Movies Based on Real People

[GHScorpiosRule]

I was thinking of posting in the Film Adaptations topic, but that seems to be more of movies based off of books, and wouldn't have fit.

 

If a mod can think of a better title or move it to a more appropriate topic, please do so!

 

I'll start with Gandhi.

 

I think this is the only movie that has my heart beating and brings me to tears every time I watch it within the first five minutes. And I've seen this movie, like four times over the past 30 years.  I don't think it's because I'm also South Indian. It's the soft music playing, and Sir Ben Kingsley's amazing performance.

 

I just started to rewatch this movie, because a book Gandhi Before India just came out, exploring the life he had before he ever returned to India to help gain her Independence.

 

I remain in awe how fucking amazing the make-up people did to get Kingsley to look just like the real life Gandhi.  And until I saw this movie as a teen, I had only the basic information about who the man was, and how instrumental he was in gaining India's freedom from those "Bloody Brits!" (My dad's favorite phrase), and how it was his stance on civil disobedience were what inspired Nelson Mandela, Martin Luthor King, Jr.

 

On a shallow note, my family and I got to play the "Hey it's that Bollywood star!" watching this movie, along with "Hey, it's that Hollywood star!" game, heh.  Attenborough really mined the really good character actors, and actors who tended to play villains and comedians in the Bollywood industry.  And a great Hollywood cast as well.  As an adult, I squeed so loud when I recognized Daniel Day-Lewis. A very young and sexay Day-Lewis, even if he was playing a racist thug for all of two minutes.

 

Also, as an adult, I can so appreciate this movie and what a great job Attenborough did, as Hollywood is wont to romanticize/glamourize people in movies. As a teen, it made me want to go to the library and read up as much as I could on Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, and that period of history, frankly.

 

I can't think of another movie that has the ability to make me cry, laugh, make me angry, ragey,sad, and happy throughout watching it. I continue to cringe and laugh at how they massacred the pronunciation of such a simple name. Or maybe they did it on purpose?

 

And I couldn't help but think of that Arizona law about requiring immigrants to carry around their papers to prove their citizenship, when watching this movie, for that's what the Indians had to do in South Africa in the late 19th century.

 

Kingsley earned that Oscar. It was well deserved.

 

I wish the dvd/blu-ray had had old interviews or footage of the real Gandhi, but alas it doesn't.

 

 

[Bastet]

I love the film Boys Don't Cry, based on the life - and death - of Brandon Teena.  (I like the documentary as well, but I figure we're talking about dramatizations here.)  Kimberley Peirce takes a paltry budget, assembles a terrific cast, and brings me so deeply into Brandon's tale that I can only watch the film once every few years because the emotions stay with me for so long afterward.

 

I'm the same way with Schindler's List and The Accused - they tell the stories so well, they're hard to watch.

 

The Insider goes down easier.  Directed by Michael Mann, it stars Russell Crowe as tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand who essentially loses it all for nothing.  Crowe delivers an amazing performance, and the film is a scathing indictment of corporate America and mainstream media as bedfellows.

 

I'm a fan of Steven Soderbergh's work, and unlike many people I know I take no issue with Julia Roberts as an actor, so I like Erin Brockovich.  Albert Finney is terrific as trial lawyer Ed Masry, and Aaron Eckhart is so good as Erin's boyfriend George it was almost shocking to learn what a complete asshole the real person turned out to be.

 

Milk, Dead Man Walking and Remember the Titans are other favorites of this genre, but I have to get back to work.

[BizBuzz]

Brian's Song does it for me.  In fact, ANY sports movie that lends itself to the adaptation of a real life story does it.  And the funny thing is that I am not all that into sports (except hockey, and we wont get into that). 

 

Hoosiers is another, although it wasn't so much a real story as loosely based.

 

Remember the Titans, yes!  We Are Marshall, I get goosebumps, and that is saying something cause I am not crazy about Matthew McConaughey.  And who can forget Rudy.

 

Great topic, thanks GHSR!

[Badger]

I just mentioned "Remember The Titans" in the dumb movie thread.  I love that movie! 

 

I also love "Eight Men Out" which was based on the Black Sox scandal.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

 

I wish the dvd/blu-ray had had old interviews or footage of the real Gandhi, but alas it doesn't.

