History Main / BasedOnAGreatBigLie

* The film adaptation of ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' inverts this by providing a disclaimer at the beginning of the film to the effect that "According to repeated statements by both Soviet and American governments, ''nothing'' of what you are about to see ''ever'' happened." The audience is quite pointedly left to draw their own conclusions.
* Done in-universe in ''Film/TheDebt'', which drives the plot. [[spoiler: For the record, it didn't.]]

* Done in-universe in ''Film/TheDebt'', which drives the plot.

* ''TheSevenPercentSolution'' states that it is the "true story" of what happened during Sherlock Holmes's legendary "Great Hiatus" from 1891-94. Then the title card goes on to state, "Only the facts are made up."

* ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'', a notorious anti-Semitic tract claiming to be the records of a meeting by a Jewish cabal plotting to TakeOverTheWorld. In reality, it was written by the Okhrana, the SecretPolice of TsaristRussia, as a tool for starting pogroms with and otherwise convincing people that anything other than reactionary Christian monarchy was directly authored by {{Satan}}, and was later carried into western Europe and the US by White Russians in the wake of RedOctober. It was exposed as a forgery by ''[[BritishNewspapers The Times]]'' of London in 1921, which revealed that large sections of the book were cribbed wholesale from a 19th century anti-Napoleonic tract. Even so, it was made part of the school curriculum in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, and anti-Semites to this day cite it as "evidence" of a Jewish conspiracy.

* CamperVanBeethoven originally claimed their CoverAlbum of FleetwoodMac's ''Tusk'' was a series of lost recordings they made while snowed in on a retreat in 1987, which they remixed and added some overdubs to for it's release in 2002. The band later admitted it was entirely new recordings: they wanted to see if they could get along in the studio after reuniting, but didn't want to write new songs, and decided the results of the experiment would be better received if they passed it off as some old forgotten demos instead of a new studio album.

** That book heavily inspired ''TheDaVinciCode'', which caused an identical resurgence in public interest. Amusingly, the authors of the first book sued Brown for plagiarism, but it was pointed out that [[MortonsFork either they claim that the book is true, thus destroying their own case, as you cannot copyright history and facts; or that it was false, thus destroying whatever credibility they had and losing anyway as you can't copyright ideas. Needless to say, they lost.]] ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' got a name drop in TheDaVinciCode, as one of Teabing's[[hottip:*: An anagram of "Baigent", one of the authors of ''HBHG'']] resources on the Grail yet many people seem to squall about the book being "ripped off" [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch without ever noticing]] its acknowledgment within the book that apparently ripped it off so entirely. The ideas posited in ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' were essentially used as a MacGuffin in the story, as various Holy Grails so often are. The mistake [[DanBrowned Dan Brown]] made was the same mistake the authors of ''Holy Blood'' made, which was claiming it was all based on fact instead of what could amount to EpilepticTrees.

** Ed and Lorraine Warren themselves are (were in Ed's case) self professed demonologists. Opinions may differ in terms of their reliability when it comes to cases, [[ParanormalState shows]], and other investigators such as [[GhostHunters Jason Hawes]] that they have been involved with.

** It's also worth noting that, for all it's inaccuracy and exaggeration, some scholars have commented that it is at least roughly consistent with the contemporary traditions of heroic fiction; for example, while the Greeks historically fought in an unbroken phalanx, they often depicted themselves fighting in a more heroic melee, as in the film. Even if it's nonsense, it's the sort of nonsense which the Spartans themselves would probably have appreciated, so that's something.
* Back in the 70s, the very first "snuff" film ([[SarcasmMode imaginatively]] entitled ''[[http://www.agonybooth.com/snuff/ Snuff]]'') purported to depict the actual on-camera murder of an actress. Despite all the controversy that was stirred up -- which actually was the entire point -- the murder was later revealed to be a hoax, albeit a not-quite convincing one. In fact, the distributors of the movie had actually just bought some random South American B-Movie and grafted on their own, completely different short bit of footage (the "snuff"), replacing the [[NoEnding actual movie's ending]].
** That, coupled by the fact that the snuff footage looked ''unbelievably'' fake. [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Snuff_1976.aspx?Page=9 See for yourself]].

* In a similar vein for the older ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'', the advertising of it as real footage caused so much outrage that its director was arrested and dragged to court - on charges of murder - and once there he had not only to admit it was all a great big lie but show the actors to the judge to prove that they were all alive and well. This was ''further'' complicated because, as part of their contractual agreements, the actors were legally obligated to keep away from the public eye for a full year, in order to help hype the movie. A second deal nullifying the first had to be struck with the studio before the actors were allowed to testify.

* ''TheBlairWitchProject'' does this deliberately and plays it to the hilt.
* In a similar vein for the older ''CannibalHolocaust'', the advertising of it as real footage caused so much outrage that its director was arrested and dragged to court - on charges of murder - and once there he had not only to admit it was all a great big lie but show the actors to the judge to prove that they were all alive and well. This was ''further'' complicated because, as part of their contractual agreements, the actors were legally obligated to keep away from the public eye for a full year, in order to help hype the movie. A second deal nullifying the first had to be struck with the studio before the actors were allowed to testify.
* ''TheLastSamurai'' is based on an odd amalgamation of the historical Satsuma rebellion and the part played in the earlier Boshin war by French officer Jules Brunet. The "guns vs swords" plot is particularly ironic, considering that even the real "last samurai" of the Satsuma rebellion openly embraced modern weaponry for the tactical advantages it offered. The decline of the samurai class in real life came about in a much slower and less dramatic fashion and there were certainly no embittered American Civil War heroes involved.

