True Stories 39: 10s—On the Basis of Sex

If there’s a more admired woman in the U. S. in the last century than Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I’d be surprised. Her life could fill many, many films!

But this one, On the Basis of Sex, by Daniel Stiepleman, focuses just on the early part of the esteemed justice’s career—much of which the average movie goer may be unfamiliar with. Sure, we all know of her astounding tenure on the Supreme Court, but that means we all know about her as an ‘older’ woman. How did she get there? What did she have to go through as a woman who was educated in an era when discrimination against women in the workplace was just the way things were?

Sometimes, the best way into a person’s life—the life that we know—is through going to the part of their life that we don’t know.

Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4

Notice, first of all, that the credits begin with “Inspired by a true story”—and you’ll see this on a lot of true stories. This is an indication that not everything you see in the film actually happened. Sure, the filmmakers are covering themselves, aren’t they? In this case, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still alive when the film came out, she could have sued if she felt this damaged her character, reputation or caused her to lose earnings, etc. It’s important to know that, in the U.S., as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you can’t sue for defamation of character unless you’re alive. So, for example, your heirs can’t sue if they don’t like how their relative was portrayed in the film.

There is another reason to include that “inspired by” credit, though. And that’s to tell your audience that you’re not claiming that everything in this movie actually happened the way the film portrays it. I mean, think about it, as a writer you can’t know what two people said in a room—you may need to dramatize an important moment like that, but you can’t know. So that “inspired by” credit levels with your audience that you realize you had to imagine some things in this person’s story.

On the Basis of Sex is a great example of how you make an “issue” into a movie. Because every time you focus on a political or moral issue of some sort, you run the risk of being, well… boring. Remember that caveat—people come to the movies to be entertained. So no matter how important the issue you’re trying to get across might be, you have to make them want to keep watching, want to see how this issue played out—and, most important, want to discover the type of person who was able to overcome the obstacles in his/her way to make this issue come to the forefront and win what they were arguing for.

Next week, we look at a period true-ish story—The Favourite.

Copyright © Diane Lake

05Mar23

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