Playlists > Biographies, Vol. I

Biographies, Vol. I
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A playlist of film Biographies I like


Creator: Arcangel2020
Posted: 3 years ago
 
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Movie: Gandhi ( 1983 )
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
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Movie: Lincoln ( 2012 )
As the American Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
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Movie: Darkest Hour ( 2017 )
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
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Movie: Ford v Ferrari ( 2019 )
American car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles battle corporate interference and the laws of physics to build a revolutionary race car for Ford in order to defeat Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.
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Movie: Tesla ( 2020 )
A freewheeling take on visionary inventor Nikola Tesla, his interactions with Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan's daughter Anne, and his breakthroughs in transmitting electrical power and light.
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Movie: The Aeronauts ( 2019 )
A balloon pilot and a scientist find themselves in a fight for survival while attempting to make discoveries in a gas balloon in the 1860s.
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Movie: LBJ ( 2017 )
Lyndon B. Johnson aligns himself with John F. Kennedy, rises to the Presidency, and deals with the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
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Movie: Radioactive ( 2020 )
The incredible true story of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world.
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Movie: La Vie en Rose ( 2007 )
Biopic of the iconic French singer Édith Piaf. Raised by her grandmother in a brothel, she was discovered while singing on a street corner at the age of 19. Despite her success, Piaf's life was filled with tragedy.
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Movie: Elizabeth ( 1999 )
The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
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Movie: Elizabeth: The Golden Age ( 2007 )
A mature Queen Elizabeth endures multiple crises late in her reign including court intrigues, an assassination plot, the Spanish Armada, and romantic disappointments.
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Movie: Capone ( 2020 )
After serving ten years in prison, Al Capone is released to live in exile in Florida. Deprived of his former power, sick with syphilis and having lost all his friends and allies, he recalls the grave criminal past and the brutal crimes committed on his orders in the streets of Chicago.
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Movie: Into the Storm ( 2009 )
Continuing the storyline of The Gathering Storm (2002), Churchill at War is a look at the former British prime minister's life and career at the end of WWII.
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Movie: De-Lovely ( 2004 )
De-Lovely is an original musical portrait of American composer Cole Porter, filled with his unforgettable songs. In the film, Porter is looking back on his life as if it was one of his spectacular stage shows, with the people and events of his life becoming the actors and action onstage. Through elaborate production numbers and popular hits like "Anything Goes," "It's De-Lovely," and "Night and Day," Porter's elegant, excessive past comes to light - including his deeply complicated relationship with his wife and muse, Linda Lee Porter.
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Movie: Patton ( 1970 )
"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Europe and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and tendency toward insubordination, faults that would prevent him from becoming the lead American general in the Normandy Invasion as well as to his being relieved as Occupation Commander of Germany.
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Movie: Sid and Nancy ( 1986 )
The relationship between Sid Vicious, bassist for British punk group Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is portrayed.
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Movie: Resistance ( 2020 )
The story of mime Marcel Marceau as he works with a group of Jewish boy scouts and the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II.
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Movie: Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny ( 2010 )
Walking With Destiny highlights Churchill's years in the political wilderness, his early opposition to Adolf Hitler and Nazism, and his support for Jews under threat by the Nazi regime. As historian John Lukacs explains, Churchill may not have won the War in 1940, but without him, the War most certainly would have been lost. Sir Martin Gilbert, historical consultant for the film and Churchill's official biographer, adds that had Churchill's warnings about Nazi Germany's racial policies towards Jews been heeded in the early 1930's, the Holocaust may never have occurred. The film examines why Winston Churchill's legacy continues to be relevant in the 21st Century and explores why his leadership remains inspirational to current day political leaders and diplomats.
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Movie: Tucker: The Man and His Dream ( 1988 )
The story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.
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Movie: Hoffa ( 1992 )
Jack Nicholson's portrait of Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa, as seen through the eyes of his friend Bobby Ciaro (Danny DeVito). This film follows Hoffa's struggle to shape America's most influential labor union through his countless battles with the RTA. As he fights for workers' rights, Hoffa locks horns with industry management, organized crime and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In 1975, four years after serving his prison term, Hoffa disappears, in one of America's most fascinating unsolved crime mysteries.
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Movie: Kundun ( 1998 )
From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.
