Basically he stalked a flight attendant, stole some of her family's money and got picked up for minor theft. A far cry from stealing $2 million through fraudulent checks and committing crimes internationally, as well as all the other stories. He was in prison when most of this stuff supposedly occurred. I liked the movie and thought maybe some of the stories were slightly embellished, but I should have known it was all too fantastical. I doubt I'll be able to look at it the same way.
A lot of these questions have been kicking around for years.
I also loved the movie, but it looks like his greatest con was convincing people that he was a great con. And, as with most cons, it works because people WANT to believe. It is more fun to believe, to paper over the cracks in the story and to treat the inconsistencies as little embellishments instead of seeing that they should bring down the whole house of cards.
A like sign rests above the main entrance door on both the Kenyan and Ethiopian training centers. True story!
It was a movie.
So you're saying that a guy who aspired to be a big time conman has turned out to be a liar? I'm shocked!
I remember googling him after watching the movie. After looking into it, It was pretty obvious the story was wildly exaggerated. Real life events from "based on a true story" will disappoint 99% of the time.
This is Jim Kiler wrote:
It was a movie.
No, it was a book that was an autobiography. (The movie was made many years later.)
In the autobiography he claimed that all those things really happened. It turns out he actually didn't con very many people in the 1960s like he claimed, but he's been conning people for the last 50 years about his fake con stories.
Devastated wrote:
Basically he stalked a flight attendant, stole some of her family's money and got picked up for minor theft. A far cry from stealing $2 million through fraudulent checks and committing crimes internationally, as well as all the other stories. He was in prison when most of this stuff supposedly occurred. I liked the movie and thought maybe some of the stories were slightly embellished, but I should have known it was all too fantastical. I doubt I'll be able to look at it the same way.
Yea, I feel the same way about all the comic book movies.
Lying about being a liar is pretty smart.
Of course it was a fabrication. You know how I know? One premise of the movie was that Jennifer Garner was sexy enough to be a high class escort. HAHAHAHA Laughable.
B. Affleck wrote:
Of course it was a fabrication. You know how I know? One premise of the movie was that Jennifer Garner was sexy enough to be a high class escort. HAHAHAHA Laughable.
Ben, you are sounding a little bitter there. Time to move on, I'm sure J Lo doesn't appreciate you still thinking about your ex.
B. Affleck wrote:
Of course it was a fabrication. You know how I know? One premise of the movie was that Jennifer Garner was sexy enough to be a high class escort. HAHAHAHA Laughable.
hahaha...love this. im really into Jennifer Garner, but I know other people who the feel the same as you. I don't get it. Different strokes, i guess?
You could say this about almost every movie that was supposed to be based on a true story.
Rudy: Joe Montana - former ND QB, said alot of the movie was BS.
Argo - found to be mostly BS
Titanic - Yes, the ship sank. No, there was no romance with a rare gem, etc.
The Pursuit of Happiness - Guy was a skirt chaser ,and horrible dad.
Idk you have movies like Schindler's List, Hacksaw Ridge, 12 Years a Slave, that movie abt that plane that went down in some mountains, and Apollo 13. Band of Brothers if you count TV shows. Those are all super historically accurate and incredible movies. There's probably a bunch more but I don't watch a ton of movies. Catch Me If You Can was at least accurate to the source material.
It can't be any further from reality than The Woman King -
‘The Woman King’ could not overcome truth of Agojie’s brutality, depravity, inhumanity - Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com)
He's got nothing on Neal Caffrey
Devastated wrote:
Basically he stalked a flight attendant, stole some of her family's money and got picked up for minor theft. A far cry from stealing $2 million through fraudulent checks and committing crimes internationally, as well as all the other stories. He was in prison when most of this stuff supposedly occurred. I liked the movie and thought maybe some of the stories were slightly embellished, but I should have known it was all too fantastical. I doubt I'll be able to look at it the same way.
So you enjoyed a movie about a bunch of people getting conned, and now you are devastated to find out that (a) they weren't conned as much as you thought they were, and (b) you were instead conned out of maybe $20, but not really because you enjoyed the time you spent watching the movie.
That's a strange thing to get devastated about, isn't it?
Man, I just re-watched that movie on a flight from Seattle to Amsterdam - glad I did before reading this. I mean honestly when you step back the story does seem borderline preposterous so it's unsurprising that it's been called out as BS.
The most successful uncatchable criminals have generally been burglars and thieves
Bad Wigins wrote:
The most successful uncatchable criminals have generally been burglars and thieves
No. They've been politicians and stock brokers.
