# Movies Based on True-Life: Loosely or Factual **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433 "2007-05-09T18:50:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/21 "2007-05-10T06:45:58Z")
_The Exorcist_ was supposedly based on true events. I think they may have taken a few liberties along the way. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/22 "2007-05-10T07:39:26Z")
_Madison_, set in & named after my hometown, about the early 1970s victory in its annual hydroplane race- great story about how a small town banded together to save its race & its city-owned hydroplane, and then how the boat went on to win the race. EXCEPT that the movie has the mechanics, faced with a blown engine, STEALING the engine out of a WWII plane from a nearby city’s memorial. No resemblance to reality at all, and downplaying the real accomplishment of the town, the boat crew & the driver. _Ed Wood_ - totally downplayed his drinking problems, general self-destructive behavior, manufactured a major Hollywood premiere for PLAN 9, and gave Bela Lugosi a potty-mouth which really offended those who knew him best. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/23 "2007-05-10T08:00:49Z")
_The Birdman of Alcatraz_ portrays Robert Stroud as a mannerly, soft-spoken man who, implicitly for justifiable reasons, is in prison for murdering two men. He devotes his life to the study of birds and their illnesses. ## The real Robert Stroud really did contribute a lot, especially for an amateur, to the field of avian physiology, but he was also a cold blooded remorseless killer. In addition to the murder he was sent to prison for (a john who did not pay the whore Stroud was pimping) he was suspected of other crimes, known to have been a constant thief and pimp, and upon his imprisonment murdered a guard in a room full of witnesses because the guard’s reporting of him had cost him privileges. (He was sentenced to death for killing the guard but the sentence was commuted to life without parole.) While a prisoner he was a rapist, he was involved in many fights, kept completely non bird related contraband in his cells (including child pornography and homemade whiskey) and was considered violent and dangerous by other inmates and the guards. Prison guards and administrators expressed outrage at the movie and pleasure when Stroud died. _The Crucible_ is sometimes said to be based on a true story, but “inspired by” is far closer. There was no affair between John Proctor and Abigail and in fact there was about a 50 year age difference- he was 60 and she was somewhere between 9 and 13 depending on the source. Danforth was not the bastard in real life he was in the movie and in fact was one of the first to denounce the proceedings. Tituba was not a black slave but a Caribbean Indian. Most of the other characterizations are likewise off, Giles Corey (the cantankerous old man who was pressed to death) probably being the most near to what’s known of the historical figure. Likewise _Amadeus_, _Royal Hunt of the Sun_ and most of Shakespeare’s histories are far more literary than they are historical and vilify characters who really weren’t that vicious (i.e. Salieri was neither mediocre nor obsessed with Mozart and there’s no reason to believe he killed him, the roles of de Soto and Pizarro are reversed in _Royal Hunt_ {it was de Soto who wanted the Inca saved, not Pizarro as in the movie} and the Inca Atahuallpa was a bloody tyrant who had made his deposed brother eat dog feces in the streets of Cuzco shortly before the Spanish arrival, Richard III was probably nowhere near the monster he is in Shakespeare and Henry VII had far more motive to kill the imprisoned princes, etc.). I recognize that these plays do not purport to be histories and objective, but it is a shame that people don’t realize they’re not to be confused with the real story. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/24 "2007-05-10T08:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] _Ed Wood_ - totally downplayed his drinking problems, general self-destructive behavior, manufactured a major Hollywood premiere for PLAN 9, and gave Bela Lugosi a potty-mouth which really offended those who knew him best. [/QUOTE] Good pick. Wood’s posthumous biography is a true nightmare of alcoholism and hopelessness. As is typical in the art world, he’d only achieved his renaissance after he was dead. His final years would make for very intriguing cinema. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/25 "2007-05-10T08:34:48Z")
The movie **Casino** is based on this [guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Rosenthal) and apparently the movie does contain quite a lot of events that actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/26 "2007-05-10T11:29:33Z")
