Sullenberger did so many other things well in a short, chaotic span that there was no thought to find fault with his actions, according to Benzon. In fact, the agency took pains not to seem critical.
“We did a lot of wordsmithing to not distort anything, so to speak, but to make it seem like we weren’t on a witch hunt,” he said.
The tug of war between accuracy and colorful story telling is constant in Hollywood, where writers and directors often struggle to bring to life events as humdrum as computer hacking and mortgage trading.
The fanciful car chase at the Tehran airport didn’t prevent “Argo” from winning a best picture Oscar in 2013. Charges of factual inaccuracies dogged recent films such as “Lincoln,” “Selma” and Eastwood’s 2014 biopic “American Sniper,” which featured a fictional duel between real life marksman Chris Kyle and a fictional rival.
“Any good story has to have a villain,” said Brenner.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.