Having read a fair number of books about Sinatra, Martin, The Rat Pack, and DiMaggio and Monroe, I couldn't believe how accurate even the most minor of details in the film turned out to be. I'm thinking about things like Sinatra roughing up a newspaper reporter for writing an unflattering story, his aversion to doing a movie scene more than once, and May Britt (Megan Dodds) fuming over the way the guys treated Sammy Davis Jr. It's all in there, with poignant cultural references to let the viewer know what else was going on in the entertainment world at the time, like Sinatra and Martin being tapped for the movie "Some Came Running", and the Rat Pack's involvement in "Ocean's 11". The behind the scenes dynamic relating to the election of John F. Kennedy as President was a bonus, not to mention the more than casual interest expressed by the Mob and Sam Giancana (Robert Miranda) in the affairs (both political and personal) of the Kennedy Family and the future President.
There were only a couple scenarios I'd never heard of before, so I can't say if they were historically accurate or embellishments for the story. One was when Sammy Davis Jr. (Don Cheadle) confronted his detractors as a two-fisted gunslinger to make his point about marrying a white woman, and Johnny Roselli's (Joe Cortese) suggestion to take out the entire Rat Pack once it was known Bobby Kennedy (Zeljko Ivanek) would be going after organized crime. What's true about Sammy's prowess with guns though is legendary in Hollywood. As a quick draw artist, he was arguably the fastest there was, acknowledged even by the Duke himself, John Wayne. And the Mafia's ties with Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta), though embarrassing for the entertainer, cannot be reasonably disputed today given all that's been revealed over the years. That scene of Sinatra going absolutely crazy when Brother-in-Lawford (Angus Macfadyen) stated President Kennedy (William Petersen) would stay at Bing Crosby's place while in Palm Springs was of course true. Sinatra was beside himself for days on end after that ordeal took place.
Oh yeah, there was one more thing. The scene with Sinatra and Kennedy aboard the President's yacht. Anyone else notice that there were no Secret Service agents on hand? They could have been there unseen for the purpose of filming that sequence, but think about it. If Sinatra's relationship with The Mob was any tighter than it was, he would have had free reign to whack the President himself, and his name in the history books would have replaced that of Lee Harvey Oswald. Isn't that a scary thought?
There were only a couple scenarios I'd never heard of before, so I can't say if they were historically accurate or embellishments for the story. One was when Sammy Davis Jr. (Don Cheadle) confronted his detractors as a two-fisted gunslinger to make his point about marrying a white woman, and Johnny Roselli's (Joe Cortese) suggestion to take out the entire Rat Pack once it was known Bobby Kennedy (Zeljko Ivanek) would be going after organized crime. What's true about Sammy's prowess with guns though is legendary in Hollywood. As a quick draw artist, he was arguably the fastest there was, acknowledged even by the Duke himself, John Wayne. And the Mafia's ties with Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta), though embarrassing for the entertainer, cannot be reasonably disputed today given all that's been revealed over the years. That scene of Sinatra going absolutely crazy when Brother-in-Lawford (Angus Macfadyen) stated President Kennedy (William Petersen) would stay at Bing Crosby's place while in Palm Springs was of course true. Sinatra was beside himself for days on end after that ordeal took place.
Oh yeah, there was one more thing. The scene with Sinatra and Kennedy aboard the President's yacht. Anyone else notice that there were no Secret Service agents on hand? They could have been there unseen for the purpose of filming that sequence, but think about it. If Sinatra's relationship with The Mob was any tighter than it was, he would have had free reign to whack the President himself, and his name in the history books would have replaced that of Lee Harvey Oswald. Isn't that a scary thought?