Quoting myself to add that I was wrong. D'OH! Disc 2 had all the special features with three different newsreels of the real Gandhi. Very interesting that Kingsley's half Indian part, is Gujurati, because Gandhi himself was Gujurati.

 

 

 

I love the film Boys Don't Cry, based on the life - and death - of Brandon Teena.  (I like the documentary as well, but I figure we're talking about dramatizations here.)  Kimberley Peirce takes a paltry budget, assembles a terrific cast, and brings me so deeply into Brandon's tale that I can only watch the film once every few years because the emotions stay with me for so long afterward.

 

I'm the same way with Schindler's List and The Accused - they tell the stories so well, they're hard to watch.

 

 

I LOVE Boys Don't Cry and agree, it is very difficult for me to watch. Though intellectually, I realize that such bigotry? existed and still does today, emotionally, I'm raging and angry over it all.

 

And I'm ashamed to admit, that I've yet to watch Schindler's List and I've been wanting to! That's definitely on my next list.

 

Color me stupid, but I never realized that The Accused was based on a true story. Foster totally deserved that Oscar. I'll admit, I fast forward the rape scene whenever I watch it, because it's just so hard for me to watch.

[suomi]

Black Hawk Down

[ElleryAnne]

I think the late Philip Seymour Hoffman did an incredible job in Capote.  One of the rare occasions when a performance was so good it actually gave me chills.

[GreekGeek]

I loved both Ray and Walk the Line, and I was sure Joaquin Phoenix would get an Oscar for the latter, except that it had been given to Jamie Foxx for playing a troubled singer the year before. A cute spoof of both those movies, by the way was Walk Hard.

 

Oliver Stone's Nixon wasn't perfect. Anthony Hopkins didn't much resemble Nixon physically, (Nobody resembled their real-life counterparts very much except for Joan Allen as Pat Nixon and Paul Sorvino as Kissinger) but he managed to make him a complex human being instead of the usual caricature. Of movie Nixons, my favorite is Dan Hedaya in Dick, with a very young Michelle Williams as a teenager with a crush on him. The idea of a 1970's teenager being sweet on Nixon (even if she later sours on him) is hilarious, as is the thought of the notorious gap in the tape being her singing "I Honestly Love You" to him.

[Shannon L.]

I finally got around to seeing Get On Up about James Brown and it was pretty good.  Could've been better, imo.  But, the lead actor was very good and had a lot of charm--it seemed like he was having a great time playing James.  Of course, the music was great! 

 

I have to say, though, that I hate movies that constantly jump around their time line.  He's 8, now he's 50, now he's 31, and he's 8 again, and 20.....you get the idea.  I don't mind flashbacks throughout a movie, but the this kind is really disjointed and confusing and is, imo, rarely done well. 

[spaceytraci1208]

I have to say, though, that I hate movies that constantly jump around their time line. He's 8, now he's 50, now he's 31, and he's 8 again, and 20.....you get the idea. I don't mind flashbacks throughout a movie, but the this kind is really disjointed and confusing and is, imo, rarely done well.

The time-jumping was the biggest problem I had with W...that, and I thought it was boring.

[Princess Sparkle]

I loved both Ray and Walk the Line, and I was sure Joaquin Phoenix would get an Oscar for the latter, except that it had been given to Jamie Foxx for playing a troubled singer the year before.

 

 

One of my all-time favorite Joaquin Phoenix performances is Johnny Cash - any other year he would've won, but not when nominated against Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.  I did think Joaquin and Reese played extremely well off each other - they had an amazing amount of chemistry.

 

In the "best" list, I'll throw in Born on the Fourth of July.  Hands down Tom Cruise's best performance, and the film is just great.  I also think 127 Hours is probably James Franco's best movie, and I was rooting for him to get the Oscar that year - Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg was a close second for me, and I also really like The Social Network (even if it isn't the most accurate).  

 

And in the worst category, I'll just leave one of my favorite Cracked articles here. 

[topanga]

And in the worst category, I'll just leave one of my favorite Cracked articles here.

Great article. Have you ever listened to the Cracked podcast? It's pretty good. Here's an episode about how movies affect our real lives:

[BatmanBeatles]

I saw another Cracked list like that. The one for Stand And Deliver depressed me.

[wlk68]

I can watch Walk The Line and Coal Miner's Daughter any time they're on. As for upcoming movies based on real people I'm very much looking forward to The Theory of Everything and Kill The Messenger.

[Sharpie66]

I can't wait to see The Imitation Game, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing.