**The Perfect Storm** I’m fairly certain they took liberties in the movie on what happened right before they sunk. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/27 "2007-05-10T12:03:51Z")
Having followed the Baby M surrogacy trial like an obsession, I can honestly say the movie about it was about 50-50. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/28 "2007-05-10T15:25:31Z")
And yet, _Ed Wood_ is a fantastic movie. It’s a beautiful story about a man who really, really loved movies, but wasn’t any damn good at making them. I’ve read that biography of Wood too – was it called _Look Back in Angora_? I lent it to a friend several years ago and never got it back. I’m glad the movie is what it is. Living in Houston, I’ve met a number of people who could vouch for the accuracy of _Apollo 13_. When I mentioned that they probably used composite characters, I mostly meant in minor roles. I don’t know that the personal family drama was exactly as it happened, but the facts of the case as shown in the movie certainly were very close to the real deal. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/29 "2007-05-10T16:39:20Z")
More on Apollo 13: IMDB’s [goofs page](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/goofs) for the movie states at the top of the page " … the film is prey to a large number of factual errors due to the large volume of documentary footage/evidence from the actual event." In general, the words “based on a true story” are a bad sign - particularly if you know anything about the real story. I was, and still am, pleasantly surprised that hollywood made a movie about the great drama that was Apollo 13, and didn’t screw it up. No aliens, no song and dance numbers, no stripper/brain surgeon girlfriend on the command module, just the story. Nicely done, Opie! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/30 "2007-05-10T17:53:12Z")
_Tucker: The Man and His Dream_ is reasonably accurate. You can read a detailed breakdown of what’s true and what’s not, [here.](http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/movieinfo.html) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/31 "2007-05-10T18:24:04Z")
[QUOTE=cbawlmer] And yet, _Ed Wood_ is a fantastic movie. It’s a beautiful story about a man who really, really loved movies, but wasn’t any damn good at making them. I’ve read that biography of Wood too – was it called _Look Back in Angora_? [/QUOTE] That was the name of the documentary about him. The book was _Nightmare of Ecstasy._ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/32 "2007-05-10T18:31:52Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] That was the name of the documentary about him. The book was _Nightmare of Ecstasy._ [/QUOTE] Wood’s widow died recently. In her final years she was very conflicted about Ed’s legacy: on the one hand he’s something of a laughing stock, remembered as a talentless hack. OTOH, unlike many far more gifted directors he _is_ remembered and even has some apologists, and interviews and movie projects and all made her final years the most financially comfortable of her life (I don’t think she got rich but she made enough from the movie and other projects to have some security and comfort whereas she and Ed lived in unqualified poverty for the last decade of their marriage). The movie took a lot of liberties. Tor Johnson, for example, had been making movies for many years before Wood “discovered” him, they omitted the odd story of Bela’s fifth/final marriage and his odd relationship with the fourth wife (only ex-wife I’ve ever heard of who went to court demanding that her ex-husband’s child support payments be _reduced_- she cared about him immensely but just couldn’t live with him), and Bunny Breckinridge wasn’t a longtime friend of Wood’s- he just did a cameo in Plan 9 as a lark. (Bunny was also loaded- a multimillionaire through inheritance, and in his younger days he married a French aristocrat and managed to produce a daughter who was a titled European aristocrat- major chicken hawk as well and went to jail for “contributing to the delinquency” a good bit; his same-name grandfather, [John Cabell Breckinridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Breckinridge) I, negotiated the final surrender of the Confederate army as CSA Secretary of War.) ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/33 "2007-05-10T18:48:11Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] That was the name of the documentary about him. The book was _Nightmare of Ecstasy._ [/QUOTE] You’re right, of course. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/34 "2007-05-10T18:57:19Z")
