Why are books and movies more interesting when they're "based on a true story"?

Question

Here's an example: The movie "Alive." Airplane transporting a soccer team crashes in the Andes. The survivors are stuck in the mountains for months with no food...so they eat the dead. It really happened, so it's fascinating. But if this was completely fictional, it wouldn't be as interesting. Why are true stories inherently more appealing? In other words: why are we interested in things we wouldn't otherwise be interested in -- for example, cannibalistic soccer team -- when we know they really happened?

But WHY is the truth fascinating? And can't people relate to fiction as well? (For example, what 16-year-old girl in love can't relate to Juliet?)

Answer 1

Truth is stranger than fiction. Also, I think if we know that something really happened it is easier for us to empathise or put ourselves in others shoes and imagine what something would have been like eg, the decision to eat your dead teammates. All of my favorite books are autobiographies or biographies and a few that are opinion based on facts, scientific stuff. SOme people don't go for fantasy and story telling at all and there is much more to be learned from true life experiences.

Answer 2

Fiction is just as fascinating as non-fiction, sometimes even more so.
The problem with fiction is that it's very hard to write.
But when it's done properly, when the writer has worked on the story long enough, fiction can be just as powerful as a 'true story'.
Two examples of fiction that fascinated the world were Madame Bovary by Flaubert, a completely made up story that shocked France and was immediately banned.
Also, Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H.Lawrence, which was also banned and was only released after a judicial hearing.
The first book by Flaubert took over 5 years to write, and is generally acknowledged as the reason for Flaubert's early death.
Lady Chatterley's Lover had to be written and re-written a number of times before Lawrence was finally happy with it. Lawrence also died young.
The point of citing these two examples, is that for a writer of fiction to convince his readers that the story is 'true', he has to work doubly hard, which few writers are prepared to do.

Answer 3

I disagree with your premise. That something is "based on a true story" is irrelevant to me, and it hardly makes things more "interesting." Real stories can be fascinating, but I think millions of us value the human imagination; a good story is a good story. Well-told, a good story will have me on the edge of my seat, waiting for more; I couldn't care less if it's real or not. Was the movie "Casino" which was based on real events, more "interesting" than "The Godfather"? Was "Ali" or "Hurricane" more interesting than "Rocky"? To your example, the story of "Alive" was a compelling story in a newspaper. But as a story, qua story, it cannot hold a candle to Lord of the Flies, which is, to me and many others, an amazing and haunting story that will linger long after everyone has forgotten the soccer team in the Andes. I don't need to read or see "Alive" to know that people have eaten others under incredible duress (Donner Party, the Essex, etc.), but Lord of the Flies takes me into the psychology of all humanity and tells me why we revert to savagery. You want real, read the newspaper. You want a story, go to a story-teller.

Answer 4

because when you watched and heard some story, and they're fictional, the back of your head would say that, 'its just a fabrication of the creator's imagination'. and all the credits go to the creator.
but when you watched and heard something thats based on true event, you would go and ask yourself, 'how cold they do that', 'Iwould never survive in that kinda condition'.
Because something thats based on true event described true people with real thoughts and feelings. thus we can relate our feeling easier to theirs.

and about Juliet, I think her achaic language is to hard for 16 year old viewers to comprehend.

Answer 5

I think because we've heard about the event somehow, through the news or in a magazine article, but we can only imagine what these people went through. Then they build a movie around it and we see what they really went through. I think the curiosity is human nature.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Actually, I find that "based on a true story" indicates that I am going to be quite bored.

Answer 8

People find the truth fascinating,and often times the subject matter is something they can relate to.