4 - Plagiarism and Fabrication

Lies on the Big Screen: Plagiarism and Fabrication in Film    

In the film industry, many movies are based on real-life events or are remakes of existing works, blurring the line between fact and fiction. In some cases, filmmakers raise concerns about plagiarism and fabrication with these films. Nosferatu (1922) serves as an example of plagiarism in film, while The Social Network (2010) acts as an example of fabrication. The first film imitates a pre-existing narrative, while the second dramatizes and alters reality. Both Nosferatu and The Social Network highlight the line between taking creative liberties and ethical responsibility when it comes to plagiarism and fabrication. 

Nosferatu is one of the first cases of plagiarism in film history. The silent movie, directed by German filmmaker F.W. Murnau, is a story about a vampire who terrorizes a young couple. The film faced legal repercussions when the producer, Albin Grau, was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker. Bram Stoker was the author of Dracula, one of the most famous vampire stories in history. Nosferatu actually began as an adaptation of the book, but they were not able to get permission from Stoker's estate to turn it into a film, so they altered character names and changed some parts of the story. 

This is not an official trailer, but it does show clips of the 1922 film. 

These alterations in the film, however, did not stop the lawsuit from taking place. Stoker's estate won, and all copies of the film were destroyed except for one. The lone copy somehow made it to the U.S., where Dracula was already public domain, and the film became a horror classic by the time the 60s came around. Nosferatu has become one of the most famous vampire stories in history, with many other stories taking inspiration and a remake of the film being made in 2024. Though the film ended up having commercial success, it serves as an example of how plagiarism in the film industry can have serious legal consequences (Plagiarism Today).

On the other hand, The Social Network serves as an example of fabrication in the film industry. The movie, directed by David Fincher, tells the story of how Facebook was created with real peoples' names and events. Though the film never faced any legal repercussions, it did raise eyebrows about how much of its narrative actually happened. 

The Social Network trailer. 

Many parts of The Social Network were dramatized in order to make the story more interesting. For example, one part of the film shows Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin committing acts of animal cruelty to join a prestigious club at Harvard called the Phoenix Club. This controversy was never proven to have actually happened, though Saverin was apart of the club. 

The scene over the "chicken controversy."

Another example of fabrication in the movie was in the reasoning for Mark Zuckerberg creating the Facebook platform in the first place. In the film, Zuckerberg comes up with the idea for Facebook in a scheme to "get girls," though the factual reason was to connect students with each other. These two examples outline how fabrication in film can alter the public's perception of real-life people and events, and these fictions could probably be grounds for a defamation lawsuit if any of the involved parties wanted to take action (ScreenRant). 

Films based on existing stories and real-life events chance the risk of containing plagiarism and fabrication within their narratives. Nosferatu represents a blatant case of plagiarism through its adaptation of Dracula and faced legal repercussions as a result. Conversely, The Social Network highlights a case of manipulating a story to create a more compelling narrative. In these films, plagiarism challenges the boundaries of ownership rights, while fabrication alters public perceptions of historical events. As filmmakers continue to push these limits, it is important to understand ways to ethically take inspiration from others and consider how much truth should be sacrificed for entertainment.