50 Best Biopics Ever

Escalante taught the poor Latino kids that the L.A. school system had given up on, and transformed them into calculus whizzes. Whether negotiating with gangbangers or injecting humor and entertainment into his classroom, Edward James Olmos‘ Escalante does what he has to do to connect with his students. —Jeff Labrecque

There are some things best left to the experts. To wit, here’s EW movie critic Owen Gleiberman: ”The great joke of The Notorious Bettie Page is that it’s precisely Bettie’s purity — her eager, trusting wholesomeness — that allows her to radiate sexuality without a trace of inhibition or shame?. The movie says that in an era — the 1950s — that regarded sex as perversity and scandal and even crime, something restricted to the underground, it took a nice girl who couldn’t see perversity (because she didn’t feel it) to turn ‘sin’ into the sexy-sublime.”

Ironically, the man known for saying anything and everything on the air, for sharing every piece of himself — from his sexual inadequacies to his wife’s miscarriage — with strangers on the other end of the radio, was something of a mystery until Betty Thomas’ hysterical, incisive film. And, you know, Stern isn’t half bad at playing himself. —Marc Bernardin

Angela Bassett gave the performance of a lifetime as Anna Mae Bullock, the country girl who would be plucked from obscurity by the magnetic, malicious Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne, who got an Oscar nomination) and become the galvanizing R&B trailblazer Tina Turner. Her journey through the peaks of fame and fortune and the valleys of vicious physical and mental abuse made for a positively inspirational film. —Marc Bernardin

An openly gay Cuban poet and playwright, Arenas (Javier Bardem) first embraces Castro’s revolution, only to have it turn on him, condemning and imprisoning him for his homosexuality and for daring to smuggle his writings out of the country for publication. Shot at times as a kind of coruscating fever dream, director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is far less interested in depicting the narrative of Arenas’ life than he is in giving us impressions of Arenas’ soul as an artist. —Adam B. Vary

Writer-director Luis Valdez took a little-known piece of the rock and roll puzzle — the life of Latino rock groundbreaker Valens (played by then-newcomer Lou Diamond Phillips), who went down on that plane with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper the Day the Music Died — and found its own rich tapestry. Plus, it had kick-ass music by Los Lobos. Which is always good. —Marc Bernardin

As an American zoologist who studied Rwandan gorillas in their natural habitat for nearly two decades, Fossey captured the world’s attention while fighting against the illegal poaching of wild animals. Sigourney Weaver portrayed Fossey as an endlessly curious and passionate woman whose relentless activism ultimately made her a recluse. The impressive gorilla effects by makeup artist Rick Baker lent the film an authentic aura. —John Young

Gandhi is simultaneously a historical epic and liberal message movie without ever becoming a dry textbook narrative or preachy political tract. Anchored by Ben Kingsley’s towering performance as Mohandas Gandhi, Sir Richard Attenborough’s film spans several decades, from Gandhi’s initial protest against the treatment of Indians in South Africa to the non-violent, civil disobedience movement he would lead in India resulting in independence in 1947. Gandhi is as epic as Lawrence of Arabia, but warmer and full of wisdom. —Christian Blauvelt

Kaysen is an American author who spent 18 months in a 1960s psychiatric hospital and then wrote a memoir about it. Winona Ryder depicted Kaysen as a lost youth who made some mistakes along the way while struggling to find herself — a topic as relevant today as it was then. Angelina Jolie’s in-your-face performance as Lisa Rowe, a fellow patient at the mental institution, was a genuine scene-stealer and earned her an Academy Award. —Saba Mohtasham

With the pluck of the Flying Nun and the grace of Nora Walker, Sally Field’s Norma Rae Webster (based on the real life Crystal Lee Jordan who was fired for trying to start a union at her factory) tries to unionize her cotton mill while dealing with a jealous husband. Yes, we like her. —Christian Blauvelt

The only U.S. president to ever resign from office was destined to become one of Oliver Stone’s cinematic subjects. Anthony Hopkins’ Tricky Dick is riddled with Shakespearean flaws, and at the height of Watergate, he’s reduced to walking the halls of the White House, drunkenly debating the ghost of JFK. —Jeff Labrecque

If there ever was a born soldier, it was Gen. Patton (George C. Scott), whose military acumen is credited as a decisive factor in the successful U.S. campaigns in North Africa, Italy and France during WWII. But Patton’s drive and temper nearly cost him his career, and the film — perhaps best known for Patton’s opening speech against a giant American flag — astutely asks the question: What happens when a man is so good at waging war that he literally cannot do anything else? —Adam B. Vary

Prejean became a leading advocate against the death penalty after counseling a condemned Louisiana murderer (Sean Penn) in the final days before his 1984 execution. Susan Sarandon personifies Prejean’s bottomless empathy, befriending the belligerent convict and ultimately prying an admission of guilt from him that eases his pain. —Jeff Labrecque

