Jonathan Vankin

I would have liked this a lot more had the authors treated the subject in a less judgmental manner. It was sometimes hard to glean fact from the incessantly derisive commentary (the subject pretty much speaks for itself and is interesting enough without the unnecessary commentary that tended to be far too mean-spirited). I was expecting a "here's what really happened" and I got "here's why producers/directors/writers/actors are asshats when it comes to adapting true accounts to film" which, fair enough, is often the case... but still... more fact and less judgment would have made the book more enjoyable to me.… (more)

My employer used to laugh whenever I would mention the existence of vast conspiracies working around us in the world today. Then I lent him this book. Now he merely smiles and nods, with the occasional nervous glance over his shoulder.

Two main sections help deliver tone that exists in the world of conspiracy theory. The first section examines a cross-section of the theorists themselves; from the flaky personalities capitalizing on the public's need to know, to the ordinary people (like you or I) that find themselves sucked into the realm of the unbelievable, the explainable, and the unavoidable. The second section then broadsides you with a vast collection of some of the most intense and complicated examples of what conspiracy theory is all about.

The key to this book's success at making you think is that it doesn't pick and choose which plots and cover-ups are real or imagined. Instead, it merely dumps all of the facts and theories right in your lap, leaving you no choice but to decide for yourself what you can or can't dismiss as paranoid folly. Highly recommended for believers & skeptics alike.… (more)

I write about film & history for a living, and I have shelves full of books about it. None of them, however, does what Based on a True Story does: clearly, succinctly explain where -- and how much -- a hundred well-known films diverge from the historical realities of the stories they’re based on.

The key phrase here is “well-known.” The films covered are heavily weighted toward recent, mainstream Hollywood productions and acknowledged classics: the kind of thing that fills most American film fans’ DVD shelves, Netflix queues, and download folders. Independent filmmaker John Sayles is represented by Eight Men Out rather than Matewan, and World War II by Patton and Pearl Harbor rather than Bataan and The Battle of Britain. Films about major historical events share space with those that, though based in reality, tell smaller stories: Mask, A Civil Action, Hoosiers, and The French Connection. The authors’ seems to have been to write a book about movies that most of their readers are likely to have seen, or at least heard of.

It’s a worthy goal, oddly underserved by existing film & history books, and Vanken and Whalen handle it well. Their analysis is rigorous without being pedantic, nuanced without being obscure, and amusing without being snarky. They accept “Hollywoodization” (streamlining, condensing, and tweaking the details of reality for dramatic effect) when it’s done with care, and attack it without mercy when it’s done clumsily or gratuitously. It’s a testament to their craftsmanship that their gleeful demolition of (say) Men of Honor and their praise of (say) Apollo 13 are equally readable, and equally fascinating.

For everyone who’s seen the title card “Based on a True Story” flash on a movie screen and wondered: “Yeah, but which parts?” . . . here’s your book.… (more)