true romance movie review

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There are few objections to "True Romance" that I haven't thought of, and I dismiss them all with a wave of the hand. This is the kind of movie that creates its own universe, and glories in it.

The universe in question could best be located inside the in flamed fantasies of an adolescent male mind - and not any adolescent, but the kind of teenage boy who goes to martial arts movies and fantasizes about guns and girls with great big garbanzos. It is the kind of film that will make the best 10 lists of such supporters of the decline of civilization as Joe Bob Briggs .

And yet that doesn't make it bad. I've always tried to adopt a generic approach to the movies, judging each film in terms of its type and the expectations we have for it. And "True Romance," which feels at times like a fire sale down at the cliche factory, is made with such energy, such high spirits, such an enchanting goofiness, that it's impossible to resist. Check your brains at the door.

The movie's hero, Clarence, played by Christian Slater , is perhaps something like the target audience member for the movie. He works in a comic book store, spends his free time watching kung fu triple-features, and can hardly believe it when a blonde in a low-cut garbanzo-flaunter walks into his life.

Her name is Alabama (uh, huh) and she's played by Patricia Arquette . I guess it goes without saying that she's a hooker; that's the only profession available to the women in a movie like this, and is sort of convenient, because it means she doesn't have any regular hours, no parents, and is available, at least for a price. Of course such hookers, in such movies, never charge the hero anything; Clarence exudes a magnetic appeal that transcends commerce, I guess, like Billy Idol over at Heidi's house.

Alabama is actually a bit of an innocent. She's only been a hooker for four days (or four clients, I forget), but that has been long enough for her to pick up a vicious pimp ( Gary Oldman ), who Clarence has to deal with. Clarence is courageous and stupid, two invaluable assets in this situation, and eliminates the pimp in a prelude to a cross-country odyssey, after, in a series of tortured plot manipulations, he and Alabama have come into possession of $5 million of the mob's cocaine, which they plan to sell at a discount, before flying to Rio.

"True Romance" was directed by Tony Scott , whose movies like " Top Gun " and " Days Of Thunder " show an affection for boys and their toys. But the film's real author, his stamp on every line of every scene, is Quentin Tarantino . As in " Reservoir Dogs ," his 1992 directorial debut, Tarantino creates a world of tough guys, bravado, lurid melodrama, easy women, betrayal, guns and drugs. In his world, "low cut" is to "neckline" as "fast" is to "car." The movie hurtles from scene to scene, aiming for a climax which will strike "Reservoir Dogs" fans as curiously familiar. In both films, the plot ingeniously arrives at a moment where all of the warring parties are in the same room at the same time, simultaneously shooting at each other.

There isn't a moment of "True Romance" that stands up under much thought, and yet the energy and style of the movie are exhilirating. Christian Slater has the kind of cocky recklessness the movie needs, and Patricia Arquette portrays a fetching combinati on of bimbo and best pal. The supporting cast is superb, a roll call of actors at home in these violent waters: Christopher Walken , Dennis Hopper and Brad Pitt , for example.

And then there is Val Kilmer , fresh from " The Doors ," playing yet another dead rock hero. He lurks in the background of several scenes, as a muse who visits Christian Slater from time to time, dispensing heartfelt advice.

Would you be surprised if I revealed that this figure is, in fact, the ghost of Elvis Presley ? You would not? You will find yourself right at home here.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

True Romance (1993)

Rated R For Strong Violence and Language, and For Sexuality and Drug Use

120 minutes

Christian Slater as Clarence Worley

Patricia Arquette as Alabama Whitman

Dennis Hopper as Clifford Worley

Val Kilmer as Mentor

Directed by

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True romance, common sense media reviewers.

Violent cult thriller has strong language, sex, drugs.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Examples of people following their heart and stayi

Clarence and Alabama love each other, but are reck

Male and female leads -- the female lead works as

Multiple deaths by gunshot, from shotgun and pisto

Topless male and female nudity from front, full ma

Language used includes "f--k," "f---ing," "s--t,"

Some characters live luxurious lifestyles. A drug

Characters drink alcohol socially and smoke cigare

Parents need to know that True Romance is a cult crime thriller with near-constant strong violence and language, including racist and homophobic slurs. Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette star as Clarence and Alabama, who meet, quickly fall in love,…

Positive Messages

Examples of people following their heart and staying loyal to and protecting the ones they love. However, much of the plot revolves around characters attempting to improve their lives by monetary gain via illegal methods, including drug dealing and violence.

Positive Role Models

Clarence and Alabama love each other, but are reckless, impulsive, and disregard the law. They steal some drugs with the intention of selling it for financial gain. Dick is kind and helpful but also naive. Many of the supporting characters are violent criminals who resort to force and intimidation to achieve their goals.

Diverse Representations

Male and female leads -- the female lead works as a "call girl." Some ethnic diversity among the supporting cast. More than one language spoken. White male writers and directors. Racist language used often -- including one extended scene with repeated use of the "N" word. Brief uses of homophobic and transphobic language.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Multiple deaths by gunshot, from shotgun and pistol fire. Bloody injuries. Punches thrown in violent scuffles. Character tortured, beaten, and cut with a knife. Substance poured into his wounds. Man beats woman until she is bloody. Character stabbed with a corkscrew, set fire to.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Topless male and female nudity from front, full male and female nudity from rear. Kissing. Partially clothed sex in a public place. Reference to sex acts. One of the two main leads works as a "call girl."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language used includes "f--k," "f---ing," "s--t," "bulls--t," "s--tty," "dogs--t," "motherf----r," "whore", "p---y," "ass," "a--hole," "d--k," "bitch," "t--ties," "damn," "ass," "hell," "c--k," and "son of a bitch." "God" and "Jesus" used as exclamations. Transphobic and homophobic slurs including "f-g" and "f--got." Racist language used includes repeated use of the "N" word, along with "eggplant," "wop," and "guinea."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Some characters live luxurious lifestyles. A drug dealer boasts about their possessions.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink alcohol socially and smoke cigarettes and cigars. Large amounts of cocaine shown, dealt, and taken by some characters. Character smokes pot to the point of constant intoxication. Some drug taking played for comic effect.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that True Romance is a cult crime thriller with near-constant strong violence and language, including racist and homophobic slurs. Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino , Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette star as Clarence and Alabama, who meet, quickly fall in love, and then find themselves involved in an unlikely drug deal. Both characters are loyal and loving, but display violent tendencies, albeit mainly when threatened by others. Violence is a recurring theme in the movie, as are drugs and drug use. Characters are shot, stabbed, and beaten, which results in strong bloody injuries and death. Cocaine is frequently shown and discussed, while one supporting character, Floyd ( Brad Pitt ), habitually smokes pot and lives a "stoner" lifestyle. Sex features occasionally, with male and female nudity shown. Sex is also discussed at times, with reference to oral and other sex acts, while Alabama works as a "call girl." Language is strong and frequent, with variants of "f--k" and "s--t" used throughout. There are also several uses of homophobic and racist slurs. This includes an extended scene where the "N" word is used repeatedly. Christopher Walken , Dennis Hopper , and Gary Oldman also star. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

Is it any good.

This Quentin Tarantino -penned crime thriller rode the wave of its writer's rapid ascent in the early 1990s to attract an all-star crew and cast. Drawn to the rising star's ability to mix quotable dialogue with dazzlingly violent set pieces, action veteran Tony Scott expertly directs this gonzo tale, with enduring turns from Slater and Arquette as True Romance 's lead roles. While there's more than a hint of adolescent wish-fulfillment in Slater's comic book nerd Clarence's wooing of Arquette's Alabama, a self-identifying "call girl" with a fierce spirit and a heart of gold, the film commits to its wild ride so unapologetically it's easy to see why its fans were so willing to be drawn into its pulpy, day-glo world.

Joining the party for brief but memorable cameos are all of Christopher Walken , Dennis Hopper , Gary Oldman , and Brad Pitt . These stars pooling their considerable talents only add to the dizzying pace of a movie that moves quickly across its two-hour runtime, heading full-steam to a chaotic but unforgettable finale. While it might not have garnered the same critical praise as the Tarantino-helmed Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs , True Romance has a charm of its own, which makes it impossible not to love.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in True Romance . Was it shocking? Thrilling? What consequences were there? Does exposure to violent media desensitize kids to violence?

Discuss the strong language used in the movie. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

How were drinking, smoking, and drugs portrayed? Were there consequences? Did it glamorize them?

How did the movie portray sex and relationships? Was Clarence and Alabama's relationship affectionate? Respectful? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 10, 1993
• On DVD or streaming : September 24, 2002
• Cast : Christian Slater , Patricia Arquette , Dennis Hopper
• Director : Tony Scott
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 119 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong violence and language, and for sexuality and drug use
• Last updated : December 5, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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True Romance

The footprints of dozens of classic thrillers are imprinted on the slick, violent and energetic "True Romance." One of the endless variations on the couple-on-the-run subgenre, yarn provides some amazing encounters, bravura acting and gruesome carnage. But it doesn't add up to enough, as preposterous plotting and graphic violence ultimately prove an audience turnoff and will limit the film's commercial prospects.

By Leonard Klady

Leonard Klady

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The footprints of dozens of classic thrillers are imprinted on the slick, violent and energetic “True Romance.” One of the endless variations on the couple-on-the-run subgenre, yarn provides some amazing encounters, bravura acting and gruesome carnage. But it doesn’t add up to enough, as preposterous plotting and graphic violence ultimately prove an audience turnoff and will limit the film’s commercial prospects.

The odd couple of the piece are Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette), respectively a young man working in a comic-book store and a gal on the job on the streets of Detroit. Alabama has been hired, without Clarence’s knowledge, to be his birthday date. But the not-so-chance encounter blossoms into true love, marriage and an abandonment of her former career.