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Movie: The Madness of King George ( 1994 )
Aging King George III of England (Sir Nigel Hawthorne) is exhibiting signs of madness, a problem little understood in 1788. As the monarch alternates between bouts of confusion and near-violent outbursts of temper, his hapless doctors attempt the ineffectual cures of the day. Meanwhile, Queen Charlotte (Dame Helen Mirren) and Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (Julian Wadham) attempt to prevent the King's political enemies, led by the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett), from usurping the throne.
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Movie: The Motorcycle Diaries ( 2004 )
The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life's calling.
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Movie: Michael Collins ( 1996 )
Neil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.
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Movie: Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy ( 2001 )
A light-hearted look at the life and career of porn star Ron Jeremy, from his devoted fanbase to his unlikely status as a sex symbol and his goal to achieve mainstream success.
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Movie: The Buddy Holly Story ( 1978 )
The story of the life and career of the early rock and roll singer, from his meteoric rise to stardom, to his marriage and untimely death.
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Movie: The Last Man on the Moon ( 2016 )
When Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan stepped off the moon in December 1972 he left his footprints and his daughter's initials in the lunar dust. Only now is he ready to share his epic but deeply personal story of fulfillment, love, and loss.
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Movie: For the Love of Spock ( 2016 )
An examination of the enduring appeal of Leonard Nimoy and his portrayal of Spock in Star Trek (1966).
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Movie: Churchill ( 2017 )
96 hours before the World War II invasion of Normandy, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill struggles with his severe reservations with Operation Overlord and his increasingly marginalized role in the war effort.
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Movie: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story ( 1993 )
A fictionalized account of the life of the martial arts superstar.
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Movie: La Bamba ( 1987 )
This is the true story of Ritchie Valens, a young rock and roll singer who tragically died in a plane crash at age 17. The film follows Ritchie from his days in Pacoima, California where he and his family make a meager living working on farms to his rise as a star. The film also focuses on Ritchie's friendship and rivalry with his older brother Bob Morales and his relationship with Donna Ludwig, his girlfriend.
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Movie: The People vs. Larry Flynt ( 1997 )
The story of a controversial pornography publisher and how he became a defender of free speech.
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Movie: Chaplin ( 1992 )
A movie about the troubled and controversial life of the master comedy filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.
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Movie: The Elephant Man ( 1980 )
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.
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Movie: The Right Stuff ( 1983 )
The story of the original Mercury 7 astronauts and their macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program.
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Movie: Rob Roy ( 1995 )
In the highlands of Scotland in the 1700s, Rob Roy tries to lead his small town to a better future, by borrowing money from the local nobility to buy cattle to herd to market. When the money is stolen, Rob is forced into a Robin Hood lifestyle to defend his family and honor.
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Movie: Che: Part One ( 2008 )
In 1956, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and a band of Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
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Movie: Che: Part Two ( 2009 )
In 1965, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara resigns from his Cuban government posts to secretly make his latest attempt to spread the revolution in Bolivia. After arriving in La Paz, Bolivia late in 1966, by 1967, Che with several Cuban volunteers, have raised a small guerrilla army to take on the militarist Bolivian movement. However, Che must face grim realities about his few troops and supplies, his failing health, and a local population who largely does not share the idealistic aspirations of a foreign troublemaker. As the US supported Bolivian army prepares to defeat him, Che and his beleaguered force struggle against the increasingly hopeless odds.
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Movie: The Young Victoria ( 2009 )
A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert.
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Movie: Mask ( 1985 )
A teenager with a massive facial skull deformity and biker gang mother attempt to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.
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Movie: Ali ( 2001 )
A biography of sports legend Muhammad Ali, focusing on his triumphs and controversies between 1964 and 1974.
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Movie: Secretariat ( 2010 )
Penny Chenery Tweedy and colleagues guide her long-shot but precocious stallion to set, in 1973, the unbeaten record for winning the Triple Crown.
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Movie: The Other Boleyn Girl ( 2008 )
A sumptuous and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in European history: two beautiful sisters, Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson), driven by their family's blind ambition, compete for the love of the handsome and passionate King Henry VIII (Eric Bana).
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Movie: Selena ( 1997 )
The film tells the story of the life of Mexican "Tejano" style singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez and the progress of her career resulting in her No. 1 US album.
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Movie: Factory Girl ( 2007 )
Based on the rise and fall of socialite Edie Sedgwick, concentrating on her relationships with Andy Warhol and a folk singer.
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Movie: The Basketball Diaries ( 1995 )
A teenager finds his dreams of becoming a basketball star threatened after he free falls into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
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Movie: J. Edgar ( 2011 )
J. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the F.B.I. for nearly 50 years, looks back on his professional and personal life.
