4. American Hustle Didn't Really Have A Happy Ending
Columbia PicturesOne of the biggest hits in cinemas and at award ceremonies last year, David O Russell's American Hustle told the true story of the FBI ABSCAM operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s with considerable style and some frankly amazing wigs. Christian Bale and Amy Adams' con artists get caught by Bradley Cooper's FBI agent and offered to have their charges removed if they help bring down corrupt politicians - most notably the mayor of Camden, New York, played by Jeremy Renner. Remember him? Hawkeye? The guy with the bow and arrow in Avengers? Yes, there was a bow-and-arrow guy in Avengers. Anyway, along the way Bale has to deal with his slightly off-kilter wife (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and Cooper routinely beats up his superior, Louis CK, and everything works out in the end.
What really happened: Well, there probably was that much cleavage and cravat on show. It was the seventies, after all. Other than that, though - well, there's a reason that American Hustle is said to be "loosely" based on the ABSCAM operations. For one thing, there's not one character who's referred to by their real name: Bale's Irving Rosenfeld was actually Melvin Weinberg, Cooper's Richard DiMaso came from Anthony Amoroso, Jr., and half the supporting cast never really existed. The original script was much more true to life, and had the name American Bull**it, both of which we'd probably have preferred (but the studio probably didn't). The opening title card "Some of this actually happened" absolves the film of some responsibility when it comes to playing fast and loose with the facts, but some of the changes are a little questionable. In the film Renner is all but a victim of entrapment, starting off as a fairly nice and innocent guy who is perhaps a little too susceptible to dodgy dealings. The actual mayor of Camden, Angelo Errichetti, was well known both for loving his town and committing crimes. There's also that slightly dodgy bit where the fake Sheikh Renner gets matched up with is played by a Mexican FBI agent; in the real operation he was in fact a white guy, then a Lebanese-American. Perhaps the worst change was to the women in the ABSCAM story. The character played by Amy Adams was mistress to Bale's con artist, and helped him out with his scams, but she was barely involved in the FBI stuff. Even more poorly served is Cynthia Marie Weinberg, the basis for Jennifer Lawrence's part, who didn't have an affair with a mobster, and didn't almost bring down the whole operation. She also didn't part on good terms from her husband and live with her new mafioso husband - in fact,
she killed herself not long after ABSCAM was finished, her suicide note putting it down to the way the inspiration for Bale's character treated her. Perhaps not the perfect ending for a light caper movie, admittedly.