Current Events > I hate it when "true" stories make villains out of people.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's one thing if a person had done something wrong and that's what's being exploited for drama. It's another if you just turn a decent individual into a bad person for the sake of story-telling.

The Butler

The guy who gives him his job is a bigot who is won over by his personality. Except, he wasn't. He gave the man a fair break, but that's not drama. So we're gonna make him a bigot despite him being a fair guy.

Heaven and Earth

Her first husband was kind to her. It was her second husband who was abusive. The movie makes them into a composite character, sullying the first husband's good name in the process.

The Revenant

Hugh Glass was abandoned -- possibly by Fitzgerald. So, the movie turns Fitzgerald into a racist, a thief, and a murderer. The revenge plot was entirely made up, so why couldn't Fitzgerald have just been a fictional character instead of a historic individual? Abandoning a man who is 9/10ths dead may not be entirely ethical, but it's a lot different from stabbing a man's son.

For the record, The Revenant was a fantastic film. I'd recommend it to anyone with a high tolerance for violence. It's drama. It's action. It's has fantastic characterizations. I'd believe you if you told me Leonardo DiCaprio legitimately allowed himself to be mauled by a bear to win his Oscar.

Go see it if you haven't already.

That said, it's still a bit of a sting that they tacked on a bunch of stuff to a historical figure that he didn't do because of one action which made him an ideal fit for the villain in a narrative.

The only example I can think of is the Canadian UN guy from Hotel Rwanda IIRC.
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