How often have you been watching a movie when you see 'Based on a True Story' pop up somewhere in the credits? It gives films an air of legitimacy and has become increasingly common over the years.
But just because something is based in fact, doesn't mean that it always portrays the events exactly as they were. Have a look for yourself and check out these 10+ movies based on true stories that didn't tell the whole truth.
The story of Henry Hill turning State's evidence is by and large a true retelling in Martin Scorcese's crowning jewel, Goodfellas.
Some major events were reworked for the movie, however, including Henry's involvement with the Lufthansa Heist.
The King's Speech paints Prince Albert as being vehemently anti-fascist. In a similar light, it portrays his brother Edward as a hopeless, albeit naive, romantic.
The film neglects to mention Albert's blunderings at appeasing the Nazis, as well as his brother Edward's ties to Adolf Hitler.
Jake La Motta himself is said to have not been a fan of the film. The infamous former boxing World Champion stated he didn't believe the film did an accurate job depicting his violent behavior.
According to reports from Jake's wife, he was actually worse in real life than what De Niro portrayed on screen.
There's no denying that Johnny Cash is one of the most important figures in the history of Rock music. But the events of Walk The Line tend to paint Johnny in a slightly more idyllic light than is perhaps warranted.
Chris Gardner has admitted that the film version of The Pursuit of Happyness glorifies him as a father. For the first four months of the Dean Witter program, Chris had no clue where his son was.
Unfortunately, many of the greatest aspects of the film Catch Me If You Can never really happened. There was no Carl Hanratty relentlessly chasing down Frank, and he also never saw his father after running away from home.
The movie portrays Henry as a reluctant King, with no aspirations for war. In reality, Henry V was one of the greatest military minds in the history of England.
He had always lusted for French lands, and far beyond.
In the movie, Julia Roberts doesn't just fight Goliath — she kills him! In reality, this was far from the case.
They didn't kill the dragon, not by any means. And the settlement was also a lot smaller than audiences were led to believe.
The Mark Zuckerberg that we see in The Social Netowork isn't exactly a kind-hearted fellow. On the contrary, he's kind of a pent-up misogynistic asshole with a bully complex.
Supposedly, this isn't how Zucks behaved whatsoever.
Moneyball does a poor job of accurately portraying the state of baseball at the time, as well as the history of the sport as a whole.
Baseball, more than any other sport, has always been about money. Just ask the New York Yankees.
I know this is slightly off-topic but my goodness was this movie ever boring.
But aside from that, The Irishman plays with the strings of history as if it were a puppet master making marionettes dance on a whim.
In the late '50s, two teens from Lincoln Nebraska embarked on a homicidal road trip that resulted in the deaths of nine people over the course of ten days.
This was the event that inspired the creation of Mickey and Mallory.
Speaking of homophobia in film, The Imitation Game does an incredibly poor job at accurately portraying what really happened to Alan Turing after the war.
The details are far too grisly for me to articulate, but they are worth looking into.
Believe it or not, some of the most outlandish and wild events in the film, like Jordan Belfort being rescued by the Italian Navy, were actually true.
The film's portrayal of Donnie Azoff, however, was largely fabricated.
Bohmeian Rhapsody was chastised for downplaying Freddie Mercury's sexuality, some even went so far as to call the film homophobic.
The movie also plays fast and loose with the timeline of certain events in the band's history.
