History VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/TheAmityvilleHorror1979'' is based on a real house in a small town where some murders had been committed; a family who later bought it quickly left, claiming it was haunted and the site of several strange phenomena. However, none of the other owners reported anything out of the ordinary (and the ones who did happened to be desperate to get out of their mortgage). Each subsequent adaptation [[{{Sequelitis}} took things farther and farther from the truth]]; the [[Literature/TheAmityvilleHorror original book]] chronicled several incidents that provably didn't happen, the film made more things up, and the sequels and remakes were entirely fictitious, but all claimed a loose connection to the true story.

* ''Film/BootCamp'' is an amalgamation and fictionalization of stories from various "Tough Love" camps, without being a dramatization of any specific one of them.

* The trailer for the ghost movie ''Film/WhiteNoise'' opened with a minute-long explanation of EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) complete with "real" examples of the phenomena (which were actually made up) in an attempt to sell the audience on the film. It didn't quite work. Similarly, the [[ForeignRemake US remake]] of ''Film/{{Shutter}}'' opens with an explanation of spirit photography and a montage of photos with blurry, half-resolved images showing up, complete with mentions of how the people in the photos died soon after.

** The real Guy de Lusignan was not especially eager to go to war, and he certainly wasn't pulling Reynald's strings to make it happen. In fact, history suggests that it was ''Reynald'' who was the driving force behind the conflict, and Guy, far from the arrogant and prideful man he's depicted as in the film, was actually rather weak and lacked the spine to stand up to Raynald, and thus was dragged along for the ride.

* Infamous 1971 ReligiousHorror[=/=]historic drama ''Film/TheDevils'' is very loosely based off the fall of 17th-century Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier, resulting from accusations levied against him during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudun_possessions the nun possessions of Loudun]]. More specifically, the film was based on John Whiting's 1961 play ''The Devils'', which was itself adapted from Aldous Huxley's 1952 novel, ''The Devils of Loudon'', which was based on loose historical accounts from the 17th century. Amusingly, the film asserts with an opening disclaimer "This film is based upon historical fact. The principal characters lived and the major events depicted in the film actually took place." (the degree to how generous of a description this is is like saying ''Film/ThreeHundred'' is a "dramatization" on the UsefulNotes/GrecoPersianWars).

* ''Film/{{Anonymous}}'' is based on the theory that Edward [=DeVere=], the Earl of Oxford, wrote Creator/WilliamShakespeare's plays. Aside from how that theory has little to no actual proof behind it, the movie has no grasp of chronology, presents Queen Elizabeth as having multiple bastard children (she's known as the "Virgin Queen" for a reason), and generally presents everyone involved in such a way that if they had any living descendants, it would be grounds for a defamation suit.

* ''Film/{{Errementari}}: The Devil and the Blacksmith'' is inspired by [[DealWithTheDevil/FolkloreAndFairyTales the Spanish legends]] of a blacksmith's DealWithTheDevil, but the closing narration puts it in this category.

* ''Film/{{Sunset}}'': While highly fictional, the film does contain a few elements of truth. Wyatt Earp did live in Hollywood in the 1920s, did act as a technical adviser on several silent Westerns, and was close friends with Tom Mix (who served as a pallbearer at Earp's funeral). The murder in the movie is very loosely based on the events surrounding the death of Thomas Ince (which did not involve Earp or Mix in any way). The film's closing titles admit this in a reference to a repeated quote from the film itself that "that's the way it really happened, give or take a lie or two."

* ''Film/{{Thunderheart}}'': The film is based on actual incidents on and around the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota during the 1970s, which John Trudell (Jimmy Looks Twice) participated in personally (he was chairman of AIM). His character also bears a great resemblance to his friend Leonard Peltier, who was controversially convicted in the murders of two FBI agents (Peltier remains imprisoned, and a documentary about this came out in the same year, entitled ''Incident at Oglala'' See also Peter Mathiesen's book ''In the Spirit of Crazy Horse''). The Aboriginal Rights Movements clearly represents the American Indian Movement as well, which both Trudell and Peltier were prominent members of. Jack Milton (Fred Ward) is pretty clearly an {{expy}} of pro-government tribal council president Dick Wilson, whose followers are alleged to have murdered numerous dissidents. The Guardians of the Oglala Nation ([=GOONs=]) appear much as they're reported to have behaved. The schoolteacher Maggie Eagle Bear is based on Anna Mae Pictou Aquash (Mi'kmaq), the highest ranking woman in AIM -- [[spoiler:including her rape and murder, which remains officially unsolved although Russell Means and others believe it was an inside job by AIM members who believed she was an FBI informant]].

