Filmmakers love adapting true stories to the big screen, and studios will always use the
“based on real events” angle to draw in audiences and generate interest.
They say that truth can be stranger than fiction, and sometimes what happens in the real world
can be more compelling than anything a screenwriter can come up with.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that fact-based narrative movies are not documentaries
and can stray from the truth.
Even if a majority of the facts presented are right, there will always be some elements
that are overly dramatized for the sake of making a more interesting film.
Here are 10 true story movies that were completely inaccurate.
American Sniper
Clint Eastwood’s biopic of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle was nominated for several
prestigious awards – including Best Picture – and broke box office records during its
theatrical run.
Despite those accolades, not everyone was a fan of what was on-screen.
Eastwood took several artistic liberties; the real Kyle was proud of having the most
confirmed kills in U.S. military history, while in the film, the character is portrayed
as being conflicted by all the violence.
In addition, Kyle’s rival sniper Mustafa is mentioned only once in his book, but becomes
the primary antagonist in the film.
Even some of Kyle’s targets in the Middle East were made up.
It didn’t hurt American Sniper’s prospects, but rubbed some the wrong way.
Argo
Ben Affleck’s third directorial effort became a commercial hit, won Best Picture at that
year’s Oscars, and gave the zeitgeist a brand new catchphrase, but it didn’t win
everyone over with its fudging of history.
The film severely downplayed the involvement of the Canadian government, which in reality
played a larger role than the CIA.
Affleck also fabricated the climactic sequence where the hostages have trouble with the airport
security while leaving Iran.
In the movie, it’s a very tense encounter, but how it actually went down wasn’t very
cinematic at all.
They all passed through without any issues and got to go back home.
Argo probably wouldn’t have won many awards if that’s how it ended too.
Cool Runnings
The inspirational tale of the Jamaican bobsled team became a favorite of the ‘90s, but
it’s hardly an educational tool for people interested in the real story.
In the film, the athletes come up with the idea to form a team, resort to schemes to
raise funding, and are ridiculed upon their arrival to the Olympics.
But in reality, Jamaican bobsledding was the brainchild of two American businessmen who
used corporate funding and Air Force recruits to construct the team.
The actual Jamaicans in Calgary were also treated as equals by the other countries and
used the East German’s equipment.
Instead of a rivalry as depicted in the movie, the two nations were quite friendly.
The Pursuit of Happiness
This feel-good story received positive reviews and earned Will Smith an Oscar nomination,
but the facts paint a darker picture of Chris Gardner.
The film’s heart comes from the bond between Gardner and his son.
In actuality, Gardner’s son was from an extramarital affair he had, and he was absent
for much of the boy’s life while Gardner looked for his dream job.
He was also arrested on domestic violence charges, instead of parking tickets like the
movie says.
In order to land his job, Gardner received help from a stockbroker as opposed to solving
a Rubik’s cube.
His story is still incredible, but if the movie stuck to the truth, Gardner may not
have been too sympathetic.
Braveheart
Braveheart is one of the most popular films of all-time, but it also has its fair share
of detractors due to its numerous historical inaccuracies.
The real William Wallace was a knight from a royal family, not a poor peasant whose life
is full of hardships.
Braveheart also plays loose with several of the character relationships, which given the
timeline of the story simply could not have happened.
This includes Wallace’s romance with Princess Isabelle, who was only a child when Wallace
was fighting.
Their child in the film, Edward III, was born seven years after Wallace’s death.
The Academy didn’t seem to mind these aspects, and gave the film several Oscars.
The Social Network
David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin somehow made the origins of Facebook into a compelling
drama, and many critics believe it’s one of the finest films in the 21st century.
Still, they had to make some stuff up.
In the film, Mark Zuckerberg is inspired to create the social media site after being dumped
by his girlfriend Erica Albright, but that’s not what happened in reality.
Also, while Facebook was being built, the students were hard at work with HTML code
instead of having wild parties as they do in the movie.
Many of those involved with the real Facebook feel the film is overly dramatized, but viewers
took it all in.
The Imitation Game
Telling a fascinating true story from World War II, The Imitation Game found a great deal
of critical and commercial success in 2014.
It was a great vehicle for Benedict Cumberbatch, but the film has plenty of inaccuracies.
The real Alan Turing had a strong relationship with his co-workers and got along with them
instead of being the social outcast seen in the film.
The Imitation Game neglects to mention Gordon Welchman, the mathematician who built Enigma
with Turing.
The movie also overly dramatizes Turing’s dynamic with Joan Clarke, particularly their
breakup.
It doesn’t change the fact that The Imitation Game is a great film, but historians may take
issue with it.
Steve Jobs
The dream team of Danny Boyle, Aaron Sorkin, and Michael Fassbender brought the life of
tech titan Steve Jobs to the big screen, and it was one of the more uniquely structured
biopics in recent memory.
With only three real sequences, the filmmakers had to play fast and loose with the rules.
Many of the movie’s best scenes didn’t happen in real life.
These include Lisa playing with Mac paint, Jobs reconciling with former Apple CEO John
Sculley, and most of Jobs’ arguments with Steve Wozniak.
This means that the moments before several major product launches weren’t nearly as
hectic as they are in the movie, but the film still paints an interesting portrait of its
subject.
A Beautiful Mind
This Best Picture winner covers the life of John Nash, a mathematical genius suffering
from paranoid schizophrenia.
Through the help of his wife Alicia and medication, John overcomes his illness and earns a Nobel
Prize.
The film conveniently overlooks several aspects of the truth, such as the fact that the real
Nash never saw hallucinations - he just heard voices.
Alicia divorced Nash in 1963, and he had a son with another woman.
In addition, Nash’s statuses as being bisexual and anti-Semitic were also left out of the
movie.
In reality, Nash stopped taking his medicine in 1970 and never made a speech when he won
his award.
JFK
Snowden is hardly the first time Oliver Stone brought a true story to the big screen.
One of his most famous efforts is JFK, which tried to uncover the Kennedy assassination.
It made for one of the best films of the year, but it can’t take the place of history textbooks.
David Ferrie’s confession that he was involved with any wrongdoing is fictitious.
In reality, Ferrie repeatedly said he was innocent.
The film also shows Ferrie working with Clay Shaw in the conspiracy, but the those two
people never even met each other once in their lives.
Audiences should expect some revisionist history in true story films, but this was taking things
a bit too far.
Those are just some of the “true story” films that were actually inaccurate.
Which ones did we miss?
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