What stories from history would you like to see made into movies?

[Harvey]

... Likewise, the makings of Star Wars and Apocalypse Now would make great flicks.

A fictional movie about the making of Apocalypse Now seems like a waste to me as long as the powerful documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse exists. What more could a fictional account do, except dramatize scenes which we can already see for ourselves?

 

[UssGlenn]

USS New Orleans (CA-32) would make a great war movie. She was one of the most highly decorated ships in WWII. She lost the first 150 feet of her bow at the Battle of Tassafaronga and narrowly escaped sinking and had to sail backwards for months, until they could give her a major refit.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Corporate greed that highlights Aspartme or Light bulb conspiracy, or medical companies using people as lab mice

???

something like 'erin brockovich' or 'the insider' but with a more speedy pace and more thought provoking

Well, that's a new on on me. The Sultana blew up and sank because of a shoddy repair job on a leaky boiler.

Still, the Sultana disaster would make a good direct-to-cable/DVD movie. Probably not enough interest in the subject to warrant a theatrical release.

It was a terrorist attack, four boilers exploding at the same time more than coincidence and the government didn't pursue it because ending the civil war that killed millions was more important (200 thousand combatants and another civilian 850,000 from starvation, destruction, disease)
Sabotage terrorism was common place in the war, you'd get a log or a big chunk of coal, hollow the fuel object out
and pack in the insides of it with an explosive like dynamite
As the boys pick up their coal or logs and throw them into the fire of the ship, little do they know they are chucking torpedos into their own ship. Explosive dynamite residue was found in the remains, Robert Louden a southern communicator and solider, made a deathbed confession of having sabotaged Sultana by a coal torpedo bomb.

 

[Deckerd]

William Wallace would be a fine subject for a historical film.

 

[tomalak301]

I don't remember many War of 1812 shows/movies. I think the only thing I know about that war was that it created the American National Anthem.

 

[Gaith]

William Wallace would be a fine subject for a historical film.

​

Reminds me of the IMDB item on Yankee Doodle Dandy:

Many facts were changed or ignored to add to the feel of the movie. For example, the real George M. Cohan was married twice, and although his second wife's middle name was Mary, she went by her first name, Agnes. In fact, the movie deviated so far from the truth that, following the premiere, the real George M. Cohan commented, "It was a good movie. Who was it about?"
​

 

[Owain Taggart]

Another one recently came to mind. Rather than an event, it's a place that had a pivotal role in history. Bletchly Park, where Alan Turing among others, with the help of Bombe and Enigma, broke ciphers and codes during WWII.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

I still say that the story of the Galveston hurricane, if it were in the hands of a serious, evocative and artistic director like Ang Lee or Katheryn Bigelow, (please no James Cameron) could be profoundly moving. I found pictures at a Galveston historical site--not just pictures of damage, but pictures from before the storm taken in the late 1890s and the summer of 1900. I wonder how much the city of today could be used for photography. There are no more of the huge bath houses on stilts that sat in the surf for beach visitors who wanted to feel the surf on their faces. There's a sea wall now; the entire city was raised 9 feet by pouring bags of cement and concrete. On Sept 8, 1900, the highest point in the city was 9 feet above sea level. It was a city sitting on a sand dune. The Gulf was level with the island then. You saw the Gulf in the distance everywhere.
Sea wall site before it existed.

bath house summer 1900-wiped out by waves in 2 hours

One of the numerous magnificent upscale Galveston homes circa 1899. Notice its foundation doesn't sit on the ground, quite typical at the time the nearer to the beach.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

And after....
Beach homes, September 9, 1900

Neighborhood from previous house photo, Sept. 9, 1900

Upscale Galveston home, September 9, 1900


Thousands of bodies were under all that rubble. People died from the storm surge when it pushes all the rubble inward on to the island. It was a wall of debris. House after house collapsed.

 

[trevanian]

For near-Earth working class space stories, Allan Steele's ORBITAL DECAY & LUNAR DESCENT - also Ben Bova's MILLENNIUM, though it would have to be presented as alternate past history like WATCHMEN.