* ''Series/SquareOneTV'''s ''Mathnet'' (a ''{{Dragnet}}'' parody) always started with the same narration - "The story you're about to see is a fib, but it's short. The names are made up but the problems are real."

* One ''WoodyWoodpecker'' cartoon (a parody of Dragnet) begins with "The story you are about to see is a big fat lie. No names have been changed to protect anyone."

** The book was presnted as a history written long after the events described therein. Interestingly, its publishers update the "historical" time frame with each new edition. It was originally published in 1964 describing events in 1975. Later releases said 1986 and 1998. The most recent version says 2029.

** For all its rather loose approach to actual events, ex-pirate DJs who were there at the time say the film ''does'' capture the flavour of shipboard life quite well.

** ''Breaking Amish'', which became a big hit for TLC, purported to show five young people, four Amish and one Mennonite, who had left their communities and were coming to the big city for the first time. In fact they had all been living in the secular world for years, one for over a decade. Two of the cast members that were shown going on their "first date" on the show had really been involved for years and had a child together before the show started recording.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''King Arthur'' is billed as the true historical story of KingArthur, but instead is little more than a "remix" of the popular Arthur mythos with some garbled bits of Late Roman/Early Medieval history. Whether there was a historical Arthur at all remains a matter of fierce historical debate, and there are several potential candidates for the basis of the character, none of which bear more than a surface similarity to the movie's Arthur. It's not exactly a success as a "true historical story" either - the entire movie is one [[HollywoodHistory long]] [[TheThemeParkVersion historical]] [[AnachronismStew inaccuracy]]. Heck, the title character himself lived (''if'' he lived) about 300 years ''before'' the movie is supposed to take place.
* In a very similar vein to ''King Arthur'', the makers of movies such as ''Troy'' and ''300'' make a big deal about the historical content, which, in reality, is minimal at best. The glaring violence toward epic mythology and written history would be sufferable if people like Zack Snyder didn't insist on their accuracy, and yet in the case of ''300'' there's the UnreliableNarrator thing. So which are we supposed to believe? In both cases, however, with even the most rudimentary knowledge of classical history and literature one can recognize that the movies are mostly InNameOnly adaptations (at best) of whatever the original work is.

* The story of ''{{Pocahontas}}'' used by Disney and others is pretty much entirely bunk despite it being billed in its original form (the writings of John Smith) as true. Researchers reviewing Smith's other works quickly realized he had a penchant for making up absolutely insane stories about himself and passing them off as fact (if taken as true, Smith was a demi-god of manliness and combat skill who found success, riches and sex wherever he went). Conveniently, the story wasn't published until after Pocahontas had died, leaving Smith's claims and exaggerations uncontested.
** While Disney never claimed it was actually a true story, their version wasn't even true if you take Smith's story at face value. Among other things, Disney's Pocahontas is pretty clearly around 18 or so while Smith claims she was about 12, and The Other Wiki's engraving of the historical Pocahontas/Rebecca Rolfe (who was at the time of the engraving about 21) has a lot more in common with voodoo god Baron Saturday than with the Disney hottie.

** It also borrows heavily from other fictional works, such as ''DancesWithWolves'' and James Clavell's ''{{Shogun}}''.

* There's an obscure film that not only has a "this is all true" message at the beginning but also makes the claim ''in its title''. The film is called ''China Cry: A True Story'' and even IMDb [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101578/ reports it as "based on a true story"]], despite it having unlikely divine intervention incidents, being based on the [[http://www.amazon.com/China-Cry-Nora-Lam-Story/dp/0840731876/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274571493&sr=1-1 autobiography]] of the woman who's the main character, [[http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0090a.html and apparently not being]] [[http://books.google.com/books?id=syUupeVJOz4C&pg=PA328&dq=lam well supported by evidence]].

** [[ComicallyMissingthePoint It was better received in Japan, where they began strongly encouraging Jews to immigrate in hopes of convincing them to use their influence to help the burgeoning nation.]]

* The ''{{Flashman}}'' books are all supposedly based on rediscovered memoirs written by the title character. This device (coupled with the impressive amount of research GeorgeMacDonaldFraser put into every volume) led more than one critic to believe they were the real deal.

* ''AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'' mocks this tendency with its introductory text: "The following is based on actual events. Only the [[{{Dissimile}} names, locations, and events]] have been changed."
* ''Plan9FromOuterSpace'' -- "Every incident is based on sworn testimony." This is a B-movie about ''aliens who fly around in hubcap-spaceships creating zombies''.

* The original ''TheLastHouseOnTheLeft''.
* The sci-fi/horror movie ''TheFourthKind'' has, as its tag line, the claim that the movie is "based on actual case studies," and even claims to include actual footage of alien abductions. [[BlatantLies Guess]] [[http://io9.com/5397359/the-fourth-kind-is-a-hoax what?]]

* ''1000WaysToDie'' ping-pongs between this and VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, with occasional flirtations with truth.

* ''ThousandWaysToDie'' ping-pongs between this and VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, with occasional flirtations with truth.

* ''Series/ThousandWaysToDie'' ping-pongs between this and VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, with occasional flirtations with truth.

* ''The Possession'' is said to be based on a true story, but there's one glaring problem: there wasn't a little girl involved, and she wasn't possessed by the dibbuk, a Hebrew demon that lived in a box that was said to be cursed. The box ''was'' bought, but the dibbuk possessed a man, who has claimed that he couldn't sleep and severed the fingers of himself and his roommates while under the possession of the demon.