# Most accurate movie portrayals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728 "2004-08-07T03:43:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/1 "2004-08-07T03:43:56Z")
Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=123588). I’m not talking about historically accurate films, but rather those films where the characters reflect life or situations as you’ve experienced them, and do such a great job of it you want to introduce the director/writers/actors to your sisters. For me, one of the absolute best was the portrayal of Naval personnel in “The Last Detail”. Man, I _knew_ those guys. The dialogue, attitude, mannerisms, etc. were right on the mark. Hell, it was ME! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/2 "2004-08-07T05:51:57Z")
Absolutely everything in _Hallowe’en_ happened to me. Well, except the ice pick was a twizzler, but it was scary nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/3 "2004-08-07T06:22:12Z")
I’m not sure how obscure it is, But I knew pretty much a dead ringer for every character and every situation in _Kicking and screaming_. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/4 "2004-08-07T16:53:09Z")
I’d never seen a movie set in high school that in any way whatsoever reflected any part of my high school experience until I saw _Better Luck Tomorrow_. I mean, the intellectual elite at my school was mostly white and if there was a massive drug trade I was unaware of it, but the rest? Dead on. Surely, _surely_ the writers knew this guy who was a year ahead of me, who my best friend’s mom (who had taught him in 4th grade) said to her before she went to school with him, as her one piece of advice, “Watch out for M\_\_\_ K\_\_\_.” Oh yeah. 🙂 Also, I see my dear friend J often in movies. The coffee cart guy in _The Station Agent_, most recently. That’s absolutely him. “We’re closed… but I’ll play soccer with you!” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/5 "2004-08-07T23:59:13Z")
Another one that comes to mind is “Nobody’s Fool”. I thought Paul Newman was channeling my brother. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/6 "2004-08-08T00:57:06Z")
_American Graffiti_. I knew every character in the movie and personally engaged in or at least witnessed every scene, albiet from a “Pharos” point of view. To have all that action in just one Saturday night, well, it would have been one helluva Saturday night. But over the course of time I saw everything in that show happen pretty much the way they told it. Yeah, I’m old! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/7 "2004-08-08T01:54:46Z")
The character of Nedry in **Jurassic Park** is dead true-to-life. I ran into a friend of mine coming out of the theater and asked him if Nedry reminded him of anyone… he nailed it without a pause. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/8 "2004-08-08T12:07:56Z")
My wife tells me that the guys in _Wayne’s World_ were dead-on the guys that she knew in Scarborough, Ontario – not surprising, given that that’s where Mike Myers is from. ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/9 "2004-08-08T12:13:11Z")
The movie **Dazed and Confused** is the one closest to home for me. I either knew Everyone in that movie or WAS the people in that movie. Second runner up would be Clerks. A lot of that rang true too. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/10 "2004-08-08T14:48:00Z")
A couple of the characters in **In Country** rang pretty true for me, especially that bald character actor who is always “There’s That Guy” to movie-goers. The young girl’s mom is every late-30s Kentucky woman I know. Plus she has the mother’s perfect intuition–she takes one look at the mechanic character, turns to her daughter and asks if she’s sleeping with him. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![AzRaek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azraek/32/16739_2.png) [@AzRaek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzRaek)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/11 "2004-08-08T16:02:46Z")
Pierce Borsnan’s geologist in **Dante’s Peak** , who was more interested in rocks and dirt than in Linda Hamilton. My dad’s a geologist, and you can’t get him to care about anything that hans’t been dead for at least 100,000 years. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/12 "2004-08-17T04:17:41Z")
_And God Spoke_. It’s a mockumentary about a skrank producer-director team making a movie of the Bible. Mr. Rilch, Boss, myself and other people we know in the film industry have, collectively, “seen” IRL every significant character and event in the film. (And in some cases, been them or participated.) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/13 "2004-08-17T07:30:29Z")
_The Straight Story_. Okay, so it’s based on a true story. But, yeah, I know people I can see riding a lawnmower (!) to see their brother in the next state over. Reese Witherspoon’s character from _Election_. In some ways, I _was_ her character – driven student and yearbook editor, not the weird sexual relationship with a teacher. Minus the inappropriate relationship and the journalism, I went to high school with a girl who was much more like that character than I was. She was on student council and had plans of pursuing a career in politics/lawyering. She even had the same type of personality, only because I had to deal with her every day, it wasn’t funny. Possibly because she was also slightly crazed and had a very inflated sense of self. And very well coifed. She was the only girl who, at 17, had a coiffure. That movie was too close to home in so many ways. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-accurate-movie-portrayals/258728/14 "2004-08-17T15:33:22Z")
_High Fidelity_. The ex said that me and my buddy Will were Cusak’s and Black’s characters in the record store we worked in. Always trying to tell people what they should listen to, and I was always making mix tapes (although I never had any type of top 5 lists going.) I easily see the resemblance.