I recently watched a made for TV movie called An Officer and A Murderer starring Gary Cole as Col. Russell Williams.  It was an OK film, but they fabricated a few things, such as the size of the home where he lived.  The part that I got a kick out of was the actor playing the cop who first suspected Williams, was none other than Bill Parrot, whom is best remembered as the original Shane from Degrassi lol


One of my favourite true crime films was Summer of Sam from 1999.  Adrian Brody as a punk rocker, I thought was Academy Award worthy, but the movie was not a box office hit. 

Another good one was Wonderland from 2003.  It starred Val Kilmer as porn star John Holmes. 

Alpha dogs starring Justin Timberlake. Tho the names were changed to protect the not so innocent the film is based on a real crime that started in LA and ended in Santa Barbara.

Jesse James Hollywood was a drug dealer who was owed money by a friend. When the friend refused to pay Hollywood kidnapped his 14 yr old brother, nick markowitz, and drove him to Santa Barbara. Hollywood left the kid in the hands of some of his "possee" who didn't know what to do with the kid. Everyone involved was- I think- 17-19yrs  so they took him to parties. The kid was told he'd be let go and befriended party goers who knew he was kidnapped but- didn't help him. It seems nick believed he'd be released and never tried to escape. Ultimately he was murdered and buried in the Santa Barbara mountains.

The search  for Hollywood lasted a few yrs. I got many 911 calls  from people who thought they'd spotted him. He was eventually captured.

The last movie I watched based on true crime was and Australian picture, "Snowtown."  The film is loosely based on the Snowtown Murders aka. the Bodies-in-Barrels murders.  These grisly crimes were perpetrated in the 1990s by one John Justin Bunting and his sicko minions in the Adelaide area.  The victims were found dismembered in barrels of acid, which were hidden in a disused bank building in Snowtown.

The film grossed less than $10,000 in the U.S. and got mixed reception in Australia.  It's not a glamorous film.  It depicts the impoverished neighborhood in Adelaide where Bunting and his circle of degenerate misfits lived as it probably was, all gritty and trashy.  The actors aren't Hollywood types. They look like people you'd be scared of in a bar.  Although "Snowtown" depicts the worst serial murder case in Australian history, it's not paced to thrill.  It's plodding, draining, and disjointed.  The violence comes in jolts without suspense, just gut-churning documentation. 

The film depicts Bunting as a mercurial character who draws social rejects into his confidence and then scares them into doing awful things.  There's also a running theme of pedophile and homosexual rape. The stark realism is hard to take.  That's what I liked about it.  However, the film's unannounced and inarticulate style made it difficult to suss out exactly what happened, when, and why.  We don't get to know John Bunting stage-by-stage and fact-by-fact.  It's more of an impressionistic document.  I think viewers would gain more satisfaction from "Snowtown" if they were nudged to seek the feeling of poverty and social pathology in Australia rather than anticipating a linear story. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcoCTA2IZ7c

Alpha Dogs was really good.  I have that on HD DVD.  That's right.  HD DVD lol

I've seen Snowtown on shelves in stores.  Didn't know it was based on true crime.  I may have to look that one up.


Another good one is Wonderland from 2003.  It is based on the 1981 Wonderland Murders and stars Val Kilmer as porn star John Holmes.  On the DVD and Blu-Ray of it, is the actual crime scene footage from the aftermath in 1981.  I was a little surprised (and shocked) to see that.

I also enjoyed the classic Star 80 from 1983.  It wasn't so much a true crime pic, but a bio pic of a fallen angel, the death of Dorothy Stratten at the hands of her ex-husband Paul Snider.  It was after seeing that movie that I put actor Eric Roberts among the Top 5 of greatest villains of all time in modern day motion pictures.

Two movies that I recall (although I haven't seen either):

Buster (starring Phil Collins) and The Krays (starring Gary and Martin Kemp).


I've seen a documentary on the Snowtown murders (on Zone Reality, now known as CBS Reality), but I don't recall the 'why' being properly answered. Perhaps that's why the movie is equally unsatisfactory.

I liked Bonnie and Clyde http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4820977144956983&pid=15.1

Catch me if you can http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/movie/catch_me_if/18.jpg

Goodfellas http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4629799576666127&pid=15.1

Alpha dogs



I guess he got life without parole. I haven't seen the movie yet.http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/tag/movies-based-on-true-crimes/

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Mississippi Burning is a 1988 American drama-thriller film loosely based on the FBI investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in the U.S. state of Mississippi in 1964. The film focuses on two fictional FBI agents (portrayed by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe) who investigate the murders. Hackman's character (Agent Rupert Anderson) and Dafoe's character (Agent Alan Ward) are loosely based on the partnership of FBI agent John Proctor and agent Joseph Sullivan.

