The Actor
The Real Story: Oscar-winning actor James Stewart becomes the first movie star to sign up for military service during WWII.
Movie Version: A biopic with a twist, as Stewart battles with the Air Force and Hollywood to be allowed to see active service rather than mere celebrity propaganda.
Directed By: Tom Hanks
Starring: Colin Hanks as Stewart.
The Hero
The Real Story: Grenada-born Johnson Beharry, who joined the British Army and won a Victoria Cross for two acts of bravery during the Iraq War but - unusually for such valour - survived to receive the medal.
Movie Version: Britain's own answer to The Hurt Locker .
Directed By: David Yates
Starring: Noel Clarke as Beharry.
The Dolphins
The Real Story: Vietnam vet Mandy Rodriguez's attempt to set up the Dolphin Research Center in Florida, where disabled or traumatised soldiers can swim and play with dolphins as part of their therapy.
Movie Version: A feel-good story of redemption and recovery; essentially, Born on the 4th of July , with fish.
Directed By: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Benicio Del Toro as Rodriguez
The Mensch
The Real Story: Holocaust survivor Tibor Rubin, who served with honour in the U.S. Army in Korea despite suffering anti-Semitism from his superior officer Sergeant Artice V. Watson.
Movie Version: A study of personal integrity under extreme hardship, with a very happy ending: in his Seventies, he belatedly received the Medal of Honour that prejudice had denied him in the 1950s.
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Shia La Beouf as Rubin.
The Recovery
The Real Story: Simon Weston, Welsh Guardsman who suffered 46% burns when Argentinian pilots targeted his ship during the Falklands War.
Movie Version: A tear-jerker about a man's battle with depression to rebuild his face and his life, to the point of reconciling with the bomber who caused his injuries.
Directed By: Stephen Frears
Starring: Luke Evans as Weston
The Crash
The Real Story: Pearl Harbour attacker Shigenori Nishikaichi crash-lands on the Hawaiian island of Ni'ihau, and wages a one-man war against the islanders.
Movie Version: A taut thriller about one of the most unusual engagements of WWII.
Directed By: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Tadanobu Asano as Nishikaichi
The Writer
The Real Story: An adaptation of Homage to Catalonia , George Orwell's memoir of fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
Movie Version: Both a biopic of one of Brit lit's finest writers, and a muddy, bloody war flick.
Directed By: Paul Greengrass
Starring: James McAvoy as Orwell.
The Spotters
The Real Story: The tale of the parrots kept in the Eiffel Tower during World War One, to provide an early warning system about approaching airplanes.
Movie Version: Pixar's next film, a Hawksian comedy-adventure about the birds who kept Paris safe.
Directed By: John Lasseter
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Liam Neeson and, inevitably, John Ratzenberger.
The Chickenhawk
The Real Story: The experiences of helicopter pilot Robert Mason in Vietnam, and his later arrest and imprisonment for drug smuggling.
Movie Version: A bumper 'Nam flick, offering both of the genre's main topics: jungle warfare and troubled vet back home.
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Matt Damon as Mason.
The Pilot
The Real Story: RAF test pilot Charles Smith (right), the man who made sure Spitfires and Lancasters were ready to take on the Nazis.
Movie Version: A 'back home' spin on WWII heroics, showing the everyday but still extraordinary efforts that went into the war machine.
Directed By: Tom Hooper
Starring: Michael Fassbender
