Based On A True Story

Tools    





filmfreak's Avatar
Registered User
Is it just me or are there an increasing amount of movies with this tagline beneath the title?

Like it justifies a movie. And most of these only have the barest semblance of being anywhere near what actually happened.

I was reading something recently about what hollywood insiders have termed as "Lie-ography" films such as A Perfect Mind. Films which have a spark of an idea in truth then the rest is simply made up. People in Hollywood are getting increasingly lazy with endless remakes (or re-imaginings) and so called "Based On A True Story" films.

Off the top of my head at the cinema (I live in the UK) we currently have

From Hell
Iris
Black Hawk Down
A Perfect Mind


and upcoming we have

Ali
We Were Soldiers
Mothman Prophecies

Whatever happened to original ideas?
__________________
Lex Luthor: "I'd question your integrity, but you're a journalist."



Simple: it's more amazing if it's not something wild someone thought up while on mushrooms. People like to see the amazing things that have happened throughout history. It's exciting to know that great, or eventful things can happen to ordinary people. Tales of heroism work best when the heros are just ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations.

Braveheart, for example, is a good movie. I find it more emotionally moving, however, because of the fact that it's a portrait of what happened long ago. It, no doubt, has more of an impact because of it.



*I think you mean A Beautiful Mind, the Ron Howard flick based on John Nash's life starring Russell Crowe. There's nothing called "A Perfect Mind".


And I don't think films based on true events, however loosely, are any more or less prevalent today than they were in the past. Biopics and true events, those historical and relating to pop-culture, always have been and always will be a big part of what Hollywood uses for material. You're just noticing it more now for some reason. Look at the movies from any single year and you will find many of the high-profile releases are based on true stories in one way or another.

Randomly going back to 1997, there were theatrical releases for Donnie Brasco, Rosewood, Mrs. Brown, Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, Amistad, Kundun, Seven Years in Tibet, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Selena, Private Parts, Anastasia, and something called Titanic.

One of the reasons why "true stories" are used for the movies is because they often turn into very well-regarded dramas, at the very least critically speaking and with a level of prestige in the industry. Look at these fact-based movies that garnered major Oscar nominations just in the past ten years: Erin Brockovich, Before Night Falls, Pollack, Quills, The Insider, The Hurricane, The Straight Story, Boys Don't Cry, Music of the Heart, Girl,Interrupted, Topsy-Turvy, Elizabeth, The Thin Red Line, Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love, Gods and Monsters, Hilary & Jackie, One True Thing, Titanic, Mrs. Brown, Amistad, Donnie Brasco, Shine, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Ghosts of Mississippi, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Dead Man Walking, Nixon, Casino, Rob Roy, Quiz Show, The Madness of King George, Tom & Viv, Ed Wood, Schindler's List, In the Name of the Father, What's Love Got to Do with It?, Shadowlands, Chaplin, Malcolm X, Lorenzo's Oil, Bugsy, JFK, Awakenings, Reversal of Fortune, and GoodFellas.

Going back over Best Picture Oscar winners from the '60s to the '90s there was Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, A Man for All Seasons, Patton, The French Connection, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Amadeus, The Last Emperor, Platoon, Schinndler's List, Braveheart, Titanic, and Shakespeare in Love.

Does this begin to answer your question as to why they keep making these kinds of movies?


As for original ideas, don't ever go looking to Hollywood for them - certainly not mainstream Hollywood. Originality usually dies unceremoniously out there.
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



filmfreak's Avatar
Registered User
Originally posted by Holden Pike
*I think you mean A Beautiful Mind, the Ron Howard flick based on John Nash's life starring Russell Crowe. There's nothing called "A Perfect Mind".
Sorry, thats the one meant. I was thinking off the top of my head and knew it was something about a mind!

Anyway its not something id really thought about, its just that there are seven or eight of these films out about the same time and i thought it was a bit strange. Also the fact that they are deliberately advertising the fact that they are "Based On A True Story" on the trailers and movie posters made me notice. This seems to be a fairly recent thing. I mean they didnt advertise Titanic as "based on a true story" because it was a made up story occuring during a real life situation.