The film also features Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, and Gailard Sartain, and was written by Chris Gerolmo and directed by Alan Parker. It won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hackman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (McDormand), Best Director, Best Film Editing (Gerry Hambling), Best Picture and Best Sound.

It was filmed in a number of locations in central Mississippi and at one location in Alabama (town square scenes).

Laura Prepon did a movie called "Karla" that was very good (and highly disturbing.)

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Cat

Laura Prepon did a movie called "Karla" that was very good (and highly disturbing.)



I just watched that movie and I enjoyed it.  I was surprised by it though because I had no idea that Paul Bernardo beat her the way he did.  He is (or should I say was) some what of a local resident of my city both as a university student and prisoner, and I was hoping the movie would show or atleast mention my city by name, but they did not, and that was my only disappointment

There's a movie called Junkyard Dog that claims to be inspired by true events....that phrase is misleading because the movie opens with a girl stranded in the middle of nowhere when her car breaks down (or something) and she winds up taking a ride (dumbass) from a man who abducts her...dude is a cannibalistic rapist. who basically keeps the women he kidnaps and forces them to eat his last month's kill. while he holds them hostage until their month is up then they become dinner for the next poor victim...

anyway....the "inspired by true events" is because the writer (I think he also directed the film) got a call from a female friend who was stranded when her car broke down and the writer thought....what if some crazy assed mo' fo' got there before I did and kidnapped my female friend, raped her, forced her to eat the meat that was once my last victm and then killed her to feed her to another victim....  seriously....that's enough to get you "Inspired by True Events"?  3 seconds were inspired by the rest of the movie was made up!  ::)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5c/The_Boston_Strangler.JPG/220px-The_Boston_Strangler.JPG

The Boston Strangler is a 1968 film based on the true story of the Boston Strangler and the book by Gerold Frank. It was directed by Richard Fleischer, and stars Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo, the strangler, and Henry Fonda as John S. Bottomly, the chief detective now famed for obtaining DeSalvo's confession.

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman (who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film). Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known to history as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford) as they migrate to Bolivia while on the run from the law in search of a more successful criminal career. In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Lots of good ones in here.  I never saw The Boston Strangler before.  Time to look that one up!

Another good one comes from 1986 called At Close Range.  The names were changed, but it is based upon the crimes Bruce Johnston committed during 1977 when his son Bruce Jr. started up The Kiddy Gang 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ed/At_close_range_poster.jpg/220px-At_close_range_poster.jpg

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Cat

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The Executioner's Song about http://Gary Gilmore.  The movie doesn't drag nearly as bad as the book.  Norman Mailer and his editor must have been on speed.
::)

Of course there is "In Cold Blood".

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Truman Capote went to Kansas right after the Clutter family murders happened and interviewed friends, townspeople and the authorities weeks before the actual killers were arrested. Many of the scenes, including the actual Clutter house/farm (where the murders took place) and the actual courtrooms where the killers were found guilty, were used.

The film is based on his bestselling book.

Don't know about your thoughts on Robert Blake and his own personal demons, but the man can act. Great film.

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"Let Him Have It" is a 1991 British film, which was based on the true story of the case against Derek Bentley, who was hanged for murder under controversial circumstances on 28 January 1953. While Bentley did not directly play a role in the murder of PC Sidney Miles, he received the greater punishment than the gunman (who was 16). It stars Christopher Eccleston as Bentley, with Paul Reynolds, Tom Courtenay and Tom Bell and was directed by Peter Medak.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3a/Zodiac2007Poster.jpg/215px-Zodiac2007Poster.jpg

Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. joint production stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr. Zodiac tells the story of the hunt for a notorious serial killer known as "Zodiac" who killed in and around the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, leaving several victims in his wake and taunting police with letters and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The case remains one of San Francisco's most infamous unsolved crimes.

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The Bank Job
The 2008 British crime film written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Jason Statham, based on the 1971 Baker Street robbery in central London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered. The producers allege that the story was prevented from being told in 1971 because of a D-Notice government gagging request, allegedly to protect a prominent member of the British Royal Family. According to the producers, this movie is intended to reveal the truth for the first time, although it includes significant elements of fiction. The premiere was held in London on 18 February 2008, and the film was released in both the UK and USA on 29 February 2008. It was a critical and financial success.

Wasn't there Goodfellas, which happened to be a life story on Henry Hill from the mid '50s to the early '80s?