Classic Articles that Became Films
A huge collection of cinematic nonfiction
The best journalism draws you in, conjures images, and takes you on a ride. Which is why so many great magazine articles have found their way onto the big screen. Here are some of our favourites:
War
Top Guns by Ehud Yonay - At Mach 2 and 40,000 feet over California, it’s always high noon
Blackhawk Down by Mark Bowden (Blackhawk Down) - A military operation gone badly wrong in the snipers nest of Mogadishu
The Stoner Arms Dealers by Guy Lawson (War Dogs) - How two American kids became big-time weapons traders
Action
Racer X by Kenneth Li Rafael (The Fast and the Furious) - At dusk, they take over the road. Roaring and buzzing like locusts, a swarm of asphalt-scraping Japanese cars…
A Farewell to Arms by John Carlin (Live Free or Die Hard) - For those on the ramparts of the world’s sole superpower, the digital winds are blowing an icy chill through the triumphant glow of the post-Cold War.
Crime
The Return of Superfly by Mark Jacobson (American Gangster) - Frank Lucas, was once the city’s biggest, baddest heroin kingpin, the original O.G. in chinchilla…
The Man Who Knew Too Much by Marie Brenner (The Insider) - Hailed as a hero by anti-smoking forces and vilified by big tobacco, Wigand played a central role in and epic multibillion- dollar struggle.
The Suspects Wore Louboutins by Nancy Jo Sales (The Bling Ring) - The most audacious burglary gang in recent Hollywood history was a bunch of club-hopping Valley kids, motivated by vanity and celebrity-worship
The Trials of White Boy Rick by Evan Hughes - Was one of Detroit’s most notorious criminals really an FBI informant?
Adventures in the Ransom Trade by William Prochnau (Proof of Life) - Former spies and revolutionaries, AK-47s and armored cars, helicopter drops and hideaways in the Andes
The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare by Nathaniel Rich (Dark Waters) - Rob Bilott was a corporate defense attorney for eight years. Then he took on an environmental suit that would upend his entire career — and expose a brazen, decades-long history of chemical Pollution
Disaster
No Exit by Sean Flynn (Only the Brave) - Wildfires rage throughout the summer in the Southwest, but the one that swept through Yarnell, Arizona, in late June was different
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger - Six young men set out on a dead-calm sea to seek their fortunes. Suddenly, they were hit by the worst gale in a century, and there wasn’t even time to shout.
Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul - The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern
(Mis)Adventure
The Lost City of Z by David Grann - For seven decades explorers have been swallowed by the Mato Grosso region, the "green hell", trying to uncover a lost civilization hidden in the Amazon, the City of Z
Death of an Innocent by Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild) - The story of a young man who gave up everything to answer the call of the wild, and ended up paying the ultimate Price
What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Scott Anderson (The Hunting Party) - In which three American journalists try to get a little R&R in Bosnia, accidentally almost capture the world’s most-wanted war criminal
Trapped by Aron Ralston (127 Hours) - An amazing survival tale that is equal parts shocking and absorbing
Sport
Life’s Swell by Susan Orlean (Blue Crush) - To be a surfer girl in Maui is to be the luckiest of creatures – you’ve caught the perfect dappled wave and are on a ride that can’t end.
Four Good Legs Between Us by Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit) - In six years Seabiscuit had won thirty-three races, set sixteen track records, and equaled another. He was literally worth his weight in Gold.
Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger - The oil-patch town of Odessa, Texas, lives for one thing: the start of the high school football season
The Trading Desk by Michael Lewis (Moneyball) - For the past four years, working with one of the lowest payrolls in the game, the Oakland A’s have won as many regular-season games as almost any other team. How on earth did they do it?
The Ballad of Big Mike by Michael Lewis (The Blind Side) - Every other high-school football player in America was dying for Lemming to invite him to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Michael Oher had left his invitation on the table
Someone to Lean On by Gary Smith (Radio) - How an 18-year-old with mental disabilities changed a high school football program in South Carolina.
Misc.
Tribal Rites of Saturday Night by Nik Cohn (Saturday Night Fever) - Vincent was the very best dancer in Bay Ridge—the ultimate Face
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson - We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold
The Muse of Coyote Ugly Saloon by Elizabeth Gilbert (Coyote Ugly) - I gave a lot of advice to men who’d fallen in love with their bartenders. It was, after all, pretty much the whole point of the place.
The Great Escape by Joshua Bearman (Argo) - How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary Iran.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High by Cameron Crowe - The lives of kids in a typical town in California in 1979
The 15 Year Layover by Michael Paterniti (The Terminal) - For more than a decade, Merhan Nasseri lived in terminal one at Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting
Orchid Fever by Susan Orlean (Adaptation) - Generally speaking, orchids drive people crazy
The Hustlers at Scores by Jessica Pressler (Hustlers) - A modern Robin Hood story: the strippers who stole from (mostly) rich, (usually) disgusting men and gave to, well, themselves.
My Addicted Son by David Sheff (Beautiful Boy) - A father's Story
Something’s Got to Give by Darcy Frey (Pushing Tin) - All the way down the bank of radar scopes, the air traffic controllers have that savage, bug-eyed look, like men on the verge of drowning