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Milind Chummar
Prof. Judy Deisler
ENC 1102
November 7, 2016
Movie vs. Reality
The movie Straight Outta Compton, directed by F. Gary Gray, was a box office success.
The movie reports the story of four youngsters who founded a hip-hop group known as N.W.A
during 1986. They were born in Compton, California. The film was released in 2015 and was
met with positive reviews . According to movie critic Peter Travers, “Straight Outta Compton is
epic, baby, an explosively entertaining hip-hop biopic”. However, like most films (based on real
life events), it was not entirely accurate in respect to the actual events. Straight Outta Compton
adds fictional elements, exaggerates the emotional level between events, and alters some actual
events to make the movie more engaging for the audience.
The main characters of the movie are Eric Lynn Wright (Eazy-E), Andre Romello
Young (Dr. Dre), O’Shea Jackson (Ice Cube), and Antoine Carraby (DJ Yella). They were
portrayed as the members of N.W.A Rap group. However, when the group formed MC Ren was
also a member of the N.W. A group from the beginning. The film did not include MC Ren even
though he was a very important member and had contributed lyrics; This frustrated MC Ren and
had complained about it (“MC Ren Blasts film”). The film exaggerates Dr. Dre’s toughness
compared to real life. For example, in the movie Dr. Dre had to be bailed out for being involved
in a fight (Straight Outta Compton). In reality Dr. Dre went to jail for unpaid parking tickets
(Clark 95). When the N. W. A members got harassed by the police, the movie says that incident
led to help inspire the concept for their song “F*** Tha Police”. In reality, Ice Cube already had
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planned the concept before the police harassment occurred (Nicholson and Lucchesi). Another
shortcoming of the movie is the character of Eazy -E. The movie doesn’t give a detailed
coverage of Eazy-E. When Eazy-E got HIV, the movie fails to clarify the source of his disease.
Instead, the movie viewed the disease as a “random and out-of-nowhere stroke of bad luck”
(Nicholson and Lucchesi). However, in reality Eazy-E had relationships with multiple women
and had seven children from six different women (Nicholson and Lucchesi). This fact is not
exposed in the movie. To be fair, it is still a mystery how Eazy got aids. Nevertheless, the movie
should have shown Eazy-E’s immoral and loose relationships with women for the sake of
accuracy. Talking about Eazy-E, his funeral was inaccurately portrayed because it showed all the
N.W.A. members present at this funeral (Straight Outta Compton). Only Antione Carraby –
