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Docudrama

A cinematic and television subgenre that aims to present a fictionalized account of real people and/or actual events. Essentially, this form blends the heightened emotional conventions and traditional narrative structure of dramatic fiction with the convincing didactic tone of the documentary in an attempt to capture accurate portrayals of historical and social events. In a search for authenticity, filmmakers often hire real people involved in the portrayed incidents as on-set consultants. One of the subgenre's first and finest examples, In Cold Blood, not only used consultants but shot many scenes in the actual town and the homes of the real people involved. Despite this agenda, numerous docudramas employ poetic license and manipulate facts for visceral entertainment purposes -- a practice many documentaries also indulge in. Typically, the subject matter of a docudrama revolves around tragedy or mystery surrounding death (Reversal of Fortune, Silkwood). Because of this criteria, docudrama crossed over from the screen to the television, where the form has been adopted repeatedly to capitalize on high-profile news stories, twisting them into often-dubious TV-movies-of-the-week. Cinematically, much like documentary film, the form of the docudrama continued to loosen. JFK and The Thin Blue Line, films that openly acknowledged fictional manipulation, pushed for other subjective, artistic interpretations of once-concrete terms like "authenticity" and "truth" when it comes to the filmic presentation of reality.

Major Works
Rating
Year
 Title
 
 Director
  9 Stars 1973 Serpico   Sidney Lumet
  9 Stars 1983 The Right Stuff   Philip Kaufman
  9 Stars 1956 A Man Escaped   Robert Bresson
    8 Stars 1975 Fear on Trial   Lamont Johnson
  8 Stars 1931 Tabu: A Story of the South Seas   Robert Flaherty
  8 Stars 1976 Sybil   Daniel Petrie
  8 Stars 1927 Oktyabr   Grigory Alexandrov
  8 Stars 1982 Missing   Costa-Gavras
  8 Stars 1962 The Miracle Worker   Arthur Penn
  8 Stars 1980 Gideon's Trumpet   Robert E. Collins
  8 Stars 1975 Dog Day Afternoon   Sidney Lumet
  7 Stars 1997 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil   Clint Eastwood
  7 Stars 1995 Apollo 13   Ron Howard
    7 Stars 1985 Wallenberg: A Hero's Story   Lamont Johnson
    7 Stars 1988 The Ryan White Story   John Herzfeld
    7 Stars 1981 The Patricia Neal Story   Anthony Harvey
  7 Stars 1989 My Name is Bill W.   Daniel Petrie
    7 Stars 1989 Bethune: The Making of a Hero   Phillip Borsos
    7 Stars 1986 Stammheim   Reinhard Hauff
  7 Stars 1945 The House on 92nd Street   Henry Hathaway
  7 Stars 1988 The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank   John Erman
    7 Stars 1990 Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair   Alberto Negrin
  7 Stars 1978 Violette Nozière   Claude Chabrol
  7 Stars 1981 Skokie   Herbert Wise
  7 Stars 1983 Silkwood   Mike Nichols
  7 Stars 1991 Separate But Equal   George Stevens, Jr.
    7 Stars 1989 Roe vs. Wade   Gregory Hoblit
  7 Stars 1990 Reversal of Fortune   Barbet Schroeder
  7 Stars 1977 Raid on Entebbe   Irvin Kershner
    7 Stars 1987 The Murder of Mary Phagan   William Hale
  7 Stars 1974 The Missiles of October   Anthony Page
  7 Stars 1992 Lorenzo's Oil   George Miller
  7 Stars 1984 The Jesse Owens Story   Richard Irving
    7 Stars 1987 Gaby: A True Story   Luis Mandoki
    7 Stars 1979 Friendly Fire   David Greene
  7 Stars 1985 The Falcon and the Snowman   John Schlesinger
    7 Stars 1974 The Execution of Private Slovik   Lamont Johnson
    7 Stars 1992 Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster   Paul Seed
  7 Stars 1985 Dance with a Stranger   Mike Newell
  7 Stars 1988 A Cry in the Dark   Fred Schepisi
    7 Stars 1974 Conrack   Martin Ritt
  7 Stars 1985 The Burning Bed   Robert Greenwald
    7 Stars 1981 Bill   Anthony Page
  7 Stars 1971 10 Rillington Place   Richard Fleischer
    6 Stars 1990 Unspeakable Acts   Linda Otto
    6 Stars 1979 Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love   Glenn Jordan
    6 Stars 1991 Seeds of Tragedy   Martin Donovan
  6 Stars 1990 Murder in Mississippi   Roger Young
    6 Stars 1977 Kill Me If You Can   Buzz Kulik
    6 Stars 1975 Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case   Robert M. Lewis
  6 Stars 1990 Challenger   Glenn Jordan
    6 Stars 1987 The Father Clements Story   Edwin Sherin
  5 Stars 1992 Something to Live For: The Alison Gertz Story   Tom McLoughlin
    5 Stars 1991 Deadly Betrayal: The Bruce Curtis Story   Graeme Campbell
    5 Stars 1988 The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story   Paul Wendkos
    5 Stars 1981 Murder in Texas   Billy Hale
 
 
 
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