# Based on a True Story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761 "2005-05-20T16:39:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/21 "2005-05-20T20:44:23Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > [There are others, such as Jackson sitting at a dining table with his wife (Jackson, one of the most eccentric generals of the war, ate standing up) that would have been so easily corrected by paying the few thousand dollars a qualified consultant would have cost them. Is this the source of the item in the Thurber story (_“The Dog That Bit People”?_) about not feeding the dog on the floor? In the story, you had to put the dog’s bowl up on a chair because he would try to bite anyone who reached towards the floor. This infuriated one of Thurber’s relatives, who was proud of the fact that he was supposedly the third man up Missionary Ridge in the Civil War. Matters were not helped when Thurber’s brother Roy suggested to the man that if he had fed the dog on the floor right before the battle, he would have been the _first_ man up Missionary Ridge. Just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Yamirskoonir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/c0e974/32.png) [@Yamirskoonir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yamirskoonir)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/22 "2005-05-20T20:48:06Z")
I’d like to see an analysis of **Boys Don’t Cry** , the Brandon Teena story. Damn fine acting, but I’m interested if the events actually unfolded the way they did in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/23 "2005-05-20T20:50:02Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Is this the source of the item in the Thurber story (_“The Dog That Bit People”?_) about not feeding the dog on the floor? I’m not familiar with that one, to be honest. Jackson believed that sitting was one of the worst things a person could do- bad for the back, bad for digestion, etc., and so he rarely sat other than on horseback or for formal photographs or when very tired. He also bathed everyday (eccentric in and of itself for the time) in water that was as cold as possible and slept with his back against the headboard (it was the custom at the time to sleep propped on pillows [which is why many beds were so short] but he took it a step further). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/24 "2005-05-20T20:50:02Z")
_The Natural_ is a bit of an amalgamation of true stories:[ul][_]The shooting of Eddie Waitkus.[_]Shoeless Joe’s bat (“Caroliny”), made from a tree that had been struck by lightning.[_]Bama Rowell’s flyball that broke the scoreboard clock at Ebbets Field.[_]Ted Williams’ desire to be “the greated hitter who ever lived.”[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/25 "2005-05-20T20:51:31Z")
> [@Yamirskoonir](#): > > I’d like to see an analysis of **Boys Don’t Cry** , the Brandon Teena story. Damn fine acting, but I’m interested if the events actually unfolded the way they did in the movie. [Here’s](http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/brandon/1.html) a very good treatment of the case from one of the web’s more reliable crime sites. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/26 "2005-05-20T21:33:55Z")
> [@Yamirskoonir](#): > > I’d like to see an analysis of **Boys Don’t Cry** , the Brandon Teena story. Damn fine acting, but I’m interested if the events actually unfolded the way they did in the movie. There’s a full treatment of it in the book I referenced in the OP. Suffice it to say, several liberties were taken. And Brandon Teena led a life of crime leading up to her murder; I believe the movie paints a more saintly portrayal of him, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/27 "2005-05-20T22:28:54Z")
_Inherit the Wind_ did take almost all the courtroom stuff from the trial transcripts, but much of the outside stuff was inaccurate. Just for one thing, IIRC that Bryan’s death was not at all like the movie. Another that isn’t as well known is _Moby Dick_. [This book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0007115156/qid=1116628000/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i7_xgl14/103-3371334-4967050?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) points out that a ship had been rammed and sunk by a whale a few years before Melville wrote his version. Ahab and his search for vengeance are of course fictional. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/28 "2005-05-20T22:42:38Z")
Brandon Teena apparently did commit crimes of forgery and theft, but his _life of crime_ was very short. He was murdered when he was twenty-one. I got the impression that the movie _Enigma_ had some major flaws. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/29 "2005-05-20T22:44:04Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Any history of the Old Republic will verify that midichlorians are a complete fabrication; the ancient Jedi were chosen 100% on merit and natural ability rather than objective measurements. It was this historical inaccuracy that ruined _The Phantom Menace_ for me. Thanks for clearing that up! 😛😛 ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/30 "2005-05-20T23:58:13Z")