* ''Cobb'', starring Creator/TommyLeeJones, is about the last days of baseball legend Ty Cobb based on the accounts of sportswriter Al Stump, whose biographical exaggerations and fabrications of Ty Cobb's life deserve their own page; suffice to say that his work prompted a peer-reviewed article from the Society for American Baseball Research stating that [[https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-georgia-peach-stumped-by-the-storyteller/ "Al Stump is a proven liar, proven forger, likely thief, and certainly a provocateur who created fabricated and sensationalized stories"]] which viciously and undeservedly dragged Cobb's legacy through the mud. However, the movie goes even further than Stump's publications by including a purely fictional attempted rape scene. When asked about it by a journalist, director Ron Shelton admitted he and Al Stump (who was consulted for the film) had added it because [[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/books/review/ty-cobb-a-terrible-beauty-by-charles-leerhsen.html "It felt like the sort of thing that Cobb might do."]]

* ''Film/ThehorseSoldiers'' is a highly fictionalized version of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grierson%27s_Raid Grierson's Raid in Mississippi]].

* ''Film/CoolRunnings'' is based on a true story about a team of bobsledders from Jamaica, in the sense that "in 1988 the Winter Olympics bobsledding event included a team from Jamaica." In real life, it wasn't quite as quirky or dramatic. The idea came from two American businessmen, not the athletes themselves. The businessmen recruited the athletes from the military (so they weren't three sprinters and a competitive pushcart driver) and provided funding themselves (obviating the wacky fundraising antics the team resorted to in the film). The bobsledders' real names aren't even used in the film. The film portrays the other athletes in Calgary as [[TheRival jealous rivals]], whereas in real life, the other athletes were extremely supportive of them -- in fact, the film version's biggest rivals, the East German team, provided the Jamaicans with equipment and coaching in real life. And despite being feted throughout the city, they had only middling success.

* Creator/RolandEmmerich's ''Film/ThePatriot'' is basically a loose and [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory PC version]] of the real life of Francis Marion. If you ask, no, he didn't free his slaves.

* ''Film/{{Zola}}'' is based on the Twitter-infamous Zola story and subsequent 2015 ''Magazine/RollingStone'' [[https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/zola-tells-all-the-real-story-behind-the-greatest-stripper-saga-ever-tweeted-73048/ article]], about the titular Zola going to Florida to dance at a club with someone she just met and getting caught up in sex work instead. The film is mostly a straightforward retelling of the Twitter thread with the names changed, however, some details of Zola's story have been disputed by the others involved, and Zola herself admitted that some scenes in the film were altered for effect.

* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' made no qualms about being a heavily fictionalized telling of the Facebook story, right down to portraying Mark Zuckerberg as a pompous JerkAss when the real one is known to be a very shy and modest person. It was [[Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad pretty much necessary]], as the real story of Facebook's creation is pretty dull and uninteresting.[[note]]Not that this treatment is unusual for a tech startup; Silicon Valley venture capitalists have been known to invent quirky origin stories in real life for startup companies, because it's easier to attract funding that way.[[/note]] The most accurate bit of the film is the opening narration, where Zuckerberg describes how he's hacking all the individual facebooks at Harvard, lifted mostly from a real blog post Zuckerberg had made at the time. There was also the depositions given; the majority of it was most likely lifted word for word from the real transcripts.

* Used InUniverse in ''Film/ThreeHundred'' -- the basic sequence of events is true to life, but the story is being told by a Greek storyteller who is [[UnreliableNarrator playing up the Spartans' heroism and adding fantastic elements to the story]]. The movie itself is obviously not supposed to even remotely mirror the real battle, what with the giant monsters, the fortune-telling oracle, and the goat-boy. However, the film was still criticized for historical inaccuracy concerning the bits the narrator wouldn't have any reason to lie about (''e.g.'' depicting the Ephors as priests of the Oracle rather than senior magistrates).

* ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'' edges into this at points. The greater historical events surrounding the Battle of Hattin (the film's climax) are held relatively true to history, but many of the film's main characters bear little resemblance to their historical counterparts:

** The real Guy de Lusignan was not especially eager to go to war, and he certainly wasn't pulling Reynald's strings to make it happen. In fact, history suggests that it was Reynald who was the driving force behind the conflict, and Guy, far from the arrogant and prideful man he's depicted as in the film, lacked the spine to stand up to Raynald and thus was dragged along for the ride.
** The theatrical cut of the film depicts the throne as passing directly from Baldwin IV to Guy. In reality, the King's young nephew was his successor, and it was only after the child's premature death that the throne reverted back to Sibylla to choose the next King. Scenes depicting this part of the story were written and shot, but were cut from the theatrical release for time; this arc is included in the director's cut. (This is largely a case of PragmaticAdaptation, since cutting out this arc has little bearing on the movie's plot.)

* ''Film/CocaineBear'' is based on a true story about a black bear consuming a package of jettisoned cocaine. While the trailer depicts the coked-up bear going on a rampage and killing several people, however, the real-life bear simply died shortly after without any indications of violence.