E. Lawrence

Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole | Director David Lean follows Lawrence (Peter O'Toole in a star-making performance) from a nobody British intelligence officer into the larger-than-life figure who successfully leads the…
Credit: Everett Collection

Director David Lean follows Lawrence (Peter O'Toole in a star-making performance) from a nobody British intelligence officer into the larger-than-life figure who successfully leads the fractured tribes of Arabia against the Turks in WWI. For many in Hollywood — including Steven Spielberg — Lawrence of Arabia remains the gold standard for how to compact a great man's life into the confines of a feature-length film, but it's also required viewing for anyone wishing to further understand how the Middle East got to be the way it is today. —Adam B. Vary

23 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement

24 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

2. AMADEUS (1984) SUBJECT: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Tom Hulce, Amadeus | Amadeus , adapted by Milos Forman with a hippie-ish flair from Peter Shaffer's original play, succeeds because it's not merely a linear biography celebrating Mozart's…

Amadeus, adapted by Milos Forman with a hippie-ish flair from Peter Shaffer's original play, succeeds because it's not merely a linear biography celebrating Mozart's brilliance. It's about the timeless jealousy of Antonio Salieri, the court composer for Austrian Emperor Joseph II, who both hated his rival from Salzburg?and profoundly loved his music. Salieri can appreciate Mozart's achievements like no one else, because he knows that he'll never share Mozart's talent. —Christian Blauvelt

24 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

25 of 25

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

1. RAGING BULL (1980) SUBJECT: Jake La Motta

Robert De Niro, Raging Bull | Robert De Niro's Jake LaMotta, the middleweight boxing champion of the 1940s and '50s, is the quintessential Martin Scorsese male, an isolated figure racked with…
Credit: Everett Collection

Robert De Niro's Jake LaMotta, the middleweight boxing champion of the 1940s and '50s, is the quintessential Martin Scorsese male, an isolated figure racked with guilt, sexual insecurity, and an inability to relate to women. De Niro's weight gain (and loss) for the role has been justly praised, but it's the way Scorsese gets inside LaMotta's head, with slow-motion point-of-view shots and a disorienting soundtrack (the ringside crowd noises were mixed together with animal cries) that makes this critique of aggressive masculinity so devastating — and human. —Christian Blauvelt

25 of 25

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By EW Staff

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 25 25. WALK THE LINE (2005) SUBJECT: Johnny Cash
    2 of 25 24. YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939) SUBJECT: Abraham Lincoln
    3 of 25 23. ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000) SUBJECT: Erin Brockovich
    4 of 25 22. RAY (2004) SUBJECT: Ray Charles
    5 of 25 21. COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER (1980) SUBJECT: Loretta Lynn
    6 of 25 20. THE LAST EMPEROR (1987) SUBJECT: Pu Yi
    7 of 25 Warren Beatty
    8 of 25 18. HOTEL RWANDA (2004) SUBJECT: Paul Rusesabagina
    9 of 25 17. SILKWOOD (1983) SUBJECT: Karen Silkwood
    10 of 25 16. LA VIE EN ROSE (2007) SUBJECT: Edith Piaf
    11 of 25 15. ED WOOD (1994) SUBJECT: Ed Wood
    12 of 25 14. PERSEPOLIS (2007) SUBJECT: Marjane Satrapi
    13 of 25 13. MILK (2008) SUBJECT: Harvey Milk
    14 of 25 12. MONSTER (2003) SUBJECT: Aileen Wuornos
    15 of 25 11. THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) SUBJECT: Joseph Merrick
    16 of 25 10. AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003) SUBJECT: Harvey Pekar
    17 of 25 9. MALCOLM X (1992) SUBJECT: Malcolm X
    18 of 25 8. CAPOTE (2005) SUBJECT: Truman Capote
    19 of 25 7. MY LEFT FOOT: THE STORY OF CHRISTY BROWN (1989) SUBJECT: Christy Brown
    20 of 25 6. ELIZABETH (1998) SUBJECT: Queen Elizabeth I
    21 of 25 5. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) SUBJECT: Oskar Schindler
    22 of 25 4. GOODFELLAS (1990) SUBJECT: Henry Hill
    23 of 25 3. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) SUBJECT: T.E. Lawrence
    24 of 25 2. AMADEUS (1984) SUBJECT: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    25 of 25 1. RAGING BULL (1980) SUBJECT: Jake La Motta

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2022 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    25 Best Biopics Ever
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.