There are a lot of films out there that are “based on a true story.”
Some actually are, but a few are…well…just not.
Sure, they may be inspired by something real.
Vaguely.
Or maybe not at all.
But, they’ve really been sold as being totally true.
Here’s a good double feature of two of the best not true true stories.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Written by Tobe Hooper/Kim Henkel
Ok. So, you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! Texas Chainsaw was TOTALLY based on Ed Gein!”
Well, kind of. Almost. Not really. The flesh mask and the furniture made of human flesh, sure. Other than that, though, there’s not a factual bone in this movie’s sitting room.
The story, in case you’ve been locked in your own flesh room for the last 30 years, is about a bunch of teenagers who are traveling around Central Texas in a hippie van. They pick up a hitchhiker and promptly drop the guy because he’s completely insane. They then end up at a dilapidated house on the side of the road where they’re chased (and mostly killed) by a chainsaw wielding wild man in the aforementioned flesh mask. Oh, and his family is quite insane, too, including creepy old grandpa who is being kept alive by something inhuman.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the greatest horror films ever made and an early example of the slasher flick. It’s much better than many of the slashers that came after and miles ahead of the slew of sequels and remakes. Screw those things.
Part of what makes the original so amazing is the fact that it leaves so much to the imagination.
I’m a huge fan of gore, so don’t get me wrong here. Gore can make or break a movie. But TCM is better for not showing the blood and guts as the obnoxious teenagers are chopped up into little pieces. Just like Psycho before it (also incredibly loosely inspired by Gein), we remember seeing much more blood than we actually see.
Part of that is because the budget was so low. Hooper only had one other film to his credit at the time, the very little seen Eggshells. And, trust me, that was no horror film. It was the Slacker of the 60s. Even took place in many of the same locations as Slacker. (It’s also not particularly good unless you grew up in Austin and like to see shots of the way this fair city looked pre-gentrification…or before gentrification was even a thing.) He and art director Robert Burns used the reportedly $83,000 that they raised to amazing effect using cheap props, friends as actors and a house that wouldn’t charge them.
(I’ve been to the house. It’s a restaurant now. At the time I went, they really embraced the history and even pointed out the scrape on the hardwood where the metal door was dragged across it during filming. I think the new owners are a little more careful of the house’s heritage, unfortunately.)
If for some reason you have’t seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, see it now. You don’t like horror films? Oh well. See it now. It’s not just a horror film. It’s an experience.
And, yes, that’s John Larroquette reading the opening “true story” crawl before he was known as Dan Fielding. If you don’t know who that is…oh well. Doesn’t really matter.
Oh, and there are still plenty of people around Central Texas who say that they remember the Texas Chainsaw murders. Sigh…
FARGO (1996)
Written and directed by Joel Coen/Ethan Coen
Just like Texas Chainsaw, Fargo opens with a crawl that says that it’s based on a true story. Fargo, however, is a complete fabrication. It’s not based on anything true. Not a sausage.
Ok, so there are a couple of cases that the Coens drew a bit of inspiration from, but only a bit. They admitted to just adding the “it’s all true” title card to the beginning just to help audiences suspend disbelief.
The movie is about Jerry Lundegaard (William H Macy), a man who hires two other men (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife to get ransom money from his father in law. The kidnapping goes horribly, horribly wrong and Jerry’s wife gets killed.
Things only get worse from there.
Fargo won lots of Oscars and is still considered one of the greatest films of the 90s…and it’s not really because of the very general plot that I outlined here. It’s because of the actual lead character: Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). Marge is the police chief who is after the kidnappers. She happens to be very pregnant. She also happens to be the best detective on the force.
Marge has become an iconic character simply because she’s so nice, but a total badass.
She doesn’t even really pull her gun until the very end of the film, but that doesn’t matter. She knows that Jerry’s involved pretty much from the get go. She just can’t prove it. And with lines like, “I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, Lou.” how can you not love her? She’s the cop we all wish was on our local force.
But, yeah. Still no truth to this story at all. But I know people from Wisconsin (my family, actually) who say that they remember when it happened. Hell, there’s even a movie about someone who tried to find the bag of money hidden during the movie. It’s called Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter and it’s actually a really good portrait of a woman with multiple mental disorders. It, in turn, is inspired on an urban legend about someone trying to find that bag of money. Check it out when it comes out.
Film is a very story driven media, for the most part.
Being based on a true story, though, doesn’t always mean anything as far as the truth is concerned.
All it means is that the writer/director/producer decided to add a title card that says that it’s based on a true story.
