Why real life characters in films inspire us
It might have been Oscar Wilde’s contention that life imitates art more than art imitates life, but where movies are concerned, real life has been seemly fodder for recreation on screen with the tags ranging from ‘inspired by an actual event’ to ‘based on a true story’ and the treatment, loose adaptions to exact depictions that went extra lengths to maintain accuracy of the events and characters.
From early times, films based on historical and contemporary events have caught the imagination of movie buffs and the reality element has always drawn inquisitive droves to cinema halls. There is something acutely appealing about a story that we know had its genesis somewhere other than the writer’s head, something engaging about a tale that we realize had indeed taken place somewhere on this earth, something undeniably relatable to screenplays based on incidents that had happened to people as real as us.
The popularity of this genre is vouched by the clean sweep they make at award functions and film festivals, more so in the recent years. The fact that many of this year’s Oscar nominees are ‘true stories’ validates the claim that no story captivates the audience (or the jury, for that matter) as much as interpretations of real life, but it also provokes questions of veracity as a virtue in such portrayals. There are the habitual detractors who decry the absence of originality and creative instincts in these ‘remakes’. There are those nitpickers who cry foul at the liberties the film maker takes to fatten up the story, and there are those who simply dismiss them as rubbish accessorized with reality frills to hoodwink an unsuspecting public. There might be some scrap of truth in all these accusations, for any form art when refashioned will shear a bit of the original from it. Reality can never be replicated, it can only be re-created, but if such pictures succeed in bringing out the true story in ways that also entertain, should we take undue exception to the ‘artification’ of it? How much of deviation and dressing up can we, as audience, allow in the ‘reel representation’ of facts?
Every time a biopic or a film based on a true incident is released, critics hasten to determine the glaring inaccuracies and damn the effort as an inexcusable anomaly. The inconsistencies between documented facts and their aesthetic illustrations are inevi- table, for movies are not documentaries, obviously. What makes the former so much more watchable than the latter are the layers that a film maker adds to it with his aesthetic skills and sensibilities. The sub contexts he creates to give engaging aspects to his work of art are very often deliberate, for his intention is not only to present reality but also to build a background and a milieu that complement the reality. In doing so, he often takes liberties to suit the craft of storytelling, for that is what he essentially is – a raconteur, and not a chronicler or historian.
A responsible filmmaker knows how far he can stretch his imagination while dealing with facts. He does not take his audience to be blockheads who will lap up any raucous lie as veritable illustrations of life. While the theme and storyline might be tied to an actual happening, not all things that accompany it on screen need to have taken place in reality. A parallel plot, an added whip of theatrics, emotional elements that will bring the viewer closer to the characters will only enhance the on screen experience of events that one has only heard or read about. He does not lose sight of the fact that his creation is only an artistic rendering of a reportage. In doing so he effectively reveals life as lived by others elsewhere, in conditions that we can barely relate to, and make us vicariously feel the pleasures and pains of living differently. It inspires, motivates, makes us contemplative in a way fiction does not, for what we see are live illustrations of the indomitable human spirit triumphing over inhuman instincts and killer disasters. We see bravery and fear, love and revenge, grit and tenacity, all simulated in circumstances that for someone had been tangibly real.
When the characters in true life movies face challenges and fight adversities, we gain strength from them for we know none of their battles were concocted. They leave a cheat sheet for us to follow in extreme circumstances, and instil hope and faith in us. At the core, they are true accounts wrapped in stories, presenting to us man’s truest nature and life’s inexplicable mysteries, ecstasies and complexities. If the spirit is intact, then accuracy may be slightly compromised – for movies are only a form of art. And art, according to Plato only imitates reality. Not once, but twice.
When the characters in true life movies face challenges and fight adversities, we gain strength from them