Movies-anyone ever had one made about their family?
 

I debated which forum to put this in...so if this is the wrong one, would someone move it...My comments are not pertaining to "entertainment" as such so thats why I put it here.

I had a friend over last nite and she had never seen the movie Cold Mountain so we decided to watch it. This movie is based on my family, the main character Inman was the brother of my 3rd great grandfather on my fathers side, and the man that wrote the book is my cousin. I let her watch the entire movie before I told her the real story because I know how hard it was for me to watch it the first time knowing what was true and what wasnt.

My question is...has anyone here ever had a movie, either tv or major motion picture, made about people in their family and if so...was any of it fictionalized for dramatic liscense and if so how did you feel watching it?

that sounds a little out there to be totally true. I never heard anything about that movie what is it?

I have not had a movie made, but have had many books made and there's lots of license taken even in the book form.

You never heard anything about the movie Cold Mountain? Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellwiger were in it...and Renee won an oscar for her performance. Why would you say its a little out there to be totally true?

No movies here...

So what's the story Shani? I'd love to hear it. I loved the book, and I thought the movie was very well done as well.

I mean true as based on your family....oh I read your post again...didn't see the part about your cousin:D


I might have seen previews on TV but it must not be my type of movie.....never seen a movie with Nicole Kidman in it and well Judd Law was in Enemy At The Gate.

Averette I agree the movie was very well done, and the book was good as well...the real story though, sadly, would never have been as totally interesting to most people.

Facts in the movie that were true...W.P (stand for William Pinkney and he went by the name Pink) Inman did exist, the Swanger family existed, the families intermarried. My ggg grandfather was married to Elizabeth Swanger. WP was indeed killed on top of a mountain when he came back from the war. Ruby did exist, but in real life she was a Swanger as well. That is the extent of information in the movie that wasnt fictionalized.

Nicole Kidmans character did not exist. In fact Inman was married and had 3 children when he enlisted in the confederate army, so basically my cousin got rid of an entire line of descendants by creating Ada and leaving out his real life wife and kids. Inman deserted the confederate army and joined the yankee army. He then deserted the yankee army and started home, walking all the way from virginia to the area of Waynesville North Carolina with his best friend John Swanger. The home guard caught them on top of Big Stomp (that was the name of the mountain they were on...they were not on cold mountain, thats a completely different mountain) and shot and killed them both as they were wearing yankee uniforms. Someone in the area went and told Inmans father, Joshua that they were laying dead on top of the mountain and he went up and dragged the bodies back down and buried them together in an unmarked grave in the bethel community cemetary.

Not nearly as romantic huh?

Here is a picture of the father, Joshua's grave...WP Inman and John Swanger are buried to the left.
http://www.celticdesade.com/images/inmangrave.jpg

This is a picture of the Inman Chapel that was started by a 3rd brother when he evenutally came back from the war.

http://www.celticdesade.com/images/inmanchapel.jpg

Well if you're not into romantic civil war movies you might not have lol. What my cousin did was take certain events in family history...mix together several real people to make one person and then wrote a book. A lot of the family was really ticked off and my very old cousin Ted Inman will not even say my cousin Charles Fraizers name, THATS how pissed at him they were!!!

Nobody really believes those movies anyway, even the ones that are supposed to be true stories. Everyone knows Holywood just does their own thing regardless of the facts. No sense losing a family over it, that's what's really crazy.

I wish someone would make a movie about my family, that way I'd have witnesses.

Well what you need to understand is that it wasnt hollywood that part of the family isnt happy with. Hollywood only took a book that had been written and made the movie. Its the fact that a family member wrote the book in the first place that got all their knickers in a bunch

Indeed. Some like to keep their family skeletons well buried.

Hey, don't wait for Hollywood: you can always make your own. Here's a great one, glommed together by a professional video editor out of his family's old Super-8 movies. It's a scream;

http://www.ryantown.com/farm/super78.html

Quicktime, don't know how it'll be on dial-ups.

Tell me about it.. I started doing family research when I was 13 and it was the Inman side of the family that I started with..it took me until I was 20 something to get the whole story out because nobody wanted anyone to know that he'd deserted the confederates and joined the yankees, 99% of the family denied it.. I took my genealogy certification test when I was 30 after which I found documentation that supported the truth

See, I think that's more interesting than the book/movie.. Very cool to be able to trace that far back and find out such interesting things about your family.

Im such a nerd sometimes......I have days were I wake up craving the smell of old musty courthouses or wanting to spend all day in a cemetary. You can look for years for one little piece of information and then one day when you're looking for something else BAM there it is. hehehe The pleasure of that borders the pleasure of an orgasm :crazy:

My Great Grandfather was the bastard son of a traveling wine merchant in Northern Italy. He was raised by his fathers real wife until he was 18 and she kicked him out. He joined the Italian army for a while but eventually emigrated to the US. He sent back for the woman who was to be his wife and they sent the sister instead. Eventually by working very hard he owned his own soda distribution company. (My Grandad used to deliver to all the speakeasy's, fun) During the depression he was forced to sell the rights he had gained to distribute Gozoza water up and down New England. Gozoza water is the same formula that eventually became 7up.

I love family history. =) I think it would make a great book.

I have blood in the Wallace clan. Mel Gibson played William Wallace, of the same Wallace clan, in Braveheart.

I dont for a minute believe I was directly related to him--big family, and even so, theres no way in hell to trace records back that far. Interesting nonetheless :)

I beg to differ...I've gotten one side of my family back as far as 1595, and I really need to go to Europe to go back any farther.

No one has made a film about my family, and theres a reason for that....


It would make a better drama series.

Plus, no production company could possibly keep up with the immense costs to create it, despite the fact that it would sell like hotcakes.

one of my grandfathers went to get a loaf of bread one fine afternoon and never came back. my grandmother tried for years to find him. among the factoids revealed by various investigators:

my granfather had for a time lived in wyoming, where he succeeded in monopolizing the market for living room tables made of old lobster traps.

he was married for a time and had a son by the second wife, to whom he gave the same name as he gave to my father.
there is a novel in the second, and a really stupid, really short film in the first.

somewhere.

i think.

maybe.

not one that anyone has actually done of course.
but you talk your solace where you can.
yes.

I've had a book written about my family. All the facts were true. All the names were changed. I thought I heard something about maybe having it go to film but I really don't know whether that's happening yet.
It's publication made some of my family members quite angry. Lots of private stuff. It wasn't exactly a happy story.

Thats almost 1600. This was in the late 1200s, in rural Scotland. I doubt there were much in the way of records.