In praise of wikipedia Mike Rappaport

I have a new love — wikipedia.  This encyclopedia written and edited by the public is just amazing.  I know that allowing non-authorized experts to write the articles is risky, but there are checks on mistakes and abuse, similar to the ones that constrain blogs.  But where wikipedia really has it all over the other encyclopedias is how vast it is.  There just seem to be articles on everything. 

These days, after watching a movie I like, I regularly look it up on wikipedia, to my significant benefit.  Tonight, I watched the Aviator, and naturally wondered how much of the story was true.  I hate that aspect of Hollywood nonfiction movies — how do you know what is true.  But wikipedia gives you the story, including links to the lives of some of the picture’s leading characters.  Just great.

Indeed, in the case of the Aviator, real life seems to have been more dramatic than the movie.  Spoiler follows: It turns out that the bad Senator who questions Hughes at the congressional hearing actually stepped down as chairman, testified at the hearing, and was questioned by Hughes.   Interesting call Scorsese made, leaving that out of the film.

In many ways, the Aviator reminded me of the film Tucker, also about an entrepreneur who allegedly was attacked by a government-business conspiracy.  Except, of course, Tucker did not have Hugues’s eccentricities.  I had always wondered about how much of Tucker was true, and now I have at least a version of it, courtesy of course of wikipedia.