Even years later, 2018's Trial By Fire still has audiences questioning whether or not it is a true story.
The Laura Dern and Jack O'Connell-led drama recently hit Netflix, opening up its gripping crime story to a whole new audience of people.
The film sees Dern (who can be seen later this year in Palm Royale) as a playwright who takes an interest in the story of a local prisoner—played by O'Connell—who she seems to think may be innocent.
What Is Real vs. Fake In Trial By Fire?
Trial By Fire is based on a true story, but how real the movie actually is some fans have wondered even years later.
The 2018 film is based on a 2009 New Yorker story from American journalist David Grann, "Trial By Fire." The story recounted the ins and outs of the 1995 court case "Willingham v. State of Texas," in which a presumably innocent man was convicted of killing his three daughters in a fire in their home.
This case saw Cameron Todd Willingham convicted and charged in the deaths of his three children; however, over his time in prison, information began to come out, recanting seemingly damning evidence against Willingham.
Despite this, Willingham was still led to capital punishment, dying via state-sanctioned execution in September 2004.
These events are fairly accurately portrayed in the 2018 movie, following Willingham's conviction, time in prison, and then eventual death. However, there were a couple of small changes made in this story's transition to the screen.
One of the big characters in the film version of this story is Chris Coy's Daniels. Daniels is a ruthless prison guard Willingham (who in the film was portrayed by Back In Black's Jack O'Connell) crosses paths with during his time behind bars.
At first, Daniels shows no remorse in his treatment of prisoners like Willingham, beating them and making their lives even more miserable than they need to be.
That changes throughout the film though, as he begins to question Willingham's conviction after hearing him hallucinate about his three daughters as well as thanks to some letters the prisoner had been passed to playwright Elizabeth Gilbert (played by Laura Dern).
Also changed for the movie was the character of Willingham's lawyer. In the film, his attorney is a fictional practicing lawyer named David Horton (Darren Pettie), when in actuality Willingham was represented by a pair of attorneys, David Martin and Robert Dunn.
These real-life lawyers were just as impassioned about their client's innocence as their on-screen counterparts, but they were not nearly as incompetent as the movie portrays Willingham's attorney as being.
The rest of the story, for the most part, was fairly accurately portrayed.
Willingham actually went to prison for a crime he likely did not commit. Yes, he did befriend a playwright named Elizabeth Gilbert. And yes, he tragically was put to death despite no conclusive evidence that he, in fact, started the fire that killed his three daughters.
Gilbert still sits with Willingham's death all these years later, something that is teased in the movie's final moments where she spreads the former prisoner's ashes.
In a 2019 interview with Refinery29 Gilbert described her feelings about Willingham's case, saying she "had a tremendous amount of grief and guilt that [she] had failed him," but having a hand in making the movie (which she was consulted on) helped her to process these feelings:
"I had a tremendous amount of grief and guilt that I had failed him. The [process of] making of the movie and rereading his letters and actually hearing the real words from his last letter to me [made me realize] I was the right person at the right time. Even though we didn't have the success we wanted."
In the movie, Gilbert missed Willingham's death because of a devastating car crash that left her paralyzed. While the crash actually happened as well, when her accident occurred was altered for the movie.
In real life, her crash happened long before his death, and it was being stuck in the hospital recovering that stopped her from being there for her friend in his final moments.
Trial By Fire is now streaming on Netflix.