> [@rjk](#): > > Another that isn’t as well known is _Moby Dick_. [This book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0007115156/qid=1116628000/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i7_xgl14/103-3371334-4967050?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) points out that a ship had been rammed and sunk by a whale a few years before Melville wrote his version. Ahab and his search for vengeance are of course fictional. Actually, the _Essex_ disaster is well-known and well-remarked in nautical circles. It became a _cause celebre_ when the story came out, not because of the “man bites dog” sensationalism of the whaling ship sunk by its prey, but because the survivors admitted, in public, that they survived by means of cannibalism. The term “Nantucket Sleigh Ride” refers to an often fatal experience for the whalers when a harpooned whale runs, like a fish on a hook, but a multiton whale has enough of an advantage over the men in the small boats in which they did the actually hunting. A deep diving whale could and often did drag the whaleboat down under with it. Likewise, many a whale would surface under the whaleboat, capsizing it, if not outright destroying it. To go from that to the destruction of the larger whaling vessel is surprising, but not shocking. Admitting that one of the fatalities of the crew of the Essex was because the rest of the crew had to get some long pork was shocking beyond anything else that happened. This is not to say that the community of whalers, and shippers didn’t know that cannibalism happened to castaways. It was just not commonly admitted. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/31 "2005-05-21T00:15:52Z")
Some other based upon true story movies I’d like to see examined would be: **The Man Who Walked Up a Hill, and Came Down a Mountain** **The Birdman of Alcatraz** **The Untouchables** Any version, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/32 "2005-05-21T00:24:01Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I got the impression that the movie _Enigma_ had some major flaws. To be fair, [Enigma](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157583/) was a fictionalization of the breaking of the Enigma codes, and while a few of the characters were based on or composites of real life people such as Alan Turing, the mystery thriller subplot was entirely a fabrication which was never suggested to be based on truth. Essentially, it’s fiction set within a real historical setting, not a “based on a true story” claim. Excellent if slow moving film, BTW, and many (but not all) of the details on the Enigma machine and the cracking of the codes were accurately portrayed; far more so than the excreable [U-571](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141926/); and at least a nodding acknowledgement is made to the efforts of Polish intelligence in acquiring the machine. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/33 "2005-05-21T02:33:09Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Some other based upon true story movies I’d like to see examined would be: > > **The Birdman of Alcatraz** The real Robert Stroud was a child molestor who once lost his bird privileges for having child pornography in his cell. > [@](#): > > **The Untouchables** The real Elliot Ness was never known to have fired a gun on duty. One journalist who knew both Ness and Capone and had the hell beaten out of him by Capone’s goons in full view of a Cicero police officer actually said that he _still_ liked Capone better. He felt Ness was little more than a glory-loving hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/34 "2005-05-21T02:35:10Z")
I didn’t see the full list but what about: **Braveheart** **Lion in Winter** Did it all come to a head like that over the holidays? **Mutiny on the bounty** and it’s various remakes. **(something) years in Tibet**. Escaped Nazi meets up with the future Dali Lama as a boy in Nepal. **Great Escape** one of the best Movies ever. I read the book years ago and it wasn’t exactly like the movie as I remembered. **Return to Paradise** Jocquim Phoenix & Vince Vaughn in a based on a true tale indy film. Very slow off the blocks, but it was very good. I always wondered how close it was to the real thing. **Catch me if you can** The book and the movie are not the same thing. The movie is entertaining. The book is utterly fascinating. Con men stories usually are. **Serpico** and **Donny Brasco** ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/35 "2005-05-21T02:37:09Z")
Those behind the story facts were part of why I suggested those two movies. (Though I’d not heard the journalist anecdote.) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/36 "2005-05-21T02:42:24Z")
Ignore most of my list, I just read the 100 list. :smack: However, I’d like to add: **Princess Caraboo** was supposedly based on a true story. **Proof of Life** was based on an article written in Vanity Fair ( (I think) about the kidnapping-for-fundraising by terrorists in south america. ( I like this movie.) **The perfect storm** ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/37 "2005-05-21T02:45:05Z")
When they say “based on a true story”, what they really mean is “based on a story, truely”. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/38 "2005-05-21T03:12:35Z")