Speaking of the Civil War, the movie _GLORY_, though one of my favorite movies, did have some major embellishments. The most significant perhaps are these: ## \*— a powerful scene is the whipping of Denzel Washington’s character for desertion- when he’s stripped his back is revealed to be already scarred from the lash of slavery. In fact, whipping was banned as a punishment for desertion and Shaw would have gotten into major trouble for doing this. The character (who is fictional/composite) would more likely would have been tied to a wheel, clapped in irons, or one of other acceptable punishments. \*—there were all-black regiments comprised mostly if not all of freed slaves, but the 54th Massachusetts was not one of them. There were a few freedmen in the ranks, but the majority were free blacks living in Massachusetts at the time of the war and not runaway or in most cases even former slaves. \*—the assault on Battery Wagner was a bloody horror for the 54th, but not quite as bad as the movie implied. I was surprised that none of the main characters survivewhen in fact most of the 54th (albeit by a slim margin) did survive the attack. \*—Frederick Douglass as portrayed in the movie was too old and had the wrong hairstyle. He’s shown [gray haired with the famous proto Afro](http://www.geocities.com/genebrooks/frederick_douglass.jpg) but was actually considerably younger and looked a bit more like James Brown in the early [1860s](http://www.murphyfineartscenter.org/mfac/images/frederick_douglass_young.jpg) (which isn’t coincidental- Brown drew inspiration for his look from Douglass [and from several other sources]. GONE WITH THE WIND is not supposed to be a work of non-fiction, but even so it makes some whopping errors that contributed greatly to the romanticism of that era. Among them: \*— there were nowhere _near_ that many wounded soldiers in Atlanta (and one of the veterans of Atlanta is said to have remarked “if we’d had that many we’d have won the dang battle” \*—there were not mansions like Twelve Oaks anywhere in Georgia at the time, not even in Savannah- major overkill \*—Tara was a big ugly sprawling whitewashed farmhouse in the book but a mansion in the movie Perhaps the most common error about GWTW isn’t actually the movie’s fault but interpretation. Rhett and Scarlett flee the burning of Atlanta and most people assume the fires were set by Sherman, but in fact they were set (and Rhett even specifically says they were set) by the Confederacy who were torching the provisions and blowing up the ammunition they couldn’t take as they retreated to keep them from falling into Union hands. Sherman’s burning of Atlanta was nowhere near as total as commonly cited- between him and the Confederacy approximately 30% of the city was destroyed, but what he burned were mostly legitimate military/economically strategic targets. By far the greater damage came from the shelling and the buildings that burned from flames carried by the burning of the real targets. (Enough of the city was left that it became the state capitol shortly after the war even though Milledgeville was almost entirely undamaged.) ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/35 "2007-05-10T19:18:17Z")
Without going into the reasons (Because that would be me beating a very dead horse. Again.) I want to remind everyone here, that the 2000 “Pearl Harbor” was another abhomination. It got the fact that there was an attack right. Mostly. And that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/36 "2007-05-10T19:42:47Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] Without going into the reasons (Because that would be me beating a very dead horse. Again.) I want to remind everyone here, that the 2000 “Pearl Harbor” was another abhomination. It got the fact that there was an attack right. Mostly. And that’s about it. [/QUOTE] But we _were_ supposed to be rooting for the Japanese in that movie, right? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/37 "2007-05-10T19:45:49Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] But we _were_ supposed to be rooting for the Japanese in that movie, right? [/QUOTE] Well, they _were_ the plucky underdogs in that conflict. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/38 "2007-05-10T19:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] Without going into the reasons (Because that would be me beating a very dead horse. Again.) I want to remind everyone here, that the 2000 “Pearl Harbor” was another abhomination. It got the fact that there was an attack right. Mostly. And that’s about it. [/QUOTE] An long but true anecdote about that movie: One of my neighbors and tangential friends (i.e. we don’t call each other up but we always talk when we run into each other) in Montgomery is a lady named Anna who is still alive, in her mid 90s, and was an unmarried nurse at Pearl Harbor. The producers of that movie sent people to interview her at her home (as they did with other Pearl Harbor survivors, particularly nurses). I’ve seen the tapes of her interview (so has Ogre if he’s here so this is one he can back me up on). Anna, who not only doesn’t mind talking about those days but generally won’t shut up about