Cinema Lounge, a film discussion group, takes place at 7:00 PM at Barnes and Noble, 555 12th St., NW in Washington, DC (near the Metro Center Metro stop). You do not need to be a member of the Washington DC Film Society to attend.

Cinema Lounge is moderated by Daniel R. Vovak.

How truthful do bio-pics need to be?

In March we discussed how truthful bio-pics need to be. Quickly, our topic looked for a general definition of "truth," at least in movie world. Two labels came to mind: "inspired by true events" and "based on a true story."

According to our discussion, the problem with the label "inspired by true events" is that many movies are loosely rooted in truth. Thus, why apply a label to some movies, and not the others? A good example is American Gangster (2007), which claimed to be inspired by true events. Sterling Johnson, Jr., a federal judge who served as a special narcotics prosecutor and assisted the arrest and trial of Frank Lucas, described the film as "1 percent reality and 99 percent Hollywood." The judge described the real life Lucas as "illiterate," "vicious," "violent," and "everything Denzel Washington was not." Later, a $55M lawsuit was filed by the DEA agents, based on their anger about the movie's end which closed with the statement that the main characters' confessions in the movie: "led to the convictions of three-quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency" agents between 1973 and 1985. Ironically, in February 2008, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the case, though she stated bluntly that Universal's information was "wholly inaccurate."

Another Denzel Washington film, Hurricane (1999), about the boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, also claimed to be "based on a true story." Following the movie's release, several journalists reported on the movie's numerous inaccuracies. By contrast, Titanic (1997), never claimed to be a "true story," and was honest about the fact that the love story in the film was invented.

In A Beautiful Mind (2001), some people criticized the film for not including information about John Nash's divorce. Others believe that a film need not reveal all information, providing that major information is not false. Another minor criticism of the film is that Nash did not take medication for his schizophrenia after 1970.

This led our discussion to form two questions: (1) How accurate is the film? and (2) How true is it to the spirit of the movie's subject? Also, with bio-pics, there is a need to: (1) Condense material for a movie's timeline, and (2) Allow secondary characters to break the rules in order to further the plot.

Some people preferred bio-pics; whereas others preferred documentaries. For instance, Ali (2001) is a good acting performance by Will Smith, but severely pales to the real-life of Cassius Clay, Jr. A similar discussion circled around made-for-tv/cable movies Tyson (1995), Truman (1995), and John Adams (2008).

The discussion of bio-pics was full of passion, with many comments given about various movies: Fear and Loathing in Vegas (1998) about Hunter Thompson, The Doors (1991), Kontroll (2003) about Joy Division, 24 Hour Party People (2002), American Splendor (2003), I'm Not There (2007) about Bob Dylan, Private Parts (1997) about Howard Stern, and Patton (1970). Some people have had more than one bio-pic done about them: Babe Ruth, Truman Capote, Evita Peron, Cole Porter, and Alexander the Great.

Our discussion ended with a quote from John Ford's elegiac Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) with Jimmy Stewart. At the end of the story, one of the newspaper men says, "You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?" Then Maxwell Scott answers, "No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."