Written by Aaron Sorkin, and directed by David Fincher, The Social Network asserts itself as the story about Mark Zuckerberg, the creation of Facebook, and the ensuing lawsuits ,while never actually announcing itself as such (there’s no title card at the beginning of the film proclaiming it to be “based on a true story”). Each of these films had to deal with the problem of where to divert from reality and how to present that altered story to the movie going public, and each did so in a strikingly different fashion. Let’s take a look at three different films: The Social Network, Argo, and Zero Dark Thirty. My personal philosophy is that, while story does indeed trump fact in theory, presentation and intent on the part of the screenwriter and filmmakers does indeed matter.īefore we dive in, don't miss the deadline for our True Story & Public Domain Screenplay Competition: But is that really the case? Like most things, the answer isn’t nearly as black and white as the more vocal proponents on both sides of the argument would have you believe. If altering the facts makes for a stronger narrative, a more compelling story, then you should change it. But they’re questions that have, over the past few years, become more and more of a hotly debated topic as several high profile, award nominated (and winning) films have come under fire for playing a little too loose with the facts.Ĭonventional wisdom out of Hollywood has always been that story trumps the truth when writing a script that is based on real world events. As storytellers, what responsibility do we have to represent factual truth accurately in our work? These are heavy questions, far removed from the usual superficial obsessions of screenwriters the world of formatting questions, story beats, and character voice.
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