YESTERDAY'S CHILDREN - the revised version, but not the STAR WOLF stuff, by David Gerrold ... I remember taking a yellow marker to the book and having the better part of a screenplay afterward (this was when they were actually going to make it, calling it STARHUNT with Gerd Oswald directing and Andy Probert doing concept art.) A genuine psychological study that wasn't about vfx fireworks.

ASSAULT ON THE LIBERTY. James Ennes, author, also there for when it happened.

Back in 67 the Israelis repeatedly strafed and bombed one of our spy ships in international waters ... then they torpedoed it and machine gunned the life rafts. Somehow the ship stayed afloat, though obviously with lots of casualties.

It is a helluva sea story, even if you can get past the 'they're supposed to be our allies' part. Trouble is anytime anybody suggests making it, they are called anti-semitic. I actually used it as inspiration for a TNG spec script (the one that actually got me in to pitch, in fact.)

There's a lot of blame to go round on it, since messages moving LIBERTY further away got misrouted all over the globe, and then other messages were sent using protocols the ship couldn't read and receive. Plus there's some interesting mystery element, about a sub that was nearby and had to remain underwater while it all happened, with a rumor that the sub skipper turned on his film cameras through the periscope and captured a good hunk of it (unsubstantiated, obviously.)

I guess it took a couple decades before folks started admitting Moishe Dayan ordered the attack, but still people keep claiming it was all in error (as if you can't see a large US flag in good winds!) I don't think Israel paid even token damages till the 90s.

Some very interesting characters among the crew, especially the ship's XO -- whoever plays him with the proper gusto would be a lucky actor to have such a memorable role.

 

[trevanian]

... Likewise, the makings of Star Wars and Apocalypse Now would make great flicks.

[/QUOTE]

TMP also ... for SW, substitute just the formation and tribulations of ILM for SW ... I did a huge article on it and have been messing with a screenplay on the same for a long while now, in the vein of RKO 281 meets BARBARIANS AT THE GATE.

 

[USS Fardell]

The Boston Molasses Disaster.
The Rum Rebellion. (It could be done as a sequel to a film about the Bounty mutiny...)
The Battle of Kadesh. (Egyptians vs. Hittites; what's not to like.)
Hannibal's campaign against Rome.
The Fall of Rome in 476.
The Fall of Byzantium in 1453.
The Fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.

 

[DarthTom]

-Two is a best-guess counterfactual of what might have happened had he survived Dallas.

I'm a big fan of alternate history but you don't see a lot of hit on film. HBO did The Fatherland which was a good film for the small screen about what if Germany hadn't lost the war.

There are several other moments that would be interesting to see "what-ifs," for e.g. had England won the war of Independence.

 

[lennier1]

HBO did The Fatherland which was a good film for the small screen about what if Germany hadn't lost the war.

Read the book, it paints an even scarier picture.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

I suppose it has probably already been explored a lot in literature, but I would like to see a movie alternate history in which the South won the civil war. I know there was a pseudo-documentary about that a few years ago, but I heard it wasn't that good.

 

[MacLeod]

Another one recently came to mind. Rather than an event, it's a place that had a pivotal role in history. Bletchly Park, where Alan Turing among others, with the help of Bombe and Enigma, broke ciphers and codes during WWII.

Isn't there a film called "Enigma" that deals with in part of the code-breakers.

 

[Mistral]

I would like to see a movie about a cutting-edge technological arms race taking part in the middle of a war. Both sides are furiously pushing to get their new technology working, knowing the first side to field the new weapon could take an upper hand in the conflict. You could backlight the engineers and scientists struggle to complete their projects with mentions of the set backs their respective militarys have been suffering to emphasize the urgency of the efforts. Then, in a bit of crazy drama for the final scenes, you could have BOTH sides complete their prototypes and rush them into battle where they actually end up confronting each other in a battle of futuristic technologies! As for a title, how about The Monitor and The Merrimac ?