Clarence, on the pretense of picking up Alabama’s suitcase, walks into the lair of dreadlocked pimp Drexl (Gary Oldman). Better judgment would have him steer clear of the haunt, but this is a movie. During a scuffle Clarence kills Drexl and grabs what he thinks is his wife’s suitcase — of course, it’s the wrong one.

Opening the Pandora’s box reveals a fortune in uncut cocaine. The young man is smart enough to know he’s in a lot of trouble. He also foolishly believes he can skip town, sell the stash and escape to some remote paradise — in this case, Hollywood.

Building on a shaky premise and relying on coincidence and sleight-of-hand, “True Romance” rides along largely on the power of its colorful rogues’ gallery. In addition to Oldman’s gleeful incarnation of evil, there’s dopey fun to be derived from Brad Pitt’s space cadet and Saul Rubinek as a Hollywood producer whose ego transcends morality, law and common sense. Slater and Arquette provide a charged sexuality to the proceedings, elevating the essentially inane material.

Sure to elicit the most notice is a scene between Mafioso Chris Walken and Dennis Hopper as Clarence’s ex-cop dad. It is a testament to the two actors that their work transcends racist dialogue and in-your-face brutality.

Movie mavens have a veritable field to plow in the Quentin Tarantino screenplay. Cinematic references are rife, but the story’s downfall can be credited in part to the writer’s wholehearted embrace of both the best and worst of the noir canon. Pic also suffers because its reality base is other films, with only glancing reference to the outside world.

Tony Scott effects a slick style that is visually arresting if too obvious. Entire film is elegantly packaged on all levels. Still, it doesn’t blunt the inevitable disappointment when unwrapped.

(Crime-romance -- Color)

• Production: A Warner Bros. release of a Morgan Creek production in association with Davis Film. (Foreign sales: August Entertainment.) Produced by Bill Unger, Steve Perry , Samuel Hadida. Executive producers, James G. Robinson, Gary Barber, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Stanley Margolis. Directed by Tony Scott. Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor), Jeffrey Kimball; editors, Michael Tronick, Christian Wagner; music, Hans Zimmer; production design, Benjamin Fernandez; art direction, James Murakami; set decoration, Thomas Roysden; costume design, Susan Becker; sound (Dolby), William Kaplan; casting, Risa Bramon Garcia, Billy Hopkins. Reviewed at the Mann Westwood, L.A., Aug. 13, 1993 . MPAA rating: R. Running time: 116 mins.
• With: Clarence Worley ... Christian Slater Alabama Whitman ... Patricia Arquette Clifford Worley ... Dennis Hopper Drexl Spivey ... Gary Oldman Floyd ... Brad Pitt Vincenzo Coccotti ... Christopher Walken Mentor ... Val Kilmer Elliot Blitzer ... Bronson Pinchot Dick Ritchie ... Michael Rapaport Lee Donowitz ... Saul Rubinek Nick Dimes ... Chris Penn Cody Nicholson ... Tom Sizemore Big Don ... Samuel L. Jackson

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True Romance Reviews

While it might not have garnered the same critical praise as the Tarantino-helmed Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, True Romance has a charm of its own, which makes it impossible not to love.

Full Review | Dec 10, 2023

'...the perenially absorbing kinetic character collisions of True Romance are worth savouring...'

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 1, 2023

The varying sensibilities of Quentin Tarantino and Tony Scott come together to fashion one of the cornerstone films of the early 1990s.

Full Review | Jul 22, 2022

wildly improbable and delightfully unpredictable, even when charging through some very familiar territory

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 12, 2022

A bubble-gum movie packed with quirky characters and moving at the speed of a ricocheting pinball.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 3, 2022

Scott had a knack for drawing out emotions from his actors, which in turn, creates strong performances and a movie in which audiences can become emotionally invested.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 27, 2022

“True Romance” remains a sweet, if not strange, romantic action comedy from one of the best directors in modern cinema, written by one of cinema’s highest rated screenwriters, and featuring a cast that’s wall-to-wall incredible…

Full Review | Jun 26, 2022

This is the realm of meta-cinema, where those who make movies, those who long to be in them and those who model their behaviour on them all come together to contrive between them a classic movie climax: a shoot-out...

Full Review | Jul 19, 2021

Gritty, shocking, sexy, and violent, Tony Scott's film feels like the perfect union between frenetic action, darkly humorous mayhem, and biting dialogue.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 25, 2020

Admittedly, the model is still weird, filled with unexpected twists and poetic outbursts, but in this case, the offspring is equally creative in its sense of verbal sequence. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 17, 2020

... a brilliant story... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 14, 2018

Tarantino only writes stand- out scenes. The plot moves from one brilliantly off-beat moment to the next.

Full Review | Nov 28, 2017

This is the best film Quentin Tarantino never made.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 22, 2015

Quentin Tarantino's dirty, funny and unpredictably violent genius powers True Romance, directed by Tony Scott.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 19, 2015

The whole thing rattles along like that pink Cadillac they're driving.

The only thing that goes wrong with the movie is Christian Slater... the failure of its central character ends up being an irritation, but not a film-crippling problem.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 22, 2013

...a pulpy good time that holds up remarkably well two decades after its theatrical release...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2013

...[a] violently funny genre mishmash that gave Tony Scott's new life, and also transmitted Quentin Tarantino's vision more credibly than the screenwriter and then-novice director could have done himself.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Sep 7, 2011

If shoot-'em-up, gobble-'em-down movies like The Fugitive and Jurassic Park are rated PG-13 these days, what does an R-rated action adventure look like? Like True Romance: violent to a fault, glam to the max.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2009

• Warner Bros.

Summary This rock'n'roll adventure story tells of two unlikely lovers who accidentally double-cross the Detroit mob by stealing valuable contraband. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette flee to Los Angeles where they are sought by both gangsters and cops. (Warner Bros.)

Directed By : Tony Scott

Written By : Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary

Where to Watch

Christian Slater

Clarence worley.

Patricia Arquette

Alabama whitman.

Dennis Hopper

Clifford worley.

Gary Oldman

Drexl spivey.

Floyd (Dick's Roommate)

Christopher Walken

Vincenzo coccotti, bronson pinchot, elliot blitzer.

Samuel L. Jackson

Michael Rapaport

Dick ritchie.

Saul Rubinek

Lee donowitz.

Conchata Ferrell

Mary louise ravencroft.

James Gandolfini

Anna thomson.

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True Romance – Tarantino's early classic rattles on like a pink Cadillac

Funkily off-topic conversations, Mexican stand-offs and other Tarantino tropes are all here in the violent thriller he scripted and Tony Scott directed in 1993

Q uentin Tarantino’s excellent screenplay for his violent thriller True Romance (now on rerelease) was given a glossy, high-energy, if conventional treatment by Tony Scott in 1993, a year after Tarantino’s debut as a fully fledged writer-director with Reservoir Dogs. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette play Clarence and Alabama, two sexy young lovers who hit the road with cocaine belonging to Alabama’s pimp.

Many of the familiar tropes are already there: funkily off-topic pop culture conversations, Mexican stand-offs, martial arts cinephilia and crooked Hollywood producers who show the influence of Elmore Leonard, later to resurface in Tarantino’s superlative work on Jackie Brown . But Scott doesn’t have the angular and hard-edged comic-book clarity of Tarantino’s style, and the choices of music here aren’t as bold. Using the Delibes’ Flower Duet four years after the British Airways ad is a little off.

Patricia Arquette is great, although Christian Slater is comprehensively out-acted and out-charismad by everyone else on screen: by Arquette, by smouldering supporting turns such as Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken, and by the soon-to-be stars such as Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. There is some superbly off-the-wall misheard dialogue. (“Who the fuck is Dick?” – “You … want to suck his dick?”) and the whole thing rattles along like that pink Cadillac they’re driving.

• Quentin Tarantino
• Drama films
• Patricia Arquette
• Christian Slater

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Most viewed.

True Romance (United States, 1993)

It's dangerous to live in Quentin Tarantino's world, as Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) discovers in the explosive True Romance . When Clarence, a loner with a love of low-budget Kung Fu movies, meets Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette), a callgirl, it's love at first sight. After a heady night spent in each other's arms and out on a billboard making true confessions, the two decide to get married. After that, at the advise of an Elvis (Val Kilmer), who inhabits Clarence's mind, the young bridegroom decides to go to Alabama's pimp (Gary Oldman) and tell him that she's through working. A vicious gunfight ensues, leaving two people dead and Clarence with a suitcase of high-value cocaine that everybody, including mob boss Vincenzo Coccoti (Christopher Walken), wants to get their hands on.

There's good news and bad news about True Romance . The good news is that it's written by Quentin Tarantino, the man who made a stunning splash as the writer/director of last year's Reservoir Dogs . The bad news is that he didn't direct it. At the helm instead is Tony Scott, the man who foisted Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II on us.

Like Reservoir Dogs , True Romance is filled with witty dialogue; sharp, macabre humor; and more bullets and blood than one would think likely for the running time. Tarantino's script is loaded with energy and brimming with power. This film is a wild, wild ride whose slower moments are still punctuated by one-liners that only one other screenwriter (David Mamet) seems capable of penning.

Director Scott tries his hardest to turn this film into a typical Hollywood picture suitable for mass consumption. His style lacks punch -- he goes for the safe, pretty shots that can be found in almost any action film. It makes one wonder how different this movie might have been had Tarantino made it. His methods, which borrow heavily from John Woo and Martin Scorcese, are stark and crisp, and probably would have complemented the script nicely.

The story, however, isn't seriously damaged by the pedestrian direction. However deeply Scott was involved in the film's production, he left much of the script intact (except the ending, which he turned into a cop-out). Those who have seen Reservoir Dogs will recognize the similarities, which include a hilarious opening conversation ( True Romance 's is about Elvis where Reservoir Dogs ' is about Madonna's "Like a Virgin") and a multi-sided, drawn-guns showdown.

