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- 2024 list: https://www.cinemaawardsarchive.com/2025/12/2024-release-top-36-most-inspiring-true.html
- 2025 list: https://www.cinemaawardsarchive.com/2025/12/28-incredible-true-story-movies-2025.html
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1. The Iron Claw ( 2023)
The Iron Claw is a 2023 biographical sports drama film
written and directed by Sean Durkin about the Von Erichs, a family of
professional wrestlers who are "cursed" by tragedy. The film depicts
the struggles of wrestling company owner Fritz Von Erich's sons to achieve the
success for which their father groomed them, from 1979 to the early 1990s.
The Iron Claw premiered at the Texas Theatre in Dallas on
November 8, 2023. It was released in the United States by A24 on December 22,
2023, and by Lionsgate in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2024. It grossed
over $45 million, on a $15.9 million budget, and received positive reviews,
with Efron's performance receiving critical acclaim from critics and deeming it
the best of his career. It was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the
National Board of Review
The Von Erich family is an American professional wrestling
family. Originally from Texas, their actual surname is Adkisson, but every
member who has been in the wrestling business has used the ring name "Von
Erich," after the family patriarch, Fritz Von Erich (Jack Adkisson). Jack
took on the name as part of his wrestling gimmick (i.e. in-ring persona) as he
originally portrayed a Nazi heel, hence his use of a German name.
By the time Fritz died of cancer in his Denton County home
in 1997 at age 68, five of his six sons had predeceased him, three by suicide.
His firstborn, Jack Barton Jr., was accidentally electrocuted by a downed power
line and drowned in a puddle at age six in 1959, outside his Niagara Falls
home.
In 1984, David Von Erich died in a Tokyo hotel from
enteritis at age 25. Mike, Chris, and Kerry all died by suicide; Mike took an
overdose of Placidyl near Lewisville Lake in 1987 at age 23, Chris shot himself
in the head with a 9mm handgun in 1991 at age 21, and Kerry shot himself in the
chest in the family yard in 1993 at age 33. Kevin Von Erich is the last
surviving son.
These deaths are the main basis for a widespread myth about
a family curse. The term "Von Erich curse" is also used colloquially
to refer to the chain of events leading to each brother's death, as well as
associated tragedies (such as the death of David von Erich's two-month-old
daughter of SIDS in 1978). The story of the Von Erich family has been presented
as a cautionary tale about parental influence and the various dangers of the
professional wrestling business.
The Von Erichs' involvement in wrestling has continued to a third generation: Kevin's sons Marshall and Ross began wrestling in 2012, and Kerry's daughter Lacey wrestled from 2007 until her retirement in 2010.
Fritz Von Erich's first son was born Jack Barton Adkisson
Jr. on September 21, 1952. He died at age six in Niagara Falls, New York, on
March 7, 1959, after he stepped on a trailer tongue, was electrically shocked,
and then fell into a melting snow puddle face first and drowned
Kevin Von Erich:
Born Kevin Ross Adkisson on May 15, 1957, in Belleville,
Illinois, "The Golden Warrior" Kevin Von Erich is the second oldest
and last surviving son of Fritz Von Erich.
David Von Erich:
"The Yellow Rose of Texas" David Von Erich was the
third son of Fritz Von Erich. He was born David Alan Adkisson on July 22, 1958,
in Dallas, Texas. From late 1981 to mid-1982, David wrestled in the Florida
territory to show that he could work as a heel.David died on February 10, 1984,
in Tokyo, Japan. The US Embassy's death report says he died of acute enteritis.
Kerry Von Erich:
Kerry Von Erich was the fourth son of Fritz Von Erich. He
was born Kerry Gene Adkisson on February 3, 1960, in Niagara Falls, New York.
Known as "The Modern Day Warrior" and "The Texas Tornado",
Kerry was by far the best-known of the Von Erich Family.
Mike Von Erich:
Mike Von Erich was the fifth son of Fritz Von Erich. He was
born Michael Brett Adkisson on March 2, 1964, in Dallas, Texas, and was later
known as the "Inspirational Warrior". Mike replaced David in the feud
the Von Erichs had with The Fabulous Freebirds following David's death.
According to the DVD Heroes of World Class, Mike wanted to work for World Class
as a cameraman and had no interest in being in the ring full-time.
Chris Von Erich:
Born Chris Barton Adkisson on September 30, 1969, in Dallas,
Texas, Chris Von Erich was the youngest of the Von Erich family. With his short
stature (5'5”), asthma, and extremely brittle bones, which were prone to
breaking, Chris was never able to achieve the success that his father and
brothers achieved.
Ross Von Erich:
David Michael Ross Adkisson (born June 1, 1988), better
known as Ross Von Erich, is the son of Kevin Von Erich. He is named after David
and Mike. He was trained by Kevin, Harley Race and the Pro Wrestling Noah dojo.
Marshall Von Erich:
Kevin Marshall Adkisson (born November 10, 1992), better
known as Marshall Von Erich, is the son of Kevin Von Erich. He is named after
his father. He was trained by Kevin, Harley Race and at the Noah dojo. He
debuted in 2012, with his brother Ross in Pro Wrestling Noah. He adapted his
father's trademark of wrestling barefoot.
Lacey Von Erich:
Lacey Dawn Adkisson (born July 17, 1986), better known as
Lacey Von Erich is the daughter of Kerry Von Erich. She was previously with
World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action (TNA) where she was a
former TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion. She retired in 2010.
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2. The Kerala Story (2023)
The Kerala Story is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language drama film
directed by Sudipto Sen. The plot follows a group of women from Kerala who are
coerced into converting to Islam and joining the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS). Marketed as a true story, the film is premised on the Hindutva
conspiracy theory of "love jihad", and falsely claims that thousands
of Hindu women from Kerala have been converted to Islam and recruited in the
Islamic State.
The Kerala Story released in theatres on 5 May 2023. With a
worldwide gross of ₹303.97 crore (US$36 million), it became the
ninth-highest-grossing Hindi film of 2023. It was heavily promoted by the
incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leveraged the film in its
campaigning for the Karnataka assembly election. However, film critics accorded
it overwhelmingly negative reviews, characterising the work as Islamophobic
propaganda. The film has also faced protracted litigation and protests,
primarily in Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
On its opening day, the film grossed ₹8.03 crore in India,
making it the fifth highest opener in India for 2023. As of 15 June 2023, the
film has grossed ₹288.04 crore (US$35 million) in India and ₹15.64 crore
(US$1.9 million) overseas for a worldwide gross collection of ₹303.97 crore
(US$36 million), becoming the seventh-highest grossing Hindi film of 2023. The
film performed well in northern India but underperformed in the south
The teaser released on 3 November 2022, featuring the
character of Fathima Ba, a Hindu Malayali nurse who had converted to Islam and
joined the Islamic State, before ending up in an Afghan jail. She claimed to be
one of 32,000 girls from the Hindu and Christian communities, who are missing
from Kerala and have been recruited into the Islamic State after being
converted to Islam. Sen, the director of the film, has made such claims for
years.
In 2018, he had directed a documentary on what he claimed to
be the involuntary mass conversion of 32,000 Hindu and Christian girls to Islam
as part of an "international conspiracy" to render Kerala an Islamic
state.
While the events portrayed in the film are loosely based on
the accounts of three women from Kerala, namely: Nimisha Nair, Sonia Sebastian,
and Merin Jacob, who converted to Islam and traveled with their respective
husbands to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State between 2016 and 2018, the
claimed figures in the film are wildly inaccurate, being based on
mistranslations, misquotes, and misrepresentations of unrelated statistics.
No more than 100-200 Indians have joined the group from the
entire country, with people from Kerala accounting for less than a quarter of
them. The figures posited in the film also exceed the entire strength of the
Islamic State.
Later, in response to litigation, the film-makers removed
all promotional materials, including the teaser, that had the erroneous figure.
However, the film repeated the claims multiple times and once raised it even
higher to 50,000. In response to further litigation, Sen admitted to all
figures in the film being inauthentic, and that the film was a
"fictionalised" portrayal of real-life events.
Bans and litigation:
On the eve of release, several petitions were filed at the
Madras High Court, Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court of India, calling
for a ban on grounds of promoting communal disharmony. The petitions were
either declined to be heard or dismissed by the courts; however, the
film-makers were asked to remove all promotional materials, including the
teaser, that claimed thirty two thousand girls to have converted to Islam and
joined the Islamic State in real life.
On 8 May, the Government of West Bengal banned the movie,
characterising the film as "hate speech", and citing adverse
intelligence reports that had reported increased communal tensions in the
audience. The filmmakers challenged the decision in the Supreme Court and the
ban was stayed.
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3. Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer is a 2023 epic biographical thriller drama
film written, directed, and produced by
Christopher Nolan. It follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American
theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear weapons during World
War II. Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin
J. Sherwin, the film chronicles Oppenheimer's studies, his direction of the Los
Alamos Laboratory and his 1954 security hearing.
Oppenheimer was announced in September 2021. It is Nolan's
first film not distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures since Memento (2000), due
to his conflicts regarding the studio's simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max
release schedule. Murphy was the first cast member to sign on the following
month, with the rest joining between November 2021 and April 2022.
Pre-production began by January 2022.
The cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, used a combination
of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film, including, for the first time,
scenes in IMAX black-and-white film photography. As with many of his previous
films, Nolan used extensive practical effects, with minimal compositing.
Oppenheimer premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11,
2023, and was theatrically released in the United States and the United Kingdom
ten days later by Universal Pictures. Its concurrent release with Warner
Bros.'s Barbie was the catalyst of the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon,
encouraging audiences to see both films as a double feature. Oppenheimer
grossed over $976 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film
of 2023, the highest-grossing World War II-related film, the highest-grossing
biographical film and the second-highest-grossing R-rated film.
The recipient of many accolades, Oppenheimer won seven
Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for
Murphy and Best Supporting Actor for Downey. It also won five Golden Globe
Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Drama) and seven British Academy Film
Awards (including Best Film), and was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by
the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.
J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer; April
22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served
as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World
War II. He is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his
role in overseeing the development of the first nuclear weapons.
Born in New York City, Oppenheimer obtained a degree in
chemistry from Harvard University in 1925 and a doctorate in physics from the
University of Göttingen in Germany in 1927, studying under Max Born. After
research at other institutions, he joined the physics faculty at the University
of California, Berkeley, where he was made a full professor in 1936.
Oppenheimer made significant contributions to physics in the fields of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics, including the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions; work on the theory of positrons, quantum electrodynamics, and quantum field theory; and the Oppenheimer–Phillips process in nuclear fusion. With his students, he also made major contributions to astrophysics, including the theory of cosmic ray showers, and the theory of neutron stars and black holes.
In 1942, Oppenheimer was recruited to work on the Manhattan
Project, and in 1943 was appointed director of the project's Los Alamos
Laboratory in New Mexico, tasked with developing the first nuclear weapons. His
leadership and scientific expertise were instrumental in the project's success.
On July 16, 1945, he was present at the first test of the atomic bomb, Trinity.
In August 1945, the weapons were used against Japan in the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to date the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed
conflict.
In 1947, Oppenheimer was appointed director of the Institute
for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and chairman of the General
Advisory Committee of the new United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). He
lobbied for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear
proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, and opposed the
development of the hydrogen bomb, partly on ethical grounds.
