tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post3680021720885554622..comments2024-03-07T20:15:45.996-08:00Comments on The Bitter Script Reader: The need for truth in "based on a true story"The Bitter Script Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16575166527272639709noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-16291653494625319932014-04-04T14:32:01.647-07:002014-04-04T14:32:01.647-07:00I'm sorry, but it seems to me two situations a...I'm sorry, but it seems to me two situations are being conflated here. YES, when a person lies on the Internet about being terminally ill, it matters. There's even a name for this--Munchausen by Internet. These people tend to show up in online support groups and forums and play on the empathy of people who are sick themselves--and often bilk them out of time and money. Here it looks like people were just bilked out of time. Can't really argue no harm done, but at least there doesn't appear to be hard-earned cash involved.<br /><br />I think "real" stories in movies and books are a whole different thing. On some level, if the audience is smart, they'll know there are smudges in the hard lines of truth. I think there have to be since it's impossible to do a large work about a historical or biographical event and not have an opinion on how it happened. History is, by nature, interpretation. And sometimes, the "truth" isn't even known. (But truth is out there, Scully!) :)<br /><br />This isn't to defend James Frey (I too think he can go fuck himself) or Greg Mortenson (THREE CUPS OF TEA). There's interpretation and then there's flat-out lying. But I tend to be forgiving of biographical and historical movies because I think they're great to give an accurate feel of an historical period or a person's life. But I don't think they're obligated to get bogged down in "just the facts, ma'am" or even tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Would be pretty boring if they did. Stacyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03365582623380288038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-39328571811592726542014-04-03T00:40:02.081-07:002014-04-03T00:40:02.081-07:00This is always I sticky situation. A while back I ...This is always I sticky situation. A while back I read "A Country of Strangers", about a very famous, real life, unsolved kidnapping of three children in Australia. The script had been getting some buzz so I gave it a read. For the most part it was a standard procedural about a journalist investigating the kidnapping. But, it went totally off the rails in the last act and ended with the eldest child, a girl, being alive. Not only was she alive, but she had been brainwashed by the kidnapper and killed the journalist. None of which ever happened. I'm not sure what possessed the writer to bend the truth to such a degree. This was not only a fabrication, but insulting to the families of the missing kids.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08492635041508140973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-15494892403064558132014-04-02T20:17:13.306-07:002014-04-02T20:17:13.306-07:00When writing something based on true events (I'...When writing something based on true events (I've now written four), I have one guiding principle: to find the tether between what those characters experienced and what we struggle with today WITHOUT exploiting the subject. Bottom line: be fair to the spirit of source, as subjective and vague as that sounds.<br /><br />If the tether doesn't present itself through research or a natural accumulation of emotional mining, I pass. But only after diving deep. Head first. Below the concrete in the deep end.<br /><br />Facts are stubborn things, but they are merely the walls to the room. There are numerous (subjective) versions of what was said and done in that room, even if there are living witnesses. The RASHOMON effect, if you will.<br /><br />Sharp turns and sudden lane changes are an inescapable part of driving with a creative license. <br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17020877365675094496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-61067000384248285822014-04-02T14:03:34.958-07:002014-04-02T14:03:34.958-07:00It depends on the movie-story. If there's a lo...It depends on the movie-story. If there's a lot of historical inaccuracies for revisionist sake it can hurt a film for some people (like 'Kingdom Of Heaven' a number of years ago) but I also find that having too much truth can *also* hurt a film. One film I liked in the 90s was Ghost and The Darkness. I was surprised to find out that the Michael Douglas hunter character was made up for the film. The crazy lion traps which I thought were made up for the film were not. (Ebert actually pointed one out on how outright silly it is)<br /><br />Another example is let's say Titanic and Peal Harbor. In those films (both hits) we had fictitious characters interacting with real characters and events. I don't think audiences mind that so much. <br /><br />Again, I think it depends on a film to film basis.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03173416125918691702noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-9185186027115870592014-03-31T10:05:04.198-07:002014-03-31T10:05:04.198-07:00As an aside, I have read *many* books on writing, ...As an aside, I have read *many* books on writing, and James Frey's _How to Write a Damn Good Novel_ stands out in my memory as one of the worst by far.Wolf Lahtihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02224957365394425997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-58243188563666870512014-03-31T08:23:16.646-07:002014-03-31T08:23:16.646-07:00It's about capturing the spirit of the story. ...It's about capturing the spirit of the story. Many of these stories are stranger than fiction, but simply wouldn't work as movies without dramatization. As an audience member, we trust the integrity of these filmmakers when they walk the line between real facts and good story.<br /><br />Some of the best adaptations made -- 12 Years A Slave, Captain Phillips, Argo, The Social Network, A Beautiful Mind, The Insider, etc. have dramatized scenes or entire acts. Mark Zuckerberg didn't create Facebook out of social rejection from girls and clubs. The six Americans weren't chased down the tarmac at the airport in Tehran. CBS had legitimate concerns over The Wigand Story after ABC was sued by Phillip Morris for $10 billion.<br /><br />All movies based on true events must do this to some extent. The question is -- how is it done in a respectful and faithful manner? The audiences attending these movies are smart, and know when story is being warped for the wrong reasons. I think this is why Zero Dark Thirty was such a controversial movie -- no one cared that Maya was a composite who didn't truly exist, but the fact that waterboarding was shown tangentially in the hunt for Bin Laden raised a few eyebrows (I recommend Mark Bowden's piece in The Atlantic on this). American Hustle was an incredible film and every character felt like they had their own storyline, but in doing so too much of the true story was cannibalized.<br /><br />To bring this full circle, I recently brought an article to a studio based producer who worked on one of the movies mentioned above. The producer liked the article, but was worried about the morality and character of the protagonist. His concern was not about if the story was good or if it was commercial, but what I feel is the most important thing when telling a true story -- "Can I in good conscience tell this story, this way?"<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-27668853746904455492014-03-31T02:34:11.216-07:002014-03-31T02:34:11.216-07:00We went through a lot of discussion on this when w...We went through a lot of discussion on this when we were writing our making-of-Jaws script THE MAYOR OF SHARK CITY. Certain things were completely true, certain things were embellishments of the truth, and certain things were created out of whole cloth. We wanted to stay true to the spirit of what happened, but we also wanted those big movie moments, which are hard to find by staying 100% true to real life.<br /><br />What we ultimately decided was this... We tried to base any dramatic license, even things that we knew never happened, in some kind of truth. All of the creative embellishments could be traced back to some kernel of an idea, something mentioned in passing in an interview or article, some kind of emotion conveyed in real life. So every lie had a certain amount of truth to it, no matter how small. In that sense, what we were going for was: "Okay, maybe this didn't happen... But it feels like it COULD have happened."<br /><br />But more than that, we decided that any dramatic license we took with the script had to serve the EMOTIONAL story above all. It could not be an arbitrary choice to simply create dramatic tension or serve only as a plot device, as we felt that would ring false. It had to come from a place of character, and ultimately had to function as part of our hero's emotional journey. If you can ground both the true life stuff and the made up stuff in the same kind of real emotion, it's easier to connect it together and make it feel part of a dramatic whole.<br /><br />Our ultimate goal was to tell a good story, not necessarily a true one. MIKE SWEENEYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11375394221891934459noreply@blogger.com