Thursday, August 22, 2013
How true do movies need to be?
I saw 42. I thought it was just an ok baseball movie, which makes it at even less-than-ok movie. I'm not even sure which kind of moviegoer for whom I would recommend it.
Field of Dreams, a movie that is not based on the true story of baseball players, but uses familiar baseball names, wasn't true to every facet of Shoeless Joe (the handedness issue always comes up, which I think is silly). Abraham Lincoln wasn't a vampire hunter either. I like the idea that we take real people, and try to fit them into fictional accounts.
But what about movies that make a point that they are based on true events, like 42?
The problem is very few people who have seen or will see the Robinson film know who Ostermueller was, and their lasting impression of him will be that he was a racist. That, however, is not who he was, and he deserves better, even in the make-believe land of Hollywood.
Do they have a duty to the truth because they proclaim their movie to be based on true events?
If they would have made Moneyball more real, it would have been a worse movie. I don't know if Billy Beane actually throws desks and bats around, or walks into the players' dressing room, or that DePodesta/Brand talks to players by showing them graphics, but all those things work, and they are memorable. They enhance the movie. Beane's first meeting with Brand required the prior scene of Beane flying to Cleveland to discuss a trade with the entire Indians braintrust in the room. Naturally, that would never happen, but we needed that to get the payoff in the parking lot.
But, Chass' point goes deeper, as it besmirches a man's character. Did it really need to go that far, by using a real player's name. Why not just use a fake player? It's not like the moviegoer would care in that case. In that case, I think it was unnecessary, and so, painting a man as a racist crossed that line.?
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