Foxcatcher inaccuracies

[J Feiner]

This was on Mark Shultz's facebook page...
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Mark Schultz: Olympic Wrestling Champion
July 30 at 1:48pm · Edited ·

34 Inaccuracies (there are many more) by Attorney Art Cantu in the movie Foxcatcher that are in Mark's book Foxcatcher, now out in softcover.
1. John du Pont and Mark Schultz were never friends. Mark never showed John any wrestling moves. Nothing existed between them other than an employee/employer relationship.
2. Mark did not move to Pennsylvania to join Team Foxcatcher. He moved there when John offered him an assistant coach job at Villanova University. Joining Team Foxcatcher was a minor part of the deal.
3. Mark considered duPont so repulsive he never would have gone to Villanova had John told Mark he wanted to be part of the Villanova University wrestling coaching staff.
4. The movie strips Mark of his 1985 world title. When Mark is called by duPont Mark is an Olympic Champion, not the Olympic and World Champion he was. 1985 was Mark's best year in world competition. Mark was the only 1984 Olympic Champion to win the 1985 World Championships and defeated every Soviet block country that boycotted the 1984 Olympics. In 1985 Mark also defeated the 1985 World Champion at 198 lbs at the 1985 U.S. Open, one weight above Mark's normal weight .
5. Dave and Mark were never at Foxcatcher Farms at the same time. Mark only lived on the farm about 6 months then left Foxcatcher after the 1988 Olympics. Dave moved onto the farm in 1989, a year after Mark left.
6. Dave was murdered 8 years after Mark left Foxcatcher. The movie suggests Dave's murder occurred within months of Mark leaving and his departure influenced Dave's murder.
7. The big 3-mat wresting facility in the movie John shows Mark to recruit him never existed until years after Mark left Foxcatcher.
8. The first time Mark met duPont, duPont's hair was dyed bright orange and parted in the middle. He didn't maintain his roots and an inch of gray was on each side of the part. John was so drunk or on drugs or both he was practically incoherent and spat while he spoke. He had 1/8" layer of dandruff caked on his head. He had a thick layer of food caked on his yellow teeth. He had varicose veins. His arms were so skinny they looked like bird legs. His stomach was bloated like he swallowed a basketball. In the movie the first time we see duPont he's sober, clean, coherent, and wearing a starched clean white collared shirt.
9. The movie shows Mark working as Dave's assistant at Wexler University (a fictional school name) and living in his own apartment when duPont called him. In reality Dave and Mark Schultz were both living with their father in their father's house in Palo Alto, CA while both worked as assistant coaches at Stanford.
10. Dave was never a Division I University Head Coach. Mark was Head Coach at Brigham Young University for 6 years and won the 1998 Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year award.
11. In reality Mark had access to only one mat on the estate in an indoor shooting range with almost no workout partners but won the 1987 Worlds.
12. DuPont carried guns but never fired a gun indoors like it shows in the movie. He did however point a gun at Mark's girlfriend and the Villanova wrestlers one day.
13. The movie shows Dave negotiating a deal to pay Mark even if Mark is not on Foxcatcher Farms. It's true a deal was negotiated prior to Mark accepting the Job at Villanova U. but the deal was negotiated by Mark and duPont, not Dave and duPont. All Dave knew was that his salary doubled when he joined Team Foxcatcher. Dave had no knowledge of the deal Mark made with duPont until years after Mark left Foxcatcher. The deal Mark made was as long as one of the brothers worked at Foxcatcher Farms, the both brothers would be paid the same and neither one would ever be given a position of authority over the other one. Mark negotiated the deal to pay the brothers the same regardless of who worked there.
14. The movie portrays Mark as an inarticulate, confused, emotionally fragile, dumb jock. Mark was the 1983 Student Athlete of the Year at Oklahoma University and has a masters degree in exercise science. There's no such thing as an emotionally fragile Olympic Wrestling Champion.
