One of my biggest pet peeves is the tagline on movies that says "Based on a True Story". There are variations of this, such as "Inspired by Actual Events" or even "A True Story". People can argue the finer points of these phrases, but in the end, they basically mean the same thing because of one simple reason: the movie industry.
There are three main types of films that seem to be lumped into the "true story" bandwagon: historical, horror, and drama. You don't see many comedy or sci-fi movies that supposedly happened. You will, however, see movies based on the racehorse Seabiscuit, an exorcism that people debate at which hospital in St. Louis it took place, and a man trying to be a good father but also trying to be hired. One (the historical) typically makes one feel amazed at some event that occurred, another (the horror) makes one feel scared that an event could actually take place to them, and the other (the drama) tries to pull on your emotional strings. It just wouldn't work so much with a straight comedy since it's just something to amuse you and we all experience good times. It wouldn't work so much with sci-fi either. I mean, let's face it, no one is arguing whether Star Wars really happened, and if it did, how accurate it was. There's no room in the fantasy genre for true stories since I think we can all agree that Lord of the Rings wasn't historical. One could argue that sports movies deserve to be put in here, but I put them under the definition of drama since the only "true story" sports movies you will find seem to be dramas, even if they are historical. So, let's take a closer look at the three categories of what can be called "true stories".
Historical
The historical movies are ones that obviously take place in the past, but usually when I say 'historical', I'm talking about movies that would require "period piece design and costumes". The biggest example of this would be movies set during wars previous to the 1980's and stretching back to ancient Rome or Greece. The reason I put the 1980's is because before the 1980's, costumes and design for places are radically different than they are today. Even Vietnam movies have different styles of hair, glasses, and clothing than one set in the Persian Gulf from 1991. Typically, every decade from the 1940's forward have had their own identity, but it seems to have blended in the last ten years where styles of before are more accepted than they used to be. So, it's easier to make a movie in 2012 about 1995 (hide the cell phones though!) than it would about 1975. If you are looking at specifically war movies, then we're talking completely period piece design. If we're doing the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, or even the war between Greeks and Trojans, then it's going to require a very careful reconstruction of life at that time; no modern technology of any kind (even con trails in the sky) should be seen. Making sure that a historical movie is historically accurate is an immense job on its own, and no matter how careful people are, something always makes it through the editing (even something insignificant, like a 1946 Ford being shown on screen of a movie that takes place in 1944). Historical movies tend to be very expensive because of the attention to detail and the sets, which is why you almost never see a low budget historical movie.
Horror
The horror movies are ones that love to have taglines saying that their movie is real or really happened. The whole appeal of these movies is to scare you into thinking that the event that is being shown on film can actually happen to you. Maybe it's a killer on the loose or maybe it's a haunted house or maybe it's some other supernatural force. Either way, the whole line that the horror genre rides on in this case is making you believe that this "true" story happened once, and it can happen again. Don't answer the phone, don't go into the basement, don't open the door, don't trust strange people, etc. etc. etc. The line that the horror genre walks on is a fine line though because if you don't believe the story being told, then you won't be afraid. The ones that succeed are the ones that have the characters doing things that the viewer would do. There's nothing worse than watching a horror movie and thinking "I wouldn't have done that", because that takes you out of the plot. Sometimes this works in "true" horror movies since the events supposedly happened, and even though they weren't things you would've done, it's the choices that the "real" people made, so you are just along for the ride.
Drama
The drama category is the one that seems to be the most muddled of all three. There are quite a few people who won't believe a horror movie that's "true", and there are quite a few who won't believe that a historical movie that's "true" is quite as slick as it seems on screen. On the other hand, these same people will believe a drama that is based on a true story. Dramas are more believable than horror because of the content of horror. Not everyone will believe in a strange moth creature that appeared before a bridge collapse or in ghosts haunting a couple's new house, but they will believe in a down on his luck father trying to provide for his child. Dramas are more believable than historical movies because the historical movies are usually about events that can easily be searched for in history books or the most basic of searches, but dramas are usually within the previous fifty years and are harder to research since they deal with a much smaller and less publicized story. These movies, above the other two, are the easiest to say "based on a true story" and have few questions asked. The one thing that this category has above the others is that it will tug on the emotional strings of the viewer, and because of this, people will give their hearts to the movie and defend it to the end without actually ever looking to see how much of it was real.
And in the end, that's the problem with any movie that's "based on a true story": people don't question the truth. There have been some movies that have been based on a trust story that were rather factual, and then there were others that have been complete fiction. The worst part is when the "based on a true story" tagline is added, suddenly there is legitimacy that has been added to the film and the viewers become experts on the subject by what they saw in the movie. A teacher told me once that he had a class back in the early 90's when the movie JFK came out, and he spoke of students who came in to class asking if he watched the biography of JFK. There's a big difference between a biopic and something like JFK.
So, now that we know what types of movies we are dealing with, next we will look at the industry and the way movies are made. Check back in the next post to learn more!
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