10 Movies That Lied So Much They Told The Truth
2. Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me If You Can is a fantastically entertaining crime film centered around legendary conman Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), who claimed to have cashed over $2 million in false checks before he turned 19 years old, all while posing as a pilot, lawyer, and doctor.
It's an incredible story and makes for one hell of an enjoyable movie, despite and perhaps because of the fact that it's also total bulls**t.
In recent years Abagnale's story has come under intense scrutiny, as journalists have poked holes in his various claims, suggesting they were either massively exaggerated or outright lies.
Alan C. Logan's 2021 book "The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can" found that Abagnale was actually in prison for most of his alleged formative years as a conman, and earlier this year The New York Post published a report further blowing apart Abagnale's carefully constructed myth.
And yet, what could be more fitting than a movie about a conman being itself a $50 million con job? Abagnale spun such a persuasive yarn that it got made into a huge, Steven Spielberg-directed Hollywood movie that received Oscar nominations and grossed over $350 million globally.
And ultimately, knowing that it's all built on lies does nothing to change its brilliance. In fact, as a meta post-script to Abagnale's story, it might make it even better.