During the second Red Scare, these stances, together with
his past associations with the Communist Party USA, led to an AEC security
hearing in 1954 and the revocation of his security clearance. He continued to
lecture, write, and work in physics, and in 1963 was given the Enrico Fermi
Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. In 2022, the U.S. federal
government vacated the 1954 revocation of his security clearance.
A chain smoker , Oppenheimer was diagnosed with throat
cancer in late 1965. After inconclusive surgery, he underwent unsuccessful
radiation treatment and chemotherapy late in 1966. On February 18, 1967, he
died in his sleep at his home in Princeton, aged 62 years
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes' Laboratory in Leiden, Netherlands,
July 1927. Oppenheimer is in the middle row, second from the left.
University of California Radiation Laboratory staff
(including Robert R. Wilson and Nobel prize winners Ernest Lawrence, Edwin
McMillan, and Luis Alvarez) on the magnet yoke for the 60-inch (152 cm)
cyclotron, 1938. Oppenheimer is the tall figure holding a pipe in the top row,
just right of center.
Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, with
Oppenheimer in 1942
The Trinity test was the first detonation of a nuclear
device.
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4. A Million Miles Away (2023)
A Million Miles Away is a 2023 American biographical drama
film detailing the life of José M. Hernández, a Mexican-American astronaut, who
is played by Michael Peña. It was directed by Alejandra Marquez Abella from a
screenplay written by Bettina Gilois and re-written by Hernán Jiménez and
Abella, based on Hernandez's autobiography Reaching for the Stars.
The film was released on Amazon Prime Video on September 15,
2023.
The New York Times wrote that the film was
"[b]eautifully shot and interspersed with historical footage of migrant
workers and spacecraft launches", stating that its "most effective
and touching scenes revolve around the family relationships", while also
noting that "the grit narrative at times becomes a bit heavy-handed
José Moreno Hernández (born August 7, 1962) is a
Mexican-American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He currently serves as a
Regent of the University of California.
Hernández was assigned to the crew of Space Shuttle mission
STS-128. He also served as chief of the Materials and Processes branch of
Johnson Space Center.
Hernández was born in French Camp, California. Hernández
worked from 1990 to 2001 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
Livermore, California. While there, Hernández, along with a commercial
colleague, developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system.
This invention aids in the early detection of breast cancer.
In 2001, Hernández joined the Johnson Space Center, in
Houston, Texas.After three years and being turned down eleven times for
astronaut training by NASA, Hernández was selected in May 2004. In February
2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training
In May 2007, Hernández served as an aquanaut during the
NEEMO 12 mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, living and working
underwater for eleven days.
Hernández worked various technical assignments until his
selection on July 15, 2008, as a mission specialist on the STS-128 mission,
which launched on August 28, 2009. While in orbit, Hernández became the first
person to use the Spanish language in space while tweeting. The STS-128 mission
ended its 13-day journey on September 11, 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base,
California, at 5:53 pm PDT.
In October 2011, Hernández, at the urging of President
Barack Obama, ran for Congress as a Democrat in California's newly redrawn 10th
congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the
Democratic nomination, but lost the 2012 general election to freshman
Representative Jeff Denham.
Hernández (center, bottom) inside Node 1 of the ISS during STS-128
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5. A Small Light (2023)
Biographical drama miniseries telling the story of Miep Gies
and how she helped her Jewish employer Otto Frank, his family, and other Jewish
refugees go into hiding during World War II after the German invasion of the
Netherlands
It premiered on National Geographic on May 1, 2023. The miniseries became available to stream on
Disney+ and Hulu the following day. It
received widespread critical acclaim.
Received Gotham Awards for Breakthrough Television Over 40
Minutes, ASTA TV Awards Best Broadcast Network or Cable Limited or Anthology
Series, Best Supporting Actor, Best Directing.
Hermine "Miep" Gies ( 15 February 1909 – 11
January 2010) was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family
(Otto Frank, Margot Frank, Edith Frank) and four other Dutch Jews (Fritz
Pfeffer, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Peter van Pels) from the Nazis in
an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II.
She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of
eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom
she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six
months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which
Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.
She said: "Over two million Holand people had helped
hid Jewish people in the Second World War, I am just doing what I can to
help".
In 1933, Gies began working for Otto Frank, a Jewish
businessman who had moved with his family from Germany to the Netherlands in
the hope of sparing his family from Nazi persecution. She became a close,
trusted friend of the Frank family and was a great support to them during the
twenty-five months they spent in hiding.
Together with her colleague Bep Voskuijl, she retrieved Anne
Frank's diary after the family was arrested, and kept the papers safe until
Otto Frank returned from Auschwitz in June 1945 and learned of his younger
daughter's death soon afterwards.
Gies had stored Anne Frank's papers in the hopes of
returning them to the girl, but gave them to Otto Frank, who compiled them into
a diary first published in June 1947. In
collaboration with Alison Leslie Gold, Gies wrote the book Anne Frank
Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family in
1987.
She died in 2010 at age 100 after suffering injuries from a fall.
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6. Abbé Pierre – A Century of Devotion
(2023)
Abbé Pierre – A Century of Devotion (French: L'Abbé Pierre –
Une vie de combats) is a 2023 French biographical drama film based on the life
of Abbé Pierre, a Catholic priest and national hero in France who devoted his
life to helping the poor, homeless people and refugees. The film premiered at
the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 26 May 2023.
Abbé Pierre, GOQ (born Henri Marie Joseph Grouès; 5 August
1912 – 22 January 2007) was a French Catholic priest, member of the Resistance
during World War II, and deputy of the Popular Republican Movement (MRP).
In 1949, he founded the Emmaus movement, with the goal of
helping poor and homeless people and refugees. He was one of the most popular
figures in France but had his name removed from such polls after some time
Abbé Pierre remained active until his death on 22 January
2007 in the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris, following a lung
infection, aged 94. He took a stance on most social struggles: supporting
illegal aliens, assisting the homeless (the "Enfants de Don
Quichotte" movement (end of 2006-start of 2007)) and social movements in
favor of requisitioning empty buildings and offices (squats), etc.
He continued to read each day La Croix, the Christian social
daily newspaper. In January 2007, he went to the National Assembly to oppose
those deputies wanting to change the law on lodging for homeless people,
promoted by President Jacques Chirac after the mobilization of the Enfants de
Don Quichotte NGO.
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7. The Beanie Bubble (2023)
The Beanie Bubble is a 2023 American comedy-drama film
directed by Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash Jr. from a screenplay by Gore, based
on the 2015 book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side
of Cute by Zac Bissonnette about the Beanie Babies bubble.
The Beanie Bubble was released in select cinemas on July 21,
2023, before its streaming release on July 28, 2023, by Apple TV+.
The film depicts the meteoric rise in popularity of the
Beanie Babies and tells the story behind the toy obsession that took off in the
1990s. It follows toy manufacturer turned billionaire Ty Warner, and centers
around the women who were integral to his success
Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, mostly animals.
Created in 1993, Beanie Babies emerged as a major fad and
collectible during the second half of the 1990s. They have been cited as being
the world's first Internet sensation in 1995. They were collected not only as
toys, but also as a financial investment, owing to the high resale value of
particular ones.
Beanie Babies were first introduced in 1993 by Ty Warner at
the World Toy Fair in New York City, New York. Manufacturing began in 1994, and
the toys were first sold in stores located in Chicago, Illinois for around 5
U.S. Dollars. There were nine original Beanie Babies: Legs the Frog, Squealer
the Pig, Spot the Dog, Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Whale, Chocolate the
Moose, Patti the Platypus, Brownie the Bear (later renamed "Cubbie"),
and Pinchers the Lobster (with some tag errors labeled "Punchers").
Since 1994, Beanie Babies can only be found in small, specialty stores, such as
gift stores and small toy stores
In 1996, Ty, Inc. released Teenie Beanies, a line of
miniature versions of the original Beanie Babies. They were sold alongside
McDonald's Happy Meals to celebrate the Happy Meal's 17th anniversary. They
also partnered with other companies.
Ty, Inc. stopped producing Beanie Babies in December 1999,
but high demand soon led them to reconsider. Production restarted in 2000 with
a Beanie Baby named "The Beginning."
In early 2008, Ty released a new version of Beanie Babies
called Beanie Babies 2.0. The purchase of a Beanie Baby 2.0 provided its owner
with a code to access an online Beanie Babies interactive website. The website
has since been shut down.
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8. Big George Foreman (2023)
Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and
Future Heavyweight Champion of the World (or simply Big George Foreman) is a
2023 American biographical sports drama film on the life of world heavyweight
boxing champion George Foreman, played by Khris Davis.
Development on Big George Foreman began in 2021 and after
several production delays, filming took place on a budget of $32 million from
February to March 2022 in New Orleans. The film was released theatrically by
Sony Pictures Releasing on April 28
2023, The film has grossed $5.4 million in the United States and
Canada and $604,430 in other
territories, for a worldwide total of $6 million.
George Edward Foreman (born January 10 1949) is an American former professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister, and author. In boxing he competed between 1967 and 1997 and was nicknamed "Big George". He is a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medallist. As an entrepreneur, he is known for the George Foreman Grill.
After a troubled childhood, Foreman took up amateur boxing
and won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Having turned professional the next year, he won the world heavyweight title
with a stunning second-round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973.
He defended the belt twice before suffering his first professional loss to
Muhammad Ali in the iconic Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. Unable to secure
another title opportunity, Foreman retired after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977.
Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years
later he announced a comeback and in 1994 at age 45 won the unified WBA, IBF,
and lineal heavyweight championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael
Moorer.
At 46 years and 169 days old he was the oldest world
heavyweight champion in history. Foreman is the oldest to ever win the world
heavyweight boxing championship of major honours and the second-oldest in any
weight class after Bernard Hopkins (at light heavyweight). He retired in 1997
at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins (68 knockouts) and 5 losses.
Foreman has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame
and International Boxing Hall of Fame.
The International Boxing Research Organization rates Foreman
as the eighth-greatest heavyweight of all time.
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9. BlackBerry (2023)
BlackBerry is a 2023 Canadian biographical comedy-drama film
directed by Matt Johnson from a script by Johnson and producer Matthew Miller.
It was loosely adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean
Silcoff's book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary
Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry. The film is a fictional account of the
creation of the BlackBerry line of mobile phone by co-founders Douglas Fregin
and Mike Lazaridis, and investor Jim Balsillie.
BlackBerry premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin
International Film Festival on February 17 2023. The film was released in
Canada on May 12 2023, to positive reviews. In late 2023 Blackberry was
re-released as a three-part miniseries with additional footage.
The film is the most nominated film in the history of the
Canadian Screen Awards, with 17 nominations. It won 14 awards, including Best
Motion Picture.
BlackBerry is a
discontinued brand of smartphones and other related mobile services and
devices. The line was originally developed and maintained by the Canadian
company BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion, or RIM) from
1999 to 2016 after which it was licensed to various companies.
At its peak in September 2011, there were 85 million
BlackBerry subscribers worldwide. However BlackBerry lost its dominant position
in the market due to the success of the Android and iOS platforms; its numbers
had fallen to 23 million in March 2016 a decline of almost three-quarters.
On September 28 2016, BlackBerry Limited announced it would
cease designing its own BlackBerry devices in favor of licensing to partners to
design, manufacture, and market. The
original licensors were BB Merah Putih for the Indonesian market, Optiemus
Infracom for the South Asian market, and BlackBerry Mobile (a trade name of TCL
Technology) for all other markets.