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Movie: Invincible ( 2006 )
Based on the story of Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender from South Philadelphia who overcame long odds to play for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles in 1976.
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Movie: The Spirit of St. Louis ( 1957 )
Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.
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Movie: Rocketman ( 2019 )
A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.
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Movie: Tolkien ( 2019 )
Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school. This takes him into the outbreak of World War I, which threatens to tear the "fellowship" apart. All of these experiences would inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-Earth novels.
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Movie: The Last King of Scotland ( 2007 )
Having graduated recently from the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, flies to Uganda to work at a missionary clinic run by Dr David Merrit and his wife, Sarah. Before long, Garrigan has a chance encounter with the new President, General Idi Amin, who, right from the start, feels an immediate sympathy for him. As one thing leads to another, after a while, Idi Amin invites Nicholas to become his physician and modernise Uganda's health care system: a once-in-a-lifetime offer that the doctor cannot refuse. However, more and more, Garrigan finds himself trapped in the moral abyss of Idi Amin's murderous megalomania, putting his very soul at risk. When Nicholas finally summons up the courage to rise above the madness, he becomes embroiled in a desperate fight for survival.
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Movie: X-Rated Ambition: The Traci Lords Story ( 2007 )
A documentary about Traci Lords, one of the most popular American porn stars of the 1980s, who almost brought down the industry when it was discovered that she had been under 18 years old.
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Movie: Brian's Song ( 1971 )
Based on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
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Movie: The Professor and the Madman ( 2019 )
Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid-19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor.
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Movie: The Dirt ( 2019 )
Based on Mötley Crüe's 2001 best-selling autobiography, THE DIRT is an unflinching story about sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, fame, and the high price of excess. Director Jeff Tremaine shows us just how Nikki Sixx (Douglas Booth), Mick Mars (Iwan Rheon), Tommy Lee (Colson Baker), and Vince Neil (Daniel Webber) took Mötley Crüe from the Sunset Strip to the world stage, and what it meant to become the world's most notorious rock band.
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Movie: The Krays ( 1990 )
This fact-based movie follows the life of the twin crime-lords in London's '60s underworld.
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Movie: W. ( 2008 )
Oliver Stone's biographical take on the life of George W. Bush, chronicling from his wild and carefree days in college, to his military service, to his governorship of Texas and role in the oil business, his 2000 candidacy for president, his first turbulent four years, and his 2004 re-election campaign.
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Movie: Mary Queen of Scots ( 2018 )
Mary Stuart's attempt to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I, Queen of England, finds her condemned to years of imprisonment before facing execution.
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Movie: Bohemian Rhapsody ( 2018 )
The story of the legendary British rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid (1985).
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Movie: Private Parts ( 1997 )
The autobiographical story of Howard Stern, the radio rebel who is now also a TV personality, an author and a movie star.
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Movie: Wild Bill ( 1995 )
The early career of legendary lawman Wild Bill Hickock is telescoped and culminates in his relocation in Deadwood and a reunion with Calamity Jane.
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Movie: Hitchcock ( 2012 )
The relationship between Sir Alfred Hitchcock (Sir Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Dame Helen Mirren) during the filming of Psycho (1960) in 1959 is explored.
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Movie: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll ( 2010 )
A biography of Ian Dury, who was stricken with polio at a young age and defied expectations by becoming one of the founders of the punk-rock scene in Britain in the 1970s.
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Movie: First Man ( 2018 )
A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
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Movie: Outlaw King ( 2018 )
After being declared "Outlaw" by the occupying English Empire, Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine) raises an army of Scottish fighters in rebellion. Twists and turns all across the Scottish countryside lead this film on an epic, "true to historical events", journey that captures heroism at its core!
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Movie: Ned Kelly ( 2004 )
Though recognized for heroism as a lad, Ned Kelly can not escape the stigma of being the eldest of a brood sired by a known criminal. In days when an arrest equaled guilt and a conviction, his unfair imprisonment for horse thievery puts him steadfast, in the eyes of Victorian police, on the wrong side of things for life. With a sister unable to dissuade the unwanted advances of Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned, his brother Dan, and friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart soon find themselves labeled "an outlaw gang" by the less-than-honorable constable. It's a designation they're apt to live up to after Ned's mother is unfairly arrested and sentenced to three years hard labor. In retaliation, the Kelly Gang strikes out against the oppressive Victorian government, with ultimately tragic results and passage into Australian folklore.
