Hollywood Loves to Rewrite History

It’s 2016, and the infamous 1994 Bronco-led police chase that ended with the fall of one of America’s biggest celebrities — and the start of one of the strangest and most infamous court cases in recent American history — is still capturing the attention of television viewers and the media.

“American Crime Story,” the dramatic retelling of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, is nabbing record-breaking ratings for FX, as well as injecting new interest in an old case.

The bizarre latest development seems fitting to the now-absurd legal ordeal. A knife was discovered by police that carried a possible connection to the murders O.J. Simpson was acquitted of in 1995. Authorities say the knife was given to a retired traffic cop and kept as a souvenir for years, only recently being discovered. Despite much speculation and much media coverage, a preliminary test review found the blade to be unconnected to the 1994 murders, according to The New York Post and NBC News.

Arguably, without “American Crime Story” dramatically retelling the ’90s tale of celebrity and murder, this new “evidence” would have been little more than a footnote for most news outlets. However, the show is capturing the attention of a new generation and bringing forth a larger question about public perception and the blending of fact and fiction.

The power of pop culture, specifically through dramatic storytelling, is undeniable, especially in our social media-controlled world. Who would have known about Steven Avery’s life sentence or bizarre Wisconsin case if not for the Netflix phenomenon, “Making a Murderer?” The injustices were always there, but it wasn’t until they were given the heft of storytellers that petitions were made and public outrage existed on a national level.

The power of the storytelling is what brought focus and attention to a story that seemingly needed it. However, “Making a Murderer” and “American Crime Story” are pieces of a larger question in regard to pop culture and history. Both have been disputed by a variety of sources for a number of factual fudges, yet both act, or are beginning to act, as definitive accounts of real life events for the public.

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The blending of facts and fictional retellings is not a new phenomenon. However, that blend’s effect on culture seems to be up for debate. Andrew Butler, writing in the Psychological Science journal that found children recalled events told through film and storytelling far better than from factual text, even when the movie version was wrong.

“When information in the film was consistent with information in the text, watching the film clips increased correct recall by about 50 percent relative to reading the text alone,” he said. “In contrast, when information in the film directly contradicted the text, people often falsely recalled the misinformation portrayed in the film, sometimes as much as 50 percent of the time.”

There’s no doubt films can often act as the definitive version of historical events, yet their needed manipulation of facts and simplification of events for dramatic purposes, can blend very strangely with real life accounts.

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The 1976 film “All the President’s Men” told an important story by recounting the exposure of the Watergate scandal. The most famous line from the film, “Follow the money,” is now remembered by most as a signature to the story of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The quote, admitted screenwriter William Goldman later, was never uttered by either. He just needed an easily digestible line for one of them to sum up their complicated research and investigation.

The significance of the famous adage perhaps showcases the impact of pop culture more than anything. However, some recent films have retold important historical events and then have come under fire for taking dramatic liberties.

Director/actor Ben Affleck told the story of the Iran hostage crisis of ’79-’81 that resulted in the CIA rescuing six American diplomats in 2012 film “Argo.” The movie took so many liberties with the story, the CIA itself jumped to Twitter on the 35th anniversary of the event to set the record straight on all the points the movie missed or falsified.

Other recent releases like “The Butler” and “Selma” have come under fire from historians and culture watchers for oversimplifying history, while also portraying certain events and real life figures in unfair or plainly wrong lights. “Selma” was criticized for its depiction of President Lyndon B. Johnson, while “The Butler” took heat for its depiction of President Ronald Reagan.

“Selma” director Ava DuVernay responded to criticism of her film’s accuracy at a New York luncheon where she told the audience, “I’m not gonna argue history.” DuVernay’s frustration and comments speak to the overall question of what responsibility creators carry when telling real life stories.

Matthew Killmeier, an associate professor of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Southern Maine, says the concept of dramatic storytelling is just that — dramatic. 

“The problem is not with creators. The problem is a collective one,” he says. “Pop culture is more of an art form than a documentary.” Killmeier points to journalism itself and political campaigns to showcase that people are always looking for a story, not just cold hard facts.

“The simple answer is it’s more entertaining,” he says. “We shouldn’t expect films to be historically accurate.” Using Oliver Stone’s much bloated and fictionalized retelling of the JFK assassination and investigation as an example of dramatic storytelling sinking its teeth into people’s minds, he notes that pop culture still has the power to make people seek the facts and to act as a doorway to further knowledge.

We live in a world where some people don’t know the Titanic was real, and others think “The Martian” was based on a true story. Seriously.

However, we also live in a world where dramatic storytelling has the power to cement stories that may otherwise be lost to a uncaring public. At the very least, these stories introduce the world to wild and important events that should be known. “American Crime Story” will, at the very least, provide the contribution of never letting people forget the “Juice” and his controversial murder acquittal, even if there are some embellished facts and strange media happenings along the way.