Historically, BlackBerry devices used a proprietary
operating system—known as BlackBerry OS—developed by BlackBerry Limited. In
2013 BlackBerry introduced BlackBerry 10, a major revamp of the platform based
on the QNX operating system. BlackBerry 10 was meant to replace the aging
BlackBerry OS platform with a new system that was more in line with the user
experiences of Android and iOS platforms. In 2015 BlackBerry began releasing
Android-based smartphones, beginning with the BlackBerry Priv.
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10. Boston Strangler (2023)
Boston Strangler is a 2023 American historical crime drama
film written and directed by Matt Ruskin. It is based on the true story of the
Boston Strangler, who, in the 1960s Boston, killed 13 women.
Boston Strangler was released in the United States on March
17, 2023, by Hulu. It received mixed reviews from critics.
The Boston Strangler is the name given to the murderer of 13
women in Greater Boston during the early 1960s. The crimes were attributed to
Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, on details revealed in court during a
separate case, and DNA evidence linking him to the final victim.
In the years following DeSalvo's conviction – but prior to
the emergence of this DNA evidence – various parties investigating the crimes
suggested that the murders (sometimes referred to as the "Silk Stocking
Murders") were committed by more than one person.
Between June 14, 1962, and January 4, 1964, 13 single women
between the ages of 19 and 85 were murdered in the Boston area. Most were
sexually assaulted and strangled in their apartments. Originally, the police
believed that one man was the sole perpetrator. With no sign of forced entry
into their homes, the women were assumed to have let their assailant in, either
because they may have known him or because they believed him to be a service
provider.
The attacks continued despite extensive media publicity
after the first few murders. Many residents purchased tear gas and new locks
and deadbolts for their doors. Some women even moved out of the area in
response to the killings
Albert Henry DeSalvo (September 3, 1931 – November 25, 1973)
was an American murderer and rapist who was active in Boston, Massachusetts, in
the early 1960s. He is known to have confessed to being the "Boston
Strangler", a serial killer who murdered thirteen women in the Boston area
between 1962 and 1964. Lack of physical evidence supported his confession, and
he was only prosecuted in 1967 for a series of unrelated rapes, for which he
was convicted and imprisoned until his death in 1973. His confessing to having
murdered multiple women was disputed, and debates continued regarding which
crimes he truly had committed.
By the early 21st century, techniques for DNA capture and
analysis could allow for the re-investigation of some criminal cases. In July
2013, an analysis of semen found around the body of Mary Sullivan, who was
raped and murdered, and is the last of the Strangler's victims, was matched to
DNA obtained from DeSalvo's nephew
DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison in 1967. In February
of that year, he escaped with two fellow inmates from Bridgewater State
Hospital, triggering a full-scale manhunt. After the escape, he was transferred
to the maximum security Walpole State Prison. Six years after the transfer, he
was found stabbed to death in the prison infirmary. His killer or killers were
never identified.
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11. Cassandro (2023)
Cassandro is a 2023 American biographical drama film
following the true story of Cassandro, the exotico character created by Saúl
Armendáriz, gay amateur wrestler from El Paso who rose to international
stardom, directed by Roger Ross Williams from a screenplay co-wrote by Williams
and David Teague.
It had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2023, and was released by Amazon MGM Studios in a limited release on September 15, 2023, prior to streaming via Prime Video on September 22, 2023.
It also screened at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on
September 2, 2023. Gael García Bernal won Best International Actor award in
Astra Film Awards Jan 2024.
Saúl Armendáriz (born May 20, 1970) is an American-born
Mexican luchador, or professional wrestler, who works as an exótico for several
independent promotions all over the world under the ring name Cassandro. He is
a former NWA World Welterweight and UWA World Lightweight Champion.
In 2009, Armendáriz signed a contract with American
promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), but was released before making
his official debut.
Armendáriz was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, but also
spent a lot of time just across the Mexican border in Juárez, Chihuahua, his
family's native town. He officially began his professional wrestling career in
1988, working under a mask as Mister Romano.
The character, made up by well known luchador Rey Misterio,
was a gladiator themed rudo (villain). Less than a year later, Armendáriz was
encouraged to abandon the character and take on a new exótico character by Babe
Sharon. Exóticos are male wrestlers dressed in drag portraying gay caricatures.
While most exóticos were straight, both Sharon and Armendáriz were gay.
Armendáriz wrestled his first match as an exótico in Juárez, working unmasked and under the new ring name Rosa Salvaje ("Wild Rose").
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12. Cocaine Bear 2023
Cocaine Bear (released as Crazy Bear in some countries) is a
2023 American comedy horror film directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by
Jimmy Warden. It is loosely inspired by the true story of the "Cocaine
Bear" an American black bear that ingested several kilograms of a bag
containing about 75 lb (34 kg) of lost cocaine. It is dedicated to Liotta, who
died in May 2022.
Cocaine Bear was released in the United States on February
24 2023 by Universal Pictures. The film opened to generally positive reviews
from critics and grossed over $90 million against a production budget of $30–35
million.
Cocaine Bear, also
known as Pablo Eskobear (sometimes spelled Escobear)or Cokey the Bear, was a
175-pound (79-kilogram) American black bear that fatally overdosed on cocaine
in 1985.
In 1985 drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II drops a shipment
of cocaine from his plane. He attempts to parachute out with a drug-filled
duffel bag, but knocks himself unconscious on the doorframe, causing him to
fall to his death. His body lands in Knoxville Tennessee, where he is
identified by Bob a local detective. He concludes that the cocaine is likely
from St. Louis drug kingpin Syd White, and the remainder is missing.
Meanwhile in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest, an
American black bear eats some of the cocaine. Becoming highly aggressive it
attacks hikers Elsa and Olaf killing the former. The bear was found dead in
northern Georgia and was stuffed and displayed at a mall in Kentucky.
Andrew Carter Thornton II (October 30, 1944 – September 11,
1985) was an American narcotics officer and lawyer who became the head member
of "The Company" a drug smuggling ring in Kentucky.
After quitting the army, Thornton joined the
Lexington–Fayette Urban County Police Department in 1968. He became a member of
the Lexington Police Department's narcotics squad in the early 1970s and worked
on narcotics investigations with the Louisville office of the Drug Enforcement
Administration.
After resigning from the police in 1977 Thornton practiced
law in Lexington. Four years later, he was among 25 men accused in Fresno,
California in a theft of weapons from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center and
of conspiring to smuggle 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States.
Thornton left California after pleading not guilty and was arrested as a
fugitive in North Carolina, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a pistol.
He pled no contest in Fresno to a misdemeanor drug charge and the felony charges
were dropped. He was sentenced to six months in prison, fined $500 placed on
probation for five years, and had his law license suspended.
On September 11 1985 while on a smuggling run from Colombia,
Thornton and a partner jumped from his auto-piloted Cessna 404, after dumping
packages of cocaine off near Blairsville, Georgia, US. Thornton became caught
in his parachute and ended up in a free fall to the ground. His body was found
by 85-year-old Fred Myers, in the gravel driveway of Myers's home in Knoxville,
Tennessee. The plane crashed over 60 mi (97 km) away in Hayesville North
Carolina.
At the time of his death Thornton was wearing a bulletproof
vest and expensive Italian shoes, and in possession of night vision goggles a
green army duffel bag containing approximately 35 kilograms (75 lbs.) of
cocaine valued at $15 million, $4,500 in cash, six 1 oz (31.1g) gold
Krugerrands, knives, and two pistols.
Three months later a dead black bear, later known as the Cocaine Bear that had apparently overdosed on cocaine dropped by Thornton was found in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
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13. Comandante 2023
Comandante is a 2023 Italian war drama film co-written and
directed by Edoardo De Angelis. The film opened the 80th Venice Film Festival
on 30 August 2023.
The film tells an episode of the Battle of the Atlantic when
the Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini sunk the Belgian ship Kabalo and
Cappellini's commander Salvatore Todaro decided to disobey orders and to rescue
the Kabalo's crew, being forced to navigate on the surface for three days,
making the ship an easy target for enemies
Comandante grossed $3.8 million in Italy
The Battle of the Atlantic the longest continuous military
campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945,
covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the
Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of
war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from
mid-1940 through to the end of 1943.
The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships
of the German Kriegsmarine (Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (Air Force)
against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy, and Allied
merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly
going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were protected for the most
part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces.
These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United
States beginning September 13 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of
the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) after Germany's Axis ally Italy entered
the war on June 10 1940.
The Battle of the Atlantic has been called the
"longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history. The campaign started immediately after the
European war began, during the so-called "Phoney War", and lasted
more than five years, until the German surrender in May 1945.
It involved thousands of ships in a theatre covering
millions of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one
side or the other gaining advantage, as participating countries surrendered,
joined and even changed sides in the war, and as new weapons, tactics,
counter-measures and equipment were developed by both sides. The Allies
gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface-raiders by the end
of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued
until the war's end.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later wrote
"The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat
peril. I was even more anxious about this battle than I had been about the
glorious air fight called the 'Battle of Britain'.
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14. The Crowded Room 2023
It is psychological thriller miniseries following Danny
Sullivan (a character based on Billy Milligan)The Crowded Room is an American
The Crowded Room is psychological thriller miniseries
created by Akiva Goldsman and inspired by the 1981 non-fiction novel The Minds
of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes after
he was arrested for his involvement in a New York City shooting in 1979.
On June 9 2023 The Crowded Room premiered with its first
three episodes on Apple TV+. One each of the remaining seven episodes was
released weekly through July 28, 2023. The series received negative reviews
from critics.
The Minds of Billy Milligan is a 1981 non-fiction novel by
Hugo Award-winning author Daniel Keyes. It tells the story of Billy Milligan,
the first person in US history acquitted of a major crime by pleading
dissociative identity disorder.
William Stanley Milligan (February 14 1955 – December 12
2014), also known as The Campus Rapist, was an American man who was the subject
of a highly publicized court case in Ohio in the late 1970s. After having
committed several felonies including armed robbery, he was arrested for three
rapes on the campus of Ohio State University.
In the course of preparing his defence, psychologists
diagnosed Milligan with dissociative identity disorder. His lawyers pleaded
insanity, claiming that two of his alternate personalities committed the crimes
without Milligan being aware of it. He was the first person diagnosed with
dissociative identity disorder to raise such a defence, and the first acquitted
of a major crime for this reason, instead spending a decade in psychiatric
hospitals.
Milligan was released in 1988 after a decade in psychiatric
hospitals. On August 1, 1991, he was discharged from the Ohio mental health
system and the Ohio courts. In 1996, he lived in California where he owned
Stormy Life Productions and was going to make a short film (which apparently
was never made).
His location, thereafter, remained for a long time unknown,
his former acquaintances having lost contact with him. According to his sister, he had been living
on her property in Ohio when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and lived
with her for the remainder of his life.
Milligan died of cancer at a nursing home in Columbus, Ohio, on December 12 2014. He was 59
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15. Flamin' Hot 2023
Flamin' Hot is a 2023 American biographical comedy-drama
film directed by Eva Longoria in her feature-length directorial debut. Written
by Linda Yvette Chávez and Lewis Colick it is based on the memoir A Boy, a
Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive by Richard Montañez the
Frito-Lay janitor who claims to have invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on
March 11, 2023. It was released on June 9, 2023, by Hulu and Disney+ to mixed
reviews from critics. At the 96th Academy Awards, Flamin' Hot received a
nomination for Best Original Song for “The Fire Inside” written by Diane
Warren, but lost to “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie.
