•
1941 (1979) –
war comedy film loosely based on what has come to be known as the
Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942, as well as the
bombardment of the Ellwood oil refinery, near
Santa Barbara, by a Japanese submarine •
A Glass of Water (Russian:
Стакан воды) (1979) –
Soviet historical comedy television film set in the court of
Queen Anne of Great Britain at the start of the 18th century •
Agatha (1979) –
British mystery thriller film focusing on renowned crime writer
Agatha Christie's famous
11-day disappearance in 1926 •
The Amityville Horror (1979) –
supernatural horror film based on the alleged
paranormal experiences of the Lutz family who briefly resided in the
Amityville, New York home where convicted killer
Ronald DeFeo Jr. committed the
mass murder of his family in 1974 •
The Bell Jar (1979) –
biographical drama film based on
the semi-autobiographical book by
Sylvia Plath •
Birth of the Beatles (1979) –
biographical drama film focusing on the early history of
the Beatles •
Blind Ambition (1979) –
biographical drama miniseries focusing on the
Watergate coverup and based on the memoirs of former
White House counsel
John Dean and his wife Maureen •
The Brontë Sisters (French:
Les Sœurs Brontë) (1979) –
French biographical drama film following the bleak lives of the
Brontë sisters in less than a ten-year span; beginning in 1834, when, at the age of seventeen, Branwell painted the famous portrait of his three sisters, in which he originally included his own image, and ends around 1852 when
Charlotte, now a famous author, is the only surviving sibling • ''
Bruce Lee's Secret (Cantonese: 李小龍嘅秘密'') (1979) –
Hong Kong martial arts action film about the life of
Bruce Lee •
Caligula (Italian:
Caligola) (1979) – American-
Italian historical drama film focusing on the rise and fall of the Roman Emperor
Caligula •
Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinze (1979) –
biographical drama television film about the life of stand-up comedian and actor
Freddie Prinze •
The Canal (Turkish:
Kanal) (1979) –
Turkish drama film about the
Warsaw Uprising •
Christ Stopped at Eboli (Italian:
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli) (1979) –
Italian-
French drama film giving an account of
Carlo Levi's exile from 1935 to 1936 to
Grassano and
Aliano, remote towns in southern Italy, in the region of
Lucania which is known today as
Basilicata •
Companys, procés a Catalunya (1979) –
Spanish Catalan-language drama film based on the last months of the life of the
President of Catalonia,
Lluís Companys, in which he shows his detention by the
Nazis and his subsequent execution by the
Spanish Francoists •
Crossbar (1979) –
Canadian sport drama television film depicting a fictionalized account of the career of Canadian amputee athlete
Arnie Boldt •
Dawn! (1979) –
Australian biographical sport drama film about the three-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer
Dawn Fraser •
The Divine Emma (Czech:
Božská Ema) (1979) –
Czechoslovak biographical drama film depicting an account of operatic soprano
Emmy Destinn's life •
Elvis (1979) –
biographical drama television film about the famous rock singer
Elvis Presley •
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) –
prison thriller film based on the
1962 prisoner escape from the
maximum security prison on
Alcatraz Island •
Friendly Fire (1979) –
war drama television film telling the real-life story of
Peg Mullen, a woman from rural
Iowa who with her husband works against government obstacles to uncover the actual details and facts about the death of their son Michael, an
Army infantry soldier killed by "
friendly fire" in February 1970 during the
Vietnam War •
The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (1979) –
British heist film based on a bank robbery masterminded by
Albert Spaggiari in 1976, members of a
neo-fascist group team up with professional criminals to rob the safe deposit vault of a bank in a French resort town •
Guyana: Crime of the Century (1979) –
Mexican exploitation drama film based on the
Jonestown massacre •
Heartland (1979) –
Western drama film depicting a stark depiction of early
homestead life in the American West – based on a memoir by
Elinore Pruitt Stewart, titled
Letters of a Woman Homesteader •
The House on Garibaldi Street (1979) –
drama television film about the
Mossad operation that captured
Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960 and returned him to Israel for trial •
The Hussy (French:
La drôlesse) –
French drama film about the kidnapping of an 11-year-old, who develops
stockholm syndrome – based on actual events •
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979) –
biographical drama television film describing the young and early years of American writer and poet
Maya Angelou •
Ike (1979) –
historical biographical drama miniseries about the life of
Dwight D. Eisenhower, mostly focusing on his time as Supreme Commander in Europe during
World War II •
Iron Gustav (German:
Der eiserne Gustav) (1979) –
West German drama miniseries about a
Berlin taxi driver still using a
horse-drawn carriage, and the hardships he faces due to increasing competition from motor cars in the
Weimar Era •