One memorable scene is a confrontation between mob don Christopher Walken and Clarence's father (Dennis Hopper). Sparks, as well as any number of racial epithets, fly during this visceral and violent tete-a-tete, which includes some of Tarantino's best dialogue and Scott's most proficient direction. Walken has never been more sardonically menacing, and Hopper somehow manages to give an impression of restraint. In a word, this four-minute gem is astounding.

The romance between Clarence and Alabama seemed forced. Necessary though it is to the plot, it's rushed through too quickly, and I had a hard time accepting how desperately in love these two are supposed to be. However, while their romantic chemistry is in doubt, they make great partners when it comes to crime, bloodshed, and being on the run. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette (whose appearance is unbelievably different from that of her last part, in Ethan Frome ) are reasonable choices for these roles, knowing how to put the right amount of energy into Clarence and Alabama without turning them into caricatures.

Tarantino is a hot prospect now, which is good for anyone who enjoys this kind of intense, unapologetically violent thriller. True Romance is vastly inferior to Reservoir Dogs , but it gives his fans something to chew on until his next project (to be called Pulp Fiction ) is released next year. Despite Tony Scott's occasional blundering, True Romance is still a visceral roller coaster.

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True Romance Review

02 Feb 1993

120 minutes

True Romance

WARNING : MINOR PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD

Quentin Tarantino’s True Romance script is an elaborate, extended fantasy that sees a geeky shop assistant transformed into a great lover, a vengeful vigilante and, ultimately, a smooth criminal. Meanwhile, the story lacks any kind of emotional or moral consequence: the hero gets his father killed, the heroine guns down a cop during a drug deal gone sour, but they both drive off happily into the sunset, untainted by the mayhem they have left in their wake.

Are we expected to buy into this bloody fairytale? Are we supposed to like these self-obsessed, homicidal maniacs? The answer to both these questions is a resounding yes, because the wishes being fulfilled here belong to former geeky shop assistant Quentin Tarantino, and he had the talent to flesh out his fantasy with vividly-drawn characters spouting instantly classic dialogue during jaw-dropping set-pieces.

The I’d fuck Elvis speech that introduces comic book clerk Clarence, the rooftop confession and declaration of love by Alabama, the showdown with Drexl, Virgil at the motel and, of course, the Sicilian scene are all hugely appealing to any budding hopeful. What Tarantino couldnt have known when he was scribbling away behind the counter at Video Archives, however, is that they would be equally attractive to established and, in some cases, legendary stars.

Despite his earlier reservations, Pitt signed on to play a bone idle stoner flatmate; the notoriously picky Gary Oldman sank his post-Dracula teeth into the role of a racially-confused pimp; and Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore and Samuel L. Jackson happily played virtual bit parts. Add never-to-be-bettered work from Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette to the mix, and you already have something special. But the genuinely great moments in True Romance belong to James Gandolfini, Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken.

Even with an excellent screenplay and a rogues gallery of protagonists waiting to be brought to life, any film needs the right director, and True Romance boasts an ideal helmer in the unlikely shape of Tony Scott. Who better than the director of Top Gun to bring an arrested adolescents fantasy to life? Scott verges on self-parody in terms of the gloss and pace he brings to proceedings, giving the movie a relentless energy that never allows the audience to stop and consider the absurdity of it all.

Alabamas execution of Virgil, complete with feral scream and lovingly photographed, blood-soaked breasts, earned the film notoriety and a run-in with the censors, although Scotts approach to the material is best summed up by another, less controversial creative decision. The script has Clarences initial drug-hawking meeting with Elliot take place, unremarkably enough, in a zoo, but the director wanted something with a little more pizzazz, so he set the sequence on a rollercoaster. Tarantino is overstating the case when he compares Scott to undervalued auteurs of the past (Douglas Sirk he aint), but theres no doubt he was perfect to orchestrate this wild ride.

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True Romance

• 4K UHD Blu-ray edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• August 01 2022

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STEALING. CHEATING. KILLING.

WHO SAYS ROMANCE IS DEAD?

In 1993, action movie supremo Tony Scott teamed up with a hot new screenwriter named Quentin Tarantino to bring True Romance to the screen, one of the most beloved and widely-quoted films of the decade.

Elvis-worshipping comic book store employee Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) is minding his own business at a Sonny Chiba triple bill when Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) walks into his life – and from then on, the two are inseparable. Within 24 hours, they’re married and on the run after Clarence is forced to kill Alabama’s possessive, psychopathic pimp. Driving a Cadillac across the country from Detroit to Hollywood, the newlyweds plan to sell off a suitcase full of stolen drugs to fund a new life for themselves... but little do they suspect that the cops and the Mafia are closing in on them. Will they escape and make their dream of a happy ending come true?

Breathtaking action set pieces and unforgettably snappy dialogue combine with a murderers’ row of sensational performances from a stunning ensemble cast in Scott and Tarantino’s blood-soaked, bullet-riddled valentine, finally restored in dazzling 4K with hours of brilliant bonus features.

Picture 9/10

Released last year in the UK and now making its way over to North America, Arrow Video presents their 4K UHD edition for Tony Scott’s True Romance , presenting both the theatrical and director’s cuts in the aspect ratio of about 2.39:1. The two versions are presented via seamless branching on a triple-layer disc with 2160p/24hz ultra high-definition encodes and Dolby Vision. They are both sourced from a recent 4K restoration conducted by Arrow and scanned from the 35mm original camera negative.

Since the release of the 2002 special edition DVD it appears all home video releases have used the same dated high-def master, Warner’s previous Blu-ray included. For what it was it did the job, but the end results were visibly digital and the film was in dire need of a new master. Thankfully Arrow was there to answer the call.

Arrow’s new restoration and end digital presentation are far cleaner and more film-like in comparison to all of those previous presentations. There’s a very grainy texture to the image now that looks far cleaner and more natural, lending the picture that grittier look that I’m sure Scott and director of photography Jeffrey L. Kimball were going for but was nowhere to the same effect in prior releases. The original photography and grainy nature can limit the finer details at times so the image maybe doesn’t come off as sharp or well defined as one may expect for the format, but that film texture is there and it's rendered perfectly.

The restoration work has cleaned up things beautifully, nary a mark or scratch present. HDR10 and Dolby Vision also boost things wonderfully when it comes to rendering the colours once things move down to L.A., not so much in Detroit (though the diner and comic bookstore manage to throw in some sharp blues and reds). There’s a scene where Saul Rubinek’s character is driving along the highway at what appears to be sunset, and I thought the colours in the sky and how the sun hits his face all had a wonderful pop to them.

Highlights look good but things are kept toned down a bit, nothing appearing overly hot yet still inching out some minor details. The darker sequences probably receive the most notable boost, Drexl’s (Gary Oldman) lair being a stand-out, dark overall but with strong pops of red that bleed nicely through the scene. I was also rather impressed with how the scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in the latter’s dark trailer comes out, with the light creeping in wherever it can. The shadows look exceptionally good in this scene, and I like how the light reflects off of Hopper’s security jacket. Scott’s smoky interiors, which there are plenty of (with light always leaking in from somewhere) also come out looking cleaner with smoother gradients.

The end results end up being a vast improvement over Warner’s previous releases with the wider dynamic range sealing the deal. It looks great.

[SDR screen grabs have been taken from the source disc and converted to JPG files. They are presented in full resolution and may not properly fit some monitors. While the screen grabs should offer a general idea of quality, they should not be used for reference purposes. Due to technical issues I was unable to take screen grabs from the last 30-minutes of the film.]

Arrow includes the film’s original stereo audio presented in lossless PCM along with the 5.1 surround soundtrack presented in DTS-HD MA. I only listened to the 5.1 surround soundtrack.

Dialogue is clean and clear, never edgy (even when people are yelling) and the score by Hans Zimmer (that plays off of Badland ’s score) is crisp and clear with incredible fidelity, allowing you to make out each xylophone and marimba strike. The film’s primarily rock soundtrack blasts beautifully through the surrounds but it’s the more action-packed sequences that take full advantage of the home theater set-up, from the shoot-out in Drexl’s lair to the film’s final stand-off. Even the scene that takes place on a Six Flags roller coaster pushes sounds through all directions. It’s incredibly dynamic and rich.

Arrow throws together an impressive package for the film, even managing to include  both the theatrical and director’s cuts of the film, the theatrical one not available in North America since it was first released on VHS (and if I recall correctly only Blockbusters stocked them). They also end up porting over most of the material found on Warner’s previous special editions while also creating their own. As with the previous special editions things start off with the three audio commentaries recorded for the 2002 special edition DVD: one featuring director Tony Scott , another featuring writer Quentin Tarantino , and the other featuring actors Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette . The Arquette/Slater one has always been a disappointment for me and revisiting it hasn’t changed my thoughts much: despite the two having great chemistry together I can’t say I found the track particularly engaging. They do offer interesting insights into their characters and share a few stories around the production, but I found there to be a lot of dead space with the two just chiming in as though they've been elbowed to say something.

The other two tracks prove to be substantially better. Scott’s is very technical, which isn’t a surprise as most of his tracks are, and he talks about his decisions and the development of his style, which did begin to shift more experimental at this point. He also talks about Tarantino’s script and how he left it mostly intact, the most significant change being the ending, a topic covered elsewhere. What I most enjoyed, though, is Scott’s discussions around vibing with Tarantino and the script. He admits that while he enjoyed the script he didn’t quite “get it” at first, but by talking to Tarantino and being exposed to the films that influenced the script he came to realize that the movie is, at heart, more a fantasy than something that should be taken seriously. Tarantino also introduced him to John Woo and other filmmakers, which almost certainly influenced this film as well, and that’s also why there are clips from stuff like A Better Tomorrow II .