Richard Montañez is an American businessman, motivational
speaker, and author.
After dropping out of school, he was hired by Frito-Lay as a
janitor and went on to become an executive in the company. He is best known for
his claim of inventing Flamin' Hot Cheetos, which is disputed by Frito-Lay and
other employees
According to Montañez's account, when a Cheetos machine
broke down, he took home a batch of unflavored snacks and seasoned them with
spices akin to Mexican street corn. He pitched this idea to CEO Roger Enrico
over the phone and was invited to deliver an in-person presentation, which he
prepared for by researching marketing at the public library.
Montañez then presented the product as appealing to the
growing Latino market, and provided samples in plastic bags that he had
hand-decorated and sealed. It was soft-launched six months later to a test
market in Los Angeles, and approved for national release in 1992.Newsweek
reported that the flavor, since expanded to a full product line,
"rejuvenated the brand" and garnered billions in revenue
In May 2021 a Los Angeles Times article disputed Montañez's
claim reporting that based on an internal investigation at Frito-Lay, he did
not create Flamin' Hot Cheetos. A spokesperson for Frito-Lay stated, "we
value Richard's many contributions to our company, especially his insights into
Hispanic consumers, but we do not credit the creation of Flamin' Hot Cheetos or
any Flamin' Hot products to him.
Montañez began giving keynote speeches, largely based on his Flamin' Hot Cheetos claim, in the late 2000s.
Montañez's last position was vice president of multicultural
sales and community promotions for PepsiCo North America. He retired from
PepsiCo in March 2019 during an internal investigation into his Flamin' Hot
Cheetos claim.
Montañez is the author of two books based on his life
experiences: A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie, and Flamin' Hot: The Incredible
True Story of One Man's Rise from Janitor to Top Executive. He is the subject
of a biopic, Flamin' Hot, directed by Eva Longoria.
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Want to keep your
true story watchlist going beyond 2023? Explore the 36 most inspiring true
story movies released in 2024 here:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Want to keep your true story watchlist going
16. The Gallows Pole 2023
The Gallows Pole is a three-part television series made for
the BBC by Element Pictures, Big Arty Productions, and A24. It is a Shane
Meadows adaptation of the novel of the same name by Benjamin Myers. According
to Meadows, the series is a prequel to Myers's novel. It premiered on 31 May
2023.
The series tells the fictionalised story of David Hartley
and the Cragg Vale Coiners at the onset of the industrial revolution in
18th-century Yorkshire. Hartley (Socha) assembles a gang of weavers and
land-workers to embark upon a revolutionary criminal enterprise that will
capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history.
The Cragg Vale Coiners, sometimes the Yorkshire Coiners,
were a band of counterfeiters in England, based in Cragg Vale, near Hebden
Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. They produced debased gold coins in the late
18th century to supplement small incomes from weaving.
Activities:
Led by "King" David Hartley, the Coiners obtained
real coins from publicans, sometimes on the promise that they could
"grow" the investment by smelting the original metals with base ores.
They "clipped" the edges of genuine coins, leaving them only very
slightly smaller, and collected the shavings. They then melted down the
shavings to produce metal for counterfeits. Designs were punched into the blank
"coins" with a hammer and a "coining kit". The coiners then
had their accomplices place the fakes into circulation. Most of the counterfeit
coins had French, Spanish or Portuguese designs.
Downfall:
In 1769 William Dighton (or Deighton), a public official,
investigated the possibilities of a counterfeiting gang in Cragg Vale. A coiner
by the name of James Broadbent betrayed the gang by turning King's evidence and
revealing the gang's existence and operations to authorities. Dighton had
Hartley arrested.
Isaac Hartley, "King" David's brother, engineered
a plan to have Dighton murdered, with a number of coiners subscribing a total
of 100 guineas in support of the plan. On 10 November 1769, two farm hands
employed by the Coiners, Matthew Normanton and Robert Thomas, ambushed Dighton
in Halifax and shot him dead in Bull Close Lane.
Charles Watson-Wentworth (the Marquess of Rockingham and
former Prime Minister) was tasked with hunting down the killers. He had 30
coiners arrested by Christmas Day. David Hartley was hanged at 'York Tyburn'
near York on 28 April 1770 and buried in the village of Heptonstall, West
Riding of Yorkshire. His brother Isaac
escaped the authorities and lived until 1815. Dighton's murderers were also
caught and hanged, Thomas on 6 August 1774 and Normanton on 15 April 1775.
The Cragg Coiners were the subject of a children's novel
Gold Pieces by Phyllis Bentley. The story is seen through the eyes of a
fictitious 12-year-old boy who lives nearby and who befriends the son of David
Hartley. All the places and the main characters such as David Hartley and
William Dighton are given their real names. Gold Pieces was reprinted in 2007.
The story of the gang was used as a basis in the
independently published graphic novel, The Last Coiner, written by Peter M.
Kershaw. David Hartley is renamed "David Hawksworth" and is
portrayed, through manipulated photography, by the actor Keith Patrick.
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17. Golda 2023
Golda is a 2023 American-British biographical drama film
directed by Guy Nattiv and written by Nicholas Martin. The film depicts actions
of Golda Meir, the 4th Prime Minister of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
It received its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin
International Film Festival on February 20 2023. It was released in the United
States by Bleecker Street and Shivhans Pictures on August 25 2023 and was
released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Vertical Entertainment and
MetFilm Distribution on October 6, 2023. The film received a Best Makeup and
Hairstyling nomination at the 96th Academy Awards.
Golda Meir ( 3 May
1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician who served as the fourth
prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only
female head of government and the first in the Middle East.
Born into a Ukrainian-Jewish family in Kiev in what was then the Russian Empire, Meir immigrated with her family to the United States in 1906.
Meir was elected to the Knesset in 1949 and served as Labor
Minister until 1956, when she was appointed Foreign Minister by Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion. She retired from the ministry in 1966 due to ill health.A
controversial figure in Israel, Meir has been lionized as a founder of the
state and described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics, but also
widely blamed for the country being caught by surprise during the war of 1973.
In addition, her dismissive statements towards the
Palestinians were widely scorned. Most historians believe Meir was more
successful as Minister of Labour and Housing than as Premier.
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the
October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War was an
armed conflict fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition
of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The majority of combat between the two
sides took place in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights—both of which had
been occupied by Israel in 1967—with some fighting in African Egypt and
northern Israel.
Egypt's initial objective in the war was to seize a foothold
on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and subsequently leverage these gains to
negotiate the return of the rest of the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula
The war began on 6 October 1973 when the Arab coalition
jointly launched a surprise attack against Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom
Kippur, which had occurred during the 10th day of the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan in that year. Following the outbreak of hostilities, both the United
States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their allies
(Israel and the Arab states respectively) during the war which led to a
confrontation between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.
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18. The Gold 2023
The Gold is a British drama television series written by
Neil Forsyth and co-produced by his Tannadice Pictures production label. It
began streaming on Paramount+ in September 2023. The BBC commissioned a second series in
November 2023
The series covers the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery in which £26
million (equivalent to £111 million in 2023) worth of gold bullion, diamonds,
and cash was stolen from a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, and the widespread
events that followed over the following decade. At the time it was the biggest
robbery in history, and led to a number of international criminal
investigations.
The Brink's-Mat robbery was one of the largest robberies in British history, It occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate London on 26 November 1983 from a warehouse operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint venture between US security company Brink's and London-based company MAT Transport. The bullion was the property of Johnson Matthey Bankers Ltd. Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were convicted of armed robbery. Most of the gold has never been recovered. Lloyd's of London paid out for the losses, and several shooting deaths have been linked to the case.
The Brink's-Mat robbery happened at 06:40 on 26 November 1983 when six robbers broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse, Unit 7 of the Heathrow International Trading Estate near Heathrow Airport in West London, England. It was described as "the crime of the century".
The gang gained entry to the warehouse from security guard
Anthony Black, who was complicit in the robbery. Once inside, they poured
petrol over the staff and threatened them with a lit match if they did not
reveal the combination numbers of the vault.
The robbers thought that they were going to steal around £1 million
worth of Spanish pesetas, but they also found three tonnes (3000 kg) of pure
gold bullion outside the main vault in
152 bars in 76 cardboard boxes.
The gold had been stored at the warehouse overnight before
being due to be transferred to Hong Kong the next day. In addition, they stole platinum, 1,000
carats of diamonds and $250,000 of traveller's cheques.
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19. GomBurZa 2023
GomBurZa is a 2023 Philippine historical biographical film
co-written and directed by Pepe Diokno. it features and follows the lives of
the Gomburza three native Filipino Roman Catholic priests executed during the
latter years of the Spanish colonial era in the Philippines. It serves as an
official entry to the 49th Metro Manila Film Festival and was released in
cinemas nationwide on December 25 2023.
On April 9 2024 GomBurZa was released on Netflix as the second entry from the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival. Accolades ( Received the awards in Manila Film Festival for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Sound and Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Award)
Mariano Gómes de los Angeles was born in the suburb of Santa Cruz Manila on August 2 1799 and a well-known Roman Catholic priest during their time part of the trio accused of mutiny by Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines in the 19th century. He was a Tornatras, one born from mixed native (Filipino), Chinese, and Spanish ancestries. He fought for the rights of his fellow native priests against Spanish abuses. He was also active in the publication of the newspaper La Verdad.
José Apolonio Burgos y García was born in Vigan Ilocos Sur
on February 9 1837, and was baptized on the 12th of the same month. He
completed a Bachelor of Philosophy ,
Bachelor of Theology , Licentiate in Philosophy, Licentiate in Theology, Doctor
of Theology and Doctor of Canon Law in 1868.
Jacinto Zamora y del Rosario was born on August 14 1835 in
Pandacan, Manila. After being given ministerial and priestly authority, Zamora
was able to establish parishes in Marikina, Pasig, and Batangas and was also
assigned to oversee Manila Cathedral on December 3, 1864.
Gomburza, alternatively stylized as GOMBURZA or GomBurZa,
refers to three Filipino Catholic priests Mariano Gómes, José Burgos, and
Jacinto Zamora, who were executed by a garrote on February 17 1872 in
Bagumbayan Philippines by Spanish colonial authorities on charges of subversion
arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny. The name is a portmanteau of the priests'
surnames. At the time of the execution, Gómez was 72 years old Burgos was 35
years old, and Zamora was 36 years old.
Gomburza incurred the hatred of Spanish authorities for
fighting for equal rights among priests and leading the campaign against the
Spanish friars. They fought on the issues of secularization in the Philippines
that led to the conflict of religious and church seculars.
During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, secular
priest Father Pedro Pelaez retells the story of Apolinario de la Cruz, a native
who was rejected for priesthood because his race and founded a sect of his own
before being suppressed and executed by the Spaniards, to his student, Jose
Burgos, and fellow secular priest Mariano Gomez.
The trio fights attempts by the friars from the religious
orders led by Padre Mosqueda to take over parishes administered by
predominantly Filipino secular priests. Pelaez later dies in the 1863 Manila
earthquake, while Burgos finishes his studies for the priesthood.
