Highest-Rated Movies about 'Based On Autobiography'

The Pianist (2002), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dersu Uzala (1975), Raging Bull (1980), Persepolis (2007), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), Walk the Line (2005), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Based On Autobiography movies.

#16. An Angel at My Table (1990)

Storyline: In 1920s and 1930s New Zealand, Janet Frame grows up in a poor family with lots of brothers and sisters. Already at an early age she is different from the other kids. She gets an education as a teacher but since she is considered abnormal she stays at a mental institution for eight years. Success comes when she starts to write novels.—Mattias Thuresson

Plot Keywords: new zealand, writer, based on autobiography, based on novel, outdoor sex, family relationships, skinny dipping ...

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#18. American Splendor (2003)

Storyline: Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait...

Plot Keywords: comic book, movie reality crossover, based on comic book, cult figure, husband wife relationship, dark horse comics, 1980s ...

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#19. Angela's Ashes (1999)

Storyline: Based on the best-selling autobiography by Irish expatriate Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the I.R.A., and when he does find money, he spends it on drink.

Plot Keywords: irish, based on autobiography, 1930s, ireland, based on book, dead baby, dancing ...

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#20. The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Storyline: Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an unhealthy appetite for heroin -- all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity.

Plot Keywords: addiction, diary, molestation, gay, high school, friend, basketball ...

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#21. Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Storyline: Unable to cope with reality and the difficulty that comes with it, 18 year old Susanna, is admitted to a mental institution in order to overcome her disorder. However, she has trouble understanding her disorder and therefore finds it difficult to tame, especially when she meets the suggestive and unpredictable Lisa.

Plot Keywords: mental hospital, mental institution, based on true story, female protagonist, father daughter incest, borderline personality disorder, psychiatric ward ...

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#22. A Bag of Marbles (2017)

Storyline: In occupied France, Maurice and Joseph, two young Jewish brothers left to their own devices demonstrate an incredible amount of cleverness, courage, and ingenuity to escape the enemy invasion and to try to reunite their family once again.

Plot Keywords: french resistance, paris france, nazi occupied france, nazi occupation, german occupation, holocaust, world war two ...

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#23. Bound for Glory (1976)

Storyline: This film is an excellent biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Texas home in the 1930s to find work, and discovered the suffering and strength of America's working class.—L.H. Wong <as9401k56@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg>

Plot Keywords: based on novel, brawl, great depression, starving, guitarist, dancer, dancing ...

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#24. What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)

Storyline: Anna Mae Bullock always had a special voice. Soon after arriving in St. Louis to live with the mother who had walked out when she was small, she soon attracts the attention of pop group leader Ike Turner. She becomes his band's singer, his wife, and mother to his children - not all hers. In love with him and determined not to leave in the way her mother had, she finds herself the target of increasing violence from him who can't see who is making his band such a success.

Plot Keywords: based on true story, music industry, domestic violence, based on autobiography, title based on song, 1970s, 1960s ...

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#25. Mao's Last Dancer (2009)

Storyline: A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: snowing, waltz, food, eating, piano, pianist, year 1986 ...

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#27. The Glass Castle (2017)

Storyline: A young woman reflects on her unconventional upbringing at the hands of her artsy, nonconformist parents, which sometimes resulted in the family living in poverty. Now married to a man who works in finance in New York, she faces criticism from her parents that she's betrayed their values..

Plot Keywords: restaurant, female stockinged leg, regret, gambling, illness, writer, child abuse ...

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#28. The Railway Man (2013)

Storyline: Eric Lomax was one of thousands of Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during WW2. His experiences, after the secret radio he built to bring news and hope to his colleagues was discovered, left him traumatised and shut off from the world. Years later, he met Patti, a beautiful woman, on a train and fell in love. Patti was determined to rid Eric of his demons. Discovering that the young Japanese officer who haunted her husband was still alive, she faced a terrible decision. Should Eric be given a chance to confront his tormentor? Would she stand by him, whatever he did?

Plot Keywords: japanese soldier, reference to adolf hitler, forgiveness, forced labor, torture, based on true story, suicide ...

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#29. Seven Years in Tibet (1997)

Storyline: After the death of 11 climbers, Austrian Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt) decides to add glory to his country and to the Austrian pride by climbing Nanga Parbat in British India, and leaves his expectant wife behind. An egoist and a loner, he does not get along with others on his team - but must bend to their wishes after bad weather threatens them. Then WWII breaks out, they are arrested and lodged in Dehra Dun's P.O.W. Camp. He attempts to break out several times in vain, but finally does succeed along with Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis), and they end up in the holy city of Lhasa - a place banned to foreigners. They are provided food and shelter, and Peter ends up marrying a tailor, Pema Lhaki, while Heinrich befriends the Dalai Lama. They meet regularly; while he satiates the child's curiosity about the world, including Jack the Ripper and 'yellow hair'; he is exposed to the teachings of Lord Buddha, He even constructs a movie theater, while getting news of the end of the war, his ...

Plot Keywords: tibet, bonding, teacher student relationship, buddhism, friendship, llama, mountain climbing ...

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#30. Soul Surfer (2011)

Storyline: 13 year-old Bethany Hamilton is a champion surfer who was born to be in the water. But after a fun night out night surfing and what should be a fun day in the water, she is attacked by a shark and loses her arm. Rushed to the hospital, she remains calm, and maintains her faith in God. Now she has to re-learn how to do everything with only one arm - including how to surf. It will take her friends, family, and her Christian faith to get her back into the water, but if that is where she is meant to be, she will find a way to get there.

Plot Keywords: shark, hawaii, based on autobiography, christian film, surfing, christian, surfer ...

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