Oftentimes, the very best films are those that highlight and celebrate the lives of the greatest to have ever lived among us. While fantasy and escapism are office box-office catnip, it is stories of the real that often stand the test of time.
This is certainly the case when it comes to that most prestigious of accolades, the Oscars. As this roundup from Film Site demonstrates aptly, biopics are often adored by the Academy and are more likely than many other genres to be awarded the top prizes.
Meanwhile, some of the most celebrated and culturally enduring films ever made hail from this genre, including Lawrence of Arabia, The Imitation Game, Raging Bull, Amadeus, and Goodfellas, to name just a few. When history is littered with such colorful characters, who needs fiction?
Of all of the great figures worthy of their own biopic, inventors often offer rich opportunities for filmmakers. Aside from their novel or world-changing inventions, inventors often live highly unconventional lives that are often as inspiring as they are gripping.
If you’re a fan of the biopic genre and feel like you have exhausted the classics, you have come to the right place. Here are some of our top picks for underrated biopics about inventors that you probably haven’t seen.
Flash of Genius
For a real-life David and Goliath story, the 2008 biopic Flash of Genius offers courtroom drama and corporate skullduggery so mischievous you would scarcely believe it to be true. This film tells the real-life story of Bob Kearns and is based on this New Yorker article of the same name. Kearns was the original inventor of the windshield wiper, who took on Ford and Chrystler in court after finding out that they stole his patented design for this now-universal device. It’s the story of a little-known inventor who took on the corporate titans with very few resources, offering a fascinating insight into the life of a true renegade thinker.
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal was the 18th-century French thinker responsible for many inventions that still impact society to this day. Some of these you’ll be aware of, such as his calculator and adding machine. However, that’s not all. As this guide to online roulette by Betway explains, Pascal also inadvertently invented the roulette wheel during his quest to create the perpetual motion machine. These days, gamblers the world over are making use of his least-known creation. You can uncover many more hidden facts of his jaw-dropping life by watching Blaise Pascal, the sweeping 1972 biopic directed by none other than Roberto Rossellini. The film is shot in his quintessentially epic manner and deftly attempts to give us a glimpse into the mind of one of history’s greatest thinkers.
The Secret of Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla remains a highly controversial character to this day, one who nonetheless advanced the human race immeasurably with his contributions to electricity, heating and cooling, transport, and early computer science. He was also a tempestuous and immensely combative person, known just as much for his personal rivalries with other giants of history as he was for his inventions. Surprisingly for such a well-known figure, there are very few attempts to recreate his life on the silver screen. Fortunately, one of the only such attempts, the 1980 film The Secret of Nikola Tesla, a Yugoslav film starring, surprisingly, Orson Welles, is a must-watch for anyone looking to learn more about what made this man tick.
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Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Austrian-American actress Hedy Lamarr is often celebrated as one of the most beautiful and glamorous women to have ever lived, as well as a master of the craft at a time when Hollywood was beginning to emerge as the global epicenter of film. One thing that few people know about Lamarr is that she was also a genius inventor, one who developed the technology during World War II that prevented the Axis powers from jamming Allied submarine signals. If you want to learn more about this seldom-discussed side of Lamarr, then you should most definitely watch Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. Available on Netflix, this film looks at the traumatic upbringing of Lamarr and her unwavering commitment to the Allied war effort that few people could hold a candle to. Truly one of history’s greats.
The Story of Louis Pasteur
If one film about a game-changing French inventor isn’t enough, we’ve got another one for you. The 1936 black-and-white film The Story of Louis Pasteur covers the life of the 19th-century scientist who was instrumental to our understanding of vaccines and, of course, pasteurization. The film is, to say the least, a highly fictionalized account of his life, featuring bizarre episodes, love affairs, and violent run-ins that almost certainly did not occur. Nonetheless, this film represents one of the earliest ever attempts at the biopic genre, one that laid the groundwork for generations of subsequent films with its narrative and cinematic style. The film also won three Academy Awards, for Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Story because, while it is certainly not historically accurate, it is very, very entertaining, even for contemporary audiences.
Inventors offer us hope, inspiration, and the chance to make the world a better place. For this reason, they often make the best subject for biopic films. If you’re looking for some uplifting, bizarre, and informative viewing, try out these little-known biopic films.
