“Based on a true story” is for idiots
I was around 10ish, when I first realized that the movie tagline “based on a true story was for idiots. Think about it… just about EVERY movie is based on a true story “to a certain extent” (as my girlfriend loves to say, hence the citation marks). The Spider-man movies are based on a true story because it’s the life of some guy in New York City. See what I mean? Everything is based on a true story which makes the tagline useless.
Okay, so now you are thinking “what the hell is he talking about? What about the movies that follow what is known of reality?” Well, yes, that’s true, some movies to follow and piece together reality more than others but it doesn’t matter, the “based on a true story” tagline is idiotic because most just cover part of the objective truth, so why bother telling us?
The more recent “based on true events” is even MORE moronic than the “based on a true story” announcements. Just like I wrote above, everything is based on true events, although this particular tagline pisses me off to no avail.
Case in point: The movie Open Water. The movie is essentially 2 people who got left behind on a scuba diving excursion while on Vacation. They die. Most likely eaten by sharks. The “based on true events” portion is that people are left behind ALL THE TIME! Jesus H. Christ! In 1998, Tom and Eileen Lonergan were 2 such people (it happened in Australia) but the tagline suggests 2 particular people and details of what happened will be shown. But NOBODY KNOWS what happened because they are dead and no bodies were ever found. UGH! Such stupidity that I’m getting annoyed and will end this post now.
I tend to disagree. I think that movies “based on a true story or events” can be meant to teach something valuable.
It can teach you about history, and enlighten you to things you did not know about like the movie “Mississipi Burning”.
The message can be as important as the characters themselves.
Your bringing it down to such a common level that you can find “true events” in relation to any aspect of a movie and real life.
This takes away from movies like shindlers list and what they were trying to portray.
Movies based on a true story can have a profound message that should not been dismissed (as your girlfriend is doing) simply because the director or producer has marketed the film with some words you don’t like.