I would have liked this a lot more had the authors treated the subject in a less judgmental manner. It was sometimes hard to glean fact from the incessantly derisive commentary (the subject pretty much speaks for itself and is interesting enough without the unnecessary commentary that tended to be far too mean-spirited). I was expecting a "here's what really happened" and I got "here's why producers/directors/writers/actors are asshats when it comes to adapting true accounts to film" which, fair enough, is often the case... but still... more fact and less judgment would have made the book more enjoyable to me. ( )

I write about film & history for a living, and I have shelves full of books about it. None of them, however, does what Based on a True Story does: clearly, succinctly explain where -- and how much -- a hundred well-known films diverge from the historical realities of the stories they’re based on.

The key phrase here is “well-known.” The films covered are heavily weighted toward recent, mainstream Hollywood productions and acknowledged classics: the kind of thing that fills most American film fans’ DVD shelves, Netflix queues, and download folders. Independent filmmaker John Sayles is represented by Eight Men Out rather than Matewan, and World War II by Patton and Pearl Harbor rather than Bataan and The Battle of Britain. Films about major historical events share space with those that, though based in reality, tell smaller stories: Mask, A Civil Action, Hoosiers, and The French Connection. The authors’ seems to have been to write a book about movies that most of their readers are likely to have seen, or at least heard of.

It’s a worthy goal, oddly underserved by existing film & history books, and Vanken and Whalen handle it well. Their analysis is rigorous without being pedantic, nuanced without being obscure, and amusing without being snarky. They accept “Hollywoodization” (streamlining, condensing, and tweaking the details of reality for dramatic effect) when it’s done with care, and attack it without mercy when it’s done clumsily or gratuitously. It’s a testament to their craftsmanship that their gleeful demolition of (say) Men of Honor and their praise of (say) Apollo 13 are equally readable, and equally fascinating.

For everyone who’s seen the title card “Based on a True Story” flash on a movie screen and wondered: “Yeah, but which parts?” . . . here’s your book. ( )

"Based on a True Story" is an interesting browse through 100 movies "based on a true story", discussing how, where and why they deviated from reality. This is not a narrow pedantic list of "mistakes"; the authors will often mention things and then dismiss them as part of the necessity of film making, and they give some movies, usually those that make less pretense at being history, quite a bit of leeway. ( )

Enjoyable book if you like movies...quick reference to what did and did not really happen and sometimes, to what happened later. ( )