11 Fact-Based Movies That Changed Real History A Little Bit And Not Everyone Realized

When producing a film based on facts, the technical team usually carries out extensive research so that the story portrayed is similar to reality. However, sometimes aspects about the protagonists end up being changed, which is not always revealed to viewers. These details include, for example, the character’s real name or the exact historical moment the film wants to portray.

O awesome.club did a search and found 11 fact-based films in which some modifications about the characters’ lives were made. Check out which movies these are.

The two elderly people who appear hugging each other in bed while the ship is sinking were inspired by real passengers on the Titanic. They were the co-owners of Macy’s department store: Rosalie Ida Straus and Isidor Straus. Indeed, the two died in the shipwreck, but not inside the room. The story was slightly altered, as Isidor and Ida were last seen together on the outside of the ship, holding hands, before a wave threw them into the sea.

2. The real Jack Dawson from Titanic

When director James Cameron was writing the script, he intended the main characters to be completely fictional; however, he discovered that on the ship was a J. Dawson, who died on board. Joseph Dawson was an Irishman who was born in 1888 and his role on the ship was to bring coal to the workers who were in the kilns and ensure that the coal piles were correctly distributed to maintain the vessel’s balance.

3. Queen Gorgo, 300

In the film, Queen Gorgo tells a Persian messenger the following sentence: “Only Spartan women give birth to real men”. According to the Greek historian Plutarch in book III of the Moralia collection (“Maxims of the Spartans”), this answer was actually given to an Athenian woman who had asked him: “Why can Spartan women speak among men?”

This Scottish hero was about 20 years old at the time portrayed in the film. Mel Gibson, the actor who brought the hero to life in the movies, was almost 40 when the film was shot.

Although the film portrays the Facebook creator as awkward with women, for much of the time period portrayed in the film, the real Mark Zuckerberg was dating his Harvard fellow student Priscilla Chan, who would later become his wife.

Kumail Nanjiani played a version of himself in the film and used his own name. The same did not happen with his wife. Kumail decided to change the name from Emily V. Gordon to Emily Gardner.

Billy Beane, general manager of Oakland Athletics, is portrayed in the film as a lonely divorcee, but in real life he has remarried.

In real life, the protagonist of this story never offered himself to the pirates in place of his crew. Furthermore, it is also not true that during the period in which he was imprisoned he managed to obtain a paper and a pen, nor that he wrote a farewell note to his family. What’s more, the reaction of absolute commotion after the rescue (very well played by Tom Hanks) never happened, since he already knew that he had been saved.

The true story of Michael Oher is a little different from what we see in the movie. Michael was already a seasoned football player when he signed up for Briarcrest, so he wasn’t too happy with their description of him as a passive, unqualified young man who understood next to nothing about the sport.

During the filming of the film, the director decided that Nash’s hallucinations had to be presented both audibly and visually, so that viewers could put themselves in the protagonist’s shoes. In real life his hallucinations were only auditory.

Do you know of other fact-based films that have had some data modified? Do you see a big problem with this and do you think the story should always be told exactly as it happened or do you think it’s ok to change some data? Share your opinion in the comments.