The battle of Stalingrad, which took place in World War II, was one of the largest and most gruesome battles in history. Many directors have tried to use the battle as a backdrop for other stories, but the 1993 film “Stalingrad” was determined to show the battle as it was.
Director Joseph Vilsmaier focused on a small band of soldiers who face actual atrocities that take place at the time. The film’s accuracy stems from its insistence on showing the actual violence and horror of war.
Suffragette
Suffragette, which depicts British women’s struggle to win the vote in the 1910s, is different from other films on this subject because it focuses on working-class women. Laura Schwartz, an Assistant Professor of Modern British History has praised the way the focus was on life-like characters who worked in a laundromat.
The fictional East End laundry workers Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) and Violet Miller (Anne-Marie Duff), gave a voice to the experiences of real-life suffragettes of the time.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Although it may have handsome leading men and a lot of explosions, Michael Bay’s film, "Pearl Harbor," is not exactly ripped from the history books. The film "Tora! Tora! Tora!," is actually the closest to telling the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor as it happened.
To make things look even more real, parts of the film were shot on Yorktown, an actual aircraft carrier, which was provided by the Navy before being decommissioned.
The King’s Speech
Director Tom Hooper’s heartwarming film about King George VI took the world by storm and even won four Oscars. Although some aspects of the story were exaggerated, the film was for the most part historically accurate.
Additionally, although historian Andrew Roberts has some specific criticisms of the film, especially regarding the pivotal final scene, he does praise it overall.
Schindler's List
The story of German businessman Oskar Schindler was immortalized in the Steven Spielberg film "Schindler’s List." He starts out trying to make money off the war, but once he witnesses what was really going on, Schindler decides to save as many Jews as he can.
The film does take some dramatic liberties with the story, changing a few characters and events, the overall narrative, however, remains true to the novel "Schindler’s Ark" by Thomas Keneally on which it was based.