# Movies, songs, etc. based on newspaper or magazine articles
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 13, 2021, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974 "2021-12-13T10:01:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/1 "2021-12-13T10:01:13Z")
_[A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Day_in_the_Neighborhood)_ is a 2019 drama film based largely on the 1998 _Esquire_ article “Can you say… hero?” by Tom Junod.
[“The Wreck of the _Edmund Fitzgerald_”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Edmund_Fitzgerald) is a 1976 folk rock song by Gordon Lightfoot, based largely on the 1975 _Newsweek_ article “Great Lakes: The cruelest month” by James R. Gaines and Jon Lowell.
Are there any other fictional or artistic works (songs, films, TV episodes, etc.) that were adapted from non-fiction newspaper or magazine articles? To be clear, I mean to exclude the following:
- Adaptations of articles into straight-up documentaries. (Fully dramatized biopics and history films are fine.)
- Adaptations of fictional short stories, newspaper comic strips, etc.
- _Law & Order_–style “ripped from the headlines” works, unless that work’s origin can be traced to a _specific_ article in a newspaper or magazine.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/2 "2021-12-13T12:11:07Z")
How about _A Day in a Life_ by the Beatles. I read the news today, oh boy.
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### Author:  [@Skunkdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skunkdog)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/3 "2021-12-13T12:16:25Z")
I immediately thought of the movies _A Perfect Storm_ and _The Insider_, both conceived from news articles, though the former was conceived as a book before becoming a film.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/4 "2021-12-13T12:20:50Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> How about _A Day in a Life_ by the Beatles. I read the news today, oh boy.
It’s true that a few lines were inspired by specific newspaper stories, though perhaps not the entire song itself. Still, it’s a good one to mention here. The line about the holes in Blackburn was taken from a 17 January 1967 _Daily Mail_ article, “The holes in our roads”, and the line about the guy crashing his car are from another _Daily Mail_ article, in the same issue, about [Tara Browne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Browne).
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/5 "2021-12-13T12:37:52Z")
_I Don’t Like Mondays_ by the Boomtown Rats is about a real school shooting in San Diego, as is _Pumped Up Kicks_ by Foster the People (about Columbine).
_Hey Man, Nice Shot_ by Filter is about a politician who committed suicide during a press conference in PA in the 80s.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/6 "2021-12-13T12:56:38Z")
But were they based on specific articles covering those events, or just those events in general?
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/7 "2021-12-13T13:04:25Z")
Probably those events in general. Sorry, I withdraw my entry.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/8 "2021-12-13T13:08:53Z")
_Best Little Whorehouse in Texas_ was inspired by an article in _Esquire_ outlining the situation.
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### Author:  [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/9 "2021-12-13T13:22:29Z")
[_Urban Cowboy_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Cowboy#Historical_background_and_production) (1980) was based on an article in (again!) _Esquire_.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/10 "2021-12-13T13:26:26Z")
The Jonah Hill movie _War Dogs_ was based on a 2011 article in Rolling Stone (which was later expanded into a book).
The Jennifer Lopez film _Hustlers_ was based on a 2015 article in New York magazine.
The film _Into the Wild_ was based on a 1993 article in Outside magazine (which was later expanded into a book).
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/11 "2021-12-13T13:34:24Z")
_The Last American Hero_ was based on a 1965 Tom Wolfe article in Esquire.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/12 "2021-12-13T13:43:51Z")
As you might guess, there is a [Wikipedia list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_based_on_newspaper_and_magazine_articles) of movies based on newspaper and magazine articles, including _Saturday Night Fever_ and _A Nightmare on Elm Street_.
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### Author:  [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/13 "2021-12-13T13:57:03Z")
They missed “Headless Body in Topless Bar”, based on the New York Post headline.
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### Author:  [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/14 "2021-12-13T14:31:38Z")
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o5eyZhNbjA)
The very amusing song “Lovelines” (1983) by the Replacements takes its lyrics straight from the lonely-hearts classified ads in a Minneapolis newspaper. It ends with a citation (“Wednesday, October 13, 1982, volume 4, number 79.”).
