Henderson Oracle

As the last column I’ll be writing this semester, I guess I’ll talk about the very thing that I decided to use for my title.

There are countless movies that proclaim that they are based on or inspired by a true story. Others are, of course, based on novels. It’s the novels that I would like to talk about first.

Movies based on novels are tricky things. The dilemma that faces filmmakers is how much they should stick to the source material. Some of them do this almost flawlessly, such as "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Most of the time, they do not.

Stephen King novels are rarely ever adapted into good movies. King’s novels are mostly very graphic and bloody and, therefore, filmmakers usually settle on making a very tame movie in comparison to the books.

There do exist good films that are nothing like the novels they are based on. The "Bourne" trilogy is a perfect example. "The Bourne Identity" and sequels are nothing like the Robert Ludlum novels beyond the fact that the character is an ex-spy who can’t remember anything.

Thanks to how good the "Bourne" movies are, I’m left to ignore the fact that some movies are based on novels. I can only tell audiences whether a movie is good or bad despite being an adaptation.

This is not to say that I always ignore films based on their adaptations. There are a few films that I would like to see the filmmakers get right, such as the Harry Potter films. For the most part, I would rather see a good movie than a good adaptation.

That being said, I’m moving on to films that claim they are based or inspired by true events. This is where things get particularly dicey. Films claiming to be based on a true story are sometimes taken too seriously by viewers.

Sure, "Charlie Wilson’s War" is based on Wilson’s secret campaign to get the CIA to help stop Russia from taking over Afghanistan in the ‘80s, but that does not mean that the real events happened the way they did onscreen.

If audience members find themselves interested in a film’s subject matter, then they should look up the real events after seeing the movie. Some films get it right for the most part — like Ridley Scott’s "Black Hawk Down," a film based on a non-fiction book based on true events.

Still, the film did not get every aspect of the Battle of Mogadishu right, and I’m not naïve enough to believe that they did.

The films that are really interesting more than anything are films that claim they are based on a true story but are really complete fiction.

The biggest case for this one is "The Blair Witch Project." It was really shot by directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez.

Once the studio bought it, they came up with a marketing campaign that suggested the events were real. The sci-fi channel even shot a fake news program discussing how the film stock was found in the woods. In reality, it was an elaborate making-of segment for the film.

With stuff like this and the inaccuracies found in films that really are based on true stories, audiences should be forewarned that not all may be as it seems.

Anyway, that’s it for now. It’s been fun writing this column this semester and until the next semester, I’ll see you at the movies.