#Hollywood #HistoricalInaccuracies #BasedOnATrueStory #MovieMisrepresentations
Have you ever watched a movie that claimed to be “based on a true story” only to discover glaring historical inaccuracies? 🤔🎥 Hollywood has a long history of taking liberties with the truth in order to create more engaging and dramatic narratives for the big screen. While some level of artistic license is expected in filmmaking, there have been instances where the divergence from actual events is so egregious that it leaves viewers scratching their heads in disbelief.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the most egregious liberties Hollywood has taken with history while still claiming to be “based on a true story.” We’ll delve into specific examples, analyze the impact of these inaccuracies, and discuss why it’s important for filmmakers to strive for historical authenticity.
## The Appeal of “Based on a True Story” Movies
Before we dive into the historical inaccuracies present in many “based on a true story” films, let’s first explore why these types of movies are so popular with audiences.
### The allure of real-life drama
– Audiences are drawn to stories that are rooted in reality and often find the struggles and triumphs of real people to be more compelling than fictional narratives.
– True story-based movies often evoke a sense of empathy and emotional connection, as viewers can relate to the real-life experiences depicted on screen.
### The promise of authenticity
– When a movie claims to be “based on a true story,” viewers expect a certain level of historical accuracy and attention to detail.
– The notion that the events portrayed actually occurred can add an extra layer of intrigue and significance to the viewing experience.
## Historical Inaccuracies in Hollywood Films
While “based on a true story” films offer a unique appeal, Hollywood’s penchant for taking liberties with historical events has led to a number of notable inaccuracies. Let’s take a closer look at some prime examples.
### Braveheart (1995)
– In the film, William Wallace is portrayed as a valiant and righteous hero leading the Scottish rebellion against English oppression.
– The character’s love affair with Princess Isabella, who was actually a child at the time of the events depicted, is entirely fabricated for dramatic effect.
### The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
– The film follows the struggles of Chris Gardner, a struggling single father who overcomes homelessness to achieve success on Wall Street.
– In reality, Gardner’s path to success was far more complicated and involved multiple jobs, educational pursuits, and a longer timeline than the movie suggests.
### Argo (2012)
– The film portrays the CIA-led rescue of six American diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis as a high-stakes, dramatic operation.
– In reality, the Canadian government played a much larger role in the rescue effort, with the film downplaying their significant contributions.
## The Impact of Historical Inaccuracies
The liberties taken by Hollywood in “based on a true story” films can have significant implications, both for the audience’s understanding of history and for the individuals and events being depicted.
### Distorting historical perception
– Inaccurate portrayals of historical events can lead to a skewed understanding of the past, particularly for viewers who may not be familiar with the true story behind the film.
– Misrepresentations can perpetuate myths and misconceptions, shaping public perception in ways that diverge from the actual historical record.
### Diminishing the integrity of real individuals
– When real-life individuals are portrayed inaccurately, their legacies and contributions can be misrepresented, and their true stories may be overshadowed by fictionalized narratives.
– In some cases, the families and descendants of the individuals portrayed may be affected by the misrepresentation of their loved ones’ experiences.
## Striving for Historical Authenticity
While creative license is an integral part of filmmaking, it’s crucial for filmmakers to approach “based on a true story” projects with a sense of responsibility and reverence for the actual events and individuals being depicted.
### Balancing creativity and accuracy
– Filmmakers can enhance the storytelling experience by incorporating historical inaccuracies as long as they do not compromise the essential integrity of the true story.
– Striving for a balance between creative interpretation and historical authenticity can result in a more nuanced and impactful portrayal of real events.
### Honoring the spirit of the true story
– While certain embellishments and narrative adjustments are inevitable, filmmakers should endeavor to capture the essence and emotional truth of the true story they are depicting.
– By conveying the fundamental themes and significance of the real-life events, filmmakers can pay homage to the individuals and experiences that form the basis of their narratives.
