Where Credit Is Due

Based on a true story. Inspired by real events. Phrases like these used to predicate the origin of a film’s narrative before it begins to me are almost like an homage. When I see them, I don’t assume that the film I’m about to watch is necessarily historically accurate. What I assume is that the general premise or story is based in reality, but the details may have been invented or changed to fit the medium. To me it doesn’t make sense to treat artistic works that are not documentaries and are obviously artists’ reinterpretations of events as historical renderings. How can they be? Dialogue is always going to be made up, facts are always subject to interpretation depending on who’s reporting them (eye witness testimony, for example), and emotions and internal thoughts are unverifiable.

So I don’t take history from biopics or historical movies, unless they’re HBO or Discovery Channel specials that tell me to.

I find the use of phrases “based on a true story” and “inspired by real events,” rather than to be misleading when the films that follow are not necessarily true to history, to be classy. Yes, classy. It’s like citing your sources, admitting that you didn’t come up with this idea yourself—you took it from something else, and you’re not claiming you didn’t. A film like Hurricane doesn’t say in bold letters “THIS IS A TRUE STORY.” It’s based on one. A base is a foundation, and you can’t argue that Hurricane’s foundation was a true story. Facts were changed to suit the dramatic structure of the story, characters were amalgamated, motives were invented. But I don’t think that’s unethical unless the film purports to be 100% accurate. And the qualifiers “based on” or “inspired by” take care of that.

In fact, I’d be okay with more films tossing those labels on them. If you read a news story and write a film about it, even if you change the details, why not give credit? We don’t live in a vacuum; some ideas will just spring like nothing out of your head, but many times you’ll pick them up other places. To me it isn’t an ethical issue of misleading viewers when the story changes—it’s an ethical issue of content origins.

The ethical issue I do have with a movie like Hurricane is leaving a real life character recognizable, but demonizing him, as in the case of Della Pesca/DeSimone. I understand that the film needed an antagonist, and having four separate ones would confuse the structure, so melding them into one seems like a fine idea. But leaving that megaladon villain with a name that points directly to one of the real-life characters he was based on is sketchy. People are going to associate him with DeSimone, and that isn’t fair to him or his memory. You can change things; don’t vilify real people.