I'm Tired of Movies "Based On True Stories"

Hollywood exaggerates stories. Exaggeration is what sells. Clearly, this is the case when labeling films as “based on true events”, “inspired by actual event”, and the like. After researching films for this post, I learned you can label any movie as true.

For example, The Fourth Kind (2009), a movie marketed as not only being based on actual events, but showing real interviews and footage. The movie depicted alien abductions occurring in Nome, Alaska from the 1960s to 2000s and played interviews from the real victims alongside the dramatized version played by the actors in the movie. This sounds incredibly intriguing until you discover that those “real” videos and “real” victims were actually fake videos portrayed by actors, and extraterrestrial encounters had nothing to do with the Nome disappearances.

I ran across the same issues with The Visitant (2014), a film that I had hopes for considering it had won awards and was based off the events of its own executive producer. Most of her interview on the matter revolves around how the paranormal activity affected her daughter and dog, and how the ghost followed her home after working on The Queen Mary. When I watched the movie, it neglected to add any of these elements to the film, only including small occurrences, such as voices and odd electrical phenomenon, which could be attributed to any paranormal activity.

Lastly, in my quest to find a good true event horror film, I decided to watch The Quiet Ones (2014), a film based on The Philip experiment, which analyzed the possibility that paranormal activities were manmade, being produced from the negative energy given off by a person. The Quiet Ones kept that principle in the film, but then suddenly threw it out the window at the end, attributing the paranormal occurrences to a clairvoyant young girl. At this point, I stopped looking for more movies.

Aside from The Fourth Kind, The Visitant, and The Quiet Ones barely resembling the events in which they are supposed to be based, the liberties these movies took with their origins didn’t save the films from being terrible, in my opinion. None of them scared me even the slightest bit, which is saying something for a person like me who scares easily, and their plots were boring.  

I get why these movies are made. A scary movie becomes even scarier if you can believe it to happen in real life, so why not label as such. The problem is that I could do that for any movie. Every single movie in existence contains elements that have happened in someone else’s life. Nevertheless, does labeling a movie as being true really improve ticket sales or improve their story? Some of the highest grossing horror films contain plots not based on actual events, including The Others (2001), The Haunting (1999), The Ring (2002), and The Grudge (2004), just to name a few. These movies could have claimed inspiration from any number of real occurrences and stamped itself as a true story, but they don’t need to. On the other hand, films like The Fourth Kind appear to latch onto the true story brand to compensate for poor storytelling. All I can say is for these “true story” horror films, most of them need all the help they can get.

The Untypical Superhero: Super (2010)

Typical superheroes have great looks, a tragic past, incredible strength, and flamboyant weapons. However, not all superheroes are the stereotypical crime fighters that are pictured. The film Super (2010), directed by James Gunn, illustrates this notion in various ways exemplifying how an atypical man can find the power within and become the enticing, crime fighting hero that saves humanity.

Rainn Wilson is known for acting abnormal characters and is highly identifiable by his awkward personalities. Like previous characters: Dwight Schrute from The Office or more recently Det. Lt. Everett Backstrom from Backstrom, Wilson portrays the nervous quality in his character Frank Darbo who later becomes The Crimson Bolt. After his wife Sarah, a recovering drug addict, is victimized by a drug dealer, Darbo takes it upon himself to become her savior after researching non-super powered heroes. Despite his discoveries on common heroes, Frank lacks many usual superhero qualities that add to the unconventional, yet unique, hero he becomes.
 

The Action of Liam Neeson

For Irish month on the CFS Blog, I thought I’d highlight one of my favorite, current action stars. His name is Liam Neeson and he has a very particular set of skills. The star of the popular Taken trilogy was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland in 1952. He rose to critical success with his portrayal of Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List (1993) and earned an Oscar nomination for his performance. In a world today of robot battles and old actors trying to relive their blockbuster days, it’s hard to find an action hero that people can really root for. Liam Neeson has been that actor for me. The thing that keeps me running to the theaters to see the next Neeson action movie is how he always plays a great character with his back against the wall. More often than not he is fighting for a loved one, so he gains our sympathy and impresses us with his amazing fighting skills. 

Taken (2008) did everything right. His daughter was kidnapped and his character, Brian Mills, would do anything to get her back. Neeson was able to balance being a concerned father and an ex-CIA agent. It definitely helped that the story line was fresh and fairly realistic.

Family & Religion in The Boondock Saints (1999)

 

It is obvious in various Irish movies that family and religion play a major role; some portion of those films inevitably revolve around one or both of those aspects. After recently watching Calvary (2014), an Irish film directed by John Michael McDonagh, I have found it executes both aspects, family and religion, like the motion pictures Waking Ned Devine (1998), Leap Year (2010), and The Boondock Saints (1999). 

The Boondock Saints, directed by Troy Duffy, is about the MacManus brothers, Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus, from The Walking Dead fame), who become vigilantes in Boston to rid the city of drug dealers and their crimes. The two brothers emphasis on pursuing justice through the murders they are committing is directly tied to their Irish Catholic religion. The religious element is evident in the way the brothers recite the “Family Prayer” which is, “And Shepherds we shall be For thee, my Lord, for thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand Our feet may swiftly carry out They commands. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomeni Patri Et Fili Spiritus Sancti.” The latter can be translated to “In the name of the father, of the son, and the Holy Spirit.” Every time this prayer is quoted in the movie, the MacManus brothers then murder one of their horrendous victims.