In conclusion, “based on a true story” movies have the power to captivate and inspire audiences, but the tendency of Hollywood to take liberties with history can detract from the authenticity and integrity of these narratives. By acknowledging and addressing historical inaccuracies, filmmakers can strive to create more respectful and accurate portrayals of real-life events, ensuring that the power of these stories is realized in its truest form.
Whether you’re a history buff or a movie enthusiast, it’s important to approach “based on a true story” films with a critical eye and an appreciation for the real events and individuals at the heart of these cinematic narratives. Making an effort to understand the historical context and separate fact from fiction can enrich the viewing experience and shed light on the enduring impact of true stories brought to life on the big screen.
So the next time you settle in to watch a “based on a true story” movie, remember to keep an eye out for the historical accuracies and inaccuracies that shape the narrative, and consider the real people and events that inspired the film’s portrayal. After all, the true stories behind these movies are often just as fascinating and compelling as the fictionalized portrayals that grace the silver screen. 🎬📚
Bohemian Rhapsody.
Just… the entire movie.
Not quite Hollywood, but that Cleopatra “documentary” last year comes to mind
In Braveheart the famous battle of Stirling Bridge scene is fought on a grass field with no bridge or water in sight.
The last Cleopatra movie was awful
And Napoleon with the shooting at the pyramids thing literally didn’t happen.
The amityville horror and the multitude of movies that then took that already fictitious bollocks and used it as a basis for their “based on a true story” films.
Isn’t Blonde basically just a celebrity fanfiction?
Cocaine Bear
Basically every exorcism movie that claims to be based on real events.
I’m going to throw out U-571, which completely bastardizes the story of breaking the German enigma machines to the point it’s complete fiction. There’s nothing remotely historical about the film from the characters to the events of the plot.
Even other films with bad historical accuracy I can think of (Braveheart, the Patriot, even 300) at least had some things here and there they could claim to be historical. Be it a general course of events, a few historical characters, or just lines lifted from Herodotus. 300 at least fits well as the way the Ancient Spartans liked to remember the 300!
U-571? There’s not one historical thing about it aside from WWII happened.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The history books clearly state he was fighting werewolves, not vampires smh.
Fargo now has one movie and four seasons of TV that are in no way based on true stories, but open with a crawl that says they are.
The Fran Dux/Bloodsport thing supposedly being based on a guy’s real experiences being trained in martial arts by a ninjitsu master and then representing his family in a secret underground tournament that often results in contestants being hospitalized or killed.
It’s a fun story the dude reused a few times to make movies, but the fiction about it being based on his life story is silly. Paired with him claiming to have been awarded the Medal of Honor and sent on secret missions when news media was able to get his records through a FOIA request seems silly and stupid. (Dude was a reservist never stationed abroad or awarded anything, and his military service ended not long after he was ordered to go under a psych evaluation.) It makes him seem like a conman or pathological liar more than a martial arts expert.
American Gangster, I can’t remember who said it, but it’s described as “99% Hollywood and 1% history.”
Hidalgo, which was based on the memoirs of a guy who said he was half-Lakota and won a 3000 mile horse race in the Arabian desert riding a wild mustang. Literally none of that was true.
Catch Me If You Can.
Allegedly based on the life of con-man Frank Abignale, it’s almost entirely fictitious. The biggest con is that Abignale managed to convince anyone it was true.
It bothered the hell out of my that Argo had a scene where they showed Ben Affleck’s character ignoring orders to cancel the mission. A real cheap stab at machismo, plus, hasn’t Jimmy Carter been vilified enough?
Apparently there are a ton more inaccuracies, too, attributing a lot to the CIA that should have gone to the good ole’ Canadians.
Also pretty funny to have Ben Affleck straight-facedly play a guy of Mexican descent.
Patch Adams. But that was mostly the studios fault. Robin Williams did a wonderful job, that just wasn’t the real story.
Good Morning, Vietnam.
When asked how accurate the film was, the real Adrian Cronauer would say, “I was a DJ in Vietnam. That’s about it.”
Cool Runnings. There was a Jamaican team and they competed. That’s about it for accuracy.