Tarantino was never on-set so his track doesn’t have much to offer around the production itself yet he still manages to build off of Scott’s track by explaining his own vision for the film that he had initially intended to direct, and how the story and film ultimately shifted as it gets filtered through Scott’s sensibilities. He shares some acute observations in this area, adding an academic angle that ends up being a bit of a surprise. Tarantino also talks about first writing the script and the long struggle he faced in selling it after he couldn’t raise the funds to direct it himself. This also leads to him talking about Reservoir Dogs with some comments on his script for Natural Born Killers . Tarantino’s commentaries can be a bit much  admittedly but this is probably one of his better tracks since he comes off more focused compared to some of his other ones

If three audio commentaries aren’t enough Arrow adds a brand new one featuring critic Tim Lucas . The track, in its own way, ends up being a bit of a summarization of the other three tracks with the added benefit of being from an outside party three decades removed from the film’s production, so Lucas can look at it better in the context of both Scott’s and Tarantino’s respective careers (their paths would cross again briefly with Crimson Tide ). The biggest benefit of this fourth track is that it sounds as though Lucas is referencing an earlier version of the script that allows him to build off of Tarantino’s track when it comes to what was changed from paper to screen. He also talks about the film as a fantasy from the perspective of a young man who grew up on movies, the action of the characters all feeling to reflect things they would have seen onscreen. There are brief examinations of the careers of the film’s now incredibly impressive cast and how those careers changed following this film, and Lucas even briefly gets into why the two cuts of the film exist. It is well put together and has information not found elsewhere but listening to it after the other three does make it feel a little unnecessary.

All of the commentaries are only available with the director’s cut.

Arrow also ports over the select-scene commentaries originally recorded for the special edition DVD featuring Dennis Hopper (11-minutes), Val Kilmer (4-minutes), Brad Pitt (6-minutes) and Michael Rappaport (34-minutes), before adding newly recorded ones featuring Saul Rubinek (7-minutes) and Bronson Pinchot (16-minutes). As expected the edited segments only play over the participant’s respective scenes, so this leads to both Kilmer’s and Pitt’s being disappointingly short. Kilmer mentions (as it's noted elsewhere) that he was made up to look like Elvis and it was only later that it was decided for his face not be shown (which he was fine with) and Pitt talks about how he was up for a bigger role but turned it down because he didn’t understand the script at the time. He had enough interest, though, to play a smaller part and it sounds as though he was given free reign with it.

Rappaport ends up being the most excited of the group, clearly aware of the boost this film gave to him. He also relates his character (a struggling actor looking for his big break) to his own experiences at the time and he talks about how he ended up a little lost during filming because he was so focused on his own part. Hopper’s contribution ends up being a bit disappointing since there is, despite being only 11-minutes, a surprising amount of dead space, an issue that has come up in other tracks I've listened to featuring him. Still, he talks about working with Walken on their scene together and recounts concerns he had over a prop gun to be used in a scene only for Scott to end up demonstrating on himself to show how safe it was and for that demonstration to not go well (Scott confirms the story in his commentary).

The new recordings featuring Rubinek and Pinchot end up being the best ones even though they’re more standard phone interviews than “commentaries”; the two are clearly not watching the film. Rubinek’s ends up being funny because it sounds as though he got the role because Scott thought he was doing a spot-on impersonation of producer Joel Silver, whom Rubinek was not at all familiar with. Pinchot’s piece ends up being the most endearing one, the actor excitedly talking about what he was able to contribute to the film, like the vomit (which is also shown in one of the production featurettes elsewhere). Pinchot also talks about the casting process where he suspects Scott was maybe a little annoyed with him since Pinchot had refused to return for Beverly Hills Cop II , which Scott had directed. Despite that he found the experience working with him rewarding and he mentions how devastated he was when he learned of Scott’s death. This ends up being the best new contribution and based on the original listing of supplements (for the 2021 UK edition) it looks like it was added last minute. It was well worth it.

Arrow also includes a handful of new interviews with members of the crew, including costume designer Susan Becker (10-minutes), co-editor Michael Tronick (11-minutes), and co-composers Mark Mancina and John Van Tongeren (11-minutes). Becker’s is interesting as she talks about creating the characters through their outfits, which includes Pitt’s Floyd (though she contradicts Pitt’s comments around his Rasta Cap from his select-scene commentary) and the two co-composers go over the collaboration with Hans Zimmer and mentions what sequences they contributed to. Of the three I was probably most fond of Tronick’s interview since his ends up being far more technical in nature, the co-editor explaining how Scott would make sure he got the coverage he needed, even doing the second unit work, and the difficulty they had run into in getting an R rating with the MPAA. For video they were then able to come back to it and deliver the director’s cut.

Larry Taylor then supplies a 7-minute appreciation/profile of Tony Scott and how his style evolved after this film. He ends up calling Man on Fire the most Tony Scott film. He admires True Romance ’s energy and feels it might have been ahead of its time, maybe doing better financially if it had come out after Pulp Fiction . I’m not all too sure about that but then the film did seem to gain more recognition after that film was released, more than likely due to the Tarantino connection.

Also ported over from previous editions are 11 deleted and extended scenes running 29-minutes in total and accompanied by an optional commentary featuring Scott. There is an additional scene with Walken and another scene featuring the film’s two young lovers before things take off, but most of the material here ends up falling under the “extended” category, most of the excisions appearing to be slight trims. Scott more or less confirms this, saying the trims simply helped with the pacing and keeping the energy up (though admits there are things he wishes he kept in).

Accompanying that is the film’s alternate ending , which is brought up many times in the commentaries. It’s also presented here with separate optional commentaries featuring Scott and Tarantino. Tarantino’s script had a different outcome for the film’s two central characters and Tarantino was dead-set on that being the ending. Scott, on the other hand, didn’t feel it was right. It ended up becoming a point of contention between the two and Scott decided to shoot both endings and decide from there. In the optional commentary Tarantino agrees that for this film Scott’s ending does work better. And I must agree with that sentiment after seeing Tarantino’s ending. I see where Tarantino was originally coming from but as pointed out throughout the features Scott’s take on the script places the story in a fantasy movie world and Tarantino’s harsher ending ends up feeling out of place. If he had directed it, as he mentions, it probably would have fit.

The rest of the material is all archival in nature, most of it also appearing on previous releases. There are four featurettes including two U.S. featurettes running over five-and-a-half minutes each, an international featurette running 8-minutes, and then 15-minutes’ worth of behind-the-scenes footage. The behind-the-scenes footage is just that and features footage from the Hopper/Walken sequence and then scenes around the roller coaster later in the film. That footage also includes the application of “vomit” to Bronson Pinchot’s sweater (made from bran muffin apparently). The other featurettes then include quick interviews with some of the cast members while also offering a brief synopsis of the film. The international one has a bit more depth and includes Slater and Gary Oldman talking in a little more detail about their characters.

Arrow also includes what looks to be the raw interview footage featuring Scott, Slater, Arquette, Hopper and Oldman, running about 13-minutes altogether. Some of this footage does appear in the featurettes but there’s additional footage here that includes both Hopper and Oldman talking about this up-and-comer named Tarantino, Hopper seeming specially smitten.

Closing the disc are galleries that feature over 70 production photos along with stills of posters and video art from around the world, alongside a collection of trailers that include the U.S. and international spots, the latter of which ends up being more graphic. A U.S. television spot is also included.

As noted before the disc also includes both the theatrical and director’s cuts of the film. The differences come down mostly to violence but there are also a couple of different edits including a notable difference during the final showdown and involving Chris Penn’s character. As noted in the section around the picture presentation, the quality of the two presentations is the same.

This limited edition then includes a few postcards and a reversible fold-out poster featuring the new artwork on one side and an original poster on the other. There is also a 59-page booklet that starts out with a great appreciation for the film written by writer/screenwriter Kim Morgan addressing the film’s energy, its sense of self-awareness (even if Tarantino wasn’t aware of it himself at the time), and its performances. Morgan also offers her own small bit of appreciation for Tony Scott and his work, but Nicholas Clement provides a lengthier one in the following essay, which mourns the talent lost and looks at his work as a whole, even addressing how his style could divide critics. Following that essay is a reprinting of a 2008 Maxim article chronicling the making of the film through interviews with key members of the cast and crew from Scott and Tarantino to most of the cast, including James Gandolfini, who was especially excited to be able to watch Hopper and Walken work. The booklet then ends with another appreciation for Scott, this time written by director Edgar Wright who opens by recounting going to see what would turn out to be the director’s last film, Unstoppable , with Tarantino.

I was impressed with the older supplements when they originally appeared on Warner’s two-disc special edition and I’m still pleased with them here. Arrow then adds some excellent new material (the Pinchot audio interview being the stand-out) that rounds out what is the best collection of material yet for the film.

Arrow improves upon the already impressive previous editions for the film by adding a few excellent new features and delivering a sharp new 4K presentation for the film.

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True Romance

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

When Quentin Tarantino made his debut last year as the writer and director of Reservoir Dogs , there was no question that a rabid new talent had arrived to bite the ass of conventional filmmaking. Tarantino’s movie-obsessed take on the world is the driving force behind True Romance , the savagely funny thrill ride based on the first script this former video-store clerk ever wrote. As Clarence Worley, Christian Slater plays a kung-fu and Elvis worshiper much like Tarantino. No sooner does he meet Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) than Clarence is proposing marriage and defending her honor against her dreadlocked, drug-crazed, mob-connected former boyfriend Drexl Spivey, played by Gary Oldman as if there was no such thing as overacting.

