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Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''"The following is based on actual events. Only the names, locations, and events have been changed."''
|'''''[[Anchorman]]'''''}}
The truth is a funny thing. It's slippery, it's not always self-evident, it can seem [[Reality Is Unrealistic|implausible]], it can even be inconvenient, and more often than not it's just plain boring. Very Loosely Based On A True Story occurs when a writer decides that reality just doesn't pack enough punch in some way, and decides to improve on the historical record. Arguably, this has actually ''saved'' some '''er...true stories.''' For example, ''[[The Patriot]]'' would have been two and a half hours of a group of Minute Men hiding for hours in swamps sniping English troops and then running away had they kept it true to the historical events of the time. Doesn't exactly sound riveting, does it?
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{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[From Hell]]'' was based primarily on an earlier book entitled ''Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution'', which was later largely discredited. Moore, in the book's lengthy annotations, freely admits he doesn't believe a word of it, but was never one to let facts get in the way of a good story. Despite this, the actual history portrayed in the book was [[Shown Their Work|vigorously researched]], more so than some scholarly works on the Ripper. [[The Movie]], however, plays fast & loose with both the conspiracy theory & the real history.
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* ''[[Sunset]]'': Wile highly fictional, the film does actually contain a few elements of truth. Wyatt Earp did live in Hollywood in the 1920s, did act as a technical advisor on several silent westerns, and was close friends with Tom Mix (who served as a pallbearer at Earp's funeral). The murder in the movie is very loosely based on the events surrounding the death of Thomas Ince (which did not involve Earp or Mix in any way).
* The films ''[[The Gumball Rally]]'' and ''[[Cannonball Run]]'' (as well as several others) were very loosely based on a real outlaw road rally, the [[wikipedia:Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash|Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash]].
* ''[[American Gangster]]''. Like many of the examples cited here, the basic outline of the story is true, but there are many differences. Film—Lucas and his wife are childless, Roberts is embroiled in a custody battle. [[Real Life]]—Lucas and his wife had a daughter, Roberts never had children. This is just ''one'' of many discrepancies.
* 2017's ''[[The Greatest Showman]]'' claims to be a biography of [[w:P. T. Barnum|P. T. Barnum]], but takes quite a few liberties, including completely fictionalizing his early life; compressing much of his career as an impresario into what appears to be a period of about a year or so; collapsing his four daughters into two; manufacturing an almost-affair with Swedish singer [[Jenny Lind]] as well as a near-breakup with his wife over it; and manufacturing a fictional partner and his interracial love affair (circa 1850).
== Literature ==
* This is noticeably averted in ''[[House of Leaves]]'' when in Johnny Truant's written introduction, he explicitly says that everything...''The Navidson Record'', all of the commentary on it in the book, ''all of it''...is fake or made-up. He hasn't been able to contact anyone who has ever heard of the film. The irony, according to him, is that what's real and what's not doesn't matter in the end since the consequences are the same. In a slightly more specific case, Johnny recounts a period of time where he lived with a doctor friend and his wife, and started going on medication, and generally getting his life back together. {{spoiler|The chapter ends with him telling the reader he was making it up completely, and ''laughing at the reader'' for believing it.}}
* [[Joyce Carol Oates]] was inspired by news of the mysterious death of a college student to write the story ''Landfill''. If anyone interpreted that story as being what actually happened, it would be a serious libel on the student's frat brothers and others. Faced by criticism from the student's family and accused of [[Ripped from the Headlines|sensationalism and exploitation]], Oates said that the story was never meant to be taken as anything but fiction, and that she writes however she's inspired to, news being an important source of ideas for her.
* Many fairy tales derived from tales of the lives of saints, such as St. Barbara ("[[Rapunzel]]") or St. Margaret of Cartona ("[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]]").
* The middle section of ''[[Special Circumstances|Princess of Wands]]'' was inspired by the events at RavenCon, a [[Science Fiction]] convention, in 2006. Needless to say, there was no battle with a demon at RavenCon.
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