Ever watched a film that was "based on a true story" and wonder how much of the story was really true? I was watching the surprisingly moving Hollywoodland about the death of George Reeves, TV's Superman, and started wondering about the truth of the tale. A Google search quickly turned up the Reel Faces webpage on Chasing the Green Frog, whose motto is "Chasing After the Truth Behind Movies Based on True Stories." There you find a Q & A about around 50 films that were based on true stories. The questions were pretty much those you want answered after seeing the film. The "reel faces" page includes photos of the real persons at about the age they would have been in the film shown next to the actor playing them.

Chasing the Frog also offers a page devoted to Movies Based on Books that compare a film to the books on which they are based. All in all a uniquely valuable site for the movie buff.

And check out Hollywoodland too. Not only is Adrien Brody's performance something special, but this may be the first and only Ben Affleck role I ever truly enjoyed.