The Story Behind the 21 Movie – Separating Fact from Fiction

If we got a penny every time Hollywood releases a good Blackjack movie, we’d be millionaires. Indeed, titles of this genre are many and each of them strikes with a profound undernote of pure dramatism. If this is the quintessential recipe for a thrilling card game movie, then 21 will be a prime candidate. It’s a nailbiter, unpredictable and, at the same time, delivering a punch of visceral emotions – there’s no doubt about that. What we wonder thought is whether the ecranisation paints the picture of what truly happened or is it a more palatable story adjusted to the general audience’s taste. We are about to find out!

Entirely Based on a True Story or Adapted?

It’s said that director Robert Luketic got inspired by the true story of the MIT blackjack team described in the book Bringing Down the House. The team of young MIT graduates who used to target Las Vegas casinos and have a field day beating the house by the power of card counting or so the story goes. If you watch 21 the full movie though, you’ll see that the feeling of impunity isn’t predominant at all. Although Math Professor Micky Rosa – the mastermind behind the operation – doesn’t get caught until the very end, you’ll see that a key players in the team get singled out, beaten and questioned.

Alas, after an unexpected turn of events, instead of engorge the fruits of a flawless plan, the main character – Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) – finds himself scrambling to keep it together. But wait, did this happen in reality? What’s even more curious why’s Micky Rosa even in the movie? It’s a documented fact now that the team was run as a tight ship of graduates who were responsible for recruiting new members. If Micky Rosa wasn’t the one who shaped the team nor did he played, then the question arises.

What’s Professor Rosa’s Stake in All This?

In truth, this is where the magic of Hollywood really comes into play – Micky Rosa is a fictional character who wasn’t a part of the MIT Team members. Though we think’ the 21 movie cast was a startling success. The team wasn’t managed by a professor as we mentioned earlier, so the only real-life person that the character of Rosa can be likened to, is Bill Kaplan – the founder of the MIT blackjack hit squad. He was the visionary behind the project – the man with the dream to live off blackjack by counting cards.

However, what he’s not is a cheat and certainly not the man with interests opposing to those of the students. Kaplan, a likeable individual, was not the adversary, but the mentor of all bright prospects and, well…something like a sponsor. He invested in a new company that was supposed to teach card-counting to promising young students. Then, after perfecting the technique with a fair amount of dry runs, the students would be flown to Vegas to put in practice everything they’ve learned.

The Takeaway from the Story

Cheating eventually gets you caught, isn’t it obvious? But really, as we see from some of the top casino movies such as Highroller: The Stu Ungar Story, historical accuracy sint topmost priority of Holywood. Is such an approach justified you might ask? It absolutely is. In order to exaggerate certain qualities of the main characters, movie producers sometime choose to alter the original story a bit and that’s fine as long as it’s done in good taste. Factual accuracy isn’t a prerequisite for success. Oftentimes action, the storyline, or acting is what wins the fans over. So, this might be a one man’s opinion, but the movie 21 is hitting all the right notes according to those criteria.