How much creative license can you gain by adding the magic words ‘true story’ to a film?
Quite a lot, it seems.
Weve all seen movie posters and trailers that have some form of the words based on a true story.
Its the conventional films that stick by that tagline.
Only the names, locations, and events have been changed.
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Many movies are much more straight-faced in their wording.
But in recent years, the taglines have become a mainstay of true crime adaptations and horror films.
The Coen brothersFargois inarguably the most infamous example of such chicanery.
At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed.
Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.
And yet, 11 years later, that urban legend was adapted into David Zellners dramaKumiko The Treasure Hunter.
It shouldnt really shock anyone to hear that films play around with the truth.
The very nature of the word representation suggests a repeat of something that already happened.
The truth, though stranger than fiction, isnt necessarily more interesting.
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