Based on a true story - Yeah Right!

The Film: A factory owner's fiance wants to sell the failing shoe factory off to a property developer. But the owner wants to save his family's history, and protect his workforce. So with the help of a drag queen he revitalises his business selling kinky boots to transvestites, and finds his true love on the factory floor.

The Fact: A factory owner tries selling shoes to transvestites, but when that fails he sells the factory to a property developer and lives happily ever after with his wife and kids.

The film: A Roman general loses his family and becomes a slave, then he learns to be a gladiator, a gladiator who defied the emperor and fights to the death.

The Fact: The emperor wasn't the villain as portrayed, in fact he was held in high esteem by the senate and ruled for a successful 13 years (rather than the few months shown in the film). The emperor also wasn't killed by a gladiator, but by a wrestler named Narcissus in a bath.

The film: 300 Spartans stand fast against the invading Persian empire.

The Fact: The film was based on a graphic novel, so whilst true to the print, it wasn't meant to be historically accurate. If you want to see just how different the truth is you need to read history, The Battle of Thermopylae in particular. The lead character in fact had a huge army, but knowing he was being outflanked the bulk of the Greek army was dismisssed to protect and build up defences. The 300 Spartans also had at their side 700 Thespian, 400 Thebans and a few hundred others, to guard the rear.

The Film: A boxer boasting great talent, was a promising middleweight who was falsely accused and convicted of a triple homicide, derailing his boxing career. In the movie there is a scene where 'Hurricane' beats Giardello, an inferior white boxer, only to lose when blatantly racist judges award the fight to the white man.

The Fact: In real life, Hurricane lost the fight so badly that the real Giardello sued the filmmakers over the scene and got a nice settlement out of it. LOL Sometimes it pays to keep it real!

The Film: An anti-war liberal is given a radio show where he is anarchic and rants about the establishment and Army. For his troubles he is sent off to be killed but is saved by one of the locals he has befriended and when he returns safely he is booted out of the Army.

The Fact: The lead character did indeed play some good records, but he rarely did comedy bits, and has stated for the record that everything Williams did in the film would have gotten him court-martialed. He was also never booted from the military, but went home when his tour was over.

The Film: A young white Math genius excelling at MIT, joins the Blackjack team, then is whisked off to Las Vegas to win big, or so they hope. But things don't go according to plan.

The Fact: The main characters upon which the movie is based were all Asian. Although you wouldn't think so from the cast!

The Film: A hard-working and good man wants to earn enough money to provide for his son. Wanting to pass the test to become a stock broker, he toils for months, sleeping in subways and churches with his son at his side. In the end it all pays off when he claims the opening at Dean Witter.

The Fact: A man so focused on getting a job and earning millions that he didn't even know where his son was for the first few months of the program. He also isn't the angel of the movie, being accused of domestic violence, doing and selling drugs, having a mistress on the side and his son was conceived whilst he was still married to another woman.

The Film: The story of William Wallace and his fight for FRREEEEDOM.

The Fact: William Wallace was actually from a very noble family, his father Malcolm wasn't killed by the English, but fought on the English side in exchange for political favor. Oh and no Scots wore belted plaids, let alone kilts of any kind at that time! I could go on and on, but I'll just say treat this as a film based on a poem!.

The Film: Horse-riding warlords kidnap the main characters woman, so a small group of hunters head off to rescue them.

The Fact: Hmm pre-history isn't my major, but I don't think Pyramids were popular back then and not in that location.

The Film: A car salesman hires two men to kidnap his wife for a ransom of $80,000. This sets off a chain of murders, which in turn are investigated by pregnant small-town police chief.

The Fact: None, not a bit, it's all fiction. Although I do believe there are real life car salesmen and police chiefs out there!

The Film: Allied prisoners of war must play the Germans in a game of football (soccer) - during the match they hope to escape to victory, but the need to win at all costs sees them play to the end.


The Fact: No British, Americans or even Pele took part! It was a 100% Ukrainian team, whose players were spotted by the Germans and were invited to play against an army team - the Ukrainians won. The team then played a series of matches against German teams, emerging victorious in all of them. In the end the Gestapo started to pick on team members and all were sent to prison. Most of the team died in prison, but a few survived, certainly no escape to victory!

The Film: American cowboy Frank T. Hopkins is the first outsider to be invited by a wealthy Sheik to race in the greatest long-distance horse race ever run. Hopkins was once a dispatch rider for the U.S. cavalry and is known as the greatest long-distance rider in the West. While Hopkins is working in the Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, the Sheik's emissary challenges him to enter the race, which he accepts. This race has been held every year for the last thousand years, and has only been open to the purest line of Arabian horses ever bred. Hopkins' horse, Hidalgo, a small mixed-breed mustang, was regarded as impure, and therefore shouldn't be in the race with pure-bred Arabian stallions. The `Ocean of Fire' race is a gruelling 3,000-mile survival horse race across the Arabian Desert with the winner receiving $100,000 as prize money and the honour of being the best in the world. The 100-entry race is a battle of endurance and survival and only a few make it to the finish line, alive.

The Fact: No record exists of a Mr. Frank Hopkins birth or residence at Ft. Laramie exists; His name wasn't discovered in the U.S. Calvary records where he claims to have been the best of the best.
A race he claims to have won between Galveston and Vermont is not documented in any newspapers or oral histories; Mr. Hopkins claimed he was born in 1865, yet when he married in the 1900s, he listed his birth date as 1886 (or somewhere around that year). If true, he would have been only 3 years old when the Arabian race was run; Oceans of Fire, the Arabian race, which had supposedly been a yearly event for 1,000 years, has never been documented by writing or by oral tradition.
No record exists of Mr. Hopkins ever working with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show; No facts could be found about Mr. Hopkins participating in any races at all.

Submitted by CelShader