6

Bridge Of Spies -- The American POW Wasn't Tortured, Spent Most Of His Time Knitting

DreamWorks Pictures

5

The Danish Girl Completely Rewrites A Lead Character's Sexual Orientation

Focus Features

The Danish Girl tells the story of artist Einar Wegener, who became Lili Elbe, one of the first recipients of sex reassignment surgery and a celebrated pioneer for the trans community. The movie presents Einar's predilection for crossdressing as something that begins as a fun game between he and his wife, Gerda. But as he commits to living as a woman, it kills their sex life and sends Gerda into the arms of Hans, a handsome childhood friend of Einar.

Focus Features

The Real Story:

The historical consensus seems to be that Gerda was bisexual, with different historians insisting that Gerda "lived openly as a lesbian" and that "Lili and Gerda were very much on an adventure together." Consequently, the idea that Einar's sexual awakening caused any kind of rift in their marriage seems kind of laughable.

Rewriting Gerda's sexuality could simply be chalked up to the need to create dramatic tension -- although a review of the film in Variety suggests that maybe the film's producers didn't think that audiences would sit through a story with both transgender and bisexual elements, mentioning that Gerda's sexuality was "conspicuously omitted, so as not to complicate the film's politics."

Also, while The Danish Girl is advertised as being an "extraordinary true story" ...

Focus Features

... it's actually based on a novel of the same name, which was a fictionalized version of Einar/Lili's life. In the book, Gerda is renamed Greta and is an American widow with a "helpful twin," sort of like Danny DeVito in Twins. In case it is unclear, neither of those details are accurate. The book is also the source of the Hans character, whom from what we can tell never existed.

4

Straight Outta Compton -- Dr. Dre's Constant Assaults On Women And A Founding N.W.A. Member Were Both Omitted

Universal Studios

Straight Outta Compton is a biopic about the formation of the legendary rap group N.W.A. The film was overseen by both Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. It even features Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., in a genuinely good performance, instead of the whirlwind of clusterfuckedness that such nepotism usually delivers.

*cough*

The Real Story:

Straight Outta Compton left out some key biopic-esque details, such as all the times Dr. Dre beat the shit out of women. These include his girlfriend and a TV journalist, whom he choked and tried to throw down a flight of stairs. It seems the latter incident was in an earlier draft of the script, but was eventually cut, possibly because the filmmakers didn't want a scene wherein their main character treats women like John McClane on the wing of a taxing jumbo jet. So many people called bullshit on this glossing over of a reality of documented abuse that even Apple (who recently acquired the unfortunately-named Beats by Dre) made a statement on the matter.

Also conspicuously absent from the movie is one of the goddamned members of N.W.A. Arabian Prince, a founding member of the group, left right before the album Straight Outta Compton came out, but he still contributed a track to the record and posed for the cover -- a fact that's glaringly apparent when comparing the five guys on the poster to the six guys on the album

Universal Studios, Universal Music Group

3

Steve Jobs -- Jobs Made More Money From Pixar Than From Apple, And His "Triumphant" Return Almost Destroyed The Company

Universal Studios

Despite the fact that there have been a seemingly endless parade of Steve Jobs movies recently, this year's Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender as the titular Wizard of Rich People Toys, offers a lot of new insight into the man. For instance, he was way more handsome than you realized.

Universal Studios

The movie is divided into three segments, each featuring a different product launch. We see the backstage shenanigans of Jobs, who spends most of his time denying his paternity of his daughter and yelling at people. The second segment of the movie takes place after Jobs was fired from Apple and was in the midst of launching the NeXT. While that computer was ultimately a failure, the movie tells us that this was all part of Jobs' Machiavellian scheme to create an OS that Apple would want to buy, thus setting the stage for his triumphant return to the company.

2

Black Mass -- Whitey Bulger Was Tortured By The Government

Warner Bros.

Since Johnny Depp seemingly refuses any role that doesn't require a ridiculous costume and a silly voice, Black Mass was a perfect choice. It tells the true story of mob boss Whitey Bulger, but also allows for some heavy prosthetics and a ridiculous Boston accent that sounds like Tom Waits ate Ben Affleck.

Warner Bros.

1

The Walk -- After Crossing The Twin Towers, Philippe Petit Bailed On His Friends To Fuck A Groupie

TriStar Pictures

The Walk tells the true story of how French high-wire artist Philippe Petit broke into the World Trade Center and walked on a wire between the twin towers back in the 1970s. While the movie wasn't a huge hit, its recreation of the towers will likely be up for some awards -- especially if the Academy finally creates a special category for Special Achievement in Making the Audience Scream Vertigo Puke Into Their Laps.

TriStar Pictures

The Real Story:

Petit's story was already covered in the Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire, which includes some more salient details left out of The Walk. For example, The Walk ends with Philippe being released from jail and going to dinner with his friends, who all put themselves at considerable risk to help him pull off his daring stunt. Then his girlfriend leaves New York, telling him: "You accomplished your dream, now it's time for me to find mine."

Yeah, none of that shit happened. As Petit himself explains in the documentary, as soon as he got out of jail, a random girl in the gathered crowd grabbed him, saying that she wanted to be the first person to celebrate with him. He then found himself on a waterbed in a New York loft engaging in "pleasure of the flesh," which is a phrase here meaning "nailing a groupie."

Neal Boenzi/The New York Times

All those friends who had broken the law for him? Petit called and told them he was tied up giving interviews, and that he wouldn't be able to join them for their celebratory dinner. You may recognize this as the type of lie a terrible father tells his child to explain why he missed their birthday.

The Walk ends with a caption which tells us that Petit's friends returned to France, which is a somewhat gentle way of saying that they were fucking deported. Petit himself received a slap on the wrist and lives in New York to this day, where he presumably teaches future generations how to immediately destroy all their personal relationships in the wake of achieving a life goal.

J.M. McNab co-hosts the pop culture nostalgia podcast Rewatchability which can also be found on iTunes. Follow him on Twitter @Rewatchability.

It turns out that Hollywood is full of "true stories" loaded with bullshit, but you already knew that, so go ahead and get to reading 6 Horrifying Endings That 'True Story' Movies Left Out and 6 Movies Based On A True Story That Left Out Important Stuff.

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