Not always. F’rinstance, **The Great Escape** (good one, **Shirley**!), is very close to accurate from what I’ve read and seen. There was an incredible escape from Stalag Luft 3, it did use tunnels and the masking methods shown in the movie, the prisoners did, by hand, manufacture all sorts of counterfeit passes and ID. And Hitler did order two thirds of the recaptured airmen killed. They had to increase the role of the inmate played by Steve McQueen, since he had the star power to demand more time, but that’s the biggest single liberty I recall. Considering the way that other movies bend history in the name of a better story (I’m not trying to say that in a negative way. I’m trying to write a novel based on what I think the movie **Pearl Harbor** should have been. And I know I’m going to have to bend the truth to make it marketable. Fortunately, my viewpoint character is damned near everything I could have asked for.) that’s a minor thing, really. From what I recall of the movie **Midway** , it’s also pretty accurate. Where it failed as a movie was in that it didn’t actually have a consistent viewpoint character: It tried to give every view, and so swamped the viewer. I’ve not read what this book says about **Apollo 13** , but from what I recall the major changes were that several of the important people on the ground were combined into one character for the purposes of clarity. Again, a very forgivable change, and one that was necessary to make for an approachable story. Similarly both the movie and the book **Bat 21** (another one for the list) combined several pilots involved in the extraction into one character. Of course on your side of the ledger, let’s consider **The Sound of Music** : When Maria von Trapp saw it she is reported to have said: “It’s a lovely story. But it’s not my story.” I don’t believe that Mrs. von Trapp disapproved of the movie, the way that Christine Crawford does about the movie based on her book, just that it’s not accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/39 "2005-05-21T04:16:43Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > F’rinstance, **The Great Escape** (good one, **Shirley**!), is very close to accurate from what I’ve read and seen. There was an incredible escape from Stalag Luft 3, it did use tunnels and the masking methods shown in the movie, the prisoners did, by hand, manufacture all sorts of counterfeit passes and ID. And Hitler did order two thirds of the recaptured airmen killed. They had to increase the role of the inmate played by Steve McQueen, since he had the star power to demand more time, but that’s the biggest single liberty I recall. While I’m a big fan of the film, I have to point out that there were a lot of discrepancies; while (as the prolog indicates) many of the events and methods in the film did actually occur, the McQueen role was totally written in. Although there had been American pilots in the camp at one time there were none during the escape, and most of the scenes prominantly featuring McQueen never happened, period. Also, in the movie it is indicated that the Commandant was arrested (and presumably executed) for the escape of the prisoners; in real life, his crime was of dealing in the black market and selling supplies (some of which were used in the escapes) to prisoners, a fact only obliquely hinted at in the film. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761/40 "2005-05-21T06:12:58Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Of course on your side of the ledger, let’s consider **The Sound of Music** : When Maria von Trapp saw it she is reported to have said: “It’s a lovely story. But it’s not my story.” I don’t believe that Mrs. von Trapp disapproved of the movie, the way that Christine Crawford does about the movie based on her book, just that it’s not accurate. She was also majorly p.o.d that while the story of her life was the biggest hit on Broadway and later the biggest box office hit in many years (single handedly saving its studio) she received nothing by way of compensation. Reason: many years before she had sold the rights to her life story for a pittance (a few thousand dollars) to a German film studio which made a non-musical, probably more accurate version that was a moderate hit in German speaking Europe but then forgotten; it was this company, not her, that sold the rights to Rodgers & Hammerstein, who then sold the film rights to their play- she was bypassed all around (though the producers of the movie hired her as a “consultant” [less for the need to consult than to be able to throw a little money towards her] and she can be seen in a couple of crowd scenes.) Of course she became in demand as a speaker and she wrote some books that sold well on the Christian market, so she benefitted that way. The real von Trapps sang a completely different type of music than the upbeat showtunes, but a type of very traditional Alpine religious folk singing. She was married to the Baron for more than a decade, had borne him two daughters and was heavily pregnant with a son when they refugeed. He had once been one of the wealthiest men in the German speaking lands (due ironically to his English first wife, whose family produced half the torpedoes used in WW1 when he was a U-Boat hero) but had been wiped out by the Depression; they actually turned to singing to raise cash. She later spent many years as a missionary for lepers and as a missionary in Borneo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/based-on-a-true-story/304761.md?page=3)