Hollywood loves true stories, and 2013 was a banner year for them — everything from the making of “Mary Poppins” to maritime horror. But how close to reality were the big-screen renderings of reality? We rate several likely Golden Globe nominees on their (apologies to Stephen Colbert) truthiness from 1 (bald-faced lie) to 10 (nothing but the truth).
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
Scorsese’s film, out Dec. 24, about bad-boy broker Jordan Belfort is said to be fairly fact-based, with a few departures for big-screen enhancement. “In one scene, Donnie Azoff (based on Danny Porush) sits and watches as thick bricks of cash are strapped to a Swiss woman’s body. ‘[I] never taped money to boobs,’ [one broker] says.” If that’s the biggest quibble with the film, we’ll go with pretty truthful.
Truth rating: 8
“Saving Mr. Banks”
Disney’s account of the early-1960s relationship between prickly “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers and company owner Walt Disney, who wanted to adapt her book for the screen, is strongly, and unsurprisingly, weighted in favor of Walt’s version of the story, as we detailed here and here.
Truth rating: 6
“Fruitvale Station”
This account of the death of Oscar Grant — a young man killed by a BART police officer in Oakland, Calif., on New Year’s Day 2009 — is said to have been slightly amended to emphasize Grant’s good side and potential for change. To be sure, one affecting scene with a dog was drawn from the director’s life, not Grant’s, but “Fruitvale” generally sticks to eyewitness accounts of the pivotal shooting.
Truth rating: 7
“Dallas Buyers Club”
This is the story of Ron Woodroof, a Texas man stricken with the AIDS virus in 1985 who started a subversive business of smuggling non-FDA approved treatment drugs into the country, for himself and others. While it has some fictional aspects — Jared Leto’s character, a transsexual named Rayon, is a composite character, as is the doctor played by Jennifer Garner — the root of the story is accurate.
Truth rating: 9
“Philomena”
Stephen Frears’ movie concerns an unmarried woman in Ireland in 1952 who was forced by a convent to give up her baby for adoption. Philomena Lee, the movie’s subject, has said herself that the film is accurate, though our own Kyle Smith has contended that it does a hatchet job on Catholicism.
Truth rating: 8
“Captain Phillips”
Tom Hanks stars as the captain of an American ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean in 2009. Hanks’ character is the movie’s hero, but in reality nine crew members from that ship have filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the company that owns the ship, alleging that Phillips’ actions put them needlessly in danger. “The crew had begged Captain Phillips not to go so close to the Somali coast,” said Deborah Waters, the attorney who brought the claim. “He told them he wouldn’t let pirates scare him or force him to sail away from the coast.”
Truth rating: 2
“12 Years a Slave”
Director Steve McQueen’s take on the memoir by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was abducted from the North in 1841 and forced to work as a slave, hews closely to the book, although some have pointed out minor discrepancies. The film is harsher on plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) than Northup himself was, and Bass (Brad Pitt), the man who’s responsible for Northup’s liberation, actually did more for him than the movie recounts.
Truth rating: 9
“Rush”
This Golden Globes dark horse concerns the rivalry between two Formula One racecar drivers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda, in 1976. Ron Howard’s film has been said to be largely accurate, though some say it exaggerates the animosity between the two drivers, who at one time even shared a London apartment together.
Truth rating: 8