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20. The Great Escaper 2023
The Great Escaper is a 2023 biographical comedy-drama film
directed by Oliver Parker. It is based on the true story of 90-year-old British
World War II Royal Navy veteran Bernard Jordan who "broke out" of his
nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France in
June 2014
The Great Escaper had its world premiere in London at BFI Southbank on 20 September 2023 and was released in the United Kingdom on 6 October 2023 by Warner Bros Pictures. The film marked the final screen performances for both lead actors: Jackson died in June 2023, nine months after filming finished;
D-Day:
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and
associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of
Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation
Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it is the largest seaborne invasion in
history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western
Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
Bernie and Rene Jordan are living in a retirement home in
Hove, England after Rene's health deteriorated. Bernie, who served in the Royal
Navy during the Second World War, hopes to attend the 70th anniversary of
D-Day, but is told that there are no spaces left on any of the group tours to
Normandy for the event.
Initially hesitant to leave his wife behind due to her
fragile health, he is finally persuaded by Rene herself to find his own way to
Normandy to join the commemorations. Bernie leaves the nursing home early one
morning, takes a taxi to Dover and gets a ticket on a ferry to France. On the
ferry he meets Arthur, a RAF veteran who is on a group tour to Normandy for the
commemoration. When Arthur discovers that Bernie is travelling on his own, he
invites him to join his group and even to share his hotel room in France.
Bernie is reluctant at first but ultimately acquiesces.
When Bernie begins his return journey, he discovers that he
has become a celebrity, dubbed "the Great Escaper", and the story of
his flight to Normandy has appeared in all the papers. The ferry company staff
treat him like royalty and when he gets back home he finds a gaggle of
reporters awaiting him. He brushes past them in dismay and goes straight to
Rene, to whom he confesses the truth of his guilt over Douglas' death, and his
despair at the wasted lives of all the young men who died on that fateful day 70
years ago. Rene assures him that Douglas' death was not his fault, and points
out that he and she have lived every second of their lives together and never
wasted the time they were given.
The next morning Bernie and Rene get up early to watch the
dawn break on the horizon just as they did some seventy years earlier when they
were young lovers.
A caption tells us that Bernie died six months after his
"great escape" and Rene died seven days later.
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21. Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the
Desert 2023
Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert is a 2023
European co-production biopic-drama film directed by Margarethe von Trotta and
stars Vicky Krieps in the titular role. The film depicts the life of Austrian
poet and author Ingeborg Bachmann 1926–1973.
It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 73rd
Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 19
February 2023.
The biopic film is about the life of the Austrian poet and
author Ingeborg Bachmann, who lived in Berlin, Zürich, and Rome. The film
depicts her relationship with Swiss playwright Max Frisch, her friendship with
composer Hans Werner Henze, and her trip to Egypt with writer Adolf Opel. It
also showcases her radical texts and readings.
Ingeborg Bachmann 25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973 was an
Austrian poet and author. She is regarded as one of the major voices of
German-language literature in the 20th century. In 1963 she was nominated for
the Nobel Prize in Literature by German philologist Harald Patzer.
Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of
Carinthia. She studied philosophy, psychology, German philology, and law at the
universities of Innsbruck, Graz, and Vienna. In 1949, she received her PhD from
the University of Vienna with her dissertation titled "The Critical
Reception of the Existential Philosophy of Martin Heidegger"; her thesis
adviser was Victor Kraft.
Between November 1959 and February 1960 Bachmann gave five
lectures on poetics ( Questions and Pseudo-Questions, On poems,The writing
I,The close association with names,Literature as Utopia) at the Goethe
University Frankfurt.
During her later years she suffered from alcoholism and from
an addiction to medication prescribed by her doctor.
On the night of 25 September 1973 her nightgown caught on
fire and she was taken to the Sant'Eugenio Hospital at 7:05 A.M. the following
morning for treatment of second and third degree burns. Local police concluded
that the fire was caused by a cigarette. During her stay, she experienced
withdrawal symptoms from barbiturate substance abuse, though the doctors
treating her were not aware of the cause. This may have contributed to her
subsequent death on 17 October 1973
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22. 12.12: The Day 2023
12.12: The Day is a 2023 South Korean historical action drama film directed by Kim Sung-su. The film is set against the backdrop of the December 12 1979 military coup from the late 1970s to early 1980s. It was released theatrically on November 22 2023.
The film has earned a worldwide gross of over US$97 million
against a budget of about $17 million making it the highest-grossing Korean
film of 2023. As of June 2024 12.12: The Day is the fourth highest-grossing
film and the sixth most viewed film in South Korean film history.
The Coup d'état of December Twelfth or the 12·12 Military
Insurrection was a military mutiny which took place on December 12, 1979, in
South Korea.
Republic of Korea Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan,
commander of the Defence Security Command, acting without authorization from
Acting President Choi Kyu-hah, ordered the arrest of General Jeong Seung-hwa,
ROK Army Chief of Staff on allegations of involvement in the assassination of
former President Park Chung Hee.
After Jeong's capture, 29th Regiment of the 9th Division
along with the 1st Special Forces Brigade and 3rd Special Forces Brigade,
invaded downtown Seoul to support the 30th and 33rd Capital Security Group
loyal to Chun then a series of conflicts broke out in the capital. Two of
Jeong's allies Major General Jang Tae-wan (Commander of Army Capital Security
Command) and Major General Jeong Byeong-ju (Commander of Army Special Warfare
Command), were also arrested by the rebel troops. Major Kim Oh-rang, aide-de-camp
of Jeong Byeong-ju, was killed during the gunfight.
By the next morning, the Ministry of Defense and Army HQ
were all occupied. Chun and his fellow 11th class of Korea Military Academy
graduates, such as Major General Roh Tae-woo, commanding general of 9th
Infantry Division and Major General Jeong Ho-yong were in charge of the Korean
military. Chun was supported in the coup and the subsequent consolidation of
power by the powerful private club of military officials called Hanahoe.
The Coup d'état of December Twelfth and the Coup d'état of
May Seventeenth were the beginning of the end of the Fourth Republic of Korea.
The coup alongside the Gwangju Uprising, is the primary justification for
Chun's 1995 arrest by the Kim Young-sam administration.
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23. Jeanne du Barry 2023
Jeanne du Barry is a 2023 historical drama film directed,
co-written and produced by Maïwenn and starring herself and Johnny Depp in the
leading roles. Its plot centres on the life of Jeanne Bécu who was born as the
illegitimate daughter of an impoverished seamstress in 1743 and went on to rise
through the Court of Louis XV to become his last official mistress.
With its budget of $22.4 million, Jeanne du Barry was one of the most expensive French films of 2023 one of only three French films with a budget over 10 million euros. The film had its world premiere as the opening film at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2023 and was released theatrically in France on the same day by Le Pacte, 15 months in advance of its scheduled streaming release on Netflix in France.
Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry 19 August 1743 – 8 December
1793 was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was
executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of
treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the
Revolution. She is also known as “Mademoiselle Vaubernier”.
In 1768 when the king wished to make Jeanne
maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier,
so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The
wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate, created by
Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The certificate made Jeanne
appear younger by three years and obscured her poor background. Henceforth, she
was recognized as the king's official paramour.
Her arrival at the French royal court scandalized some, as
she had been a courtesan and came from humble beginnings. She was shunned by
many, including Marie Antoinette, whose contempt for Jeanne caused alarm and
dissension at court. On New Year's Day 1772 Marie Antoinette deigned to speak
to Jeanne; her remark, "There are many people at Versailles today"
was enough to take the edge off the dispute, though many still disapproved of
Jeanne.
Decades later, during the Reign of Terror in the French
Revolution Jeanne was imprisoned over accusations of treason by her slave
Zamor. She was executed by guillotine on 8 December 1793. Her body was buried
in the Madeleine cemetery. The fabulous gems which she had smuggled to London
were sold at auction in 1795.
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24. 80 for Brady 2023
80 for Brady is a 2023 American sports comedy film directed
by Kyle Marvin in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Sarah Haskins and
Emily Halpern, and produced by former NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
80 for Brady was released theatrically in the United States
on February 3 2023 by Paramount Pictures. It received mixed reviews from
critics and grossed $40 million worldwide against a $28 million budget.
Inspired by a real-life group of Patriots fans known as the "Over 80 for Brady" club. It focuses on four lifelong friends (played by Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field) who travel to watch Brady and his New England Patriots play in Super Bowl LI in 2017. Billy Porter, Rob Corddry, Alex Moffat, and Guy Fieri also star.
For years, the club "Over 80 for Brady" consisted
of Betty Pensavalle, Elaine St. Martin, Anita Riccio, Pat Marx and Claire
Boardman. Today, Pensavalle and St.
Martin are 94 and 95 years old respectively and have been friends for 72 years.
Boardman passed away last year, and Riccio and Marx now live in an assisted
living facility. But the memories of the years the group spent watching
football together remain a bright spot for both Pensavalle and St. Martin. The
Tom Brady movie captures a similar spirit of friendship.
"Game days became the link that kept their friendship
from fumbling." They took turns getting together at each other's houses.
"One Sunday here, one Sunday at my house," Elaine St. Martin told
CBS. "It would through the five of
us." Betty Pensavalle told the Sun Chronicle that the fan club didn't
gather when the Patriots played night games because the games were "too
late." Still the ladies got together so often that they were given the
nickname the "Over 80 for Brady" fan club. The 80 for Brady real
story confirms that they could be heard shouting at the TV though in real life
they did not curse. Betty Pensavalle's grandson, Max Gross, even created
matching t-shirts for them.
In real life, the “Over 80 for Brady” fan club never made it
to a Super Bowl like their Hollywood counterparts. But that doesn’t matter so
much to Pensavalle and St. Martin, who say they never expected this kind of
notoriety at their age.
“Though the movie is about four friends going to the Super
Bowl, the main thing you need to take away from this is that having good
friends is very precious” St. Martin says. “Even at 95 I can say, ‘Life is
short. Too short for arguments and holding grudges. Be kind to others and
kindness will find you.’ Betty and I have been friends for 72 years with never
a harsh word.”
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25. Killers of the Flower Moon 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 American epic Western
crime drama film co-written, produced and directed by Martin Scorsese. Eric
Roth and Scorsese based their screenplay on the 2017 non-fiction book by David
Grann.
Set in 1920s Oklahoma it focuses on a series of murders of
Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on
tribal land. The tribal members had retained mineral rights on their
reservation, but a corrupt local political boss sought to steal the wealth.
It is the sixth feature film collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio the tenth between Scorsese and De Niro, and the first between Scorsese and both actors overall (they previously all collaborated on the 2015 short film The Audition), and the eleventh and final between Scorsese and composer Robbie Robertson, who died two months prior to the film's release. The film is dedicated to Robertson.
The film was produced
by Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions with
its $200–215 million budget reportedly the largest amount ever spent on a film
shoot in Oklahoma
Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film
Festival on May 20 2023. It was theatrically released in the United States on
October 20 2023, by Paramount Pictures and Apple Original Films. The film
grossed $157 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with praise for
Scorsese's direction, the screenplay, production values, editing,
cinematography, musical score and cast performances especially DiCaprio,
Gladstone and De Niro, although it received minor criticism for its runtime.
It won Best Film at the National Board of Review and was
named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute. It was
also nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, seven Golden
Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, and with Gladstone winning
Best Actress, nine British Academy Film Awards, and three SAG Awards, with
Gladstone winning Best Actress.
The Osage Indian murders were a series of murders of Osage
in Osage County Oklahoma during the 1910s–1930s. Newspapers described the
increasing number of unsolved murders and deaths among young adults as the
"Reign of Terror". Most took place from 1921 to 1926. Some sixty or
more wealthy, full-blood Osage persons were reported killed from 1918 to 1931.
