I have got some extremely sad news for people who loved Tom Hanks’ Carl Hanratty character in Catch Me If You Can: the movie. And that includes me, too.
Carl Hanratty does not exist. There has never been a Carl Hanratty. No super-bumbling, antisocial cop who works on Christmas nights looking for Abagnale, with delicious knock-knock jokes for colleagues and superiors. Ergo, no guy who was fooled by Frankie-boy when he was about to arrest him. Hanratty was created entirely by Mr Steven Spielberg ( or whoever wrote that nice script) There is a brief mention of an Irish cop named Sean Riley, who is hot on his trail.
Frank Abagnale does exist, though. And he’s a conman out and out. Remember his nice father, with his story of two mice who fell in a bucket of cream? Good news, that guy does not exist either. Abagnale had a father who fell out with the woman he married and later fell out with the IRS, but they never had anything to do with their son once he started off on his adventures.
Remember Abagnale going inside the classroom and playing a teacher just for the heck of it? That line when he writes his name on the blackboard and says “My name’s Abagnale, not Abagnale, not Abagnale, just Abagnale.”? That didn’t happen either. He does play a teacher, but not to get back at some jocks – he does it to earn some extra money, and he does it a lot later in life. In fact all his crimes, and he started off with conning Mobil people using his father’s credit card, has to do with earning money. He needs the money because he’s a womaniser and to his credit, he admits that he is one.
The book is well-written. I think Stan Redding has to be thanked for it, for his collaboration with the Man. There are very good explanations of how the con-game is played, with an insightful, and often hilarious, look at an average Pilot, or a Stewardess ( stews is what they are called) Abagnale is a nervy chap, and boy, do I envy his life!!! That bit about him hooking up with a callgirl and getting her to pay him for the experience is true ( the scene in which she flings playing cards at him is not! :-), he did it by giving her a check for 1400 dollars, and asking for 400 dollars back, in cash.
Then one time he gets arrested and has to stay the night in the prison, and the FBI are supposed to pick him up the next morning. Just when all hope is lost, a sleazy lawyer pops up and agrees to cough out the bail amount of 5000 dollars for the young pilot ( Well, everybody thinks he is a young pilot, no? ) Frank, of course, writes him a cheque, and flies off to the other side of the country ( later, he does send a real cheque for the benevolent lawyer.
Frank does get arrested, though. There’s nothing Hollywoodish about how he is tracked down, or how he gets arrested. Some Stewardess, an ex-girlfriend sees him in Montpellier and notes his car number down, and he gets arrested in a grocery shop. Sentenced to a year in a French prison. Warning to all: Never get arrested and tried in France. Even if you do get arrested, try to get extradited to Sweden. The Swedes believe in rehabilitation of criminals. The French believe in locking them up in a dungeon and letting them rot in the darkness. No, I am not getting confused with The Count of Monte Cristo, I am talking about Catch Me If You Can.
I still can’t over the fact that the Hollywood Machine mutilates a real person’s life so much. Comic characters, I can take it, it’s all about interpretation. But a real person! Would I like my life-history mutilated onscreen? Definitely not! Frank Abagnale has a brother and a sister, forgoshsakes! The movie makes him a single son. Driven to crime because of his father’s condition and the breakup of his family. A guy who thinks he can give it all up because he fell for a nurse and ends up telling her father who he really is, because he loves her. Bull! The only time Frank fell for someone he wanted to marry, he felt relieved after she ratted about him to the police – because he realised he didn’t want to get hooked up.
Just so they can say “Based on a true story”, they call it the story of Frank W Abagnale. They could have well made a normal story of a fictional conman. What crap!
the Hollywood Machine mutilates a real person’s life so much
Yeah, something similar with “A Beautiful Mind” … the movie and the story in the book are soooo different.
I liked the movie, but I agree with you, they shouldn’t have made it out ot be a true story, when most of the details never even happened as portrayed.
I am not seeing A Beautiful Mind until I read the book.
Even I liked Catch Me If You Can. I still do. But I don’t look at it as Frank Abagnale’s story anymore.
Oh I (sarcastically) just love when movies are made out to be true and then barely are. “Boys Don’t Cry” was like that, the characters were all messed up. I always see movies and think they are amazing, only to read the book and be left thinking HUH?
“HUH?” was exactly my reaction after reading Forrest Gump and now Catch Me if You Can. One thing about Hollywood – they are so consistent in fudging facts.
Would it be right to consider that the book is the true story? After all, isn’t it the autobiography of a con man? ;-)
:-))
True! But this is a conman who, in his own words, has been given a second chance, and has honourably acquitted himself in society. Whom would u rather trust – a reformed conman or Steven Spielberg? :-D
Well, actually at the end of the story, there is an interview with Abagnale in which he says that there were a lot of diversions from his life in the movie. He says that his father was not the character Christopher Walken played, and they also skipped over quite a few details.
hold on….
Hanks played Hanratty well. It was a well made movie with (of course) deviations from facts. English is a funny language especially when used without punctuations.
Catch me if you can
Based on a true story
the story of frank abagnale.
No cuts. Can be interpreted as Catch me if you can is losely based on the true story of frank Abagnale
:)am sure the book is just as good.
Who will ascertain the facts. U read that big one about TajMahal? :p & the one about our National Anthem?
Re: hold on….
Generally, when u write an autobiography, u do so with two things in mind:-
1) oh-i-am-so-cool-my-life-was-so-cool-now-all-of-you-will-know-how-cool-i -was.
