The Most Historically Accurate Hollywood Films

Goodfellas

Goodfellas has been hailed as one of Martin Scorsese's best works, ever. Based on the novel "Wiseguy," a biographical story about a mafia mobster who later becomes an informant, Scorsese knew he immediately had to turn the book into a film. He admired the book's ability to showcase the day-to-day life of a mobster, the tedium, the ownership of specific places and for what reasons. He changed the book as little as possible, only tweaking it when it was absolutely necessary in order to make for an easy page-to-screen translation. It was nominated for five Academy Awards. 

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The More You Know

  • Lord Byron kept a pet bear in his dormitory while studying at Cambridge.
  • For Dr. Strangelove, Peter Sellers was paid $1 million, 55 percent of the film’s budget.
  • Cleopatra married both her brothers.
  • The bridge blown up by Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was prematurely detonated by a Spanish Army Captain. Upon learning of his mistake the Captain ordered his troops to rebuild the bridge, only for it to suffer another explosion once complete.
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