A great historical film must be faithful to the facts as they're commonly accepted. (Adorning certain sequences is to be expected, but half-baked revisionist speculation about characters or events is dangerous.) Also, if the film invents moments, characters, or plot points, its stock plummets. When we examine American historical films, surely every one of them will break the rules to some degree. But some crimes are only misdemeanors, while others are cardinal sins. The best historical films stay anchored to the facts while managing to tell a remarkable story. If truth is indeed more compelling than fiction, it doesn't need a writer or director with a teeming imagination. Ideally, history can speak for itself.

The Top 10 List

(This is an evolving list, so I look forward to seeing other people's inclusions and comments in order to improve my game.)

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)
Produced by Redford himself, The Washington Post's rise from relative obscurity to the instrument of change in the White House is so realistic we have to remind ourselves it's only a movie. Dustin Hoffman looks like Carl Bernstein, and Redford could be Bob Woodward's cousin. Not to mention the performances appear to be spot on. Shooting in an exact replica of the Post's office, with a commitment to Woodward and Bernstein's seminal book, director Alan J. Pakula nailed the tone of the story and left little to refute in regard to its accuracy. Remarkably, it was also a huge success at the box office, earned eight Academy Award nominations winning for Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards), Adapted Screenplay (William Goldman) and Best Art Direction (George Jenkins and George Gaines).

APOLLO 13 (1995)
It bodes well for history movies when most people entering the theater know the ending yet the film still manages to be entirely suspenseful through to its white-knuckle climax. One reason is the lengths to which Ron Howard went in telling the story as authentically as possible. NASA praised the film, as did historians, both particularly impressed with scenes shot in the KC-135 zero gravity simulator to achieve weightlessness on screen. Whether it was the attention to detail in the capsule or the recreation of the ordeal at Mission Control, APOLLO 13was Howard's most accurate historical film (among several excellent others he has made).

BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001)
I know -- not what you think of as "history." But Ridley Scott's Battle of Mogadishu clearly sought realism above all else. More devoted to the horrifying event in the gritty Somali streets than a well-paced story, Scott captured the look, feel, and intensity of urban warfare better than anyone else ever had. The film is driven by its relentless action and dialogue, pulled right off the pages of Mark Bowden's book by screenwriter Ken Nolan. And nearly every sequence is corroborated by the book or other sources. The film's actors endured intensive military training, real Black Hawk helicopters were used, and the production was advised by the 75th Ranger Regiment and Task Force 160—the actual units who were involved in the 1993 incident. Never has abject defeat tasted so real.

GLORY (1989)
While it's been justly lambasted for inventing all of its black characters, including Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning Pvt. Trip, it has also been marveled at for its documentation of the demise of the Union Army's 54th Regiment. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson called the film "the most powerful and historically accurate movie about that war ever made." Matthew Broderick even looked the part of Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Gould's loyal fighters' doomed-from-the-start attack on Fort Wagner was recreated in story, costume, and production design with rare integrity for Hollywood. Zwick's film won three Oscars and ranked #31 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 most inspiring movies.

PATTON (1970)
Franklin J. Schaffner's biography of the famed general of World War II was heavily researched, drawing from autobiographies of General Omar Bradley and President Dwight Eisenhower—the men who knew Patton best. (Eisenhower also wrote Schaffner a letter with further thoughts on Patton the man.) The iconic opening sequence was taken almost exclusively from actual Patton speeches. Released during our domestic upheaval over Vietnam, the film (initially written by Francis Ford Coppola) effectively speaks to both liberals and conservatives by sympathizing with this maniacally heroic general. It's an epic portrait, for which George C. Scott, earned one of the most deserved Best Actor Oscars ever, with the film picking up seven awards out of its ten nominations, including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay.

THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)
Philip Kaufman glorifies the origins of NASA and its first pilots-turned-astronauts while, even more memorably, depicting test pilot Chuck Yeager's rise to fame. Kaufman nicely adapted Tom Wolfe's best seller, though the film faltered at the box office. The real Yeager consulted on the production, and astronaut Scott Carpenter loved the finished product. However, the remaining members of the Mercury 7 weren't too happy with their portrayals, in spite of abundant critical praise for accuracy. Since 1983, the film has found a prominent place anong American historical movies, resonating with audiences and critics just as it did the Academy, earning four Oscars.

SERGEANT YORK (1941)
In a time when Hollywood rarely conceded to accuracy, Howard Hawks World War I epic biography broke the mold. Gary Cooper's performance won him an Oscar and the film was a smash hit. More admirably though, the producers relentlessly pursued authenticity—they had to, otherwise Alvin York would not have given them the green light on his life story. York, a crack shot drunken Tennessee native, experienced a Christian conversion, applied for conscientious objector status (lost four appeals), and then wound up killing 25 Germans and capturing 132. Not bad for a pacifist. York finally OK'd a draft of the script he liked—he needed the money—and the production accurately documented his story, only occasionally slipping in some untruths for dramatic effect. 

SEABISCUIT (2003)
The Depression era underdog story from Gary Ross proved a success with critics and audiences alike. With a highly accurate production design and careful portrayal of the three men it profiled (owner, trainer, and jockey), Ross achieved an authentic take on the legendary racehorse in telling a tale almost too Hollywood to be true. Ross merely had to tighten the story around the edges, and his final cut was a box office hit while earning seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON (1972)
The truth of Sydney Pollack's successful mountain-man revenge flick was actually more incredible than what Pollack and star Robert Redford displayed on screen.  The life of John Johnson (inexplicably changed to "Jeremiah") played out accurately in the film from his days in the Navy to his venture into the Rocky Mountains, his taking of an Indian wife, and then his one-man war against the Crow Indians for killing her and his son. But the un-sanitized historical figure was known as "Liver-Eating Johnson" for his nasty habit of consuming Crow organs after he made his kills, which according to Johnson, was in the neighborhood of 300! The film continued Pollack's streak of success and helped propel the career of writer John Milius. 

EIGHT MEN OUT (1988)
Based on the book by Eliot Asinof, John Sayles impressively documented the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal that shook the baseball world when the heavily favored Chicago White Sox threw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for gamblers' money. Sayles sympathized with third-baseman Buck Weaver, pitcher Eddie Cicotte, and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson, who all played well in the Series, yet were still banned for life from the game. The production design captured a unique era in America and in Major League Baseball, and Sayles loyally adapted the book, though he did tweak and omit certain facets of the scandal to heighten the drama. While not an initial hit with audiences, the film was praised by critics and is revered as one of the best sports movies ever made.