2) I wonder how many million dollars this is going to make if it gets made into a movie?
Both these questions lead u to -ahem- make your life seem cooler than it actually was, and change a lot of facts to make it sound so.
Now what our average Hollywood screenplay writer does is – he looks at your book and says – WHAT? NO SEX? NO WAY! then he looks at it some more and says – “hmmm, we need bonding scenes. More important, we need antagonists. and we need to figure out whether we want to portray this guy as a GOOD guy or the BAD guy. he can’t be both!!!!” and again, he says – “we need to make him more human, the chicks are gonna dig a family guy. we need to add a benevolant father.” some more scanning , and here’s the verdict – “hey, all this stuff can’t be squeezed into a 120-minute movie. Let’s save some stuff for the sequel, or the bonus DVD.”
This kind of thing, in hollywood parlance ( and also in comics) is called a “breakdown”. NOthing describes it better.
“Based on a true story”, indeed. Pah!
Re: hold on….
(Yawn)…..What was that? (Snore)
O ya, inspite of knowing it all one (like you) spends on a hollywood “breakdown” movie & on a autobiography & a “breakdown” comic & like ’em all. I bet u liked both “Catch Me If You Can”s- movie & book. Why complain? ;;)
Re: hold on….
I liked the book. I liked the movie. I didn’t like the fact that the movie said that it was “based on a true “.
They could have made a standalone movie about some conman, instead of saying it’s “based” on Frank Abagnale’s life.
Re: hold on….
one: They forgot to ask for your suggestion+opinion
two: Based on doesnot mean “entirely based on”…It merely means “majorly inspired from”…
Three: There may be other Frank Abagnales in existence…There are more similarities with FA’s life than discrepancies. So, Hold it beatzoji(Am not Ruby Bhatia speaking. O why doesnt she sue me for using ji B-)…even better…why doesnt beatzo rip this apart).
Re: hold on….
one: They forgot to ask for your suggestion+opinion
My suggestions/opinions are usually confined to my lj. Please read my user-info for more details.
two: Based on doesnot mean “entirely based on”…It merely means “majorly inspired from”…
Hmm, somebody sure is being majorly inspired while commenting in journals, eh? Jumping to conclusions, are we?
There may be other Frank Abagnales in existence…There are more similarities with FA’s life than discrepancies.
I am ignoring this part, because it does not make any sense.
The number of similarities ( book and movie) is about 20%( i talk about anecdotes here, not the general storyline) The general storyline is of course, a young man becomes a con, and proceeds to fleece everyone, inculding the police, gets caught, gets thrown in jail, turns over a new leaf. If that’s the basic premise, i am sure i can think of some Amitabh Bachhan movie which resembles CMIYC. But of course, the movie narrates the story in the form of rather amusing anecdotes, my point is that these anecdotes are untrue! All except one ( the one where he tricks the call-girl) and even then, the situation is different from the one in the book.
Maybe I am nitpicking, and maybe “majorly inspired” does fit the bill here, but I don’t, in any way, support the way Hollywood fabricates situations just for the heck of it. Agreed, the movie is good, but to me, “Based on a true story” is misleading. The book has the same name as the movie, and both seem to be seperate entities altogether. Why? Just because a sappier, moralistic storyline mints more money at the box-office. Fine, if they can write a story, let them. Why mislead viewers into thinking it’s something that it is not?
yawn++Re: hold on….
Your suggestions are very much online, so not that confined to ur LJ dear.
No jumping hopping etc…You writr so well that u dont leave much to imagination. What inspiration?
well.Pt Three- part one name isnt as big a issue u r making it out to be…part two-dont understand? stop pretending to be dumb honey.
Just look at ur narration. so lacklustre. Lacklustre movies dont work. I bet you wud ‘ve been the first one to rip it apart & Spielberg(check the spelling plz) if it were as boring as your narration. Books & movies are very different, accept that.
Theres more. Since you said that your views are restricted to ur LJ, stop talking in plurals plz. They are NOT misleading “viewers”. They misled “You” because you just wont look beyond “Your” idea of making a movie based on a book.
I wont mind taking this argument offline. Its already getting boring. Tho thad you are out of fuel fast when it comes to live arguments;;)
Re: yawn++Re: hold on….
Hmm.
Now I wonder, how on earth did you come to the conclusion that the movie, had it followed the true story exactly, would be “lacklustre”?
Jumping to conclusions again.
I stick by my points. I bet this is going to elicit the quip that I am “blind to other’s viewpoints”. But that’s ok. I read the book. I saw the movie. I was shocked at how the movie ( and loads of other movies) misuse the “based on a true story” byline, and say that they are “based on a book” without any meaning.
Look at LotR, for instance. Peter Jackson’s vision is remarkable. Even though he has downplayed certain characters, and increased the prominence of certain characters ( the oft-needed “love-interest” ), he does not mess around with the story. He does not make Aragorn Gandalf’s long-lost son, or something. That’s an example of how Hollywood didn’t screw up.
The rest of the time, it does. And majorly, too. Maybe the movie CMIYC was a success. It was a good movie. But it was a con-job in itself. It conned viewers. That applies to anyone. Read the book, you will know.
Re: yawn++Re: hold on….
I dint say it will be lacklustre if it followed the book.i said it will be so if it followed ur narration/interpretation of the book. Its been “Adapted” into a movie. You said it…Am taking it LIVE.u like it or not :D
-Mons.