BCT Editorial – 1/24/06

This page was last updated on January 24, 2006.

Story time; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 24, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The problem with fact-based movies - and memoirs, for that matter - is that they’re like food products in that it’s easy to misrepresent the contents and yet not lie.

“Saying a product is ‘made with almonds’ does not mean it is made from almonds. It could be ‘made with’ a drop of almond per 1 million parts and still be truthful.

“That’s how it is with fact-based movies such ‘Glory Road,’ the film about the successful quest of the 1965-66 Texas Western College basketball team to win the NCAA tournament. What the film portrays did happen; it just didn’t necessarily happen in that way in regard to specifics.

“That’s because when it comes to making movies, facts often can get in the way of a good story. For that reason, it would be wrong to single out this movie for criticism because it is not a just-the-facts-ma’am retelling of the story.”

[RWC] Gee, it sounds like a lot of editorials, letters to the editor, and opinion columns I’ve read.

“The film industry has played fast and loose with facts since its inception. Keep that in mind and enjoy ‘Glory Road’ for what it is - a movie whose goal is to tell a fictionalized version of an uplifting historical event.”

[RWC] I wonder if the author really doesn’t see the similarities shared by the editorial’s subject and editorials. As the film industry the editorial critiques, editorial writers also tend to play fast and loose with the facts, when the authors aren’t outright lying.