If a motion-picture show touts itself as being “ based on a true story , ” observe out . It ’s rare for any pic to actually tell a true write up , as opposed to narration whirl about in a film writer ’s head . chance are , a “ on-key story ” movie only tells part of therealstory , and could be as minuscular as “ somebody with this name existed . ” Then Hollywood builds full fiction based around that name , somehow tout it as fact .
Here are some famed film for whom “ the truth , the whole verity , and nothing but the true statement ” was a mere option , and a rather sappy one at that .
20. Rudy (1993)
Rudy , the inspire tale of a downhearted - level , but beloved Notre Dame football participant whose teammate threaten a walkout if their motorcoach does n’t allow him beseem up . Then , incite by the bunch intonate for Rudy , they purposely defy their private instructor ’s plan so the scrappy underdog can act . Once he does , the squad contain him off the theatre of operations like he just gain the Super Bowl .
Thing is , about none of that happened . The jersey scene , in finical , was completely made up for dramatic purpose . Nobody had to jeopardise the coach to get Rudy play because the autobus had decided he would himself . As for the crowd chanting Rudy ’s name , they did that AFTER the plot , because they liked Rudy and care what they saw when he played . He did legitimately get carried off the playing field though , and gratefully not via copestone , like how most football players get carried off .
19. Pocahontas (1995)
While Disney never aim to be telling the true story of the seventeenth century Native American ikon withPocahontas , the House of Mouse still could have done a better job of let in some semblance of historical truth in its 1995 animated movie . For starter , Pocahontas ’ substantial name was actually Matoaka ( “ Pocahontas ” was a nick name think of “ playful one ” or “ short holy terror ” ) and she would have only been 10 or 11 years older at the metre of John Smith ’s reaching with the Virginia Company in 1607 .
Not that the age discrepancy between the two matter all that much , deliberate there is no historic grounds supporting the film ’s line drawing of a romantic family relationship between Pocahontas and Smith . Although the film ’s depiction of Pocahontas the role has been reserve up many as one of Disney ’s strongest heroine , it also presented through a whitened - washed , westerly lens that only take care more archaic with each go class .
18. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
One of the most influential horror motion picture ever made , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’swide ethnical impact can be at least part assign to the fact that it was market as being base on a genuine story . While the fibre of Leatherface and several minor plot of land detail were indeed inspired by the crime of real - life sequent killer Ed Gein , aka “ The Butcher of Plainfield”,The Texas Chainsaw Massacreis almost entirely a fictitious body of work .
According to music director Tobe Hooper , the film was market as a true story for entice moviegoers and as a deliberate political human action in response to being “ lie to by the governing about things that were proceed on all over the public , ” such as Watergate and the Vietnam War . Given the horrific case that transpire in the film , we ’d wager that most hoi polloi were more relieved than upset when they found outThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrewasn’t tangible .
17. Cool Runnings (1993)
Released in 1993,Cool Runningsis one of the most popular Olympics movies thanks to its blithe tone , inspiring underdog taradiddle and of course , John Candy . However , Disney ’s dramatisation of the 1988 Jamaican bob team ’s Cinderella tale ( though perhaps that full term is inaccurate turn over that they placed suddenly last in challenger ) runs aground in historical inaccuracies . For one thing , most of the characters we meet are entirely fancied . There was never a coach name Irving “ Irv ” Blitzer and the team itself was n’t comprised of four Jamaican sprinters , but rather army recruits chosen by two Americans , George Finch and William Maloney , who were adjudicate to put together a Jamaican bobsled team .
A number of minor changes were made to increase dramatic tenseness as well , such as the notion that the Jamaicans were outcasts roast by other teams . In world , they were democratic and even borrowed equipment from other teams . In brusque , Cool Runningsis a total manufacture but it ’s also so charming and inspiring that it ’s kind of hard to care unless you ’re a dedicated bobsledding historian .
16. Captain Phillips (2013)
Tom Hanks has a habit of playing modal men shove into larger-than-life situation — seeSullylater on in this tilt — but his fictional character are frequently compose in such a way as to make them much more aspirational than their tangible - life counterparts . TakeCaptain Phillipsfor instance , a dramatisation of the real life story of Captain Richard Phillips and his gang aboard the MV Maersk Alabama , which was hijacked by Somalian pirate off the slide of the Horn of Africa in 2009 . Hanks portrays Phillips as a hero who allows himself to be need hostage for protect his gang , but according to crew member who actually served on the MV Maersk Alabama , their captain was not the selfless loss leader the picture show made him out to be .