them and has written a book about her experiences (privately published), is on the tape _TRYING_ to tell them some truly fascinating stories. This is not verbatim but just based on memory- the interview goes something like this (and Anna’s stories are all true [and the coffee cup would have made a great scene for the movie if they’d have listened]): > [@](#): > > Anna: So I had been sick with a stomach flu and was actually a patient in the hospital on the morning of the attack. Well, let me tell you how I knew the attack was coming. That morning they brought in our breakfasts and it was on a tin tray, and as I took my first bite the coffee cup started to rattle… > > Pearl Harbor Interviewers (PHI): Really. So, how often did you go on dates? > > Anna: What? Oh… fairly frequently. So the coffee cup started to rattle on the tin tray and I thought, that’s strange, and other patients coffee cups are rattling, then the plates rattle and… > > PHI: Ah-hah. So where did you usually go on dates? > > Anna: …and we’re thinking… what? Oh… well, there were movie theaters and restaurants and night clubs and dances… I shouldn’t think it’s changed that much from where young people go on dates today. Well, all of our plates are rattling, and we look at each other and say 'What is this? What’s causing the vibrations? And my teeth are rattling! Well that’s when… > > PHI: Interesting. When you were out on these dates, how late did you usually stay out? > > Anna:…and that’s when we realized that… oh, well, we had strict curfews, and we had to be up and at’em by 6 in the morning usually so not that late… usually we were in by 10 or 11, sometimes earlier. Well of course what it was was the Zeros coming in and we had no idea that… > > PHI: So if you went on a date with a private, what would you have done if he tried to get fresh? > > Anna: Well in the first place I wouldn’t have been on a date with a private, because for one thing this was a _Naval_ base and… > > PHI: You were snobbish about dating privates? > > Anna: They weren’t privates… and I would have gotten in trouble for dating anybody below the rank of non-com because it was forbidden to date enlisted men below non-coms. Mostly we dated officers. Oh, let me tell you about what happened later that day. Like I said, I was sick, but I had to get up and go to work because… > > PHI: Did the officers behave themselves? Did they ever get fresh? What would you have done if they had tried to kiss you? > > Anna: I’d have told the chaperone who was with us! They didn’t let us go on unchaperoned dates and they didn’t let us date enlisted men. Now, there was this gardener who worked for the base who was Chinese, not Japanese, but when I took my first break of the day it was almost 6 pm and I was exhausted, and there was this poor man and he was getting the life beaten out of him because this crowd thought he was Japanese and I said 'STOP THAT! HE’S OLD AND HE’S INNOCENT AND…" > > PHI: So did you ever ditch the chaperones? > > Anna: No. Well anyway, they almost killed the poor old man, and he was Chinese! Well, a few days later I’m driving with my girlfriends into town to check on some of the wounded who were lodged in the town because the hospital was overflowing, this would have been December 10 or so and we were driving by a pineapple field and… > > PHI: Did you and the girlfriends ever gossip about other nurses or about guys you thought were good looking? > > Anna: We were young women living on a military base thousands of miles from home. Of course we gossiped and joked. Well we’re driving through this pineapple field and guess what? Our windshield starts rattling! And you know what happens? A Zero flies out of that pineapple field so low that we screamed and our car was driven into a ditch! He’d been there for days evidently hiding, somehow grounded and somehow managed to get it fixed enough to… > > PHI: So how blunt would your conversations have been with the nurses? Would you have said something like you think so and so has a cute tush? > > Anna: I DON’T REMEMBER! We were young girls but we were also ladies! Now speaking of ladies, let me tell you about some women I gained major respect for. There were prostitutes all over the place, all races and all ages, they came for the base, and of course we all looked down on them, but not after that day, because do you know what they did? They… > > PHI: So had you seen naked men before going into the service? > > Anna: I was a trained and educated nurse! One naked body looks the same as another when you’re there to help with surgery or administer shots or the like! It wasn’t what you’d call _sexy_! Well I was sick as a dog and I had to help anyway because this was a Sunday and they were bringing in wounded and mangled men like you couldn’t believe, and of course all nurses no matter where they were came in and then women from the town started