Originally posted by TWTCommish
Braveheart, for example, is a good movie. I find it more emotionally moving, however, because of the fact that it's a portrait of what happened long ago. It, no doubt, has more of an impact because of it.
Perhaps this is the reason they are deliberately advertising it. To make people perceive more enjoyment out of it. It is a cheap marketing trick after all!

I realise that some of these films are deliberately made with Oscar in mind but seven or eight in the first 7 weeks of the year is a bit excessive.


Also Rock Star, which only recently came out here. Forgot that from my list!



I think you'll find the "Based on a True Story" tag depends on how well-known the material is beforehand. There's no need to put such a distinction on Titanic or Patton, because even before those movies were hits there was a broad understanding that they are based on historical events, or in the case of Ali or Man on the Moon, those figures are well-known enough. But when you get to a story like Erin Brockovich, The Insider or A Beautiful Mind, the likelihood that a wide variety of people are going to have an instant recognition of those stories without the film's publicity telling you what they are, that naturally decreases.

To answer the first specific question from your original post: it's just you.



I ain't gettin' in no fryer!
Well, some movies are based on books...

Where's the originality there? It's all the same. Some true stories are interesting enough to be brought into film.
__________________
"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg



After all the sequels, re-makes, novels, plays and true stories that are used for the basis of each year's crop of movies, there are really very few "original" projects out there in production at any given time.

That's just the way it is. I don't see how "based on a true story" is inherently any better or worse than anything else used for the cinema. A good movie is a good movie, no matter what the source material.



filmfreak's Avatar
Registered User
Your right Holden, it is just me. It just that there were a lot at the same time.

One of my problems with it is that the story in these films seem to become gospel truth.

Its been said in previous threads but it annoys me that people will start to believe that the events in some of these films actually happened when they were just made up to make the film more interesting. This is fine, nobody wants to see a mundane film but these stories become "what really happened."

Braveheart painted William Wallace as a hero when in fact he was an excessively savage warrior. OK to the Scottish at the time he may have been a hero but the film did not show his flaws.

It is a fact that a lot of what happens in A Beautiful Mind never actually happened. Yes, a clever guy had a serious illness (Schizoprenia i believe) but that is about it.

If you are going to make these films and claim them to be truth, at least make sure the film tells the truth not a sanitized version of it.

Well, some movies are based on books...

Where's the originality there? It's all the same. Some true stories are interesting enough to be brought into film.
Granted, but at least some of the books are original. LOTR and Harry Potter may be based on books but the books are original. Okay may be not HP Neil Gaiman fans but you know what i mean.

Ive just completely shot down my original argument. Bugger!



ARt imitates life, man. That's the way it is. Everything is based on truth and reality, we cannot create something out of nothing.



FOX does it all the time



Goodfellas!
__________________
[email protected]
~Anything is possible.



It doesn't matter to me if a movie is based on a true story or not. A Beautiful Mind and Braveheart, for example, would both still be fantastic is the events they were based on never happened. Ditto for Titanic, and Goodfellas.
__________________
**** the Lakers!



Now With Moveable Parts
I'm with the Football Star, on that one. It's good if it's reality or just close to it...



Well, I think we all know that fiction can be better than reality in terms of entertainment...but there's no way it makes no difference. It's natural for it to be more emotional and breathtaking to see these events on film and think to yourself "that awful/amazing thing I'm seeing right now really happened," rather than "someone made that up." Maybe it's just me...I'm more in awe knowing that it's real...heck, in those situations, it might as well have been me, or some other miscellaneous guy, getting killed, fighting, taking a risk, etc.



"I think he simply meant that he really liked it."

TWT Commish
Whatever he meant by that post, it was simple, I'll grant you that. Hey, let me try...


Knute Rockne, All American!



Geeze, that IS simple!

OK, everybody stop discussing the frequency of or pros/cons in regards to films based on true stories. Now let's start randomly mentioning movies that are based on factual events that we really like. But list no other qualifiers (other than an optional exclamation point), and only do one at a time.

Ready?......Go*!!!


*BTW, Doug Liman's Go (1999) is not based on a true story.



Now With Moveable Parts
Bridges of Madison County!

No, wait...I hated that frippin' movie.Hmmmm...