In fact , a causa was filedagainst Maersk Line and the Waterman Steamship Corp. lay claim that Phillips ’ irresponsible behaviour and failure to follow with safety protocol contributed to the attack in the first place . However , Phillips ’ first mate Shane Murphy contests this accounting of events and claimed in an October , 2013interview with Vulturethat he was satisfied with how he and Phillips were portrayed in the flick .
15. The Greatest Showman (2017)
Based on the life of P.T. Barnum and his famous Barnum & Bailey Circus , The Greatest Showmanstands as one of the most successful musicals ever made but the real storey bears little resemblance to the palpate - good tale audiences were presented with . In reality , Barnum was less a magnetic champ of the downtrodden who looks like Hugh Jackman than he was an exploiter of marginalized grouping . For representative , the moving picture altogether omits the story of Joice Heith , who was an essential part of Barnum ’s early winner . Heith was an elderly , enslaved black woman whom Barnum marketed as George Washington ’s 161 - class - honest-to-goodness nurse and brought on tour despite her being in ill - health . Heith die just a few months into her term of office , remind Barnum to try and turn a profit off her death by host a resilient postmortem examination of her corpse .
It should also come as little surprise that the love story between Zack Effron and Zendaya ’s characters is a work of fiction ; in fact , neither character ever existed and the motion-picture show apply their relationship to play up Barnum as a racially tolerant individual , when in fact he made his lot largely off exploiting racist stereotypes . Truth be tell , it ’s hard to see how a family - friendly melodic could have gotten away with incorporating such material , but anyone who thinksThe Greatest Showmangives an exact depiction of P.T. Barnum ’s life and career would be deplorably mistaken .
14. 300 (2006)
It should go without saying that a film in which topless powerful warrior do battle with a Iranian army count supernatural beings among its ranks — and based on a comic al-Qur’an no less — is not purporting to be historically exact . That being said , Zack Snyder’s300still gets a number of small historical details wrong that could have easy been included in the celluloid and not hurt its hyper - stylized action feeling . While it ’s dependable that the romanticizing of Spartan culture had already begun not long after the battle of Thermopylae , the issue that transpired diddle importantly different from what ’s present on - screenland . Yes , 300 ascetical soldiers repulse a force of 300,000 Persians for three days but they also had avail from around 7,000 other Greeks who were allied with Sparta and participated in the battle .
There ’s also a moment where King Leonidas ( Gerard Butlers ) snidely refers to Athenians as “ boy - lovers ” , which is an uneven remark to make for the loss leader of a culture that prided itself on homosexual tangency between manlike warrior and untested boys as part of social and military education . Also , we ’re pretty sure the real Xerxes was n’t a hairless heavyweight who looks more at base in a sex dungeon than require the humanity ’s declamatory USA but then again , Snyder bragged about “ world - class historians ” praise the film ’s accuracy , so maybe watching300really is like looking directly into the past times .
13. The Revenant (2015)
Leonardo DiCaprio suffer mightily to finally win a Best Actor Oscar forThe Revenant , in which he plays 19th hundred explorer Hugh Glass , who against all odds live a evil bear attack and being left for dead by member of his pelt trading team . Although Glass was a material explorer who was give up by his comrade , his bear attack level has been to a great extent disputed ( in fact , Glassnever actually wrote or spoke about such an eventoccurring ) . Even more importantly , there ’s no grounds support that Glass had a Pawnee married woman or half - Pawnee son , which is kind of a problem when the driving narrative force of the film is Glass seeking revenge on his fellow traveler Fitzgerald ( Tom Hardy ) for his son ’s murder .
address of Fitzgerald , Glass did go looking for him and his familiar John Bridger after they abandon him , but he did n’t kill either of them . On the contrary , he finally forgave them and was later employed as a Orion for the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Union in North Dakota before his eventual decease in 1833 at the hands of attack Arikara . At the very least , The Revenantscreenwriter Mark I. Smith can be forgive for embellishing the narrative of Hugh Glass slightly , look at he ’s fundamentally become a mythological American figure at this point .
12. Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck ’s movie about a CIA team filming a fake movie in Iran to rescue hostages completely ignore Canada ’s meaning contribution to the rescue mission . Interestingly , for a foresightful time the United States gave Canada all the credit for the rescue , because they did n’t need the CIA ’s involvement to become public knowledge . The movie , however , swings completely in the polar direction by not only feed the US their due , but rent away that of their northern neighbors .
Also , virtually any panorama where the architectural plan off complicated snags ( like when the Americans got stopped in the airport because their boss had cancelled their tickets ) was made up , as the factual plan run super - swimmingly . In addition , the scene where the CIA poured through gross ton of scripts , trying to find the consummate phoney motion-picture show , was simulated news . They cognize , almost from the starting signal , what film they would fudge - make , and it was n’t calledArgo .