Jesus (1979) –
Christian drama film depicting the life of
Jesus Christ primarily using the
Gospel of Luke as the main basis for the story •
Kaala Patthar (Hindi:
काला पत्थर) (1979) –
Indian Hindi-language action disaster film based on the
Chasnala mining disaster •
The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (1979) –
Western television film following the story of the
Dalton Gang from their beginnings in
Montgomery County, Kansas to their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously in
Coffeyville,
Kansas •
The Life of Henry the Fifth (1979) –
British war drama film telling the story of
King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the
Battle of Agincourt during the
Hundred Years' War •
Meera (Hindi:
मीरा) (1979) –
Indian Hindi-language historical drama film based on the life of
Meera, a
Hindu saint-poet who renounced princely comforts in pursuit of her love for
Lord Krishna •
Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) –
British biographical drama film involving
G. I. Gurdjieff and his companions' search for truth in a series of dialogues and vignettes •
Mr. Horn (1979) –
Western biographical miniseries telling the story of frontiersman
Tom Horn, and his career as a cavalry scout, a tracker, a range detective, and the final events in his life that led to his tragic death •
Norma Rae (1979) –
drama film based on the true story of
Crystal Lee Sutton •
Ogro (Spanish:
Operación Ogro) (1979) –
Italian-
Spanish thriller drama film based on true events in Spain during the early 1970s and is based on the eponymous book by Julen Agirre (pseudonym of
Eva Forest) • ''
On Giant's Shoulders'' (1979) –
mystery drama television film about the early life of
thalidomide victim
Terry Wiles •
The Onion Field (1979) –
neo-noir crime drama film chronicling the kidnapping of two
plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals during a traffic stop and the subsequent murder of one of the officers •
Orphan Train (1979) –
adventure drama television film based on the
Orphan Train Movement, associated with the early days of
Children's Aid and similar organizations •
Over the Edge (1979) –
coming-of-age crime drama film inspired by events described in a 1973
San Francisco Examiner article entitled "Mousepacks: Kids on a Crime Spree" by Bruce Koon and James A. Finefrock, which reported on young kids vandalizing property in
Foster City, California •
Prince Regent (1979) –
British historical drama miniseries depicting the life of
George IV from his youth time as
prince regent and his reign as King •
Putting Things Straight (German:
Ich räume auf) (1979) –
German biographical drama film depicting a dispute between poet
Else Lasker-Schüler and her publishers •
Riel (1979) –
Canadian biographical drama television film about
Métis leader
Louis Riel •
Roots: The Next Generations (1979) –
historical drama miniseries tracing the lives of
Kunta Kinte's descendants in
Henning, Tennessee, from 1882 to 1967 •
The Secret of Enigma (Polish:
Sekret Enigmy) (1979) –
Polish historical drama film about three polish mathematicians who in late 1932 reconstructed the sight-unseen Nazi German military
Enigma cipher machine, aided by limited documents obtained by
French military intelligence •
The Sewers of Paradise (French:
Les Égouts du paradis) (1979) –
French action
drama film based on a 1976 heist by
Albert Spaggiari •
S.O.S. Titanic (1979) – American-
British drama disaster television film depicting the
doomed 1912 maiden voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in first, second and third class •
Takeoff (Russian:
Взлёт) (1979) –
Soviet biographical drama film about the Russian rocket scientist
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky •
The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979) –
historical drama television film chronicling the 25 March 1911
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which 146 garment workers died •
Undercover with the KKK (1979) –
drama television film telling the true story of Gary Thomas Rowe Jr., who infiltrated the
Ku Klux Klan as an undercover agent and then testified as a key witness for the prosecution during the trial of several other Klansmen •
Vengeance Is Mine (Japanese:
復讐するは我にあり) (1979) –
Japanese crime drama film depicting the true story of
serial killer Akira Nishiguchi, changing the protagonist's name to Iwao Enokizu •
Vlad Țepeș (1979) –
Romanian historical drama film recounting the story of
Vlad the Impaler (also known as Vlad Dracula), the mid-15th century
Voivode of
Wallachia, and his fights with the
Ottoman Turks on the battlefield and with the
Boyars in his court •
When Hell Was in Session (1979) –
war drama television film based on a memoir by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral
Jeremiah Denton, recounting his experiences as an American
prisoner of war (POW) during the
Vietnam War •
The White Mazurka (Polish:
Biały mazur) (1979) –
Polish historical film about
Ludwik Waryński •
Zulu Dawn (1979) –
adventure war film about the historical
Battle of Isandlwana between
British and
Zulu forces in 1879 in South Africa{{cite news|title=Cy's is right to type fast: Small businesses bureau == References ==