In Band of Brothers, renowned for its accuracy, for some reason portrays Private Blithe as rather a coward and claims he died of his wounds for some reason. Not only was he not a coward, but he lived. Later he served in Korea making a jump behind enemy lines and earning the silver star and bronze star. He served in the army until his death in 1967 of a perforated ulcer. No ides why BoB chose to depict him the way they did or claim he died in 1948 of his wounds suffered at Bastogne.
Madonna taking over Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel after Weird Al murders the kingpin.
The Greatest Showman. Off the top of my head, Barnum wasn’t an orphan (he had a mother and five siblings), he had four daughters not two, the singer Jenny Lind wasn’t attracted to Barnum and didn’t try to have an affair with him (I read somewhere that she actually thought he was weird), the ages and dates of when things happened are often wrong (though this isn’t new to based-on-a-true-story movies), Barnum’s cruel treatment of animals and the people in his “freak” show is either ignored or woefully understated, the Bearded Lady joined his show when she was a baby, Tom Thumb was Barnum’s cousin and joined when he was five…I could go on. It makes me wonder why they didn’t just make a movie about a fictional ringmaster rather than contort the story the way they did.
That said, the soundtrack fucking slaps.
Amadeus. Wolfgang and Antonio were actually friends, although the movie is based completely around Salieri’s vindictive jealousy.
In The Untouchables, Ness throws Nitti off the roof.
Nitti was actually Capone’s successor.
It was just SO annoying!!!!
Argo
In a CNN interview, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter addressed the controversy:
90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good. But Ben Affleck’s character in the film was… only in Tehran a day and a half. And the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador who orchestrated the entire process.
Taylor noted, “In reality, Canada was responsible for the six and the CIA was a junior partner. But I realize this is a movie and you have to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.”In the film, Taylor is shown as having been ordered to close down the Canadian embassy. This did not happen, and the Canadians never considered abandoning the six Americans who had taken refuge under their protection.
The Revenant
The real story is cool why fuck it up
The cartoon Anastasia movie scared the heck out of me as a kid because it said it was based on a true story then had a zombie villain and hell bats.
I don’t know if it’s the worst but 47 Ronin fading directly from its “based on a true story” line immediately into a scene of a mythological creature being hunted made me fully belly laugh.
I feel like History of the World: Part 1 took a lot of creative liberties.
In the United 93 movie they potrayed Christian Adams, a German businessman and real passenger on that flight, as an appeasing coward almost to the point of treason against the other passengers, when there’s no actual evidence Adams was against the other passengers’ actions or refused to help storm the cockpit. Reportedly this happened because his widow didn’t feel like rehashing her experience for the films producers as the memory of her husband’s death was still too raw for her. It begs the question of why did they have to invent more conflict in a plot with 9/11 hijackers as the bad guys?
Rudy was very loosely based on the true story. Apparently his teammates saw him more as a joke than a heartwarming story. The scene where they turned in their jerseys as a protest never happened. The dude is also supposedly a giant asshole in real life
The Woman King
A kingdom that relied on making money off slavery (specifically, capturing and enslaving they’re neighbours) so much their king is known as “the slave king” refuses to abolish slavery when foreign forces demand it, send their elite female battalion to fight off the slave liberating whites so they could keep on enslaving, and have their military soundly defeated.
Which was spun into a completely opposite narrative, where the “slave king” and his forces was fighting to *end* slavery instead of defending and profiting off it, the euros were the ones enslaving instead of wanting to abolish slavery, and their military totally won instead of getting annihilated within a couple of hours.
It’s like making a movie of the US civil war, with the premise of the heroic southern confederacy fighting to bring freedom and safety to black slaves, harboring then in sanctuary plantations free from the evil enslavement by the evil northern union, featuring “The underground railroad” ran by an evil woman called Harriet Tubman who lurks in the night and kidnaps free people from the plantations to sell them into slavery in the North, or something.
Completely ass backwards. “Based on true events!”