coming and there still weren’t enough of us! See there had been a major stomach flu outbreak just the week before and… > > PHI: Now when you say you were chaperoned on your dates… who were these chaperones? > > Anna (talking right through him): …and that’s when the prostitutes, and there were hundreds of them, all started sending the word out that the hospital needs help and… > > PHI: I mean, would the chaperones have been older women or women your age or…? > > Anna: and before long the place was just filled with prostitutes, still wearing their workign clothes because remember this was the morning after a Saturday night and some had not slept in a day. And there they were, some were Chinese and some were Hawaiian and some were black and some were German and some white American girls and the madams were there and > > PHI: I was interested in how loosely or how strictly chaperoned they were? > > Anna: we were stunned of course, because we knew what they were but of course we’d never seen them that close and never had contact, but they outright asked ‘Can we help? We brought all we had in supplies, some bandages and painkillers and whiskey?’ Well even the holiest of us was in no mood or disposition to be picky that day, we said ‘Please!’ and that’s why you’d see a doctor operating on a patient and he might be assisted by one nurse and one gaudy young prostitute and one chaplain’s wife! It was a madhouse and every hand was needed! > > PHI: So when you went on dates, what was the… shall I say… most involved you could become with your officer without the chaperone noticing? Or were the chaperones good sports? > > Anna: I don’t remember. [subtext: you may go] > > PHI: Would they have… > > Anna: I’m sorry. I’m nearly 90 and my memory’s not what it once was. I just don’t remember. > > PHI: Well, thank you for your time. This woman who was a senior nurse there and who is in remarkably good mind and memory for a woman her age was trying to tell him truly fascinating atmospheric stories. She even sensed that he wanted to hear about the sex, but while a 90 year old social matriarch from Alabama or almost anywhere else (Anna married a high ranking officer and is quite well off and was a major hostess for many years) is JUST SIMPLY NOT GOING TO DISCUSS HER SEX LIFE OF 60 YEARS BEFORE EVEN IF SHE HAD ONE she was willing to tell him a very interesting story about the prostitutes that also has some awesome imagery (the officer’s wives and nurses and doctors rubbing shoulders with scantily clad prostitutes covered in scrubs and blood). She tries to tell him about a Zero that flew so close it wrecked her car almost three days after the attach- he’d been stranded. She tried to tell about the hate crimes that occurred that day, and how they found out one of the sweet elderly male Japanese orderlies _really WAS_ a Japanese spy who’d been taking photographs of military facilities, and lots of other interesting stories, and basically what the guy wants to hear was “Oh yeah, oral sex was so de rigeur that we made knee pads out of coconuts! The Arizona wasn’t the only thing full of lubricants and seamen in that harbor lemme tell you what! Oh, this one time I remember I was in a four way with this double jointed anesthesia nurse, Admiral Nimitz and this 18 year old twink Airman who had a better ass than any of us and Nimitz took his fingers and just…” And of course when the movie comes out you see the nurses going on unchaperoned dates with enlisted men and none of the interesting stuff. "Oh, here’s Cuba Gooding for no particular reason as a real life hero cameo, that’s enough history. Y’know what’d be something? If FDR got out of his wheelchair cause you know that’d stun his cabinet as getting out of his wheelchair is something he only did every goddamned time he gave a press conference or there were cameras present. " Anna was disgusted by the experience and so was everybody she showed those tapes by. Sorry for the long hijack, but the point is don’t judge a whore until you’ve operated on an airman with her, and if your coffee cup is rattling put on your seatbelt. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/39 "2007-05-10T20:10:51Z")
Thank you, **Sampiro**. Any chance you can tell me where I can get a copy of her account? Feel free to email me, if you get the chance. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433/40 "2007-05-10T20:15:36Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] Thank you, **Sampiro**. Any chance you can tell me where I can get a copy of her account? Feel free to email me, if you get the chance. [/QUOTE] I’ll pm you her surname. I last saw her a few months ago and though she’s in her 90s she’s doing well and, as I said, _more than willing_ to talk about her life (except the sex part). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-true-life-loosely-or-factual/403433.md?page=3)