15 Major Historical Inaccuracies That Undermine Famous Movies
10. Straight Outta Compton Sanitizes Certain Members Of N.W.A.
Straight Outta Compton was always going to show up on a list like this It is, since it was produced by Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy-E's widow, so there was always going to be a certain level of bias. Straight Outta Compton is a great movie that's far better than anyone expected, but while the film's storytelling was less biased than expected, they still left a fair amount out.
The general details of NWA's career and subsequent break-up are largely solid, but bits of it are sanitized. The big one is Dr Dre's long history of beating women up; Dee Barnes was beaten up by Dre and wrote an article in Gawker criticizing the film. He also beat up his former girlfriend, Michel'le, on a regular basis and is also known to have assaulted at least one other woman.
All of this is completely left out, as is some of the uglier parts of the group's break-up and feuds. The film also claims N.W.A. were planning a reunion before Eazy E's death, which isn't entirely false, but there was definitely no clear reunion plan.
All this being said, this adds an interesting dimension to the film. This feels like the members of N.W.A. telling things how they wish they'd been and removing some of the darker elements of their history through the film, so these historical inaccuracies could be seen as them trying to say goodbye to their pasts.