 

(Oh, and Cumberbatch was terrific playing Stephen Hawking in a tv movie!)

[Mindymoo]

Bastet,

 

I thought Boys Don't Cry was a phenomenal film, but one that I will never be able to watch again. It was so disturbing to me on a base level, and as a survivor of rape myself, I can't bring myself to watch the movie knowing the scene will happen.

 

Also, interesting side note, with Schindler's List, while Spielberg was making it, he had interviewers go across the country to interview concentration camp survivors about the horrors they went through. My Babcia and Dziadzia were in the Polish Resistance and survived Birkeneau and Auschwitz- they even met in Auschwitz. Babcia got caught when she was carrying a package on a train. They told her that if the person carrying the package didn't come forward, everyone onboard would be killed, so of course she stood up. They took her back to her home, murdered her parents and siblings in front of her, and shipped her off to the camps. Dziadzia was dead when the movie was made, but Babcia was still around, and she was one of the dozens of subjects that was interviewed. We still have the tapes on VHS, they spoke with her for around five or six hours.

[BatmanBeatles]

That's amazing!

[Mindymoo]

I'm lucky I got to know her is all. I need to get those VHS tapes and transcribe them to DVD. I'm not having kids, but it would be a nice thing for my nieces and nephews who never got to know her to have.

[Danny Franks]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Did it whitewash these guys, and turn them into romantic heroes when they were probably thoroughly dangerous people? Sure. But I don't care, because it's a great story, and Newman and Redford both have charm to burn.

 

As an extension, I also love Young Guns. Even more of a departure from truth, probably, but again I don't care. Most of those guys never had better performances than they did in that movie, and there is something tragic about Billy the Kid, which is always good for movie adaptations.

 

Also, interesting side note, with Schindler's List, while Spielberg was making it, he had interviewers go across the country to interview concentration camp survivors about the horrors they went through. My Babcia and Dziadzia were in the Polish Resistance and survived Birkeneau and Auschwitz- they even met in Auschwitz. Babcia got caught when she was carrying a package on a train. They told her that if the person carrying the package didn't come forward, everyone onboard would be killed, so of course she stood up. They took her back to her home, murdered her parents and siblings in front of her, and shipped her off to the camps. Dziadzia was dead when the movie was made, but Babcia was still around, and she was one of the dozens of subjects that was interviewed. We still have the tapes on VHS, they spoke with her for around five or six hours.

 

 

That's an incredible story. And that reminds me of another movie I enjoyed. Defiance, the Daniel Craig movie about the Bielski brothers and their partisan band who fought against Nazis in Poland, saving over 1000 Jews and protecting them through the war. Definitely one worth checking out.

[galax-arena]

I just got Shattered Glass which is about former New Republic journalist Stephen Glass, although I haven’t watched it yet. In retrospect, it’s hard to picture people taking his Hack Heaven article seriously in the first place:

Ian Restil, a 15-year-old computer hacker who looks like an even
more adolescent version of Bill Gates, is throwing a tantrum. "I
want more money. I want a Miata. I want a trip to Disney World. I
want X-Man comic [book] number one. I want a lifetime subscription
to Playboy, and throw in Penthouse. Show me the money! Show me the
money!" Over and over again, the boy, who is wearing a frayed Cal
Ripken Jr. t-shirt, is shouting his demands. Across the table,
executives from a California software firm called Jukt Micronics
are listening--and trying ever so delicately to oblige. "Excuse
me, sir," one of the suits says, tentatively, to the pimply
teenager. "Excuse me. Pardon me for interrupting you, sir. We can
arrange more money for you. Then, you can buy the [comic] book,
and then, when you're of more, say, appropriate age, you can buy
the car and pornographic magazines on your own."

But hindsight is always 20/20.

[VCRTracking]

RIP to Lord Richard Attenborough, director of Ghandi, mentioned in the OP. His character in The Great Escape Roger Bartlett("Big X") was based on Roger Bushell, the orchestrator in the real story.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bushell

Edited August 25, 2014 by VCRTracking

[galax-arena]

Saw The Admiral: Roaring Currents over the weekend, which is about Korean naval commander Yi Soon-Shin. He’s a national hero in South Korea; to give a sense of his importance, someone on another message board said that he was essentially South Korea’s George Washington. Dude was a badass who apparently never had any naval training or participated in naval combat prior to the Imjin War, and remained undefeated at the time of his death.

