Dramas based on real life on Netflix
Last updated January 22, 2025
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2007 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsCate Blanchett reprises her role as the Virgin Queen in this lushly costumed but historically muddy sequel to 1998's Elizabeth which focuses on the queen's tempestuous relationship with the adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh.
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Bottle Shock
2008 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFrance's position as the world's top wine producer went unchallenged until 1976, when the Montelena Winery put California wines on the map -- a story delightfully told in this full-bodied tale about the heady early days of Napa Valley's success.
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Flame and Citron
2008 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsThis fact-based drama explores the less-than-heroic side of World War II Danish Resistance fighters Flame and Citron, who, after taking orders from a Resistance leader, systematically assassinated Danish collaborators and Nazi officers.
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An Education
2008 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsJenny's (Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan) Oxford-bound teen life is a bore in 1961 London until she's given a different kind of education after being immersed in the beguiling but hazardous world of much-older David (Peter Sarsgaard). Even Jenny's parents, Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour), are intrigued by him, but her unimpressed teacher (Olivia Williams) works to keep Jenny's entire future from crumbling under David's influence.
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Conviction
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsConvinced that her brother, Kenneth (Sam Rockwell), has been unjustly convicted of murder and incompetently defended by court-ordered attorneys, high school dropout Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) puts herself through law school in order to represent him in his appeal. Inspired by a true story, director Tony Goldwyn's stirring drama also stars Melissa Leo, Minnie Driver, Peter Gallagher and Clea DuVall.
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Paan Singh Tomar
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsPaan Singh Tomar goes from celebrated runner -- as the Indian National Games steeplechase champion -- to star brigand and rebel when life after sports fails to unfold as planned. After a stint in the military, Tomar joins a group of bandits.
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Nowhere Boy
2009 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsRaised by his aunt since he was a young boy, charismatic teen John Lennon is reunited with his mother, which ignites a bitter battle between the two sisters for John's affections. Along the way, John befriends fellow Liverpool lad Paul McCartney.
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Extraordinary Measures
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsAfter their two young children are diagnosed with a rare genetic disease for which conventional medicine has no cure, John and Aileen pin their hopes on the work of unconventional scientist Dr. Robert Stonehill and form a company to develop a drug.
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The Red Baron
2008 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsBased on the true story of the notorious World War I flying ace, this drama explores the life of Manfred von Richthofen -- aka the Red Baron -- from his childhood fascination with flying to his renowned career in the German Luftwaffe.
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9th Company
2005 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsAfter barely surviving an intensely grueling boot camp in Uzbekistan, an eclectic group of recently enlisted Soviet soldiers ships off to fight in Afghanistan, where they must endure hellish conditions and extremely dangerous mujahedeen forces.
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127 Hours
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsFrom director Danny Boyle comes this harrowing tale of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who literally cuts himself loose from danger -- and lives to tell about it when sliding rock pins his forearm under a boulder during a climb in Utah. To stay alive, Ralston resorts to his basest survival instincts. The film scored Academy Award nominations in the Best Picture and Best Actor (Franco) categories.
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Carlos
2010 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsIlich Ramírez Sánchez -- aka Carlos the Jackal -- is an elusive Venezuelan terrorist who executed scores of assassination plots, abductions and bombings across Europe and the Middle East. This biopic follows Carlos from 1973 to 1994.
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Christopher and His Kind
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsThis intimate adaptation of acclaimed novelist Christopher Isherwood's memoir conjures the young explorer's 1931 arrival, with poet W.H. Auden, on Berlin's decadent cabaret scene, along with the hearts he gained and lost in that anything-goes era.
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The Sessions
2012 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsAfter spending years in an iron lung, a man decides he wants to explore his sexuality for the first time, and hires a surrogate to aid the goal. Through their intensifying relationship, this indie drama illustrates the many forms love can take.
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Won't Back Down
2012 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsIn this fact-based drama, two women from different classes and races (Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal) draw on their common bond of motherhood to fight institutional inertia and an antagonistic bureacracy to improve an inner-city school.
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The Buddy Holly Story
1978 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsOscar nominee Gary Busey does his own singing in this chronicle of the rise and untimely death of rock 'n' roll pioneer Buddy Holly. The biopic covers Holly's beginnings, his first hit singles, his marriage and his rocky relationship with his band.
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Hoffa
1992 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsJack Nicholson stars as infamous Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa in this biopic that traces Hoffa's rise through labor's ranks to create the most powerful union in the country and posits a guess as to what happened to him when he vanished without a trace.
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Anastasia
1956 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsIn 1928 Paris, a pair of Russian émigrés coaches a troubled girl to impersonate Anastasia, the presumed-dead daughter of Czar Nicholas II, in order to collect a reward. As the hoax unfolds, the conspirators suspect they've found the real Anastasia.
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The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
1951 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsThis classic World War II drama chronicles the life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (nicknamed the Desert Fox), focusing on his military career in North Africa, his connection to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and his lonely demise.
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Heart: The Marilyn Bell Story
2001 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsBased on a true story, this inspiring made-for-TV biopic spotlights Canadian swimmer Marilyn Bell (Caroline Dhavernas), a 16-year-old phenom who defeats top-ranked American swimmer Florence Chadwick (Claudia Besso), stunning the world in the process. In a thrilling race across frigid Lake Ontario, Bell's perseverance and pluck help her make it to the other side while her seasoned competitor struggles.
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Flyboys
2006 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsFarm boy Blaine Rawlings and his fellow soldiers become the world's first fighter pilots when they join the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of Americans who are volunteering for the French military at the dawn of World War I.
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Charlie Wilson's War
2007 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsTexas congressman Charlie Wilson sets a series of earth-shaking events in motion when he conspires with a CIA operative (Philip Seymour Hoffman, in an Oscar-nominated role) to aid Afghan mujahideen rebels in their fight against the Soviet Red Army.
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Black Friday
2004 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsIn this intense docudrama based on the book by the same name by S. Hussain Zaidi, director Anurag Kashyap tracks the aftermath of a 1993 mass bombing in Bombay through the eyes of a journalist covering the story.
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Last Stop 174
2008 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsBased on the true events of a 2000 bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this tense drama traces the human story behind the tragedy, providing an inside look at the history of the violent hostage-taker. After losing his mother, Sandro (Michel de Souza) lives on the street and becomes hardened by life. Even the efforts of a rehabilitated drug addict (Cris Vianna) who believes he's her long-lost son can't turn him away from a life of violence.
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Bronson
2008 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsNicolas Winding Refn's vivid and unflinching biopic delves into the life of Britain's most notorious prisoner, Charlie Bronson -- who's been jailed for nearly 35 years -- and attempts to dissect the real man behind the deranged persona.
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