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/15 "2021-12-13T14:43:14Z")
Not a perfect match to the OP, but based in part on magazine content:
The last section of the Traveling Wilburys’ song “Dirty World” consists of a repeated series of the lyric “He loves your…” followed by a seemingly nonsensical phrase. While recording the song, the group had a bunch of magazines in the room with them, including copies of the magazine _Auto Sport_ (George Harrison was a big fan of auto racing), and the group would take turns plucking random phrases from articles in the magazines. Thus, it wound up with lines like, “He loves your five-speed gearbox” and “He loves your big refrigerator.”
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmrRlmc-bRU)
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### Author:  [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/16 "2021-12-13T14:55:56Z")
[The Bling Ring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bling_Ring),about a group of young people burglarizing celebrities’ homes, was based on a [Vanity Fair article](https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/e9cc0cc3-dbf1-4fab-8367-5fc7c05608e6).
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### Author:  [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/17 "2021-12-13T15:06:03Z")
Dog Day Afternoon was based on an article in Life magazine
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/18 "2021-12-13T15:18:30Z")
The Genesis song “The Battle of Epping Forest” was based on a newspaper article Peter Gabriel had read about rival gangs in London’s East End fighting each other in a territorial dispute.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/19 "2021-12-13T15:25:20Z")
_Adaptation_ was adapted (…sort of) from a book that was based on a New Yorker article.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-songs-etc-based-on-newspaper-or-magazine-articles/955974/20 "2021-12-13T16:01:30Z")
Here’s one I forgot to mention in my OP: The 21-minute [“Right On (Hippie Dream)”](https://bevisfrondmusic.bandcamp.com/track/right-on-hippie-dream) by The Bevis Frond is based on various editorials and letters to the editor from _[Gandalf’s Garden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandalf's_Garden)_, a late 1960s psychedelic culture magazine. The song quotes liberally from these pieces. Some choice bits:
> The inner world of the Now Generation is a glowing stone dropped into a vast pool of greyness, and the warmth of its ripples is spreading in ever-widening circles. The more self-knowing a person can become, the more beautiful he or she will become from the deep roots. We influence others by what we are ourselves. It’s not even necessary to ‘do’, but merely to ‘become’. In this way what we become will benefit the next person, you, me, humanity at large. Good vibrations are catching. And there is an undercurrent of something beautiful and mystical sweeping the spirits of the Now Generation. The seeds of understanding sown in seasons past are growing greenly underground towards the sun. The Overground Movement is imminent and overdue. Draw closer, stranger, and welcome. Can you not feel your world growing between your toes, and bursting from between your brows like the fabulous beanstalk? […]
>
> Look deep into the chalices of flowers, study them, observe the natural world. Find your way to woods and fields whenever possible. Lie amid the grasses. Live again the smells and sights and sounds of childhood when the world was truly beautiful and you were nearer knowing what it was all about. Your perceptions were closer to the core of all ‘being’ then, unclouded by mis-education and the intellect. Right on, your hippie dream. Right on, your hippie dream. […]
>
> I saw my first flower girl the other day, and I was dismayed to think that she could go about town with an escort of long-haired youths. Her dress was adorned with bells and beads, and her jeans had flowers painted on them, as well as on her jacket. And to think that budgies are being deprived of bells for their cages because there is a run on pet shops for the little bells that give our feathered friends such endless joy. […]
>
> One girl came up to me and stroked my cheek with a fox-fur mitten. Somebody gave me a tinkerbell, somebody else a silver star to stick on my forehead, and one old man hugged me while the tears poured down his cheeks and his wife stood by holding his shoes. “He has always dreamed people could be like this. Now he can die,” she said. Everyone got a chocolate Easter egg. A middle-aged woman stood with a record player balanced on her head playing “The Messiah”. Elsewhere, tribal rhythms floated in and out of my ears.
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