ARTICLE: Oscars and American history: True, or true enough?

[Ryan Goble]

Bouncing off Frank's recent post And the Oscar for Historical Accuracy goes to..... the Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips took a pass at this topic today in his essay "Oscars and American history: True, or true enough?"

An excerpt...

A modest proposal: Movies exploring some aspect of American history, such as “Argo,” “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” should leave off the “based on a true story” or “inspired by true events” language and stick to what “Lincoln” screenwriter Tony Kushner advocates: a clear, simple and proud declaration of “historical fiction.”

These are works of historical fiction. They are not documentaries. Movies based on true stories take a little truth and then make things up to make it interesting, and — sometimes — truthful in another way.

This year's Academy Awards embrace history, American history both recent and distant. Does it matter if the hotly debated films are not strict adherents to the historical record? No.

David Byrne was right: Facts just twist the truth around. If a screenwriter remains faithful, at any cost, to what we know, or we think, or we think we know for certain happened in 1865, or 1979, or a year or two ago, drama doesn't stand a chance.

Read the full article HERE.