BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 357) — A new biopic from director Pablo Larraín tells the story of renowned opera singer Maria Callas. Unfortunately, the movie falls short in telling the true story of the real Maria Callas. Today we'll get to learn from Sophia Lambton, the author of The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography.

Earlier this year, Sophia's biography of Maria Callas took home the 2024 ARSC Awards' Best Historical Research in Recorded Classical Music. It is the best way to learn more about the true story of Maria Callas.

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BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 356) — Today we're tackling all five movies in the storied Indiana Jones franchise that needs no further introduction. To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll learn from multiple Emmy-nominated director and producer Neil Laird.

While his name may not be as popular as Indiana Jones, if you've watched programming on Discovery, BBC, PBS, History Channel, or National Geographic, then you're likely familiar with his work. From Mysteries of the Abandoned and Secrets of the Lost Ark to Forbidden History and Shark Week, Neil has produced over 100 programs around the globe that feature many of the real places and topics popularized by the Indiana Jones franchise.

Neil is also the author of the Jared Plummer vs the Ancient World series about a TV director who travels back in time to shoot the greatest documentary ever made. Currently, there are two books in the series, Prime Time Travelers which features Jared going back to ancient Egypt and Prime Time Pompeii.

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BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 355) — Today is the 83rd anniversary of the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that was depicted in the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora! Often praised for its accuracy, Tora! Tora! Tora! has also perpetrated some myths about what really happened.

To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll be joined by Jon Parshall, an award-winning author who has worked as a historical consultant on numerous TV shows, and as a frequent lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, the National World War II Museum, the Nimitz Museum, just to name a few.

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BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 354) — Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, we're walking into Casablanca on this episode to answer: How historically accurate is the movie? 

Helping us separate fact from fiction is Bob LeMent from Static Radio.

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BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 353) — During the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, the United States sent shockwaves around the world as they upset the four-time defending gold medalist Soviet Union team in a game that would go on to be called the "Miracle on Ice." That story is told in the 2004 Disney movie we'll be talking about today.

To help us separate fact from fiction, we'll be talking to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame coach Lou Vairo. Most relevant to our discussion today among Lou's long list of achievements was as a scout for the U.S. Men's Ice Hockey Team at the 1980 Winter Olympics which is depicted in the movie. So, he was there for a lot of the events depicted in the movie and will share a lot of behind the scenes of the true story.

• Lou Vairo's bio at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame

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BOATS THIS WEEK (OCT 14-20, 2024) — This Wednesday is the anniversary of Marie Antoinette's execution in 1793 that we saw inn the opening sequence of Ridley Scott's Napoleon (2023). After that, we'll travel exactly 169 years from 1793 to 1962, because Wednesday is also depicted in Thirteen Days (2000) as it's showing the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis. For our final historical event from the movies this week, we'll hop to October 19th, 1781 as it's shown in The Patriot (2000) to see how it shows the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 

After learning about this week's birthdays from historical figures in the movies, we'll wrap up this episode by comparing history with another of Ridley Scott's movies, The Last Duel, which released in the U.S. on October 15th, 2021. Finally, we'll get a little behind the scenes update about BOATS This Week episodes for the remainder of 2024.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

• Tuesday: The Last Duel (2021)

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BOATS THIS WEEK (OCT 7-13, 2024) — 57 years ago tomorrow, Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia just before his execution. Then, two years later, Omar Sharif portrayed him in the movie version of Che's story that we'll compare to the true story of this week's event. Then, we'll shift to Eight Men Out because as baseball season comes to a close, one of the darkest moments in Major League Baseball history happened this week back in 1919. 

This Saturday marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus making landfall, which was shown in the movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise. For this week's historical movie release, the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips was released 11 years ago this Friday.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

• Friday: Captain Phillips | BOATS #28

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BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 30-OCT 6, 2024) — Thousands of years ago this week, Alexander the Great fought his final decisive battle against Darius III so we'll start our journey by comparing the true story of Gaugamela with the battle in 2004's Colin Farrell movie. Then we'll hop onto the baseball field because tomorrow, October 1st, 1961, is when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's MLB home run record. We'll learn about the Billy Crystal-directed movie called 61* (we'll learn about the * in the movie's title in the episode).

For our third event from this week in history according to the movies, we'll learn about the Battle of Mogadishu—or, as it's commonly called, the Black Hawk Down Incident. That happened on Thursday this week, October 3rd, 1993. Then, after a few historical birthdays from this week in history, we'll wrap up today's episode by comparing history with 2010's The Social Network.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

• Tuesday: The Social Network

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BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 23-29, 2024) — AMC's Turn: Washington's Spies shows us how Benedict Arnold's treason was discovered back on September 24th, 1780. The next day, on Wednesday this week, marks the anniversary of Operation Market Garden coming to a close, which we see in the classic film A Bridge Too Far. And then The Godfather, Part III has a key plot point surrounding a very real event that happened on September 26th, 1978: The death of Pope John Paul I.

This week's movie premiere to compare with history is the 2000 sports drama Remember the Titans, which has its 24-year anniversary this Sunday.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

• Sunday: Remember the Titans

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BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 16-22, 2024) — Tuesday is the 99th anniversary of the bus accident that changed Frido Kahlo's life, and we'll learn more about the way the movie Frida shows it happening. After that we'll jump to the movie with Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin for his being kicked out of the U.S., which happened 72 years ago on Thursday this week. Then we'll learn a bit about the start of an adventure that ended this week in history when The Hobbit was published on September 21st, 1937.

Finally, Wednesday is the release anniversary of a classic Martin Scorsese gangster movie releasing, so we'll wrap up this week by learning more about the true story of Goodfellas.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

• Wednesday: Goodfellas

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