Most Historically Accurate Films/Documentaries/Video

[Julianus]

No one mentioned Lawrence of Arabia yet?
How accurate is it? However I know that it is based on the autobiography of Lawrence himself, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and Lawrence was not a man devoid of passion for self-glorification...

[machinor]

No one mentioned Lawrence of Arabia yet?
How accurate is it? However I know that it is based on the autobiography of Lawrence himself, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and Lawrence was not a man devoid of passion for self-glorification...

More or less... regarding both. The movie follows the basic dramaturgy of the autobiography while making it more to the point. The key events are correct more or less. The people are all based on real people except Sherif Ali who is basically two historical people in one. The movie makes the character of Lawrence larger than life in every aspect: his virtues, him being an outsider, him fitting in with the Arabs, his hybris and his fall.
The thing is, the movie is not about a historically accurate portrayal a certain person and his time (that's what modern biopics do most of the time, which makes them quite boring for the most part) but more like taking a historical person and use him as a backdrop or example for showing timeless human struggles, quests, desires and maybe failings. Basically the same approach Shakespeare had with his "Julius Caesar". "Lawrence of Arabia" basically is a movie about identity. Lawrence struggles through the whole film to find himself, his identity, a place to belong but ultimately fails. Throughout the film different people ask numerous times who Lawrence is/was and there is never given any answer.
You may have guessed that I consider "Lawrence of Arabia" one of the best movies ever made.
Lawrence himself was quite accurate in his autobiography. Maybe he stressed his contribution to the guerrilla strategy of the Arabian revolt a bit to much at times, but basically he is very accurate. He makes some factual mistakes in his rendering of the Arabian campaign but that is by error not intentionally as he had to rewrite the book basically from his memory since he lost his notes and manuscripts. It's a good read. Very compelling and a beautiful account of the rich culture of the Arabic world.

Regarding accuracy to mythological source material I would like to add the two part TV-movie about the Odyssey with Armand Assante as Odysseus. That one was very good.