 

The movie is about the Battle of Myeongnyang, when Yi managed to hold off over 300 Japanese ships (133 warships and 200 support ships) with a fleet of 13. The film drags on a bit as it clocks in at over two hours, but the naval battles are pretty cool at least. My only gripe is that we only got to see a turtle ship at the very end… I mean, I realize that Yi didn’t use any turtle ships at Myeongnyang, but I just wanted to see them in action lol.

[jah1986]

I just was Saving Mr. Banks and I have to say I really did not enjoy the film.  Mainly, I didn't like the way the folks at Disney, including Walt himself, treat Mrs. Travers.  They seemed to feel it was their god given right to own Mary Poppins and completely ignored everything the author wanted for her work.  I just really wanted to slap Walt Disney after seeing this film.

[GreekGeek]

I just was Saving Mr. Banks and I have to say I really did not enjoy the film.  Mainly, I didn't like the way the folks at Disney, including Walt himself, treat Mrs. Travers.  They seemed to feel it was their god given right to own Mary Poppins and completely ignored everything the author wanted for her work.  I just really wanted to slap Walt Disney after seeing this film.

I thought Disney and Co. were pretty accommodating about listening to Mrs. Travers and trying to be true to her vision of Mary Poppins. Her main point--that Mary was there for Mr. Banks, not the kids--came through loud and clear. They did add the animated penguins and the chirpy songs, but honestly, I don't know if many people would have enjoyed seeing Book Mary. As a kid, I found her insufferably arrogant and snappish, and I could never understand why the Banks children loved her so and the rest of the world fawned over her. But I did think that we were misled at the end, with Travers weeping at the premiere. I think in real life, she cried at how much her book had been changed.

[ChelseaNH]

As a kid, I found her insufferably arrogant and snappish, and I could never understand why the Banks children loved her so and the rest of the world fawned over her.

 

Then you might enjoy this interpretation: http://tomandlorenzo.com/2009/05/musical-monday-mary-poppins/

[Haleth]

During the ending credits for Saving Mr Banks they play audio of the actual conversations the Disney people had with Mrs Travers.  She really was a pill.

[spaceytraci1208]

I watched Rush today; I wasn't familiar with the story at all, but heard great things about it, so figured I'd give it a watch. I loved it. I enjoyed the relationship between Niki and James, and that they didn't become best of friends, but maintained respect for one another.

I figured an accident was coming, but my goodness! I had a hard time deciding between watching a man burn on mute, or listening to it...I had a blanket over my head. I cheered when James kicked that raggedy reporter's ass in the closet.

I found myself saddened and touched at the ending when they show the real-life footage of Niki and James.

Edited October 20, 2014 by spaceytraci1208

[Princess Sparkle]

I watched Rush today; I wasn't familiar with the story at all, but heard great things about it, so figured I'd give it a watch. I loved it. I enjoyed the relationship between Niki and John, and that they didn't become best of friends, but maintained respect for one another.

I figured an accident was coming, but my goodness! I had a hard time deciding between watching a man burn on mute, or listening to it...I had a blanket over my head. I cheered when John kicked that raggedy reporter's ass in the closet.

I found myself saddened and touched at the ending when they show the real-life footage of Niki and John.

I really enjoyed the movie, and I found myself almost wishing it had come out in a different year, because Daniel Bruhl was flat out fantastic as Niki Lauda and I'm more than a little bummed he didn't get much award recognition for it. Not that I think Jared Leto didn't deserve the award, but man, Daniel Bruhl was so good.

I swear I also read somewhere that the actual Niki Lauda said the worst insult he'd ever recieved in his life was the reporter asking him if his wife would still love him with a burned face, so I also loved when James Hunt kicked that guy's ass. What a dipshit.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Princess Sparkle

[xls]

I freaking love this scene from HOUDINI! 

[spaceytraci1208]

I'm watching "Tombstone" and wondering if Ike Clanton has any descendants. This movie makes him look like THE biggest punk

Edited November 9, 2014 by spaceytraci1208

[Rick Kitchen]

I have to laugh at the casting for Selma.  Can't they find any American actors?  Martin Luther King, Coretta King, George Wallace and Lyndon Johnson are all played by British actors.  The actor who plays John Lewis is Canadian.

 

Plus they made absolutely no attempt to make the actors look like the people they're playing.

