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The movie industry wouldn't have reason to complain. Reality-based films have long done well at the Oscars. "Studios like to make money, and they like to win Oscars. Making big franchise pictures makes you money, and making true stories wins you Oscars," says movie-biz analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co. "I think it's as simple as that." These things fluctuate, but the general trend is upward. Early Best Picture winners tended to be inventions; since 1970 and Patton, a dozen true-story movies have taken home the prize.
But fear not, fantasizers: historicity doesn't mean the end of creativity. In Hollywood, reality is relative. The zone where the audience knows that something happened, just not exactly what, is where Oscar-worthy magic happens. Take The Wolf of Wall Street: "Not everybody knows the story of [brokerage firm] Stratton Oakmont, but everyone's aware of the shenanigans of Wall Street," says Creutz. And that balancing act--you know context, not details--allows filmmakers to take liberties with history. Here's how this year's Best Picture nominees did just that:
The Wolf of Wall Street. Believe it or not, Wolf sticks pretty close to actual events, at least if you accept the outrageous memoir on which it's based. That lets it perfectly strike a note of "You knew it was bad, but you won't believe just how bad." The real Jordan Belfort, who has a brief cameo at the end of the film, scammed his way into millions and engaged in seemingly endless bouts of debauchery. It's not only the pump-and-dump stock scheme that's in his book but also the dwarf tossing and yacht sinking. The story, meanwhile, continues beyond the film: the U.S. attorney's office and Belfort's real-life victims have renewed their restitution efforts.
American Hustle. Director David O. Russell's film twists the true-story genre, even subbing "Some of this actually happened" for the usual opening-title card and creating characters (played by nominees Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence) who are largely fictitious or only loosely based on the real players. Still, the crazy story of a con artist who helps the FBI nab corrupt politicians is even crazier given that the 1970s FBI operation known as Abscam really happened. The cultural touchstones of the era did too--you couldn't make up those hairdos if you tried.
Captain Phillips. Tom Hanks plays shipping captain Richard Phillips, whose vessel was boarded by Somali pirates in 2009--an attack that led to his capture and dramatic rescue. The practical-minded captain really did attempt to deter his eventual captors by faking a call to the Navy and later trying to swim away. Director Paul Greengrass and screenwriter Billy Ray take poetic license on the emotional side: Hanks' Phillips and the Somali pirates who capture him (led by Best Supporting Actor nominee Barkhad Abdi) develop the kind of rapport that doesn't happen when you're not just pretending to be kidnapped by pirates.