Citizen Kane (1941)
This is one of Orson Welles’s masterpieces, also starring himself and in which he tells us the story inspired by the life of the multifaceted William Randolph Hearst. The film is a colossal narrative exercise with a story that begins with the death of Charles Foster Kane pronouncing his last words, which will serve as an excuse for an investigator to start delving into his meaning by asking everyone who knew him.
The Rope (1948)
What to say about this portentous masterpiece by Alfred Hitchcock that he wanted to shoot in a single shot (he didn’t succeed, but almost) and that It is inspired by the real case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. If you remember, everything revolves around a murder and some clues that lead to the culprit. Everything, narrated through a few sequence shots that take the viewer through the scene while an extraordinary acting work by James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger or Cedric Hardwicke unfolds before their eyes.
Paths of Glory (1957)
Kirk Douglas stars in this film directed by Stanley Kubrick that takes us to the First World War, when a squad leader must take responsibility of a failed attack choosing four soldiers who, unfairly, will be shot accused of cowardice. Without a doubt, a moving film that brings us back to the horrors that any war causes.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Otto Preminger directs James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara and George C. Scott in a thriller starring a married couple who go to a lawyer to prove the innocence of their husband, who is accused of the murder of an alleged rapist of his wife. The script has its origin in a real case which was produced in 1952 and is one of those films that keeps you glued to the couch until the last moment without really knowing what is going to happen.
All the President’s Men (1976)
The Watergate case was one of the triggers for the resignation of Richard Nixon in the 70s, so Alan J. Pakula’s film, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, takes us back to the year 1972, when two Washington Post journalists ( the legendary Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein), begin to investigate what seems to be more than just a simple raid at the Democratic Party headquarters offices.
Platoon (1986)
Oliver Stone, whom we already knew for his extraordinary film wall streetdecides to put his memories of the Vietnam War at the service of cinema in a trilogy that begins with platooncontinue with born on the 4th of july and concludes with The sky and the earth. Through your gaze we will discover the horrors of war and the consequences for many soldiers who fought in it. In this film we can enjoy extraordinary performances by Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe.
JFK (1991)
Oliver Store himself decides to revisit one of the most important assassinations of the 20th century. The one that took place in the streets of Dallas on November 22, 1963. The film adapts the investigations conducted by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who begins to discover inaccuracies and small clues that seem to point as causes of the murder in a different direction than the official one. Extraordinary the presence of Kevin Costner, Jack Lemon or Gary Oldman.
Schindler’s List (1993)
What to say about one of Steven Spielberg’s masterpieces. The film with which the Hollywood Academy surrendered before the director of ET the alien and that tells us the story of a German businessman who, in the midst of World War II, decides to risk his life and his position to save 1,200 Jews from extermination. A raw, brutal film that we should all see once in a lifetime to be aware of the magnitude of what happened with that “final solution” of Hitler.
The Dilemma (1999)
Michael Mann directs an extraordinary cast in a film that tells us about the excesses committed by the tobacco industry and how, seeing its traps discovered to prioritize money over health, it turns against those who they want to bring out the whole truth of those practices. It stars Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer.
Saving Private Ryan (1999)
Spielberg, sensitive to the traumatic period of World War II, makes the crudest and wildest portrait of what the beginning meant in Nazi-occupied Europe. The film begins by recreating the Normandy landings in an extraordinary way and takes us to the interior of France, where a soldier is found who has lost his three brothers in the war. A group will go looking for him to return him home safe and sound. The story is inspired by a real casealthough the creative freedom of Steven Spielberg will place the action in another scenario different from the original, taking as a reference a case that at the time was known as that of the Niland brothers.
Thirteen Days (2000)
Roger Donaldson directs a film that tells us about the moment in history when the world was about to suffer a nuclear confrontation between the USA and the USSR. It was in October 1962, when the Kennedy Administration discovered that the Soviets were installing missiles in Cuba. Everything that happened in the White House, with the negotiations and tensions derived from that confrontation, will be evident while the world holds its breath. Declassified CIA documents and recordings made at the presidential building facilities were used to write the script.
City of God (2002)
A must-see film, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, which takes us to daily life in a Brazilian Favela. There we will learn about the conditions in which thousands of people live and that stands out, not so much for what it tells, but for how it tells it, with a style that will be as strange as it is attractive. Give it a try because it will shock you.
United 93 (2006)
In the 9/11 attacks, of the four aircraft that were going to crash into ground targets, three achieved their goals and the fourth was United Flight 93. This shocking film recreate what happened on that plane where the passengers rebelled against their destiny to confront the hijackers. The result was an accident in the open field that prevented a major tragedy and turned the protagonists of this story into heroes for an entire nation.
The Social Network (2010)
David Fincher directs the story of how mark zuckerberg founded facebook through a script signed by Aaron Sorkin, who was inspired by the pages of the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Throughout all the footage of him we will discover what the personality of one of the richest men in the world is like and the decisions he made to make the idea of connecting millions of people a reality. Who has not seen this movie?
The Impossible (2012)
One of our best Spanish directors, Juan Antonio Bayona, directs this drama inspired by the misadventures of a Spanish family who was in Thailand during the Christmas tsunami of 2004. Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and a very young Tom Holland, we will experience first-hand the destructive power of nature and how chance sometimes determines our destinies.
Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan left superheroes and science fiction movies aside for a moment to focus on one of the most remembered episodes of World War II. The evacuation of the allied army that was cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk, France. The story, based on real events, unfolds through the eyes of the soldiers waiting on land, the aviators who fly over the coast and the crews of the ships that go to meet them. A film that you must see…compulsory.
The Dreyfuss Affair (2019)
Roman Polanski transforms into a movie one of the biggest scandals experienced in the French army between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The so-called “Dreyfuss case”, the story of an officer who, in January 1895, is discovered spying for Germany and sent to serve a life sentence on Devil’s Island. Although soon what seems obvious, it will not be so.