Newer investigations indicate that other suspicious deaths during this time
could have been misreported or covered-up murders, including those of
individuals who were heirs to future fortunes. Further research has shown that
the death toll may have been in the hundreds.
The tribe had retained mineral rights to the land of their
reservation. Each tribal member had what were known as headrights to the
mineral rights on communal land. When valuable oil was found on their land and
leases were sold for oil production, each member with headrights was paid a
share of the lucrative annual royalties for leases by oil companies. In 1906
and subsequent years, United States Congress passed a series of laws,
ostensibly intended to help the Osage retain their wealth, that created a system
of guardianship for "minors and incompetents", as determined by and
under the jurisdiction of Oklahoma's local county probate courts.
Some of the murders were committed in order for whites to take over the headrights of Osage members when inheriting property after deaths. The Osage found minimal assistance from local law enforcement to investigate the deaths, as it was dominated by powerful whites working in their own interests. Later investigation including that of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI the precursor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation) revealed extensive corruption among local officials involved in the Osage guardian program, including lawyers and judges.
Most of the murders were never prosecuted. Nevertheless
several perpetrators were convicted of murder, including William Hale a
powerful rancher who ordered the murders of his nephew's wife and other members
of her family to gain control of their headrights and oil wealth. Two other
perpetrators implicated with Hale, Henry Grammer and Asa Kirby, died under
suspicious circumstances during the BOI investigation. Several others involved
were convicted of lesser charges, such as perjury, witness tampering, and contempt
of court, for attempting to impede the investigation.
In 1925 the US Congress changed the law to prohibit
non-Osage from inheriting headrights from Osage with half or more Native
American ancestry, in an effort to protect the Osage. The U.S. government
continued to manage the leases and royalties from oil-producing lands. Over
decades, the tribe became increasingly concerned about these assets. In 2000
the Osage Nation filed a suit against the Department of the Interior, alleging
that it had not adequately managed the assets and paid people the royalties they
were due. The suit was settled in 2011 for $380 million and commitments to
improve program management.
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26. Lee 2023
Lee is a 2023 British biographical drama film directed by
Ellen Kuras in her feature directorial debut, adapted from the 1985 biography
The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony Penrose. It stars Kate Winslet as war
journalist Lee Miller.
The movie took eight years to make and, at one point, due to
precarious funding, Kate Winslet (who also produced the movie) paid the entire
cast and crew's salaries for two weeks. The film made its world premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2023. It will be released
theatrically in the United Kingdom by Sky Cinema on 13 September 2024.
Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose April 23 1907
– July 21 1977 was an American photographer and photojournalist. Miller was a
fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, becoming a
fashion and fine art photographer there. During World War II, she was a war
correspondent for Vogue, covering events such as the London Blitz, the
liberation of Paris, and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. Her
reputation as an artist in her own right is due mostly to the fact her son discovered
and promoted her work as a fashion and war photographer.
Miller was born in
Poughkeepsie, New York. Miller's father Theodore always favored Lee, and often
used her as a model for his amateur photography. When she was seven years old,
Lee was raped while staying with a family friend in Brooklyn and was infected
with gonorrhea. In her childhood, Miller experienced issues in her formal
education, being expelled from almost every school she attended while living in
the Poughkeepsie area.In 1925 at 18 Miller moved to Paris where she studied
lighting, costume, and design at the Ladislas Medgyes' School of Stagecraft.
She returned to New York in 1926 and joined an experimental drama programme at
Vassar College
Miller's father introduced her and her brothers to photography at an early age. She was his model – he took many stereoscopic photographs of his nude teenage daughter – and showed her technical aspects of the art. At 19 she nearly stepped in front of a car on a Manhattan street but was prevented by Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue. This incident helped launch her modeling career; she appeared in a blue hat and pearls in a drawing by George Lepape on the cover of Vogue on March 15 1927. Miller's look was what Vogue's then editor-in-chief Edna Woolman Chase was looking for to represent the emerging idea of the "modern girl". For the next two years, Miller was one of the most sought-after models in New York, photographed by leading fashion photographers,
Four of her photographs "Egypt" 1939, "Roumania" 1938, "Libya" 1939 and "Sinai" 1939 were displayed at the Zwemmer Gallery's 1940 exhibition Surrealism To-Day. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) included her work in the exhibition Britain at War in New York City in 1941. No other exhibition would include her photographs until 1955 when she was included in the renowned The Family of Man exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, director of the MoMA Department of Photography.
At the war's end, Miller's work as a wartime photojournalist continued as she sent telegrams back to the British Vogue editor, Audrey Withers, urging her to publish photographs from the camps. She did this following a CBS broadcast from Buchenwald.
After returning to Britain from central Europe, Miller suffered severe episodes of clinical depression and what later became known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She began to drink heavily and became uncertain about her future.
Miller died of cancer at Farley Farm House in 1977 aged 70. She was cremated and her ashes were spread through her herb garden at Farley.
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27. Little Girl Blue 2023
Little Girl Blue is a 2023 biographical docudrama film
written and directed by Mona Achache based on the life of her mother, the
writer and photographer Carole Achache starring Marion Cotillard as Carole
Achache and Mona Achache as herself.
The film is a co-production between France and Belgium and had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section on 21 May 2023 where it competed for the Golden Eye and was well received by critics. The title comes from the song of the same name written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The film was released theatrically in France by Tandem on 15 November 2023 and in Belgium by Galeries Distribution on 3 April 2024.
Little Girl Blue received three nominations at the 2024 César Awards: Best Documentary Film, Best Editing, and Best Actress for Cotillard, becoming the first actress to be nominated for a documentary.
The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film
Festival in the Special Screenings section on 21 May 2023 where it competed for
the Golden Eye and earned a standing ovation at the end of its screening.
Carole Hélène Marthe Andrée Achache(31 May 1952 – 1 March
2016) was a French writer, photographer and actress. She appeared in films such as The Gypsy 1975,
Special Section 1975, Lumière 1976, Mr. Klein 1976, Le Juge Fayard dit Le
Shériff 1977 and Death of a Corrupt Man 1977 under the name Carole Lange. She
later worked as a still photographer in the films Other People's Money 1978, A
Week's Vacation 1980, The Trout 1982 and Un soir au club 2009. As an author,
Achache published five books.
Achache was born in Paris France. She was the daughter of
French writer Monique Lange and of French science historian Jean-Jacques
Salomon, who left her mother when Achache was a child. Her mother was born
Jewish and later converted to Catholicism. Her maternal grandfather, Robert
Lange was a French journalist and politician. American writer William Faulkner
was her godfather. Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo was her step-father.
When Achache was a child, she was abused by French writer Jean Genet, who was a friend of her mother. The abuse led her to drug use and prostitution between Paris and New York in the 1970s
In 2002, Achache published her first novel L'Indienne de
Cortés (English: Cortés' Indian Woman) about La Malinche a Nahua woman who
accompanied Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés throughout his conquest of the
Aztec Empire and later became his mistress.
Her second novel, La plage de Trouville (English: Trouville
Beach) was published in 2008 and follows the story of the painting of the same
name by Jacques Mauny, which belonged to Achache's family and was stolen by the
Nazis around 1943.
In 2011 Achache published Fille de (English: Daughter of)
about her relationship with her mother. Achache also published two photography
books, Chantiers en cours (English: Work in Progress) in 2004 and Des fleurs
(English: Flowers) in 2006.
Achache died in Paris on 1 March 2016 at the age of 63. Her
death was ruled as suicide by hanging.
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28. The Man Who Stood in the Way 2023
The Man Who Stood in the Way is a 2023 Czech historical
drama film directed by Petr Nikolaev. The film focuses on František Kriegel the
only political leader who, during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
declined to sign the Moscow Protocol.
It is based on a
novel by Ivan Fíla of the same name. Fíla was originally set to direct the
film.
František Kriegel 10 April 1908 – 3 December 1979 was a
Czechoslovak politician, physician and a member of the Communist Party reform
wing of the Prague Spring 1968. He was the only one of the political leaders
who during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia declined to sign the
Moscow Protocol. The František Kriegel Award is granted annually to a person
who has fought for human rights. It was founded in Stockholm in 1987 and is
funded by the Charter 77 Fund. In August 2014 the city council of Prague 2
municipality refused to grant him an honorary citizenship.
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia,
On 20–21 August 1968 the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was
jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish
People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian
People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring
liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist
Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).
About 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops afterwards rising to about 500,000 supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, participated in the overnight operation, which was code-named Operation Danube. The Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania refused to participate, while East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, were ordered by Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion because of fears of greater resistance if German troops were involved, due to public perception of the previous German occupation three decades earlier. 137 Czechoslovaks were killed and 500 seriously wounded during the occupation.
The invasion started a series of events that would ultimately pressure Brezhnev to establish a state of détente with US President Richard Nixon in 1972 just months after the latter's historic visit to the PRC.
Moscow Protocol officially Protocol of the negotiations of
the ČSSR and USSR delegations was a document signed by Czechoslovak political
leaders in Moscow, after the Prague Spring. The negotiations took place from 23
to 26 August 1968.
The main signatories were President Ludvík Svoboda, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubček, Prime Minister Oldřich Černík, Chairman of the National Assembly Josef Smrkovský and most of the ministers and Communist Party leaders Gustáv Husák among them. The only person present at the negotiations who declined to sign was František Kriegel.
The document included among its many expectations promises to protect socialism in Czechoslovakia, to act upon the promises made in the Bratislava Declaration, to denounce the 14th Party Congress and its resolutions, to restrain critical Czechoslovak media, and to reject any interference in the Eastern Bloc by the United Nations Security Council.
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29. Miranda's Victim 2023
Miranda's Victim is a 2023 American period drama film
directed by Michelle Danner. It is based
on the life of Patricia "Trish" Weir who was kidnapped and raped by
Ernesto Miranda in 1963. The film also depicts the origin of the Miranda
warning
It was released by Vertical Entertainment in the United States on October 6 2023. Miranda's Victim had its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday February 8 2023 at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara California.
Ernesto Arturo Miranda March 9 1941 – January 31 1976 was an
American labourer whose criminal conviction was set aside in the landmark US
Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona which ruled that criminal suspects must
be informed of their right against self-incrimination and their right to
consult with an attorney before being questioned by police. This warning is
known as a Miranda warning. Miranda had been convicted of kidnapping, rape and
armed robbery charges based on his confession under police interrogation.
After the Supreme Court decision invalidated Miranda's
initial conviction, the state of Arizona tried him again. At the second trial
with his confession excluded from evidence, he was convicted. He was sentenced
to 20–30 years in prison.
On January 31 1976 Miranda was stabbed to death in Phoenix, Arizona. He was 34. Several Miranda cards were found on his person. Miranda was buried in the City of Mesa Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona. The person suspected of handing the knife to the man who murdered Miranda invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to talk to police.
He was released and was not charged in Miranda's murder. The man suspected of murdering Miranda then-23-year-old Eseziquiel Moreno Perez, was formally charged with murder on February 4 1976. However he has never been apprehended as he fled to Mexico following the murder and has never been found.
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30. NYAD 2023
Nyad is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film about
swimmer Diana Nyad's multiple attempts in the early 2010s to swim the Straits
of Florida, with flashbacks to her early life. It is directed by Elizabeth Chai
Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (in their feature narrative film directorial debut)
and written by Julia Cox, based on Nyad's 2015 memoir Find a Way. It stars
Annette Bening as Nyad, with Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans in supporting roles.