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Soon the newlyweds are fleeing Detroit for Los Angeles to sell Drexl’s cocaine to Hollywood types, acted with spectacular sleaze by Saul Rubinek and Bronson Pinchot. But first the couple stops to say goodbye to Clarence’s security-cop dad, Clifford (Dennis Hopper), who later runs into trouble with mob hit man Vicenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken). The blistering confrontation scene between Hopper and Walken — both in peak form — will be talked about for years. It’s pure Tarantino: a full-throttle blast of bloody action and verbal fireworks.

If the rest of True Romance never quite hits those heights of hothouse theatricality, maybe it’s because some fool forgot to hire Tarantino to direct his own script. It’s baffling why the plum job fell to Tony Scott, the Britisher known for slick commercials and such megaton star vehicles as Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II. It’s like pissing away your money for ripped jeans with a designer label. But the true grunge of the script wins out. And even Scott can’t neuter the performances. Slater is terrific, reminding us of the vigorous promise he showed before sinking in the shallows of Kuffs and Mobsters. And Arquette delivers sensationally, especially in a vivid scene in which she gives a ballistic thrashing to the hood who’s just beaten the bejesus out of her. Arquette and Slater make a wildly comic and sexy pair of bruised romantics. Everyone shines, right down to the smallest bits from Brad Pitt as a stoned innocent to Val Kilmer as the ghost of Elvis. But it’s Tarantino’s gutter poetry that detonates True Romance. This movie is dynamite.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Night Swim’ on Peacock, a Haunted Swimming Pool Movie

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At least it’s an original concept: Night Swim ( now streaming on Peacock ) is, per my accounting at least, the first-ever haunted pool movie, and it’s surely aiming to tap into our PRIMAL FEARS about chlorine tablets and skimmers stuffed with dead bugs. The idea originates from a short film by Bryce McGuire, who adapted it into a full-length feature, his directorial debut, with neo-horror masters Jason Blum and James Wan producing. McGuire landed Wyatt Russell and Banshees of Inisherin Oscar nominee Kerry Condon to star – and then asked them to play creepy games of Marco Polo and wrestle with the world’s most diabolical pool-cover crank, respectively. If that sounds really, really, really, really, really dumb, well, that’s because it IS really, really, really, really, really dumb. 

NIGHT SWIM : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Once upon a time a little girl tried to fish her brother’s toy boat out of the pool and she fell in and was never seen again. It seems the pool ate her. Thirtyish years later, a perfectly nice family looks for a new house. Ray (Russell) is the dad and Eve (Condon) is the mom and they have a teenage daughter Izzy (Amelie Hoeferle) and a younger son Elliot (Gavin Warren). Ray is a former big-league third baseman who’s been in a tailspin since a multiple sclerosis diagnosis ended his career; the good news is, he’s no longer being traded from this team to that team and now his family can settle down in a nice house with a pool that’ll be perfect for his physical therapy and that the kids will love. Of course, that nice house with a pool is the same house-with-pool where the aforementioned little girl was swallowed up, but they don’t know that, at least not yet. They take the tour, and Ray falls in and is nearly devoured by the pool, and I think the pool even growls at him. But he ignores the bad omen and they buy it anyway and they live happily ever after the end.

No! The way this shit always works is, things seem great for a while and then they get significantly worse. The fam moves in and during Pool Clean-up Day, Ray reaches into the drain and it bites his hand and urps up many gallons of black sludge. Curious. They call a Pool Guy and the Pool Guy says something about the pool being one of the very rare pools that’s fed by an underwater spring, which trumped my theory about an Indian burial ground. It’s 2024 and you gotta get INVENTIVE with high-concept horror screenplays, I guess! Once they get the pool up and running, Ray starts doing his physical therapy in the pool and whaddayaknow, his progressive degenerative disease is actually getting better. Is it a MAGIC pool, or what? Might be!

And Then. You knew there was an And Then coming. And then Eve goes for a <TITLE OF MOVIE> and some weird things happen – lights flickering, hallucinations maybe, weird noises, etc. Then the family cat disappears and they find the cat’s collar floating in the pool. Everyone assumes the cat ran off but you know and I know that the pool ate the cat. Poor cat. Each of the kids gets a turn at being mercilessly effed with by the pool, too, in scenes suggesting that some gross-looking humanoid entity might be living in the drain and/or the skimmer. But the family has never seen even one stupid horror movie it seems, so they keep on keepin’ on, and host a pool party so they can get to know their new neighbors and the kids on Elliot’s baseball team. It goes poorly, and not because someone dropped the potato salad in the dirt. No, the pool, like, maybe, kind of possesses Ray, who does eccentric, dangerous things that can easily be blamed on his medical condition. At this point, we’re wondering how many shots of a haunted drain this movie will force upon us, and even though I didn’t count, I can affirm that it’s way, way too many.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Baby Ruth scene in Caddyshack .

Performance Worth Watching: Condon was so wonderful in Banshees that watching her recite the line “I know this is strange, but” in a moronic haunted-pool movie makes me ache down to the quarks in the atoms of my marrow.

Memorable Dialogue: “You’re SUPPOSED to say POLO!” – Ray

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: News you can use: Always, I repeat, always , fumigate your pool for drain CHUDs. I can’t stress this enough, people. If you don’t do it, you’re just asking for trouble. And should you forget, may I suggest you not do what the people in this movie fail to do, namely, not getting back into the pool ? Beyond that moral, Night Swim doesn’t have much to offer. It’s yet another braindead horror concept stretched far past its ability to hold… narrative credibility. And you thought I was going to get all punny and say “water.” Let’s leave the hackiness to the makers of this movie, please.

Look beyond the movie’s nonsense plot, and its stale jump scares, and its empty characters, and its paycheck performances, and its deadly lameness, and you’ll realize McGuire never establishes anything resembling an engaging tone. It’s not funny, it’s not campy, it’s not scary, and it’s not creepy – it’s just beige, with only the slightest suggestion that we shouldn’t take any of it seriously, as if a movie about a haunted swimming pool with an evil drain and a maleficent pool-cover crank could ever be taken seriously. 

To be fair, I don’t think McGuire intentionally insists that we bear any significant psychological weight while watching a haunted pool movie, even though Ray’s painful emotional arc – baseball was his life, now he has no baseball – sure seems to reflect legit real-life struggles. Hence the disconnect. The film’s primary unforced error lies in foregoing anything resembling wit or pathos for the bland tropes of middle-of-the-pack Blumhouse horror films, of which there are, I dunno, several hundred? A million? Aren’t there decazillions of these things being released every week? Haunted Swimming Pool may be a relatively fresh concept, but its execution is washed out. Good luck dogging it through this turd. Night Swim totally puts the poo in the pool .

Our Call: I am not a swimfan of this movie. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Reader's Digest

40 Movies Based on True Stories You Won’t Be Able to Stop Thinking About

Posted: December 21, 2023 | Last updated: December 21, 2023

The most compelling movies based on true stories

There's a reason there have been so many incredible movies based on true stories: It's because the truth is more fascinating than fiction a lot of the time. What also helps our appreciation is just knowing that these stories actually happened, so we're able to relate to the characters on a much deeper level. We feel what they feel, and we see the world from their perspective, and that’s not just true for the best dramas .

Movies based on true stories have the potential to run the emotional gamut. They can be hilarious , heart-wrenchingly sad or outright terrifying —or even all three at the same time! But the best ones are thought-provoking and will stick with you for days after you've left the theater or closed your laptop. We've put together a list of films that will please every kind of movie watcher, including biopics, epic romances , war stories and historical dramas. We based our picks on blockbusters, award winners, critical darlings, classics and cinematic game-changers. No matter what you’re in the mood for, you’ll find it on this list.

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Released: 1997

Rated: PG-13

Memorable quote: "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."

Twenty-five years after its release, our hearts still go on for James Cameron's Academy Award–winning romantic drama. Set against the tragic 1912 sinking of the grand ocean liner, Titanic tells the tale of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet), who defied their onboard class restrictions (she was a wealthy first-class passenger, he was a starving artist from steerage) and fell hopelessly in love.

While Jack and Rose were fictional characters, the deaths of 1,500-plus passengers and crew on the Titanic were not. Between Cameron's stunning visuals, including a CGI recreation of the ship's sinking, and one of the best movie soundtracks of all time, audiences will never let go of Titanic.

12 Years a Slave

Released: 2013

Memorable quote: "I don't want to survive. I want to live."

It is nearly impossible for a movie based on a true story to avoid taking any creative license, but 12 Years a Slave comes very close. One of the most harrowing kidnapping movies, Steve McQueen's Oscar-winning film recounts the incredible journey of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free Black man tricked and sold into slavery in 1841, and his eventual rescue more than a decade later. The film is also one of the best book-to-movie adaptation s because it doesn't shy away from the brutality detailed in Northup's memoir, specifically the horrific whipping of Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o). Although 12 Years a Slave has a "happy ending," with Northup reuniting with his family, the film is still one of the saddest movies based on real-life events.

Released: 2012

Memorable quote: "This is what I do. I get people out. And I've never left anyone behind."

Despite being a gripping spy thriller based on the very real extrication of six American diplomats from Iran in 1980 by CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck, who also directed the movie), this film took a lot of creative license. So much so that Arg o is actually one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever made. We don't want to include any spoilers here, but there's a big, climactic sequence on the tarmac at one point in the movie ... and it never happened. But never let the facts get in the way of a good story, right?

Hidden Figures

Released: 2016

Memorable quote: "On any given day, I analyze the velometer levels for air displacement, friction and velocity. And compute over 10,000 calculations by cosine, square root and lately analytic geometry by hand."

Biopics about the Space Race usually focus on the White, male astronauts privileged enough to set foot in a spaceship, but what about the people who got them to the moon and back safely? Hidden Figures tells the story of three brilliant Black female mathematicians working for NASA in the early 1960s: Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe).