Mel Gibson directed and starred in this retelling of the legend of William Wallace, the Scottish Highlander who led his people in a rebellion against English tyranny. Filled with lush, epic vistas and bloody, expertly choreographed battles, Braveheart might not have been true to the letter of Wallace’s actions, but it was true to the spirit. And, as such, it captured five Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture. —Marc Bernardin

Will Smith put on the muscle to play the greatest boxer who ever entered the square circle. And in choosing the supporting cast, director Michael Mann operated like a manager, surrounding Smith with the best Hollywood had to offer: Jamie Foxx as cornerman Bundini Brown, Jon Voight as Howard Cosell, Mykelti Williamson as Don King, and Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm X. If the film has any failings, it comes from trying too hard to solidify Ali, a man who all but created himself from the gossamer fabric of legend itself. —Marc Bernardin

After taking control of Uganda by force in 1971, Amin ruled as the nation’s president for eight years. During that time, the dictator’s regime murdered at least 100,000 people, many of whom supported the overthrown president, Milton Obote. The movie worked because Forest Whitaker, who won the Oscar for Best Actor, managed to present Amin as both a ferocious tyrant and a charismatic leader capable of wooing millions. —John Young

Nash’s mathematical brilliance was severely hindered by mental illness, and Russell Crowe nailed the confusion and humiliation of a veritable genius bedeviled by the voices in his own head. Though the film was criticized for whitewashing elements of Nash’s life, Crowe’s ability to juggle the real and imagined illuminates Nash’s internal struggle. —Jeff Labrecque

Sir Richard Attenborough knows his way around a biopic — having won an Oscar for directing Gandhi — but what makes this look at the mania and mad genius that drove Charlie Chaplin to become one of cinema’s greatest artistes is Robert Downey Jr.’s hauntingly melancholy performance. Here’s where he earned those ”finest actor of his generation” labels…and why it was so sad when he spiraled out. (And why we’re so happy he’s back.) —Marc Bernardin

The self-destruction of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the graffiti-artist-turned-acclaimed-painter of the 1980s SoHo set, and protégé of Andy Warhol, is still a mystery twenty years after he died of a heroin overdose. It’s only fitting then that Julian Schnabel, Basquiat’s friend and rival from the commodified art scene who witnessed his descent into drugs (Basquiat once urinated in Schnabel’s stairwell), would bring the doomed glam artist’s story to the screen. Supported by an eclectic cast including Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love, and David Bowie (as Andy Warhol), Jeffrey Wright plays Basquiat as an impenetrable genius, brimming with perhaps too much talent. —Christian Blauvelt

Director Martin Scorsese made a sprawling, messy film for a sprawling, messy man: Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) hopped from movie producer to aviation mogul with the lighthearted, restless zeal of a boy unable to sit still, and, indeed, the man’s powerful obsessive-compulsive disorder nearly toppled his empire. —Adam B. Vary

When England’s King Henry VIII famously split with the Catholic Church so he could divorce his wife, More (Paul Scofield) — Lord Chancellor of the country — objected, believing it heresy. The Oscar-winning film depicts More as a man of utmost moral and ethical fiber, willing to die, as he did in 1535 by beheading, rather than publicly assent that his king was the leader of the new Church of England. —Adam B. Vary

There have been countless portrayals of the darkly charismatic leader of Nazi Germany, stretching from deeply serious to downright silly, but none as mesmerizing nor as chilling as this portrait of Hitler’s final days in a Berlin bunker. Actor Bruno Ganz (The Reader) flat out nails the man’s gripping bark, commanding a room even while seized with paranoia, hubris, and seething anger — often within the same minute. In fact, the scene in which Ganz as Hitler finally, explosively loses it has become fodder for many YouTube parodies about spectacular failure. —Adam B. Vary

Magazine editor Bauby suffered a stroke and was left totally paralyzed — except for the ability to blink his left eye. Communicating via blinking, he dictated a best-selling memoir describing his ”locked-in” condition. With the slightest of motion, Mathieu Amalric conquers the imposing task of playing a character trapped in his own body. —Jeff Labrecque

An honest cop, Frank Serpico was despised by the NYPD because he refused to accept the bribes that fed his corrupt department. Perfectly cast as the beatnik cop, Al Pacino conveys the frustration and disgust of a man risking his life, on the streets and in the precinct, to expose a crooked bureaucracy. —Jeff Labrecque

In the late ’90s, a young journalist named Stephen Glass enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence by writing a series of access-heavy articles for Washington’s elite weekly, The New Republic. Thing is, he fabricated just about everything. And got caught. Hayden Christensen — in a performance that underlines just how wasted he was in the Star Wars films — makes Glass the worst kind of liar: he came to believe that his lies were the truth. —Marc Bernardin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reed became a darling in Communist circles when he wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, his eyewitness account of the 1918 Russian Revolution. Politically astute Warren Beatty was perfectly suited to play the handsome and idealistic firebrand inspired by the promise of a workers’ utopia. — Jeff Labrecque

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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