Nyad had its world premiere at the 50th Telluride Film
Festival on September 1 2023. It was released in select theatre's on October 20
2023, then streamed on Netflix on November 3. The film received positive
reviews from critics with particular praise for the performances of Bening and
Foster. For their performances, Bening and Foster received nominations for Best
Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively at the 96th Academy Awards,
the 81st Golden Globe Awards and the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Diana Nyad born
August 22 1949 is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and
long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam
around Manhattan (28 mi or 45 km) in record time, and in 1979 when she swam
from Bimini The Bahamas to Juno Beach Florida 102 mi or 164 km.
She has written four books and articles for various
publications, hosted the public radio program The Savvy Traveller, appeared on
the television shows CBS News Sunday Morning and Dancing with the Stars, and
been a long-time contributor to the public radio programs All Things Considered
and Marketplace.
In 2013 on her fifth attempt and at age 64 she claims to
have swum from Havana, Cuba, to Key West Florida a journey of 110 mi (180 km)
allegedly completing the third known swim crossing of the Florida Straits after
Walter Poenisch in 1978 and Susie Maroney in 1997. Both of those earlier
efforts involved a shark cage and, in Poenisch's case, fins and several short
rests on his escort craft.
Nyad used a protective jellyfish suit, shark divers and
electronic shark repellent devices, and claimed to have achieved an
"unassisted" swim. Her crossing from Cuba to Florida was not
conducted under the supervision of an organized sporting association, and
ratification of the accomplishment was later denied by the World Open Water
Swimming Association WOWSA for various reasons including incomplete observer
logs with a 9-hour undocumented gap in observations, conflicting crew reports,
nearly a decade of delay in providing documentation to seek formal
ratification, dubious claims about the rules followed for the swim, and
"backdated and falsified documentation".
Guinness World
Records initially certified Nyad's achievement but revoked its certification
after considering the findings by WOWSA.
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31. One Life 2023
One Life is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by James
Hawes. Based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton the film
alternates between following Anthony Hopkins as a 79-year old Winton
reminiscing on his past and Johnny Flynn as a 29-year old Winton attempting to
help groups of Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia to hide and
flee in 1938–39, just before the beginning of World War II. Helena Bonham
Carter, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp and Jonathan Pryce co-star in
supporting roles.
One Life had its world première at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2023 and its European première at the 2023 London Film Festival. It was released in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2024 by Warner Bros. Pictures and later in the United States on 15 March 2024 by Bleecker Street. The film received mostly positive reviews, with praise for the performances of the cast, particularly Hopkins and Bonham Carter.
Sir Nicholas George Winton (19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015 was a
British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue Jewish children who
were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Born to
German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the
20th century Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children most of them Jewish,
from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II.
On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia he helped compile a list
of children needing rescue and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfil the
legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and
sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport
(German for 'children's transport').
His humanitarian accomplishments remained unknown and
unnoticed by the world for nearly 50 years until 1988 when he was invited to
the BBC television programme That's Life! where he was reunited with dozens of
the children he had helped come to Britain and was introduced to many of their
children and grandchildren.
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32. 2018 (2023)
2018 subtitled onscreen as Everyone is a Hero is a 2023
Indian Malayalam-language disaster film based on the severe 2018 Kerala floods
that devastated Kerala.
Inspired by 2012 The film was announced on 16 October 2018
by Jude Anthany Joseph. Principal photography commenced on 27 May 2022. The
film was shot in different parts of Kerala as well as Tirunelveli and
Hyderabad. The filming was wrapped up on 13 November 2022.
The film received generally positive reviews and became a
huge commercial success in the box office, grossing around ₹176 crore (US$21
million) at the box office to emerge as the highest-grossing Malayalam film of
all-time. until it was surpassed by Manjummel Boys. On 27 September 2023, the
film was chosen by the Film Federation of India as India's official entry for
Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards
It became the fourth Malayalam film after Guru 1997 ,
Adaminte Makan Abu 2011 and Jallikattu 2019 to be selected as India's official
submission for the Academy Awards, although it failed to make the cut. It was
featured in the 54th IFFI Indian panorama mainstream section
On 16 August 2018 severe floods affected the south Indian state Kerala due to unusually heavy rainfall during the monsoon season. It was the worst flood in Kerala in nearly a century. Over 483 people died and 15 went missing. About ten lakh (a million) people were evacuated.
All 14 districts of the state were placed on red alert.
According to the Kerala government, one-sixth of the total population of Kerala
had been directly affected by the floods and related incidents. The Indian
government had declared it a Level 3 Calamity or "calamity of a severe
nature". It is the worst flood in Kerala after the great flood of 99 that
took place in 1924.
35 out of the 54 dams within the state were opened for the
first time in history. All five overflow gates of the Idukki Dam were opened at
the same time; for the first time in 26 years five gates of the Malampuzha dam
of Palakkad were opened. Heavy rains in Wayanad and Idukki caused severe
landslides and had left the hilly districts isolated.
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33. Origin 2023
Origin is a 2023 American biographical drama film written
and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson,
played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she writes the book Caste: The Origins of
Our Discontents. Over the course of the film, Wilkerson travels throughout
Germany India and the United States to research the caste systems in each
country's history.
Origin premiered in competition at the 80th Venice
International Film Festival on September 6 2023, and began a limited theatrical
release on January 19 2024 by Neon. The film received positive reviews from
critics.
Origin had a qualifying run December 8–10, 2023 grossing
$117,063 from two theaters; the $58,531 per-venue average was the 4th-best of
the year. In its official opening weekend January 19–21 2024 the film made
$826,235 from 125 theaters. It expanded to 664 theaters the following weekend,
making $1.3 million.
Isabel Wilkerson born 1961 is an American journalist and the
author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
2010 and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents 2020. She is the first woman of
African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.
Wilkerson was the editor-in-chief of the Howard University college newspaper, interned at the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, and became the Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times. She also taught at Emory University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, and Boston University.
Wilkerson interviewed over a thousand people for The Warmth
of Other Suns, which documents the stories of African Americans who migrated to
northern and western cities during the 20th century. Her book Caste describes
the racial hierarchy in the United States as a caste system. Both books were
best-sellers.
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34. Priscilla 2023
Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film
written, directed and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis
and Me by Priscilla Presley who serves as an executive producer and Sandra
Harmon. It follows the life of Priscilla (played by Cailee Spaeny) and her
complicated romantic relationship with Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi).
Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film
Festival on September 4 2023 and was released in the United States by A24 in
select theaters on October 27 2023 before expanding wide on November 3 2023. It
received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $33 million
worldwide. For her performance Spaeny received a Best Actress nomination at the
Golden Globe Awards.
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla
Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll is a 1985 memoir written by Priscilla
Presley with Sandra Harmon. In the book, Priscilla talks about meeting Elvis
Presley, their marriage, and the factors and issues that led to the couple's
divorce.
The book adaptation rights were purchased in 1987.
Priscilla Ann Presley
formerly Beaulieu; born May 24 1945 is an American businesswoman and
actress. She is the ex-wife of American singer Elvis Presley as well as the
cofounder and former chairperson of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) the company
that turned Graceland into one of the top tourist attractions in the United
States. In her acting career Presley costarred with Leslie Nielsen in the Naked
Gun film trilogy and played Jenna Wade on the long-running television series
Dallas.
In May 1967 the couple were married in a small ceremony in Las Vegas.
In February 1968 Priscilla Presley gave birth to their only child Lisa Marie Presley. Along with Graceland, the family had three homes in southern California, where the singer’s film career was winding down.The couple grew apart leading to their separation in 1972. They divorced in 1973.
Career and after life:
After the divorce Priscilla Presley pursued her own projects
and interests. Notably she opened a boutique clothing store in Los Angeles
called Bis & Beau with fashion designer Olivia Bis. She remained friendly
with her ex-husband and they shared custody of their daughter until his death
in 1977.
Upon his death his estate was left to his father, Vernon
Presley, who was also named executor; his grandmother Minnie Mae Presley; and
his daughter, who was nine years old at the time. After Vernon Presley’s death
in 1979 followed by Minnie Mae Presley’s death in 1980 the executorship passed
to Priscilla Presley to oversee until her daughter turned 25 years old.
Priscilla Presley was named one of three trustees, along with the Presley
family’s accountant and local bank.
At the time of Elvis Presley’s death, the estate was worth
about $5 million with taxes cutting deeply into earnings. Within 10 years the
trustees rebuilt its worth to more than $75 million. Priscilla Presley made the
crucial decision to open Graceland to the public in 1982.
She also pursued an acting career with memorable roles on
the popular television series Dallas 1983–88 and in all three of the Naked Gun
comedy films 1988, 1991 and 1994 opposite costar Leslie Nielsen. In 1985 she
published a best-selling memoir, Elvis and Me, which was adapted into a
television movie in 1988. In 1987 she had a son Navarone, with her longtime
partner, screenwriter Marco Garibaldi.
Presley worked as a film and television producer on various
projects about her ex-husband, including the documentary film Elvis Presley:
The Searcher 2018 and the animated Netflix series Agent Elvis 2023. She also
served as an executive producer on Priscilla 2023.
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35. Rustin 2023
Rustin is a 2023 American biographical drama film directed
by George C Wolfe from a screenplay by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black and
a story by Breece about the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.
Produced by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company Higher Ground. It is based on the true story of Rustin, who
helped Martin Luther King Jr. and others organize the 1963 March on Washington.
Rustin premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31 2023 and was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13 2023. The film received a limited theatrical release on November 3 2023 before being released on Netflix on November 17. The film received generally positive reviews with Domingo's performance garnering numerous accolades including nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and SAG Award for Best Actor.
Bayard Rustin March 17 1912 – August 24 1987 was an American political activist, a prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963
Rustin worked in 1941 with A Philip Randolph on the March on
Washington Movement to press for an end to racial discrimination in the
military and defense employment. Rustin later organized Freedom Rides and
helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen
Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership; he taught King about non-violence.
Rustin worked alongside Ella Baker a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship in 1954; and before the Montgomery bus boycott, he helped organize a group called "In Friendship" to provide material and legal assistance to people threatened with eviction from their tenant farms and homes.
Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and promoted the unionization of African Americans. During the 1970s and 1980s Rustin served on many humanitarian missions, such as aiding refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia.
Rustin was a gay man and, due to criticism over his sexuality, usually advised other civil rights leaders from behind the scenes. During the 1980s he became a public advocate on behalf of gay causes, speaking at events as an activist and supporter of human rights.
Later in life while still devoted to securing workers'
rights, Rustin joined other union leaders in aligning with ideological
neoconservatism earning posthumous praise from President Ronald Reagan. On
November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Rustin died on August 24 1987 of a perforated appendix.
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36. Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes
2023
Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes (German: Seneca –
Oder: Über die Geburt von Erdbeben) is a 2023 German-Moroccan historical drama
dark comedy film directed by Robert Schwentke, starring John Malkovich as
Seneca. The film is about the last days of the ancient philosopher Lucius
Annaeus Seneca and the beginnings of Emperor Nero's despotic regime in Ancient
Rome.
The film marks one of Julian Sands' final roles being
released following his disappearance in the San Gabriel Mountains in January
2023 and prior to the discovery of his body. The movie was selected at the 73rd
Berlin International Film Festival in Berlinale Special Gala where it had its
world premiere on 20 February 2023. It was released in cinemas on 23 March
2023.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger 4 BC – AD 65 usually known mononymously as Seneca was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome a statesman, dramatist and in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was born in Colonia Patricia Corduba in Hispania, and
was trained in rhetoric and philosophy in Rome. His father was Seneca the
Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was
the poet Lucan. In AD 41, Seneca was exiled to the island of Corsica under
emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero.
