MovieChat Forums > Bernard and Doris (2007) Discussion > This movie misrepresents the facts

This movie misrepresents the facts

posted 16 years ago by drp-6
15 replies | jump to latest

What really happened

" Doris died in 1993 at the age of 80, following a series of debilitating strokes. She left virtually all of her fortune -- estimated at US$1.3 billion, even though she had given away a considerable amount of money throughout her life -- to a charitable foundation, over which she put her Irish-born butler Bernard Lafferty in charge. A lawsuit initiated by Duke's physician Harry Demopoulos resulted in Lafferty's being discharged. lafferty soon died. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Duke

" Harry Demopoulos is a trustee of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, founded upon the death of the billionaire tobacco heiress. When Duke died in 1993 at the age of 80, legal documents revealed she had previously assigned Demopoulos - a longtime friend - coexecutor of her estate. However, a controversial change to her will near her death put her vast fortune in the control of her Irish-born butler, Bernard Lafferty, who Demopoulos described in a subsequent lawsuit as "an illiterate, unstable and even dangerous person."

Arguably, "the butler did it"-- "But the real bombshell came when the litigants produced an affidavit from Tammy Payette, 28, a nurse who had attended to Duke in her final weeks. Payette maintained that Kivowitz (one of Duke's doctors) and Lafferty had conspired to murder Duke through the use of "massive sedation", including morphine and Demerol." [1] This lawsuit resulted in Lafferty's being discharged.[2]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Demopoulos

[–] mikeoak840 16 years ago

I caught a little "commercial" for the film on cable the other night and admit I wasn't paying full attention, but the thing that made me roll my eyes was Sarandon saying something along the lines she believes Duke & Lafferty were a great love story, and I thought, how clueless can Sarandon be? He was gay and Duke was elderly and infirm, he was taking advantage of her and his position, and it's been pretty well conclusively proven that he completely manipulated the system with the aid of her doctor. Gee, Susan...what a great romance! All I could think was, well, we know the spin being put on this story...

[–] Petronius Arbiter II 16 years ago

I don't see Bernard as a villain. The vibes I got when the story started coming out were more like, it was a case of assisted suicide. Doris was a very smart woman. She had been in a lot of pain for many years, and she wanted to maintain control over when, where, and how she went out, and over what happened to the money when she died.

She enlisted the help of the doctor and Bernard so she could pass away on her own terms, and of course, they couldn't just walk into a court of law and say it was assisted suicide, so they had to meet the legal challenges as best they could without ever telling the whole truth. That's my theory about what really happened, and I'm sticking with it until I see convincing evidence to the contrary.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

[–] Trixlexia 16 years ago

The movie was based only partly on fact. The part about their relationship was imagined. It states that right at the beginning of the film.

And Susan Sarandon's comment about it being love story was not meant to be taken literally. She didn't mean it in the sense of a "romantic" love story. She meant it in the context of two people who bonded in an intimate, but platonic relationship. A love story between friends.

And again, it was not meant to be taken as fact.

[–] reader_527 16 years ago

Mr. Arbiter, your vibes have done you wrong.

Doris Duke couldn't have assisted in creating a shopping list for more than a decade before she died. I saw her wandering Bellevue Avenue in Newport, RI, during the early '80s dressed as a bag lady with her ungartered stockings rolled down under her knees. And that was NOT the look her butler was going for when he dressed in her clothes, prancing about Rough Point after her death.

You deduced. I observed. And I still can't bring myself to watch this piece of fiction.

[–] funkie_sparkels 16 years ago

a) Bernard and Doris is a FICTIONAL FILM that is BASED on fact. It's not supposed to be factual in and of itself.
b) Umm...Wikipedia?? Yeah there's a reliable source....
c) As one other poster pointed out, platonic relationships can still be love stories.
d) I liked the movie. And yes that is only my OPINION so I don't expect everyone to agree.

evian is naive spelled backwards

[–] reader_527 16 years ago

And you are directing your post to me because ... ?

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] funkie_sparkels 16 years ago

sorry, that wasn't intended for you

evian is naive spelled backwards

[–] blinkysmom 8 years ago

^^ funkie_sparkels, you nailed it! Yes! Plus, at the very beginning of the movie there is a disclaimer that some are facts and some are not.

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[–] dragonhunter200 16 years ago

Whether or not this film misrepresents the facts is irrelevant. No one ever declared the 'facts' presented in this story to be accurate. In the very beginning, there is a clear disclaimer saying that some is true, some is not. The main characters were real people. Beyond that, it doesn't have to be accurate and shouldn't be seen as such. I found it to be a touching story of platonic love, well-acted, and enjoyable. Beyond that, what does it matter? If I want to know the true story behind something or someone, I'll do proper research (not wikipedia), not watch a movie.

[–] lvcambot-2 16 years ago

Ditto!

Joss Wheadon! Sleeping in the Pixar parking lot for a year doesn't count as an Oscar win for "Toy Story!

[–] Sai-Capricious 16 years ago

Yes people are too caught up in what "actually" Happened. Or really what was said to have happened.

We don't know. Most movies, based on fact, always dramatize the story. Why do you care so much about what actually went on? It's a fictional movie..

[–] cherubalways 16 years ago

Perhaps they would have been safer creating fictional characters based on facts?
I mean, personally I don't mind, but it does seem to ruffle a lot of feathers around here. Thankfully, not knowing much about the facts made this very enjoyable for me. I highly recommend it. Sarandon was wonderful.

[–] blinkysmom 8 years ago

It is mentioned on the home page of this movie (the page before this one) under user reviews that the actual facts would not make for an epic biography. And at the beginning of the movie, the first frame tells you (paraphrasing) this movie is based on true facts and some are not true. I don't know why anyone here expects anything more than they claim to represent in this version of Dukes twilight years.

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[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

Exactly! People watch these films, go to the internet to fact check and then come here to complain. The essence of the story is there in the movie, the tidbits are unimportant.