[HN Gopher] 'Based on a True Story' (2016-2019)
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'Based on a True Story' (2016-2019)
Author : hermitcrab
Score : 28 points
Date : 2025-09-29 19:24 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (informationisbeautiful.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (informationisbeautiful.net)
| daltont wrote:
| A idea like this has been on the back of my mind but more like
| forming a taxonomy of embellishments and dramatic license. Figure
| out which ones are somewhat necessary and which ones are "bad".
| Particularly bad would be those that villainize a real person
| which role in the actual event was more benign. Coach Dan Devine
| in "Rudy" and boxer Max Baer Sr. in "Cinderella Man" come to
| mind.
| thomassmith65 wrote:
| I'd suggest 'Braveheart', but it would make for a rather
| monotonous infographic.
|
| http://celticfringe.net/history/brave.html
| arethuza wrote:
| My favourite inaccuracy being the bridge-less Battle of
| Stirling Bridge!
|
| Edit: And wasn't the "brave heart" Bruce's that was taken on
| crusade after its owner's death?
| agedclock wrote:
| Brave Heart is an excellent example.
|
| My favourite one though is "Fire in the Sky". I saw it years
| ago and thought it was a decent movie, but I laughed when it
| said "based on a true story".
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106912/
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Heh. Selma wins.
|
| I guess a lot of liberties were taken in The Imitation Game.
| neaden wrote:
| Yeah they did a lot of weird things. Like Keira Knightly's
| character Joan Clarke gets her job in the film when Turing does
| his weird crossword puzzle test. In real life she got it
| because one of her professors from school recommended her for
| the job. In the movie Turing works closely with Cairncross and
| realizes he is a Soviet spy. In real life while they worked at
| Bletchley park there is no evidence they ever met. It also
| really downplays the role Polish intelligence and cryptanalysts
| had in breaking Enigma from before the war even started.
| bena wrote:
| Kind of like how U-571 downplays the non-Americans involved
| in the Enigma.
| nayroclade wrote:
| It also generally portrays almost everyone around him at
| Bletchley as some level of ignorant, stupid or maliciously
| obstructive, despite the fact that most of them were
| brilliant mathematicians and engineers whose contribution
| equalled his. But the real story of an incredible
| collaborative effort is sacrificed for a facile Hollywood
| narrative of a single, misunderstood genius single-handedly
| saving the day. It's honestly one of the worst films ever
| made.
| delichon wrote:
| Start by casting two of the most beautiful people in the
| film industry in the leads, then craft every other detail
| of the production to manipulate the audience in the same
| spirit. It makes $233 million from worldwide box office on
| a production budget of $14 million. The investors won't
| agree that it's the worst film ever. They probably would
| not appreciate the box office results of a documentary
| version.
| cafard wrote:
| Worth a look:
| https://www.theregister.com/2015/01/26/verity_stob_turing_mo...
| flobosg wrote:
| (2019)
| ramesh31 wrote:
| More interesting than true or fake is what was left out. Bohemian
| rhapsody, for instance, was extremely sanitized even if what they
| showed was mostly real.
| cafard wrote:
| When it came out, I went to see "Amadeus" with friends, one of
| them an amateur musicologist. When we left the theater, he said,
| "Well, where should I start?"
| tomhow wrote:
| Submitted several times over the years but only one small
| discussion earlier this year:
|
| _Visualizations that show how true "based on a true story"
| movies are_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43874753 - May
| 2025 (10 comments)
| Theodores wrote:
| This website is amazing for inspiration, and this page from it is
| awesome.
|
| Originally 'the camera never lied' but nowadays 'the camera
| always lies'. This is my new starting point for everything I see.
|
| Part of the art of storytelling for me is all about truth. The
| most fascinating stories are the true ones. Getting that truth
| told without confabulation or exaggeration is the goal as far as
| I see it, unless I am reading a bedtime story to an eight-year-
| old.
|
| There is no Oscar or Golden Globe for movies that are the most
| grounded in fact. Yet so often, the true story, or even the
| printed book version (versus the movie) is the better story.
|
| Clearly there are limitations on what can be done in budget and
| in time, and nothing from the past can be recreated verbatim,
| particularly if you want to trim down many story lines spanning
| many days/months/years into 90-120 minutes. However, this page
| confirms my hunch that, in the last century, the camera 'never
| lied' but, in this century, the camera never tells the truth.
| Joeboy wrote:
| Years ago, a British TV show called The Comic Strip Presents...
| made two films called The Strike[0] and GLC: The Carnage
| Continues[1]. Both comedies about what would happen if Hollywood
| were to make films about '80s British political events like the
| miners' strike or the abolition of the Greater London Council.
| While they're both broad comedies I think watching them at an
| impressionable age was probably quite a good education.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-oufaMHUHw
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBFSo4TY_r8
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(page generated 2025-09-29 23:01 UTC)