Even though they were subjected to racist laws at every turn—like Katherine having to run across the Langley Research Center campus just to use a segregated bathroom, or Mary not being allowed to take night classes at an all-White school to become an engineer—these women persevered. And in the process, they changed the trajectory of the American space program. Hidden Figures should be added to any Black history movies must-watch list.

Released: 2018

Memorable quote: "We are alone. No matter what they tell you, we women are always alone."

One of the most critically acclaimed movies based on true stories on Netflix, Roma is a semi-autobiographical tale of writer-director Alfonso Cuarón's childhood. The film follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), the beloved Mixteca live-in maid for a wealthy Mexico City family in the early 1970s. Cleo must delicately walk the murky line between employee and family member—especially when she faces an unplanned pregnancy.

Aside from being one of the best Hispanic movies , Roma is also a gorgeously shot film. Cuarón opts for black-and-white instead of bright, garish '70s colors, and he manages to find the beauty in the mundane, like the opening shots of water cascading over the concrete as Cleo washes the driveway.

Schindler's List

Released: 1993

Memorable quote: "There will be generations because of what you did."

Thirty years after premiering in theaters—and winning seven Academy Awards—Steven Spielberg's masterpiece about the horrors of the Holocaust remains not only one of the best '90s movies but also the best movie based on a true story. Schindler's List recounts the story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a German businessman who saved more than 1,000 European Jews from Nazi slaughter during World War II by employing them in his factories. Although Spielberg does take creative license by having his protagonist appear more directly involved with the rescue missions than he actually was (apparently Schindler didn't help draw up the life-saving list, the way he did alongside Ben Kingsley's Itzhak Stern in the movie), there is no denying the instrumental role Schindler played in his Jewish employees' survival.

Bonnie and Clyde

Released: 1967

Memorable quote: "I'm Miss Bonnie Parker, and this here's Mr. Clyde Barrow. We rob banks."

Bonnie and Clyde is one of those great movies that got rotten reviews when it was released. But this 1967 film's portrayal of Depression-era criminals Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) does warrant a deeper examination more than 50 years later. Director Arthur Penn's decision to graphically recreate Bonnie and Clyde's historically accurate deaths by gun ambush was a Hollywood game-changer: Soon afterward, films began including similarly violent sequences, such as Sonny Corleone's and Tony Montana's bullet-riddled murders in The Godfather and Scarface , respectively.

Released: 2006

Memorable quote: "If you imagine I'm going to drop everything and come down to London before I attend to my grandchildren who've just lost their mother, then you're mistaken."

The Queen isn't just one of the best royal movies —it's one of the best movies period , thanks to Helen Mirren's Oscar-winning work as Queen Elizabeth II. Who could forget that moment when the queen, alone in the Scottish Highlands, finally unleashes tears after days of pent-up grief, only to notice a beautiful stag approaching? This film may be the closest the general public will ever get to understanding what was happening within the royal family in the aftermath of Princess Diana's untimely death in 1997.

And even then, we can never know for sure: The Q ueen was written by Peter Morgan, who also created the juicy Netflix series The Crown . Both the movie and the TV series are classified as "historical fiction," because it is impossible for Morgan to know exactly what was discussed behind the royal family's notoriously closed doors.

A League of Their Own

Released: 1992

Memorable quote: "There's no crying in baseball!"

During World War II, with most American men off fighting for their country, Major League Baseball was on the brink of failure. To keep the national pastime alive—and to boost morale—the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was born. Nearly 50 years after the AAGPBL's inception, A League of Their Own finally told the story of this groundbreaking sports decision and quickly joined the roster of classic family movies , courtesy of performances by Hollywood A-listers including Geena Davis, Tom Hanks and Madonna.

Although all the characters in the film were fictional—and the plot was restricted to the White, heterosexual experience— A League of Thei r Own still had a major impact on movie-going audiences. In 2022, Prime Video released a reimagined series based on the movie, but this time around, A League of Their Own not only included Black and LGBTQ+ characters, their stories were central to the narrative.

Dallas Buyers Club

Memorable quote: "AIDS … I got AIDS. Won't you come in, join the party."

Dallas Buyers Club is based on the true story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), a Texas man diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-1980s. Woodroof, as in the movie, spearheaded a drug distribution service—called the Dallas Buyers Club—that provided unapproved AIDS treatments to patients unable to afford AZT, the commonly prescribed drug to AIDS patients at the time.

McConaughey earned a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the (initially) homophobic Woodroof. The film does take creative license, however, with the character of Rayon (Jared Leto), a fellow AIDS patient. Leto received the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal, even though the transgender Rayon was a fictional creation meant to showcase Woodroof's developing tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community .

Released: 2011

Memorable quote: "When your enemy's making mistakes, don't interrupt him. Let him keep going. Say, 'Thank you.'"

Although the basic structure of M oneyball allows the baseball film entry into the hallowed genre of movies based on true stories, it doesn't quite stick to actual events. Yes, this Oscar-nominated movie is about how Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) used analytics to build a winning team. But the truth behind the team's success wasn't so simple: Many critics suggest the film—written by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote The West Wing , one of the best TV shows of all time—left gaping holes in the narrative as a way to maintain its "Cinderella story." Also, Jonah Hill's character, Peter Brand, the economics whiz who introduces the idea of using analytics to Beane, is fictional, even though he's heavily based on Beane's real-life colleague, Paul DePodesta.

A Beautiful Mind

Released: 2001

Memorable quote: "I am only here tonight because of you. You are the only reason I am. You are all my reasons."

A Beautiful Mind is a fascinating biopic about the life of Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr. (Russell Crowe). The film correctly presents Nash as a gifted mathematician who spent most of his life battling mental illness, but unfortunately, A Beautif ul Mind is one of the more historically inaccurate movies out there. In addition to poorly portraying Nash's paranoid delusions, the film ignores the nuances of Nash's complicated relationship with his wife, Alicia Larde (Jennifer Connelly). Although Nash married Larde in 1957, they divorced three years later. After several decades of living together platonically, the couple remarried in 2001. A Beautiful Mi nd portrays the Nash marriage as an uninterrupted love story.

All the President's Men

Released: 1976

Memorable quote: "Get out your notebook, there's more. Your lives are in danger."

The quintessential cinematic account of the Watergate scandal, All the President's Men is based on the book of the same name by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman). The film documents the eventual downfall of President Richard Nixon, starting from the 1972 break-in at the Watergate complex, followed by Woodward and Bernstein's meticulous reporting of the corruption within the Nixon administration, which then led to Nixon's resignation. While Woodward and Bernstein are rightfully credited as the faces of the Washington Post 's Watergate coverage, the film ignores the tireless behind-the-scenes work of their colleagues, who helped bring this story to light.

Released: 2014

Memorable quote: "Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe."

Ava DuVernay's critically acclaimed drama about the historic 1965 voting-rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo), from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, is a Black-history-movies viewing requirement. Specifically, because, other than a few exaggerations for dramatic effect, Selma is a historically accurate film. For example, DuVernay doesn't avoid depicting the brutal attacks the marchers received at the hands of Alabama state troopers that Bloody Sunday. There's even a haunting line from John Lewis (Stephan James), while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge: In response to being asked if he can swim, the future Georgia congressman says there weren't any pools open to Black people where he grew up. That line of dialogue came directly from Lewis's memoir.

Erin Brockovich

Released: 2000

Memorable quote: "So before you come back here with another [lame] offer, I want you to think real hard about what your spine is worth, Mr. Walker. Or what you might expect someone to pay you for your uterus, Ms. Sanchez. Then you take out your calculator and you multiply that number by 100. Anything less than that is a waste of our time."

Julia Roberts won an Oscar for her portrayal of environmental crusader Erin Brockovich in this beloved biopic . The film presents Erin as an undereducated yet super-savvy mom who talks her way into a legal-clerk job, where she quickly discovers that a major energy corporation is knowingly contaminating the groundwater in a small California town. Before long, Erin is leading a class-action suit against Pacific Gas and Electric, without so much as a law degree. According to the real Erin Brockovich, the film depicting her life is, in her words, 98% accurate: While Roberts's Erin was a former Miss Wichita, Brockovich herself never held a beauty-queen title from Kansas. She was, in actuality, a former Miss Pacific Coast.

Almost Famous

Memorable quote: "If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at age 50, then you are sadly, sadly mistaken."

Boasting an excellent soundtrack and some very memorable movie quotes , Almost Famous is a semi-autobiographical film based on writer-director Cameron Crowe's very real experiences as a teenage reporter for Rolling Stone in the 1970s. While Crowe did indeed cover acts like the Eagles, Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers Band, he made most of his main characters fictional for the sake of a linear narrative. This included his 15-year-old alter ego, William Miller (Patrick Fugit); Kate Hudson's ethereal groupie, Penny Lane; and the rock band at the center of the movie's story, Stillwater. But the most memorable, nonfabricated character from the movie has to be Philip Seymour Hoffman's music critic, Lester Bangs, who serves as William's sardonic tour guide through the debauched world of rock 'n' roll.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Released: 2020

Memorable quote: "They don't care nothin' about me. All they want is my voice. Well, I done learned that. And they gonna treat me the way I wanna be treated, no matter how much it hurt them."

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is more dramatization than direct reenactment, but it's a stellar addition to Netflix's selection of movies based on true stories nonetheless. The film is an adaptation of August Wilson's 1982 play of the same name, which depicts a fractious 1927 recording session by famed blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Although the plot is entirely fictional, Rainey herself is not, and the themes in the film resonate just as much today as they did in the 1920s: Rainey, a Black woman, is constantly fighting for control over her career from her White male producer and manager. The same can be said for Rainey's trumpeter, Levee (Chadwick Boseman, in his final role). Levee is a fabricated character, but he too is pushing for his own musical ideas to be heard, only for the White men in charge to dismiss him outright.

