Based on a True Story
We've all seen movies that claim to be 'based on a true story', but have you ever wondered how accurate they are? That's what we'll find out as we compare Hollywood with history.
Episodes
August 5, 2025 • 99 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 372) — Travel back to the Old West for a tale of revenge, Pinkerton agents, and frontier justice in the wake of the Civil War. One of those former Pinkerton agents in the movie is John Scobell (Gbenga Akinnagbe), making 2025's Trail of Vengeance the first movie to feature John Scobell as one of its main characters.
Where to watch Trail of Vengeance
Get Rob's book
To help us separate fact from fi...
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July 22, 2025 • 60 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 371) — How well do you know about the real Bruce Lee? There are a lot of myths that came out of the movie "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" so today we'll pull another classic episode from the Based on a True Story vault.
Where to watch Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Get Matthew's book
Matthew Polly authored "Bruce Lee: A Life," called the definitive biography by The New York Times. His research revea...
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July 1, 2025 • 93 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 370) — Twentieth Century-Fox's "Titanic" starring Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb claims to draw facts from 1912 congressional inquiries, so how well does it do when we compare it to history?
Where to watch Titanic (1953)
Get Mark's book
Mark B. Perry is the author of the novel "And Introducing Dexter Gaines: A Novel of Old Hollywood", a tale that transports you back to the time when during th...
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June 3, 2025 • 129 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 369) — This Friday marks the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings. Arguably the most popular movie depicting the fighting on the beaches of Normandy is 1998's Saving Private Ryan.
Where to watch Saving Private Ryan
In this remastered edition of Based on a True Story, we'll compare the movie with what really happened with historian Marty Morgan. What did Saving Private Ryan get right, where did ...
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May 13, 2025 • 88 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 368) — Go behind the true stories shown in Holocaust movies through the experiences of Robert Wolf's family. Since we'll be talking about the Holocaust, listener discretion is advised.
Get Robert's book
Where to watch today's movies
The Sound of Music (1965)
Life is Beautiful (1997)
Schindler's List (1993)
Walking with the Enemy (2013)
Sunshine (1999)
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April 29, 2025 • 84 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 367) — Is John McClane a realistic cop or just an action hero with a badge? Yippee-ki-yay, history lovers, let's see if McClane would survive a real Internal Affairs review.
Where to watch "Die Hard" now
Helping us conduct a review of McClane from the entire Die Hard franchise is retired U.S. police sergeant Patrick O'Donnell, who is now a technical consultant and author of "The Good Collar."
Get...
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April 15, 2025 • 64 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 366) — Homer’s "The Iliad" tells the story of the Trojan War, a tale brought to the big screen in the 2004 film "Troy." But with an ancient epic as its foundation—and Hollywood’s creative liberties—how much of the story is real?
Where to watch "Troy" now
In this episode, Neil Laird peels back the layers of myth and fiction to uncover the truth.
Neil is a multiple Emmy-nominated director and produc...
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April 2, 2025 • 123 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 365) — Discover the behind-the-scenes story of Black Hawk Down, as historian Josh Donohue shares insights on the chaotic 1993 mission in Mogadishu. Learn what truly happened versus what Hollywood depicted.
Subscribe to Josh's YouTube channel
Josh has been on the podcast before to cover the historical accuracy of Thirteen Days and We Were Soldiers, and he's currently working on a new YouTube channel....
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March 18, 2025 • 77 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 364) — Acclaimed historian Jon Parshall separates fact from fiction in the classic film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and the brutal realities of the Thai-Burma Railway during World War II, also known as the Death Railway. We'll contrast the film's fictional Colonel Nicholson with his real-life counterpart Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey, who sabotaged bridge construction when possible rather than...
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March 4, 2025 • 73 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 363) — In today’s Behind the True Story episode, we take a closer look at the career of award-winning director and producer Robyn Flanery.
Robyn's latest project, the documentary series "Profit Over People," explores the failure of the U.S. healthcare system. She previously directed the critically acclaimed documentary "Broken Worlds: The Island" and has worked behind the scenes on historical films ...
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February 17, 2025 • 74 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 362) — Author Rob Hilliard joins us to bring "The Pinkertons" miniseries to a close by covering episodes 15 through 22 of the TV show. From John Scobell and Kate Warne to Allan and Will Pinkerton, Rob's book takes what we know from history and fills in many of the blanks with a thrilling narrative.
Grab your copy of "In Freedom's Shadow"
Also mentioned in this episode
Learn more about Dr. Mary Wa...
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February 10, 2025 • 65 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 361) — We're continuing a look at "The Pinkertons" by covering episodes eight to 14 of the TV show. Find part one linked here. Coming back for today's episode is "In Freedom's Shadow" author Rob Hilliard. Rob's book is a historical novel based on the incredibly true story of Pinkertons operative John Scobell.
Mentioned in this episode
Get your copy of Rob's book "In Freedom's Shadow"
Transcript...
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February 3, 2025 • 84 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 360) — We're beginning of a three-part miniseries covering all 22 episodes of "The Pinkertons." Today, we examine the first seven episodes of the television series. Joining us for the miniseries is author Rob Hilliard, whose book "In Freedom's Shadow" is a historical novel based on the true story of Pinkerton operative John Scobell, and includes many of the characters we see in the series.
Mentio...
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January 25, 2025 • 73 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 359) — Today is the 80th anniversary (January 25, 1945) of the official end of the Battle of the Bulge campaign during World War II. On our episode today, we'll learn about the classic film from 60 years ago (1965) that has often been criticized for many of its historical inaccuracies as it depicts the battle.
Where to watch Battle of the Bulge
To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll be joined ...
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January 13, 2025 • 120 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 358) — In 2000's Thirteen Days, we see a lot of the behind-the-scenes discussions and decisions that took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll get to hear from Joshua Donohue, who is the Adjunct Professor of History at Suffolk County Community College as well as Farmingdale State College.
Where to watch Thirteen Days
Follow Josh's ...
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December 30, 2024 • 125 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 357) — A new biopic from director Pablo Larraín tells the story of renowned opera singer Maria Callas. Unfortunately, the movie falls short in telling the true story of the real Maria Callas. Today we'll get to learn from Sophia Lambton, the author of The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography.
Get the Maria Callas biography
Earlier this year, Sophia's biography of Maria Callas took home the 2024 AR...
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December 16, 2024 • 80 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 356) — Today we're tackling all five movies in the storied Indiana Jones franchise that needs no further introduction. To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll learn from multiple Emmy-nominated director and producer Neil Laird.
Learn more about Neil's work
While his name may not be as popular as Indiana Jones, if you've watched programming on Discovery, BBC, PBS, History Channel, or National Ge...
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December 7, 2024 • 91 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 355) — Today is the 83rd anniversary of the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that was depicted in the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora! Often praised for its accuracy, Tora! Tora! Tora! has also perpetrated some myths about what really happened.
Where to watch Tora! Tora! Tora! now
To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll be joined by Jon Parshall, an award-winning author who has worked as a historica...
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November 5, 2024 • 74 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 354) — Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, we're walking into Casablanca on this episode to answer: How historically accurate is the movie?
Where to watch Casablanca now
Helping us separate fact from fiction is Bob LeMent from Static Radio.
Listen to Bob's show at StaticRadio.com
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October 15, 2024 • 93 mins
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 353) — During the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, the United States sent shockwaves around the world as they upset the four-time defending gold medalist Soviet Union team in a game that would go on to be called the "Miracle on Ice." That story is told in the 2004 Disney movie we'll be talking about today.
Where to watch Miracle now
To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll be talki...
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