"This film is based on true events…"
All of you would have seen this pop-up before the commencement of a box office hit. What does this do to our mindset? Does it really change the way in which we perceive what we see? Do we not pay attention to the 3-D, but to the portrayal of the character more? Most importantly, do we rate the piece in terms of the fact that this happened for real?
These thoughts might have come across our minds one time or the other.
From Psycho through Raging Bull through Casino through Titanic up to the recent release of Snowden, true events, and characters have been portrayed ranging through every genre. The point of importance is how the fictional movies of the likes of
Marvel and DC World hit us relatively in comparison to a true heart clutching event that actually happened out there. Even here, a significant amount of fictionalization has cropped up. The boom in the commercialisation of movies has made this an important characteristic, to be taken into account. Now we as a part of the modern society, might be as attracted to the cool graphics with
Thor’s Hammer flying around as we are to a
biopic of Dr. John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind”.
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| Robert De Niro - Casino |
The making of a movie depends on the audience it has to cater to, but most importantly, what the audience expects from the movie.
This is where probably recent movies have let us down in comparison to the earlier ones. When I watched
Casino, I could feel the smoldering personality of
“Ace” & “Santoro”. It felt real, the way they went about their business, the slight attitude they had towards murder and felony. As such, the crew was able to develop and continue the realistic nature throughout. When we go down the line, and go towards movies like
Blow (2001) & of course
Revenant, although the onus is on the characters, fictionalization does not stay away. It is as though with the rise of the
Justice League, Suicide Squad, and the X-men, it has almost become necessary, that the movies require that tinge of flair, graphics and over sensationalized scenes to cater to the present audience. A number of characters played by DeNiro in the yesteryears, from the gangster and mobster world to the boxing arena, all had the
realness and the authenticity of the character stamped across it in big bold letters.
So yes, those questions asked in the beginning, bear huge significance. Now the film-making crews have resorted to making movies partly on the basis of real life events, just as is the case with more well-renowned thrillers like The
Changeling (2008) (
P.S. This movie was amazing, though because of the impeccable acting and direction). Anyway, this change in the methodology of the film crew is not required per se, as the superheroes need to sparkle the audience with eye-rattling entertainment to bring back their straying vision while the non-fictional ones just require the plot to stay in touch with real life-events with obviously the impeccable portrayal being a given. In the end, all of it is done for the
commercialisation, and in the hope that the modern society takes more to the flashy images than the relatively slow-moving reality.
Yes, if we rate the movies correctly, then I am optimistic we will get better & better in the future days!
So let’s strive to be better viewers!!
Written by Adishesh Premkumar
An ardent believer in lethargy. An astute follower of all the good things in life.