Released: 1990

Memorable quote: "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."

Martin Scorsese's Italian American mafia masterpiece is everything a gangster movie should be: A little drama here, a little humor there ("How am I funny?"), one incredible three-minute-long tracking shot inside the Copacabana and several unforgettable performances from the likes of Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco and the late Ray Liotta. Goodfellas follows the story of mobster Henry Hill (Liotta), who started his life of crime at an early age before eventually becoming an FBI informant.

As with most movies based on true stories, some creative license was taken with Goodfellas . In real life, Hill had one daughter and one son, while in the film he had two daughters, but Hill himself called the film 95% accurate.

Catch Me If You Can

Released: 2002

Memorable quote: "I never went to medical school. I'm not a lawyer, or a Harvard graduate, or a Lutheran. Brenda, I ran away from home a year and a half ago when I was 16."

Only Leonardo DiCaprio could make running from the law look sexy and sophisticated, whether it was posing as a Pan Am co-pilot, a kindly doctor or a shrewd lawyer. DiCaprio played con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can , a man who started passing bad checks as a teenager, eventually crisscrossing the United States and the world before he was apprehended in France at age 21.

While Abagnale and his crimes are real, the film may have taken even greater liberties than previously thought. It was always known that Tom Hanks's dogged FBI agent, Carl Hanratty, was an invented character, but a book published in 2021 suggests that most of Abagnale's story was fabricated after all: Public records prove that Abagnale was in prison during the time he was supposedly globe-trotting as an airline pilot. For a more accurate retelling of events, check out these riveting  true-crime documentaries that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Theory of Everything

Memorable quote: "There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope."

This biopic , about theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his tumultuous relationship with his first wife, Jane (Felicity Jones), was deemed "broadly true" by Hawking himself. Hawking, as depicted in the movie, suffered from a degenerative motor neuron disease that robbed him of his ability to speak and, for all intents and purposes, move his body. The scene where Jane and Hawking are trying to communicate through a spelling board, shortly after Hawking has lost his voice, is a heartbreaking one. The Theory of Everything doesn't avoid the difficulties in the Hawkings' 30-year marriage, which ended in divorce in 1995, but in reality, things weren't always as gentle and loving between the couple as the movie would have us believe.

Released: 2021

Memorable quote: "The Irish were born for leaving. Otherwise, the rest of the world would have no pubs."

Kenneth Branagh's critically acclaimed film Belfast is one of the newer movies out there based on a true story. While the characters and narrative are fictional, the movie is still a semi-autobiographical tale: The film's protagonist, Buddy (Jude Hill), is a 9-year-old boy living among the sectarian violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969. This setting, and the subsequent decision by Buddy's father to move the family to England, very closely mirrors Branagh's early childhood. There are so many reasons Belfast belongs on any list of the best Irish movies , but if we had to pick one, it would have to be that joyful performance of "Everlasting Love" by Buddy's Ma and Pa (Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe).

The Social Network

Released: 2010

Memorable quote: "You really don't need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook."

The Social Network documents the rise of social media juggernaut Facebook. Jesse Eisenberg is pitch-perfect as the obnoxiously arrogant Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, who, in the movie, ostensibly invents Facebook as a way to meet women after being dumped by a (fabricated) girlfriend. While this makes for a captivating narrative, it's not accurate, as Zuckerberg was already dating now-wife Priscilla Chan before Facebook even existed. The film also takes liberties with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), portraying Zuckerberg's friend as a victim unfairly removed from the company. The truth was a bit more complicated, as Saverin ran unauthorized ads on Facebook ... for a rival company. None of this is mentioned in The Social Network .

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Memorable quote: "I'm a 51-year-old who likes cats better than people."

Sometimes, movies based on true stories really can be stranger than fiction. Especially in the case of Can You Ever Forgive Me?  which stars Melissa McCarthy as charming curmudgeon Lee Israel, a writer who has fallen on hard times. When Lee is unable to secure an advance on her forthcoming book about Funny Girl inspiration Fanny Brice, she resorts to forging letters from deceased celebrities (including Brice)—and actually makes money through this scheme. That is, until the FBI catches on, sentencing Lee to house arrest and probation. For the most part, the film is pretty accurate, with details like Lee needing money to treat her sick cat stemming from the truth.

The King's Speech

Memorable quote: "I have a right to be heard! I have a voice!"

This inspirational story of how King George VI (Colin Firth)—the late Queen Elizabeth II's father—overcame a debilitating stutter just in time to lead the United Kingdom in the Second World War was a critical darling and an Oscar winner. (And hey, when else would you get to hear a monarch repeatedly drop an F-bomb?) The movie's main focus is the relationship between the king and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), the latter of whom draws out his royal client's deep-seated traumas as a form of healing.

The King's Speech , however, like many films based on the royals, uses historical details as a basic structure but takes several creative liberties for the sake of a moving story. It's suggested His Majesty and Logue didn't start working together until around 1936 and that they clashed with each other initially. In reality, Logue and the future king had known each other since 1926, and they got along almost instantly.

The Pianist

Memorable quote: "If I'm going to die, I prefer to die in my own home. I'm staying put."

The Pianist is based on the autobiography of the same name by a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor and musician named Wladyslaw Szpilman. In the film, Szpilman is portrayed by Adrien Brody, who gives an indelible, Oscar-winning performance of a man who is determined to survive the Nazi-sanctioned killings of his people. There are many gut-wrenching scenes in this movie, but the standout is one of the few hopeful ones: A starving, disheveled Szpilman is discovered by a German officer, and instead of being arrested, Szpilman is invited to play the piano (Chopin's "Ballade in G Minor"), offering both men a brief respite from their mutual despair.

Released: 1989

Memorable quote: "You can march like the White man, you can talk like him. You can sing his songs, you can even wear his suits. But, you ain't never gonna be nothing to him, than an ugly [ ... ] chimp in a blue suit."

War movies based on true stories are some of the most iconic ever made, and that includes Glory , a tribute to one of the first Black regiments in the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. While most of the characters in the film are fictional—Matthew Broderick's character, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the 54th regiment, is one of the few real-life figures portrayed— Glory 's impact on audiences is a powerful one: Denzel Washington earned his first Academy Award for his performance as Private Silas Trip, a formerly enslaved man who, in an evocative scene, is publicly whipped for procuring basic necessities for his fellow soldiers.

The Irishman

Released: 2019

Memorable quote: "You always charge a guy with a gun! With a knife, you run away."

Considering The Irishman is a gangster movie directed by Martin Scorsese and stars both Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, both of whom portray actual mobsters (Frank Sheeran and Jimmy Hoffa, respectively), the entertainment factor is a given. The film's pedigree makes it easy to assume The Irishman is highly accurate as well. But as it turns out, even Scorsese admits that in the case of The Irishman, a compelling story was more important than, well, facts. The movie is based on I Heard You Paint Houses, a 2004 book written by former homicide detective Charles Brandt. But many of Frank Sheeran's claims in the book about his involvement in Jimmy Hoffa's death have been refuted by investigative reporters and FBI agents.

Released: 1995

Memorable quote: "Houston, we have a problem."

Apollo 13 is one of those feel-good, patriotic movies , and not just because Tom Hanks is the star. In April 1970, the Apollo 13 lunar mission—helmed by astronauts Jim Lovell (Hanks), Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Fred Haise (Bill Paxton)—is unexpectedly aborted when an onboard explosion occurs. The shuttle begins losing oxygen rapidly as well as its electrical supply, forcing the astronauts into a race against time to return to Earth safely.

While the film received significant praise for its accuracy depicting historical events, its most famous line, delivered by the incomparable Hanks, was the result of considerable creative license: Jim Lovell never said, "Houston, we have a problem." It was actually Jack Swigert, who gave the SOS to Mission Control, who said, "OK, Houston, we've had a problem here."

Memorable quote: "This city, this whole country, is a strip club. You've got people tossing the money, and people doing the dance."

Hustlers is one of those movies based on true stories that seems like it was completely made up, when in actuality, the film is far more accurate than you might think. Adapted from Jessica Pressler's 2015 New York magazine article "The Hustlers at Scores," Hus tlers is about several New York City strippers who, in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, scam the unrepentant wealthy men behind the financial crisis.

The names of the film's main characters are fictional, but the backstories of Destiny (Constance Wu) and Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) closely resemble those of the real-life women profiled in Pressler's article. There were some changes made in the movie, however, to make Destiny and Ramona more sympathetic: Nothing in Pressler's article suggested that Destiny was hustling to support her grandmother or that Ramona was doing so to provide for her children.

Zero Dark Thirty

Memorable quote: "I'm going to smoke everyone involved in this op, and then I'm going to kill bin Laden."

Zero Dark Thirty is a riveting dramatization of the manhunt and military raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The film stars Jessica Chastain as Maya, a CIA analyst instrumental in tracking down the terrorist behind 9/11 at his Pakistan compound. For privacy reasons, the characters in Zero Dark Thirty , including Maya, are fictional, even though many are based on actual CIA operatives and military personnel directly involved in the bin Laden mission. Chastain's performance as the tenacious Maya, as well as director Kathryn Bigelow's tense recreation of the Navy SEALs' infiltration of bin Laden's compound, puts Zero Dark Thirty on most lists of the best dramatic movies of the 2000s.

BlacKkKlansman

Memorable quote: "God bless White America."

Back in the 1970s, Ron Stallworth, the first Black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, achieved the impossible: He infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan through a series of phone calls and a White colleague who served as Stallworth's in-person proxy. BlacKkKlansman , director Spike Lee's adaptation of Stallworth's memoir , is a relatively truthful take on this story, though Lee claims at the start of the film that not everything is 100% accurate. While real-life figures like Stallworth (John David Washington) and Klan Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace) appear, the biggest creative license in the movie is demonstrated through Adam Driver's character, Detective Philip "Flip" Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a fictional stand-in for Stallworth's inside man, as this person's identity was kept concealed even in the original memoir.

