Top 10 Biopics of all time

Biopics are the cinematic version of biographical fiction, a subgenre of historical fiction that dramatizes real people and events. Some purists object to this mix of fact and fiction but I find the conversion of history into art to be one of the most meaningful and intellectual tasks within the storytelling art forms. Biopics also makes historical figures more intimate than just viewing them through a documentary and are an example of why Victor Hugo said all historians must become fiction writers. The following is my ranking of the top ten biopics of all time.

10. Lincoln - director: Steven Spielberg

This film likely exaggerates the prospect of failing to pass the thirteenth amendment but it is nonetheless a masteful political drama featuring America’s greatest president, played by one of the greatest actors of all time, at its center. It shows how democracy functions.

9. Gandhi - director: Richard Attenborough

I can feel Attenborough wanting to make an epic in the style of David Lean. He largely succeded, though his character is less layered than those in Bridge on the River Kwai or Lawrence of Arabia. The film gets a little repetitive by using a formula that demonstrates how Gandhi is morally superior to everyone around him. But it still is a masterpiece of the genre and a must-watch.

8. The Social Network - director: David Fincher

It’s hard to go wrong with a director and screenwriter who are among the most acclaimed of their generation. An origin story for the social media age, this is probably the most relevant film on the list. Its structure of weaving between multiple trials is a stepping stone to Oppenheimer’s pacing style. I’m looking forward to the sequel that was recently greenlit.

7. 12 Years a Slave - director: Steve McQueen

This masterpiece about survival, based on the memoir by the same name, is the most powerful movie about slavery I’ve seen. I have a feeling the director set out to make slavery’s equivalent of Schindler’s List. He succeeded.

6. Oppenheimer - director: Christopher Nolan

This is an excellent character study that focuses on Oppenheimer’s loyalty to the US and his effort to reconcile the theories parading through his head with their ramifications for the world around him. It’s a WWII thriller with an all-star cast playing the 20th century’s most famous scientists. The novel pacing structure helps set this film apart so its three hours never have a dull moment.

5. Goodfellas - director: Martin Scorsese

Scorsese’s masterpiece. This is perhaps the only crime film to rival The Godfather I and II while being a more faithful portrayal of the mob than Michael Corleone’s Shakespearean fall. This one is fast paced and one of the most exciting and best edited films of all time.

4. Amadeus - director: Milos Forman

We all know it’s highly fictionalized, but remembering that this film is filtered through Salieri’s memory decades after the fact provides an interesting framing about the subjectivity of historical memory. The characters are less layered than those in the top three but they’re vivid in portraying jealousy, genius, and the effects of achieving fame at a young age. Plus it bears a soundtrack by perhaps the greatest composer of all time.

3. Downfall - director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

A thoughtful portrayal of history’s greatest villain, in which Bruno Gantz gives the definitive acting portayal of Adolf Hitler. The film doesn’t have much good to say about him and he’s nuanced insofar as he’s not a snarling monster. Showing the breakdown of a cult of personality, this film is rare in excelling at plot, character depth, theme, and form.

2. Schindler’s List - director: Steven Spielberg

Spielberg’s opus and perhaps the definitive WWII film. The liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto is on par with the Omaha beach landing of Spielberg’s later film, Saving Private Ryan. The brutality of the Holocaust is juxtaposed with Schindler’s transformation from selfish businessman to savior of over 1,000 Jews. This masterpiece demonstrates that the Nazis lost the battle for humanity’s soul - one of the most profound themes in film history and an example of what only biographical fiction can do.

1. Lawrence of Arabia - director: David Lean

This story of a British officer directing the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during WWI is the most psychologically complex character study I’ve ever seen in a movie. Lawrence goes from pacifist intellectual to sun god whose implosion unleashes the sadomasochism lurking under the surface. Lean’s opus redefined the genre by bringing  greater psychological depth to historical fiction. It is the greatest character piece and epic in film history and the closest that cinema has ever gotten to Shakespeare and Tolstoy.

M. B. Zucker is the author of award-winning historical fiction novels, The Eisenhower Chronicles and The Middle Generation: A Novel of John Quincy Adams and the Monroe Doctrine.