[Crs97]

I finally saw My Week with Marilyn. If I was supposed to walk away thinking she was lovely and Larry was a brute, then I saw a different film. I thought Olivier was more than patient with a very unprofessional Marilyn.

Interesting perspective from her co-star who doesn't even remember Colin:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/11/21/did-my-week-with-marilyn-happen-monroe-s-co-star-vera-day-dishes.html

[RealityGal]

So....is anyone here gonna talk about the Aaliyah biopic?  Or is it too soon?

[spaceytraci1208]

So....is anyone here gonna talk about the Aaliyah biopic? Or is it too soon?

I didn't watch, but Lifetime's track record let me know it was probably going to be terrible. The fact that her family was against it, and they couldn't even use Aaliyah's music for the movie sealed it. I just watched my Twitter feed instead and had myself a good laugh.

[RealityGal]

I didn't watch, but Lifetime's track record let me know it was probably going to be terrible. The fact that her family was against it, and they couldn't even use Aaliyah's music for the movie sealed it. I just watched my Twitter feed instead and had myself a good laugh.

You're right, it has been a good laugh, and maybe this was Wendy Williams evil plan all along, because I have never in my life been tempted to watch her show, but I sure want to hear what happens tomorrow.

[nicepebbles]

The most recent film based on a real person I can think of that I've seen is 42. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it but I did. Chad Boseman and Nicole Beharie were great. I loved their chemistry. I didn't feel like that they shortchanged Jackie Robinson's story for that of Branch Rickey. I also felt like Jackie Robinson was fleshed out. I think I walked out of the theater thinking it was 3.5/5 stars.

One of my favorite movies about real people is Malcolm X. Great script, direction and acting all around. The scene where A Change Is Gonna Come makes me cry. Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett will also be Malcolm and Betty to me.

[BatmanBeatles]

Speaking of Angela, I liked What's Love Got To Do With It?.

[spaceytraci1208]

Speaking of Angela, I liked What's Love Got To Do With It?.

Ditto! And while Laurence Fishburne bears zero physical resemblance to Ike Turner, I can't picture anyone else in the role. He was fantastic

[BatmanBeatles]

He was so frightening in his role that people were scared of him when he went anywhere.

[Shades of Red]

One of the most heartbreaking "based on a real person" movies I've watched has to be "Soldier's Girl".   This was the first thing I saw Shawn Hatosy in and he scared the daylights out of me.  Lee Pace is phenomenal as Calpernia.  Troy Garity was no slough either.  I own the DVD and the behind the scenes interviews and preparation for the film are very interesting to watch.

 

On a much lighter note and not sure how historic accurate it is, I really like "The Young Victoria". 

 

I mentioned "The Intouchables" in the Foreign film section here and it's definitely worth a watch and is based on a real person.  Not sure if it made it to wide release.  Also not sure if "Fifty Dead Men Walking" made much of a splash but it was interesting.  Again, not sure how accurate it was but then as has been pointed out not many of these types of movies are.

[Mindymoo]

I watched Lenny last night, the biopic about Lenny Bruce. Wow, what an amazing movie. I had always been a fan of Bruce's work and knew of his arrests for obscenity, struggles with the law, and tragic death, so I am amazed I hadn't seen it before now. Dustin Hoffman played him beautifully, and really captured his energy on stage from the couple of video performances I have seen of him. He was such a strong voice, speaking about things that needed to be said in such a funny way, and his arrests and charges were such bullshit. The fact that he was arrested for saying things, thus derailing his career, that would be of absolutely no consequence not only today, but even ten years after his death, is especially maddening. And he was only posthumously pardoned in 2003. His downward spiral was so heartbreaking to watch, especially since his ex-wife was even more unstable than he was, and he was the primary parent for their daughter Kitty. His death at the end, though I knew it was coming, made me tear up. It was all so frustrating and sad.

[JBC344]

Soldier's Girl is such a great movie.  Lee Pace is phenomenal as Calpernia.  Troy Garity and Shawn Hatosy are also great.

