10 Movies that are based on real life political events

Real-life political events are often dramatized to be displayed on the big screen as well as television. These movies cover real-life controversies, scandals, and even deaths and assassinations.

From depicting Lincoln’s fight against slavery in Lincoln to giving the audience a glimpse of King George IV’s struggle with a speech impediment in The King’s Speech, these movies try to cover real-life political events as authentically as possible.

In this article, we have listed 10 such movies that are based on real-life political events.

Disclaimer: This article is based on the writer's opinion. Reader discretion is advised.

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10) The Report

Scott Z. Burns’s The Report covers the Senate staffer Daniel Jones’s investigation of the CIA’s use of torture in their detention program after the 9/11 attacks.

The movie is based on the 6700 pages of report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee that investigated the inhuman, tortuous activities carried out by the CIA during the Bush administration.

During his investigation, Jones, played by Adam Driver, faced challenges from the Department of Justice to the CIA not cooperating with him, but he continued his investigation.

This film brought one of the most infamous political events from the past of the CIA.

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9) Il Divo

This biographical drama, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, follows the story of the infamous Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti.

Starring Toni Servillo as Andreotti, the film recounts his seventh election as the Prime Minister of Italy. It also depicted his connections with the Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia of Italy.

But more importantly, the movie covers the political events of his trial in 1995 and also the judicial investigation of the bribe scandal around political corruption in which he was also involved.

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8) Strange Justice

Strange Justice is a television film that depicted the s*xual allegations against Clarence Thomas by Anita Hill.

Clarence Thomas was nominated by then President George W. Bush to be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. However, at that time, he was accused by Anita Hill, a law professor who worked with Clarence in the Department of Education, of s*xual harassment.

The drama recounts how Hill struggled to fight against a powerful figure in a highly publicized case that brought attention to s*xual abuse and harassment against women as she became a national figure in fighting against these crimes.

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7) I'm Still Here

This Oscar-winning film focuses on the struggles faced by Eunice Paiva, the wife of Brazilian politician Rubens Paiva, as she tried to find her husband, who disappeared after his arrest in 1971.

During the military dictatorship, Brazil became politically unstable. At that time, Paiva was arrested at his home. When Eunice didn’t hear anything from her husband, she started to look for him, which got her arrested once. However, she did not stop looking for Rubens even after the false news report of him fleeing the country.

The film portrayed the political events during the military rule in Brazil.

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6) Judas and the Black Messiah

Judas and the Black Messiah brings forth the political events surrounding the betrayal and killing of a political organization, the Black Panther Party’s leader Fred Hampton.

It shows how FBI informant William O'Neal helps the FBI in arresting Hampton and later drugging him as ordered by the FBI. He was later killed when his apartment was raided by the officers, while also injuring many other BPP members.

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5) Parkland

One of the most important political events in US history was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The 2013 film Parkland depicts the aftermath of the assassination in 1963.

The film showcased the efforts put in by doctors and the medical staff to save Kennedy and also the FBI’s attempts at catching the criminal who shot at the US President in broad daylight.

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4) All the President's Men

Another film based on the real-life political events surrounding the atrocious Watergate Scandal.

The film follows two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who investigated the Watergate scandal from scratch. They connected the details starting from a burglary in the Watergate complex and found out more about the appalling fraudulent activities for the re-election of Nixon by his committee.

This controversy cost Nixon his presidency.

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3) Selma

Selma recounts the political events surrounding the protests and marches for voting rights for the African American people in the US.

It recounts Martin Luther King Jr.’s marches that he conducted from Selma to Montgomery to fight for the voting rights of his people. The film also shows his famous speech that he delivered in the State Capitol in Montgomery.

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2) The Post

The popular film The Post is about the events revolving around The Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers that recounted the US’s involvement from the French Indochina War to the Vietnam War.

The film begins with analyst Daniel Ellsberg’s research on the Vietnam War, where he found out that the war was hopeless, but still the politicians encouraged it publicly. It later showed how publisher Katharine Graham and editor Ben Bradlee faced challenges regarding the publication of the Pentagon Papers that they acquired from Ellsberg.

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1) Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour depicts the political events surrounding the British Cabinet Crisis during World War II.

During the war, the British cabinet was at loggerheads when conflicts began to rise as some members wanted to have peace talks with Germany while others, led by Winston Churchill, wanted to continue the war.

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