11. The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
The fib of Chris Gardner ’s rise from homeless salesman to millionaire stockbroker did n’t need much gussying up , but Hollywood did it anyway . While the real Chris Gardner was indeed a medical equipment salesman , he did n’t severally spend all his savings on portable bone density scanners like in the pic . He work out for an actual company , albeit one that did n’t give him very much .
In increase , Gardner did n’t get an interview with Dean Witter Reynolds by solving a Rubik ’s Cube , nor did he get arrested for parking tickets . In fact , he was actually arrested for domestic insult , and the cops tacked on the unpaid - just the ticket mission after the fact . What ’s more , the pic drop the period where Gardner ’s girlfriend took their boy away from him due to the possible bastardy of his finances . To take heed the moving-picture show tell it , father and son were slum it in bath and railway station from start to stopping point .
10. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
If truth is your thing , there ’s nothing beautiful aboutA Beautiful Mind . For one thing , while John Nash did hurt from dementia praecox and paranoia , he did n’t hallucinate entire mass like in the film . Rather , he suffer from weird beliefs , like how anyone who wore a red necktie was a Soviet spy . Moreover , Nash did n’t take any medication for his illness after 1970 , whereas in the film he bring up that he takes “ new ” medicine . evidently , the movie baffle that in there to deter real schizophrenics from toss their medicine .
In increase , real - life history Nash was a lot less pure than his movie form . In the film , he ’s a close husband to his first love , Alicia . In realness , Nash almost certainly had covert personal matters with men , definitely had an illegitimate son , and was opprobrious and domineering toward Alicia , whom he ( or more accurately , his mental illness ) regarded as his slave at the time .
9. Sully (2016)
The real - life story of Chesley “ Sully ” Sullenberger ’s safely landing his damaged plane in the Hudson River was vivid and dramatic , but also fairly basic . trite stories about everyday valour do n’t fly in Hollywood , so literally everything about theSullymovie , aside from the aeroplane landing , is 100 % fiction .
Director Clint Eastwood needed a villain to make the movie work , so the filmmaker invent an evil traffic circuit board who desperately want to nail Sully for neglectfulness . They claim Sully might ’ve been drunk , that one of his engines in reality had big businessman , and that escape simulations bear witness he should ’ve easily made it to the aerodrome . Sully fights tirelessly to convince them he did all he could do and eventually , the board concludes the pilot did , in fact , do the correct thing .
In existent life , none of that happened . The dealings control board almost immediately side with Sully , as did everyone in the country who honored him .
8. The Blind Side (2009)
The Blind Sidetells the story of Michael Oher , who cash in one’s chips from homelessness to the NFL , thanks to his foster kin teaching him about football game and life . That , however , is Hollywood buncombe . In truth , he ’d known how to play football since childhood , as he always had the size of it and speed to come through in the game . His home ’s erotic love and reinforcement gave him the confidence and grounding require to become an NFL pro ( and Super Bowl champion ) , but they did n’t get him there by pointing out that football histrion defend each other just like family do .
The movie gets other facts wrong too . Oher did n’t immediately get take into Briarcrest like in the movie . Rather , he had to do some homeschooling beforehand to get his then - abysmal grad up to snuff . Plus , he actually stay with several families after meeting the Tuohys , before they eventually agreed to take him in .
7. Cinderella Man (2005)
Cinderella Man , the story of Depression - era boxer James Braddock ’s rise from broke - and - break ex - bagger to World Heavyweight Champion , is in reality faithful to the actual - spirit story , which is great . They majorly mess up one thing , however , which is not so great .
In the film , legendary packer Max Baer is n’t just a admirer : he ’s a virtuous evil resister . He ’s a rude , crude womanizer who killed two men during boxing match , bragged about it , and implied he might shoot down Braddock too . This is 100 % false , and was only inserted because Hollywood movies need bad guy wire . Apparently the Great Depression just was n’t evil enough …
The real Max Baer was a full man and a genuine professional person . While he did kill one man during a lucifer , it was an accident , and he was all repentant and devastated by it . He gave money to his dupe ’s family , and reportedly suffered from nightmares about the incident for the rest of his life .
6. Pain & Gain (2013)
Pain and Gaintook the genuine story of muscleman getting into organized crime and spun it every which means , because apparently bodybuilders doing Mafia stuff just was n’t interesting enough for Hollywood .
Many characters had little in vulgar with their veridical - life counterpart , aside from their names . Mark Wahlberg ’s character , Daniel Lugo , was impersonate as a wide-eyed , brutal strong-armer , while the real Lugo was actually a cunning outlaw who spearheaded a successful Medicare cozenage . The pic briefly mentions the cozenage in the start , but ignores it from there on in favor of make Lugo dumb for the interest of comedy .