15. When Mark first took the job at Villanova University he moved into an apartment in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, a mile from the Villanova campus and 20 miles from Foxcatcher Farms in Newtown Square, PA.
16. du Pont told Mark that du Pont would only come into the Villanova wrestling offices once every 3 months to check on things. It was a lie. After 3 months he was there everyday acting like the boss, breaking NCAA rules, while the Villanova President and Athletic Director looked the other way. After Mark saw the John duPont Pavilion and the John duPont swimming complex Mark thought wrestling would be treated the same way by John endowing the university but staying out of running the programs. That's why Mark agreed to coach at Villanova University.
17. The movie shows Mark moving from an apartment in Wisconsin directly onto Foxcatcher Farms in Newtown Square, PA. In reality Mark moved from his father's house in Palo Alto, CA.
18. The movie scene with Mark showing duPont wrestling technique never happened. Mark never showed wrestling techniques to duPont.
19. Mark never sat in duPont's corner in any matches and duPont never sat in Mark's corner (except a bulgarian dual which Mark lost and vowed never to let duPont sit in his corner again).
20. In the movie it shows Mark being woken up at night to get dressed to practice with duPont in some room in duPont's mansion called "the gallery". There were no mats in duPont's house or a room called the "gallery".
21. Mark never frosted his hair or drank beer or alcohol.
22. UFC IX was a sold out "No-Holds-Barred" rules (no eye gouging or biting) cage fight in Detroit's Cobo Arena with a crowd of 10,000. Not a circus side show like it shows in the movie. Mark's opponent in UFC IX was black Canadian name Gary Goodridge (who's in the movie). In the movie Mark fights a white guy. This was Mark's greatest victory but the movie ends right before it shows Mark winning.
23. DuPont never gave Mark any speeches to read at any awards banquets duPont set up for himself to receive an award he made for himself. In the movie's fictional award banquet Mark reads that duPont was the father he's ""spent his life looking for." Mark never respected duPont as anything, especially a coach, leader, mentor, example, role model, or father figure. To the contrary, the thought of giving duPont credit for anything Mark accomplished was sickening to Mark and Mark is very close with his father Philip.
24. Mark didn't go to the 1987 World's with duPont in a lear jet.
25. duPont didn't sit in Mark's corner at the 1988 Olympics.
26. duPont and Mark were never on a Team Foxcatcher poster together. Mark was on a Team Foxcatcher poster alone.
27. Mark never gave duPont his medals to John to put in one of duPont's trophy rooms. Mark kept his medals in storage.
28. DuPont never gave Mark any ornithology books or field glasses.
29. The movie shows UFC VIII on TV in 1988. UFC VIII was in 1996. Mark's UFC IX fight was only 4 months after Dave's murder. Little known fact: Mark took the fight with only one day's notice.
30. duPont never slapped Mark. Mark would have knocked his head off.
31. Mark dated several girls while at Villanova & Foxcatcher.
32. The movie shows Mark and Dave with very different personalities. According to their parents Dave and Mark were so similar they were almost like twins finishing each other's sentences.
33. If you know nothing about Mark Schultz and saw the movie you'd think he only won about half his matches. In reality Mark is perhaps the greatest wrestler in history and won 99% of his matches.
34. The biggest omission of them all...The movie shows duPont had a real distain for his mother's horses but it nevers tells you why. When duPont was about 30 years old he was thrown by a horse onto a fence straddling it and injuring his testicles. The testicles became infected and he had to be castrated. duPont lived the rest of his life as a eunuch. His lack of testosterone explain his androgenous appearance and mannerisms. Why wasn't this in the movie?

[npope]

Sounds like Mark wants to correct a few things 

[Ty Clark]

36. Mark Schultz has counted to infinity... twice.

[Ohio Wisconsin]

Its a MOVIE..they are going to skim through it...but agree they could have made it more accurate.

[dad 2 5]

J are you telling us that we cannot trust what we see on a screen as complete fact and accuracy? 

[leg turk]

ya, speak up J

[J Feiner]

  I guess so.....  Now I want to read the book.