When Alan Turing broke the Nazi code and helped win WWII, he probably didn’t expect this story to be turned into a movie, let alone one that would earn over 200 million dollars worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and be nominated for eight Oscar categories.  He also probably didn’t expect “The Imitation Game” to get so many details wrong about his story either.

Although biopics claim they are “based on true events,” how much of what they depict is really In June of 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York, arresting several of the gay bar’s members and inciting a riot that would become known as the start of the Gay Rights Revolution.

Roland Emmerich’s new movie “Stonewall” follows Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine), who, after he is kicked out of his parent’s home, flees to New York and finds himself caught up in the Stonewall Riots

What Actually Happened

The release of the movie’s trailer was initially met with protests in the LGBTQ community after people claimed the movie “whitewashes” Stonewall’s history.  The film centers on a fictional white, gay, cisgender (someone who is not transgender) male instead of the transgender members and people of color who played a central role in the riots. An online petition calling for a boycott of the movie has gained over 24,000 signatures, with the message, “Do not support a film that erases our history.  Do not watch Stonewall.”

After the initial protests, Emmerich responded on Facebook, saying, “I understand that following the release of our trailer there have been initial concerns about how this character’s involvement is portrayed, but when this film – which is truly a labor of love for me – finally comes to theaters, audiences will see that it deeply honors the real-life activists who were there — including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Ray Castro — and all the brave people who sparked the civil rights movement which continues to this day.”

Everest-The Movie

Shortly after reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, two groups of climbers were left stranded asan unexpected blizzard stopped their descent and resulted in the death of eight of their members.  Baltasar Kormakur’s recent movie “Everest,” which stars Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal as group leaders Rob Hall and Scott Fischer respectively, depicts the 1996 tragedy,  which was at the time recognized as the mountain’s worst disaster.

What Actually Happened

Although Jon Krakauer, one of the climbers who survived the blizzard, wrote the well-acclaimed book Into Thin Air about his experience on the mountain, the movie isn’t based on any previously written material.  The writers developed their own script after consulting people with various first-hand accounts, yet it is fairly accurate.  One of the more noticeable differences, which has been highlighted by several reviewers and experienced mountain climbers, is that the movie portrays the climb as more dramatic than what occurred.  While there are edge-of-your-seat moments that accurately show the dangers of making the Everest climb, there are also moments of tension added for a more dramatic effect, such as the fictionalized rivalry between the two group leaders Hall and Fischer.

After the crew finished filming, it was reported that director Baltasar Kormakur pushed the actors to extremes. At the Toronto Film Festival, Kormakur told TheWrap’s Steve Pond that he took his crew as high as 16,000 feet, which may have resulted in them getting “so sick they had to evacuate them with helicopters.” He also shot the film in below zero degree temperature for the first six weeks of production, saying, “I don’t really care for happy actors.”

Black Mass-The Movie

Johnny Depp returned to the big screen in late September as the famous crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger in Scott Cooper’s movie Black Mass.  The movie follows Bulger’s story from leader of the Winter Hill Gang in Boston to becoming Massachusetts’ most feared criminal and getting a spot on the 10 Most Wanted list.  He had help along the way, mainly in the form of his childhood friend and later FBI agent John Connolly, who would give Bulger information in exchange for intel on the Italian Mafia, another group prominent in the Boston area and a rival of

What Actually Happened

After the movie opened in theaters, Bulger’s former right-hand man Kevin Weeks accused the film of being “pure fiction.”  Weeks claimed that the movie depicts him and other gang members as less capable and in some cases more sympathetic than they really were.  He also said many of the events in the movie weren’t chronological and didn’t accurately represent what happened.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Weeks stated, “I just don’t know where they get the right to put events in there that never happened.”

At a press conference for “Black Mass” during the Toronto International Film Festival, the cast and director addressed the controversy questioning to what extent the movie tells the truth.

According to the Toronto Sun, director Scott Cooper admitted that the truth is very elusive when it comes to the film, adding, “I don’t think that people come to narrative features for facts. For ‘the truth’ I think you do go to documentaries for that. But what you do come to a narrative feature for is psychological truth, emotion and deep humanity.” Co-lead Joel Edgerton, who plays Connolly in the film, offered his insight, saying, “You can never presume to know ‘the truth’ when everybody has an opinion. At some point, you just have to say: ‘This is our telling of our version of these events.’ ”

Sources:

Stonewall

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-stonewall-riot

https://unite.gsanetwork.org/petitions/boycott-2015-stonewall-movie

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stonewall-director-addresses-movie-trailer-controversy_55c4cf85e4b0d9b743dbdc1e

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/stonewall/gay-rights-true-story-controversy/

https://www.facebook.com/stonewallmovie

Everest

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/did-the-everest-filmmakers-get-it-right-we-asked-a-climber-to-fact-check-it/story-fntzvnra-1227530279858

https://www.thewrap.com/everest-jake-gyllenhaal-josh-brolin-reality-check-how-true-accurate-is-drama-based-on-1996-climbing-tragedy/

http://www.bustle.com/articles/111246-how-accurate-is-everest-the-movie-took-a-few-liberties-with-the-1996-disaster-tale

https://www.thewrap.com/everest-director-baltasar-kormakur-jake-gyllenhaal-not-sadist-happy-actors/

Black Mass

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/20/whitey-bulger-s-enforcer-slams-black-mass-the-movie-is-pure-fiction.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/controversy-over-johnny-depps-whitey-bulger-movie-black-mass/

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/09/16/tiff-2015-black-mass-cast-share-thoughts-on-controversial-film