Then there ’s The Rock ’s character reference , Paul Doyle , who never in reality existed . Doyle is really a composite plant of three people , all of whom were way scrawnier than Dwayne Johnson . It seems the film cast the People ’s Champion not because he fit the role , but because he ’s The Rock and his jacked body-build food market itself .
5. Jimi: All Is By My Side (2013)
This narrative of Jimi Hendrix ’s rise to stardom is mostly precise , despite not being authorized by the Hendrix land ( which excuse why a Jimi Hendrix biopic features no literal Hendrix songs ) . On the other hand , it bafflingly portrays Jimi as a domestic maltreater who stupefy his girl , Kathy Etchingham , after seeing her talking with another human race .
According to Etchingham , that 100 % never happened , and Jimi was a fresh and funny cat who never laid a hand on her . So , did the filmmakers just invent a horrific abuse scene for the sake of misguided dramatic play ? Not precisely . The story seems to start in a couplet wildcat biography : way Full of MirrorsandJimi : An Intimate Biography , neither of which Etchingham was interview for . What ’s more , the movie maker behindAll Is By My Sidedidn’t look up her either , because why talk to the real person when you could just pretend they ’re a fancied character ?
4. Hidalgo (2004)
Hidalgo , the story of Frank Hopkins ’s cross - country raceway through the desert with his eponymous horse , is actually close to its source material . job is , the origin textile is a pack of ill-gotten prevarication .
The celluloid is establish on Hopkins ’ own stories of his liveliness . He claimed to be a teenage US Cavalry passenger who spent 30 years in Buffalo Bill ’s Wild West show , before winning the grueling 3000 - mile Ocean of Fire knight race that forms the centrepiece of the flick . However , a couple long - distance horse rider , Basha and CuChullaine O’Reilly , search Hopkins ’ life and discovered literally none of that was true . He was never in the Cavalry , never in the Wild West Show , and did n’t win the Ocean of Fire because that raceway never existed . He legitimately worked as a horse manager for the Ringling Brothers genus Circus , so he did do SOMETHING in the equestrian bailiwick at least . Racing , however , was not it .
3. Braveheart (1994)
Hollywood ’s take on William Wallace ’s rebellion against the British is almost entirely fiction . The actual “ Brave Heart ” is actually Robert the Bruce , King of Scots – not Wallace . The Scots wore kilt in the film , when in world they did n’t during that period . Primae noctis ( feudalistic lords ’ right to catch some Z’s with any fair sex they wished ) was a major game point , but there ’s no grounds it ever subsist . The movie intimate England had check Scotland for years , when in fact it only harness for a year before Wallace renegade . We could go on , but we ’d be here evermore .
Braveheartscreenwriter Randall Wallace admits the verse form he based the film on , Blind Harry , likely is n’t unfeigned but rationalize the whole thing by claim , “ I know that it spoke to my mettle and that ’s what matters to me . ” What ’s more , managing director and star Mel Gibson also take on the movie is probably fiction , but feel it was more interesting than what really pass , so he does n’t much aid .
2. The Imitation Game (2013)
Hollywood got Alan Turing ’s quest to crack the Germans ’ Enigma Code during World War II almost completely wrong . For one , the Polish scientists assist Turing mightily , by cracking early Enigma code and assisting Turing in perfecting his code - breaking machine . The movie scarce bring up this , however , choose to give Turing all the credit .
The picture also excogitate a story where Turing learns one of the men on his squad is a Soviet spy , but ends up covering for the undercover agent , who endanger to reveal Turing ’s homosexuality to the world . This is completely made - up , and damage to Turing ’s reputation since brood for a foreign spy is treason . The movie also tells us that Turing was arrested for homosexualism ( a crime at the meter ) after being investigated for espionage . Not true : he reported a looting , but was hold an affair with the robber . law uncover the awkward trueness , he confessed to gayness , and then was arrest .
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Lawrence of Arabiais a classic , but do n’t let that gull you into retrieve the film ’s fact - checking was 100 % on the up - and - up .
In the motion-picture show the Arab soldiers — and Arabs in general — are portrayed as ungoverned and tribal . That made for a fine culture clash when match with Brits like T.E. Lawrence , but in actual life the soldiers were largely correct and well - trained , and the culture in cosmopolitan was educated and classy .
Lawrence himself seems far more important in the movie than he might ’ve been in real living . By many invoice , he was actually just one of many intelligence service officers figure out in Arabia . matter is , the man was apparently very expert at promoting himself , largely by direction of his braggadocios memoirThe Seven Pillars Of Wisdom , whichLawrence of Arabiawas based on . As a upshot , he get to depend better in historical discussions than he probably has any rightfield to .
