The Fallacy of True Story

I've just finished watching Gran Turismo, a movie I was curious about as it scratched the itch of my fandom for circuit auto racing and wanting a modern racing film. I enjoyed it, crossing a low bar, with its solid racing action and a quality final race day sequence. But while there were several weak points to the film, what I could not get past more than anything was the 'True Story' of it all.

The whole time I'm watching I have no idea what parts are fiction and what parts are real. This becomes particularly wearing as the story progresses with its dramatic (overdramatic?) turning points and a sense of blurred lines.

I was caught in this paradox of not knowing what was fact or fiction or a stretching of the truth. I began wanting to jump to the end and look up the whole story but conversely wanting to give the movie its chance to see where it was going and if I would be surprised. You know, the whole point of watching it in the first place. I stuck it out, but was left wondering about everything I was watching.

This is the crux of the problem with films or shows with the 'Based on a True Story' moniker. I loose my suspension of disbelief.

And once that happens, any chance of magic or connection is gone. I'm taken out of the story, I'm thinking in real world terms, not story world rules, and questioning everything I'm seeing on the screen. It's terrible.

The truth in 'true' is that it's a marking term to trick you into thinking the story is real, more visceral, more possible. But in reality it's just like any other movie with created characters, invented dialogue, and most importantly contrived plot points. But you're not connecting the way you could be because you're asking yourself, 'did this all really happen?'

It's not that you can't base a movie on a real life event, but a recounting of events and/or blurring them into overwrought drama to flesh out the story should, frankly, just be a documentary.

The true part must be used that as a starting point, then find something deeper, more intrinsic to build a story around. Look no further than the father of the atomic bomb.