When Nero became emperor in 54 Seneca became his advisor and, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, provided competent government for the first five years of Nero's reign. Seneca's influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, of which he was probably innocent. His stoic and calm suicide has become the subject of numerous paintings.
As a tragedian he is
best known for plays such as his Medea, Thyestes and Phaedra. Seneca had an
immense influence on later generations—during the Renaissance he was "a
sage admired and venerated as an oracle of moral, even of Christian
edification; a master of literary style and a model for dramatic art.
As a writer works attributed to Seneca include 12 philosophical essays, 124 letters dealing with moral issues, nine tragedies, and a satire, the attribution of which is disputed. These writings constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for ancient Stoicism. His authorship of Hercules on Oeta has also been questioned. As "a major philosophical figure of the Roman Imperial Period", Seneca's lasting contribution to philosophy has been to the school of Stoicism.
His writing is highly accessible and was the subject of
attention from the Renaissance onwards by writers such as Michel de Montaigne.
He has been described as “a towering and controversial figure of antiquity”and
“the world’s most interesting Stoic”.
Death:
In AD 65 Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the
Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that Seneca
was part of the conspiracy, Nero ordered him to kill himself. Seneca followed
tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death and his wife
Pompeia Paulina attempted to share his fate.
Cassius Dio who wished to emphasize the relentlessness of
Nero focused on how Seneca had attended to his last-minute letters, and how his
death was hastened by soldiers.
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37. Sisi & I 2023
Sisi & I German: Sisi & Ich is a 2023 historical
black comedy film directed by Frauke Finsterwalder who co-wrote the screenplay
with Christian Kracht.
It tells a
fictionalized story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of
her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. The film is an international co-production
between Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Sisi & I made its world premiere in the Panorama section
of the 2023 Berlin Film Festival on 19 February 2023. It was released
theatrically in Austria by Panda Film, and in Germany and Switzerland by DCM on
30 March 2023.
Finsterwalder won the 2023 Bavarian Film Award for Best
Director for the film. It also received four nominations for the 2023 German
Film Award including Best Actress for Sandra Hüller, and won the award for Best
Costume Design. The film also received the Austrian Film Award for Best Costume
Design in 2024.
Elisabeth born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria;
24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898 nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of
Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24
April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.
Elisabeth was born into the Ducal royal branch of the
Bavarian House of Wittelsbach but enjoyed an informal upbringing before
marrying her first cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph I at 16. The marriage thrust
her into the much more formal Habsburg court life for which she was unprepared
and which she found suffocating. Early in the marriage, she was at odds with
her mother-in-law, who was also her maternal aunt Archduchess Sophie who took
over the rearing of Elisabeth's daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy.
The birth of a son Crown Prince Rudolf, improved Elisabeth's
standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. As a result, she
would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop
a deep kinship with Hungary and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary in 1867.
The death of Elisabeth's only son and his mistress Mary
Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a
blow from which the Empress never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and
travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family.
In 1890 she had the palace Achilleion built on the Greek
island of Corfu. The palace featured an elaborate mythological motif and served
as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often. She was obsessively concerned with
maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, developing a restrictive diet and
wearing extremely tightlaced corsets to keep her waist looking very small.
While travelling in Geneva in 1898 Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.
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38. Woman of the Hour 2023
Woman of the Hour is a 2023 American period crime drama film
directed by Anna Kendrick in her directorial debut and written by Ian
MacAllister McDonald.
It is based on the life of serial killer Rodney Alcala who
in 1978 appeared on the television show The Dating Game in the midst of his
murder spree. The film revolves around the events of the game show and stars
Kendrick as contestant Cheryl Bradshaw.
Woman of the Hour premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2023
A biographical film about Alcala's life titled Dating Game
Killer was directed by Peter Medak and broadcast on the American television
network Investigation Discovery produced December 3, 2017. In 2021 Netflix
announced a biographical film, Rodney and Sheryl, directed by and starring Anna
Kendrick which depicts the story of Alcala's appearance on The Dating Game in
the midst of his killing spree.
The title was later changed to Woman of the Hour. On
November 3 2022 a three-part television documentary about Alcala was released.
Rodney James Alcala born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor;
August 23 1943 – July 24 2021 was an American serial killer and sex offender
who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between
1977 and 1979.
He also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years
to life for two further murders committed in New York and was also indicted
with a murder in Wyoming, although charges were dropped due to a technicality.
While he has been conclusively linked to eight murders Alcala's true number of
victims remains unknown and could be much higher – the actual number could be
as high as 130.
Alcala compiled a collection of more than 1,000 photographs
of women teenage girls and boys, many in sexually explicit poses. In 2016 he
was charged with the 1977 murder of a woman identified in one of his photos.
Alcala is known to have assaulted one other photographic subject, and police
have speculated that others could be rape or murder victims as well.
Prosecutors have said that Alcala "toyed" with his
victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, then waiting until they
revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing
them. One police detective described Alcala as "a killing machine,"
and others have compared him to Ted Bundy.
Alcala is often referred to as the Dating Game Killer
because of his 1978 appearance on the television show The Dating Game in the
midst of his murder spree. He died of
unspecified natural causes in 2021.
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39. Ferrari 2023
Ferrari is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film
directed by Michael Mann and written by Troy Kennedy Martin. Based on the 1991
biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars the Races, the Machine by motorsport
journalist Brock Yates, the film follows the personal and professional
struggles of Enzo Ferrari, the Italian founder of the car manufacturer Ferrari,
during the summer of 1957 as Scuderia Ferrari prepares to compete in the 1957
Mille Miglia.
Ferrari was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the
80th Venice International Film Festival, premiering on August 31 2023. The film
was originally set to premiere on the streaming service Showtime but it was
eventually released in the United States theatrically on December 25 2023 by
Neon. Although the film received generally positive reviews from critics and
was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the National Board of Review, it
was a box-office bomb grossing only $43 million against a $95 million budget
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari Cavaliere di Gran Croce
(18 February 1898 – 14 August 1988 was an Italian motor racing driver and
entrepreneur the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team,
and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Under his leadership
Scuderia Ferrari won 9 drivers' world championships and 8 constructors' world
championships in Formula 1 during his lifetime.
He was widely known as il Commendatore or il Drake a nickname given by British opponents in reference to the English privateer Francis Drake due to Ferrari's demonstrated ability and determination in achieving significant sports results with his small company. In his final years he was often referred to as l'Ingegnere "the Engineer", il Grande Vecchio "the Grand Old Man", il Cavaliere "the Knight", il Mago "the Wizard" and il Patriarca "the Patriarch".
Drivers Enzo Ferrari 1st from left, Tazio Nuvolari 4th and
Achille Varzi 6th of Alfa Romeo with Alfa Romeo Managing Director Prospero
Gianferrari 3rd at Colle della Maddalena 1933.
Final years,
After Jody Scheckter won the title in 1979 the team
experienced a disastrous 1980 campaign. In 1981 Ferrari attempted to revive his
team's fortunes by switching to turbo engines. In 1982 the second turbo-powered
Ferrari the 126C2 showed great promise. However driver Gilles Villeneuve was
killed in an accident during the last session of free practice for the Belgian
Grand Prix in Zolder in May.
In August, at Hockenheim teammate Didier Pironi had his career cut short in a violent end over end flip on the misty back straight after hitting the Renault F1 driven by Alain Prost. Pironi was leading the driver's championship at the time; he would lose the lead and the championship by five points as he sat out the remaining five races. The Scuderia went on to win the Constructors Championship at the end of the season and in 1983 with driver René Arnoux in contention for the championship until the very last race.
Michele Alboreto finished second in 1985 but the team would not see championship glory again before Ferrari's death in 1988. The final race win Ferrari saw before his death was when Gerhard Berger and Alboreto scored a 1–2 finish at the final round of the 1987 season in Australia.
Linda Christian kissing Alfonso de Portago before the latter departed for his last part of the Mille Miglia race. The photo is popularly known as "The Kiss of Death" Il Bacio della Morte.
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40. Napoleon 2023
Napoleon is a 2023 epic historical drama film directed and
co-produced by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa. Based on the story of
Napoleon and primarily depicting his rise to power as well as his relationship
with his wife Joséphine, it stars Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon and Vanessa Kirby
as Joséphine.
In October 2020 Scott announced Napoleon as his next
project. Following delays and recastings due to the COVID-19 pandemic filming
began in February 2022 in England lasting several months. In addition to writer
David Scarpa, frequent Scott collaborators included cinematographer Dariusz
Wolski and editor Claire Simpson.
Napoleon premiered at Salle Pleyel in Paris on November 14 2023 and was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on November 22 2023 by Sony Pictures Releasing's Columbia Pictures, before streaming on Apple TV+ on March 1 2024.
The film has grossed $221 million worldwide and received
mixed reviews from critics with praise for the battle sequences and
performances though it was criticized for its historical inaccuracies. At the
96th Academy Awards, the film received nominations for Best Production Design,
Best Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects.
Napoleon Bonaparte born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 later known by his regnal name Napoleon I was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804 then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814 and briefly again in 1815. Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and Napoleonic tactics are still studied at military schools worldwide.
Napoleon married Joséphine in 1796 but the marriage produced
no children. Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise produced one child, Napoleon
Francis Joseph Charles (Napoleon II) (1811–1832) known from birth as the King
of Rome.
Joséphine Bonaparte (23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the
first wife of Emperor Napoleon I and as such Empress of the French from 18 May
1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 January 1810. As Napoleon's
consort, she was also Queen of Italy from 26 May 1805 until the 1810 annulment.
She is widely known as Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine's marriage to Napoleon was her second. Her first
husband Alexandre de Beauharnais, was guillotined during the Reign of Terror,
and she was imprisoned in the Carmes Prison until five days after his
execution. Through her children by Beauharnais, she was the grandmother of
Emperor Napoleon III of France and Empress Amélie of Brazil. Members of the
current royal families of Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Norway and the grand
ducal family of Luxembourg also descend from her. Because she did not bear Napoleon
any children, he had their marriage annulled and married Marie Louise of
Austria. Joséphine was the recipient of numerous love letters written by
Napoleon many of which still exist.
A patron of art, Joséphine worked closely with sculptors,
painters and interior decorators to establish a unique Consular and Empire
style at the Château de Malmaison. She became one of the leading collectors of
different forms of art of her time, such as sculpture and painting. The Château
de Malmaison was noted for its rose garden, which she supervised closely.
Death:
Joséphine died of pneumonia in Rueil-Malmaison on 29 May
1814 soon after walking with Emperor Alexander I of Russia in the gardens of
Malmaison where she allegedly begged to join Napoleon in exile. She was buried
in the nearby church of Saint Pierre-Saint Paul in Rueil. Her daughter Hortense
is interred near her.
Napoleon learned of her death via a French journal while in exile on Elba and stayed locked in his room for two days, refusing to see anyone. He claimed to a friend, while in exile on Saint Helena that "I truly loved my Joséphine but I did not respect her."Despite numerous affairs, eventual marriage annulment and his remarriage, the Emperor's last words on his death bed at St. Helena were: "France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine."
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Curious how recent ‘based on a true story’ films balance
fact and fiction? Check out my 2025 roundup, where I look at
28 new releases and how accurate they really are:
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