The Imitation Game

Memorable quote: "Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes … hollow."

This biopic about English cryptographer Alan Turing is equal parts enthralling and devastating, because it's as much about Turing's incredible achievements as his tragic personal life. Benedict Cumberbatch embodies the brilliant mathematician who decrypted the German military code machine Enigma during World War II. (Turing's work in code-breaking is believed to have accelerated the Allied victory.) But Cumberbatch leaves an unforgettable impression on audiences in the way he tackles Turing's lifelong misery as a gay man living in a country where homosexuality was a crime. In the film's final heartbreaking scene, Cumberbatch's Turing is a shell of his former self. The real Turing took his own life in 1954, as homosexuality wouldn't be legalized in the U.K. until 1967.

The Blind Side

Released: 2009

Memorable quote: "You threaten my son, you threaten me. You so much as cross into downtown, you will be sorry. I'm in a prayer group with the D.A., I'm a member of the NRA, and I am always packing."

You don't have to be a sports fan to fall in love with The Blind Side , or even an avid watcher of sports movies based on true stories. Because at its core, The Blind Side isn't really about football. It's about how family comes in all different forms. The film that won Sandra Bullock a Best Actress Oscar is the poignant tale of NFL star Michael Oher, a poverty-stricken Memphis teenager taken in by the wealthy Touhy family. Bullock plays no-nonsense matriarch Leigh Ann Touhy, who showers Michael with equal doses of love and motivation, helping him to achieve his full potential on the football field and beyond. We adore Leigh Ann because, as she demonstrates during a pressure cooker of a game, she'll go full mama bear on anyone who dares trash-talk her adopted son.

Released: 2015

Memorable quote: "If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one."

The mark of a great, accurate movie about journalism is when there is no 11th-hour plot twist—and the facts arise from painstaking reporting, not invented shock value. That's what makes Spotlight such a stellar film. It picked up a Best Picture Oscar for its unglamorous dramatization of The Boston Globe 's 2001 investigation into the Catholic Church's widespread and systemic pattern of sexual abuse. Led by an all-star cast, including Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci, Spotlight takes few liberties with the narrative. The film directly portrays the real-life clergy, lawyers and Globe reporters involved with the case instead of replacing these main players with composite characters.

The Amityville Horror

Released: 1979

Memorable quote: “I’m coming apart! Oh, mother of God, I’m coming apart!”

Horror movies are creepy enough, but knowing that The Amityville Horror is based on a true story majorly ups the fright factor. In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six of his family members in their Amityville, New York, home. About a year later, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the DeFeo house with their three young children. The Amityville Horror depicts the paranormal activity the Lutzes allegedly experienced during their brief stay in the house. From the moment they move in, George (James Brolin) and Kathy (Margot Kidder) are made to feel unwelcome by the house’s malevolent spirits, whether it’s a swarm of flies besieging a kindly priest (Rod Steiger) or streams of blood dripping down the walls. Although there’s never been any solid proof of the Lutz family’s claims, that doesn’t stop The Amityville Horror from being a chilling good time.

Released: 2003

Memorable quote: "I'm not a bad person. I'm a real good person."

Charlize Theron is nearly unrecognizable as Aileen Wuornos in Monster , but that kind of deep commitment to the character earned the actress a well-deserved Academy Award for her performance. Theron portrays the real-life Florida sex worker who murdered seven of her male clients between 1989 and 1990 before being executed in 2002. One of the best serial killer movies based on true stories, Monster doesn't turn Wuornos into an antihero, acknowledging that she was neglected and sexually abused by her family members, and grew up without any kind of stability. There is one invented scene, however, that may have caused audiences to unnecessarily sympathize with Wuornos: The film suggests that after a brutal rape by one of her clients, Wuornos embarked on her killing spree.

Memorable quote: "The horse is too small, the jockey too big, the trainer too old, and I'm too dumb to know the difference."

Seabiscuit is one of those book-to-movie adaptations that will warm your heart for days after watching. The film, based on Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand, stars Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire and Chris Cooper as the ragtag team behind an unlikely Depression-era champion racehorse. While Seabiscuit 's inspirational story is a true one—no one ever expected such a small horse to become such a big winner—the movie does take liberties to increase the dramatic tension in some spots. Most notably, the decision to portray jockey Red Pollard (Maguire) getting injured immediately before a major race. In reality, Pollard's injury occurred months beforehand.

Memorable quote: "Hi, Mom, it's me. I'm on the plane that's been hijacked. I'm just calling to tell you that I love you, and goodbye."

When terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial flights on 9/11, one plane failed to hit its intended target: United Airlines Flight 93. Instead of striking the Capitol building or the White House (the exact Washington, D.C., location remains unknown), the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone onboard. United 93 attempts to piece together the events that led to the heroic, in-flight struggle that ultimately diverted the plane away from Washington.

Although the film uses the 9/11 Commission Report as source material, director Paul Greengrass invented many of the plot details to create a cohesive narrative befitting most Hollywood action movies . Since there were no survivors from United 93, the climactic scene depicting the passengers' fight to retake the plane had to be left to the filmmakers' imagination. But that decision made the scene no less powerful.

Hotel Rwanda

Released: 2004

Memorable quote: "There will be no rescue, no intervention for us. We can only save ourselves."

There's no shortage of drama in war movies based on true stories, which is why Hotel Rwanda remains such an engrossing film nearly 20 years after its release. The movie dramatizes how hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) used his connections to shelter more than 1,000 refugees during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which took place in the middle of an ongoing civil war in the African nation.

Cheadle gives a moving performance as Rusesabagina, portraying him as a compassionate individual working tirelessly to save his family and neighbors. According to several sources, however, this saintlike depiction may have been a Hollywood invention. Some survivors claimed Rusesabagina engaged in extortion, and in recent years, he was convicted of terrorism by the Rwandan government.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Memorable quote: "I will not die sober!"

When you combine Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and a so-crazy-it-has-to-be-true story, the result is The Wolf of Wall Street , a movie that takes a deep dive into the decadent, drug-fueled world of uber-wealthy finance bros. The film follows Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), a young, eager stockbroker entranced by the promise of endless wealth, and how he eventually resorted to corruption and fraud.

Since it's based on Belfort's memoir of the same name, The Wolf of Wall Street doesn't take much creative license. This is a polite way of saying that the unrestrained drug use, numerous sex workers and countless criminal activities featured in the film weren't invented. Even an insane scene in which Belfort's yacht capsizes in a storm and sinks actually happened. It's worth noting, however, that Jonah Hill's Quaaludes-addicted character, Donnie Azoff, is fictional—though he's loosely based on Belfort's real-life partner-in-crime, Danny Porush. If you're a movie buff or just want to save a few bucks while watching the best films around, check out this list of the best free streaming services .

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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‘The Tearsmith’ on Netflix Is A Slightly Creepy Teen Romance

The Tearsmith is based on Erin Doom’s bestselling 2021 novel of the same name and follows Nica (Caterina Ferioli), a teen orphan who gets adopted by a pair of do-gooders, but they’ve also adopted her sworn enemy Rigel (Simone Baldasseroni). How will she cope if she has constant reminders of her trauma from the orphanage?

While the Netflix film is visually pleasing, you can easily disengage with the enemy-to-lovers story and many side-eye longing glances. 

The story is predictable and filled with so many teen-drama tropes you’ll wonder if there is any originality in it at all. Through flashbacks we see the trauma the orphanage caused the pair, contrasting their new, happier lives after being adopted. 

Rigel is everything your teen heart wants him to be, a tortured artist with a handsome face and killer pout. Nica is sweet, simple, and vulnerable, needing love and to be loved. Think of a European Edward Cullen and a less annoying, more expressive Bella from Twilight , and you’ve got these characters down. The acting is fine — nothing special, but they do a good job of building some tension about whether they’ll get together. 

I think the whole you’re my enemy, you’re my “sister”, now you’re my love is a little creepy and didn’t work for me. Sometimes they have a sexy chemistry, and then Nica’s gasps and sighs towards his advances give scared and worried vibes and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Are they going to consensually kiss, or is he going to sexually assault her? It’s very contradictory with Rigel making these advances and then Nica thinking he wants her to hate him… This trauma bond is weird. 

There is one scene where Rigel and Nica have a “heated” argument and it’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen — I laughed out loud. Here, I could not take this “romance” seriously. This leads to very shaky and shivery heavy petting. And they never close the damn door. 

I enjoyed the Gothic cinematography; the dark and bluish tones are calming and mystical. But the script and dialogue leave a lot to be desired. It’s repetitive and basic; it tries too hard to be poetic and romantic, especially for these pathetic teens. 

Nica, like the butterfly she is named after, blossoms and comes out of her shell. The loner boy learns to love, and together they overcome their painful experiences in the orphanage. 

Overall, The Tearsmith is a teen romance suitable for younger audiences who aren’t old enough to know any better. 

Think of every single young-adult romance trope, throw it all together and what have you got? This movie. Does this make it bad? Not at all. If you love a good teen romance featuring a handsome man with a killer jawline and an ugly-duckling girl falling in love, you’ll enjoy The Tearsmith . If you’re not a fan of romance-drama films you will cringe from top to bottom and be bored to death.

I also broke the ending of The Tearsmith in depth and discussed the possibilities of a sequel to The Tearsmith . If you enjoyed the movie you can also check out where The Tearsmith was filmed and 10 movies like it . 

Article by Romey Norton

Romey Norton joined Ready Steady Cut in June 2021 as a Film and TV writer, and since then, she has published over 400 articles for the website. With a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Leeds in 2017 and acting experience on screen, Romey uses her Film and TV knowledge to bring informative and detailed content for online publications and podcasting.

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