[Ankai]

I have seen a few movies based on real people and pretty much all of them take liberties here and there. Sometimes it makes sense in terms of the story and sometimes I find them to be puzzling. The one that bothers me the most is Rooney Mara's character in The Social Network. I am just not sure why she had to serve as the catalyst for the entire movie. Mark did have a girlfriend, a girlfriend who looked nothing like Rooney Mara, who stayed with Mark, and eventually married him. Whatever inspired Mark to start Facebook or whatever else he did during the movie, it was not a result of his resentment about being dumped or trying to impress an ex-girlfriend who did not exist. Maybe the real reason was much more petty and inscrutable; I don't know what the real reason was and I don't care enough to find out. The reason provided in the movie, however, just strikes me as lazy; that nerds with abrasive personalities cannot get girls and cannot keep girls. The issue about him doing this over a girl and then getting a girl (if only briefly) after becoming successful would have been clichéd enough if it were actually true, and it is an outright lie.

 

If the real reason why Mark Zuckerberg made Facebook does not match up with the underlying themes of the movie, then why make it about Mark Zuckerberg? If one has to build the foundation of a movie upon a complete lie (that was extremely easy to find out about when this movie was released) in order to humanize him and make his motives seem more universal, then why bother basing a movie around him in the first place? Why not do what television shows do and just concoct a character? What deeper truths about the human experience was I supposed to get out of this movie? How would the existence of Priscilla Chan have undermined have undermined those truths? I really do not understand this.

[Rick Kitchen]

The woman Zuckerberg married is not the girl who was played by Rooney Mara in the movie.  He meets the Asian woman halfway through the movie.

[JBC344]

The woman Zuckerberg married is not the girl who was played by Rooney Mara in the movie.  He meets the Asian woman halfway through the movie.

Actually Priscilla Zuckerberg is not portrayed in the movie.  Brenda Song is the asian girl in the movie and she isn't playing Priscilla.  For me, I was never bothered by the invention of Rooney's character for the movie.  I always had the idea that while Priscilla was with Mark that doesn't negate that Rooney's character is completely made up.  

[Ankai]

Okay, so let's pretend that Rooney's character did exist and Sorkin or whoever merely had her dump him later in his life for some reason that is not totally stupid or dishonest. Fine. And maybe Mark really was hung up on her for however many years. Fine.

 

So....

 

What is gained by completely writing Priscilla Chan out of existence and replacing her with some other Asian girl of negligible significance? How does her absence benefit the story or the character or the theme? Why was the person that is Mark Zuckerberg necessary to be the center of this story for it to work and why was the mere existence of Priscilla Chan a threat to that story? Why was the story of his pining for the one who got away so important that the one that he had had to be deliberately erased from the story?

 

It is a lie. It is a huge lie. It is a lie that is easily found out. I know that. I also feel that it is a lazy lie. I am just confused as to the reasoning. Why make a lie about this? Why lie about this part of Zuckerberg's life when one could just make up a fictional character? What sort of insight is gained with such a lie? Why make this movie in the first place if this huge lie was necessary for it to come into existence?

[SFoster21]

If it comes to that, Boys Don't Cry tells some pretty big lies. So does Walk the Line.

Shattered Glass is almost completely true.

[VCRTracking]

 

What is gained by completely writing Priscilla Chan out of existence and replacing her with some other Asian girl of negligible significance? How does her absence benefit the story or the character or the theme? Why was the person that is Mark Zuckerberg necessary to be the center of this story for it to work and why was the mere existence of Priscilla Chan a threat to that story? Why was the story of his pining for the one who got away so important that the one that he had had to be deliberately erased from the story?

 

Because his primary relationship in the movie was with Eduardo Severin. Whoever Zuckerberg was really going to marry wasn't that important. Aaron Sorkin's always been more into the bromance.

Edited November 20, 2014 by VCRTracking

[JBC344]

Because his primary relationship in the movie was with Eduardo Severin. Whoever Zuckerberg was really going to marry wasn't that important. Aaron Sorkin's always been more into the bromance.

I agree, I usually forget that Rooney Mara is in the movie and the scene all together when I think of the movie.  Interesting that the "Priscilla Chan/Zuckerberg" argument is the one that is always talked about regarding the liberties with the movie.  I have yet to see any real defense of Mark Zuckerberg's character traits and treatment of Eduardo. 

 

You would think that "people" would have more of an issue with that characterization than whether or not Sorkin made up a fake girlfriend to make the catalyst of Facebook more interesting.

[Constantinople]

The movies 300 and 300: Rise of an Empire were based on real people.

 

To be more specific, there were characters in those two movies who shared the same names as real people, and the movies were set in the time and place in which those real people lived.

 

As for historical accuracy...