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Movie: Silkwood ( 1984 )
A worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.
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Movie: Gorillas in the Mist ( 1988 )
The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
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Movie: Seven Years in Tibet ( 1997 )
True story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who became friends with the Dalai Lama at the time of China's takeover of Tibet.
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Movie: Kill the Irishman ( 2012 )
The true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's.
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Movie: Ed Wood ( 1994 )
Ambitious but troubled movie director Edward D. Wood Jr. tries his best to fulfill his dreams, despite his lack of talent.
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Movie: Capote ( 2006 )
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
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Movie: Fat Man and Little Boy ( 1989 )
This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built.
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Movie: Elvis ( 1979 )
Biographical movie about the famous rock singer Elvis Presley.
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Movie: Bathory: Countess of Blood ( 2008 )
Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to men's aspirations for power and wealth.
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Movie: Bugsy ( 1991 )
New York gangster Ben Bugsy Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womaniser with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.
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Movie: Milk ( 2009 )
The story of American gay activist Harvey Milk, who fought for gay rights and was elected as California's first openly gay official.
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Movie: Legend ( 2015 )
Identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray terrorize London during the 1960s.
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Movie: Ray ( 2004 )
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
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Movie: Amadeus ( 1984 )
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was insanely jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
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Movie: Miracle ( 2004 )
The true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Soviet squad.
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Movie: The Iron Lady ( 2011 )
An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.
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Movie: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ( 2007 )
Robert Ford, who's idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the reforming gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.
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Movie: Raging Bull ( 1980 )
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, who's violence and temper that lead him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
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Movie: Anthropoid ( 2016 )
ANTHROPOID is based on the extraordinary true story of Operation Anthropoid, the World War II mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich. The Reich's third in command after Hitler and Himmler, Heydrich was the main architect behind the Final Solution and the leader of occupying Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia whose reign of terror prompted self-exiled Czech and Slovak soldiers (played by Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan) to hatch a top-secret mission that would change the face of Europe forever.i
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Movie: The King's Speech ( 2010 )
The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
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Movie: The Queen ( 2006 )
After the death of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted.
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Movie: Monster ( 2004 )
The true story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos who was convicted of luring men to their death and eventually executed in 2002. In 1989, she was working as a prostitute and finally makes a friend when she meets and begins a relationship with a young woman, Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, she tries to find legitimate work but with little education and limited social skills, she fails at every turn. She starts working as a hooker hitching rides along the local interstate highway and after robbing a few clients has an encounter with a vicious client whom she kills in self-defense. After that however she just takes to killing clients taking their money and car. Once arrested she claims self-defense but is eventually convicted.
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Movie: Immortal Beloved ( 1995 )
The life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Besides all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved, and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was--not easy, as Beethoven has had many women in his life.
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Movie: I Saw the Light ( 2016 )
The story of the country-western singer Hank Williams, who in his brief life created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. The film chronicles his rise to fame and its tragic effect on his health and personal life.
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Movie: Cinderella Man ( 2005 )
The story of James Braddock, a supposedly washed-up boxer who came back to become a champion and an inspiration in the 1930s.
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Movie: Gods and Monsters ( 1998 )
The last days of Frankenstein (1931) Director James Whale are explored.
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Movie: Walk the Line ( 2005 )
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
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Movie: Basquiat ( 1996 )
The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
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Movie: Cocaine Godmother ( 2018 )
The real life of Colombian drug lord, Griselda Blanco, who reportedly masterminded more than 200 murders. This film presents her life story from the time she was a young girl to the end of her life.
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Movie: Remember the Titans ( 2000 )
The true story of a newly appointed African-American coach and his high school team on their first season as a racially integrated unit.
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Movie: Erin Brockovich ( 2000 )
Erin Brockovich-Ellis is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, but is having no luck. This losing streak even extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in. With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss. While no one takes her seriously, with her trashy clothes and earthy manners, that soon changes when she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. What she discovers is that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area. As she digs deeper, Erin finds herself leading point in a series of events that would involve her law firm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.
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Movie: Lee Daniels' The Butler ( 2013 )
As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man's life, family, and American society.
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Movie: The Fighter ( 2010 )
Based on the story of Micky Ward, a fledgling boxer who tries to escape the shadow of his more famous but troubled older boxing brother and get his own shot at greatness.