Fact checking 'The Burial': How accurate is Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones' courtroom drama?

Spoiler alert! This post details plot points of the new movie "The Burial" and the real-life events it's based on.

Everyone loves a great Hollywood legal drama, especially when the triumphant tale is true.

In recent years alone, “Loving” (2016) told us about the fight for interracial marriage, “Dark Waters” (2019) chronicled a battle against polluter DuPont, and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (2020) took on the case of political activists at the 1968 Democratic convention.

Now comes “The Burial” (streaming on Prime Video), starring Jamie Foxx as an elegant Florida lawyer, Willie Gary, who represents Mississippi funeral home owner Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) in a lawsuit against the giant multinational that nearly ran him out of business.

It is perhaps not too much of a reveal to share that Gary wins his case, lending the film its feel-good finale. But USA TODAY spoke with Gary, 76, to tease out instances in which the movie is spot on and others where it by necessity tweaks the truth.

As Gary says with a laugh: “I’ve learned that in making movies, you have to pull a few fast ones. They have to put together two hours of entertainment, so I rolled with the punches.”

Did Willie Gary really win his case by grilling Ray Loewen on the price of his yacht?

“That was most definitely something I brought to the table at the trial,” says Gary. “It allowed me to challenge his truthfulness.”

More specifically, it was a chance to show how out of touch Loewen was with his customers, especially those of color, who Gary said were being price gouged. In the movie, Gary (Foxx) repeatedly asks Loewen (Bill Camp) to recall the price of the boat. He can’t.

While Gary says he was certainly proud of the jet he owned at the time of the trial, he could have named its price. “I worked hard for it, I knew its value,” he says. “Juries make decisions on nonverbal things often. We sucker-punched him into it.”

Was Willie Gary’s legal eagle nemesis a young female Black attorney?

“That was made up,” Gary says with a laugh. “But I didn’t make it up.”

In the movie, Loewen is defended by a team of Black lawyers led by Mame Downes (Jurnee Smollett). She and Gary are seen trading sparring insults and, ultimately, a respectful goodbye.

In reality, Loewen did indeed hire experienced Black attorneys out of concern that a white team might not play well with the jury. But the leader of that group was Black antitrust expert Richard Sinkfield.

Did Willie Gary become a lawyer after being turned away by a rental property owner?

Gary indeed turned to law after he was rebuffed by a Florida property manager who had initially, by phone, invited Gary and his young family to move into a housing complex.

“I had the money, and I showed up at the place with my wife and two boys, and they saw I was Black and told me there was no room at the inn,” he says quietly. “You know that story.”

Gary, at the time, ran a small landscaping business but soon decided to enroll in law school to represent those grappling with similar situations. “I still feel that stinging moment to this day,” he says. “It’s in my bones.”

Willie Gary talks Jamie Foxx: Plus, the stunning $500M court win that inspired 'The Burial'

Did the court case in 'The Burial' really involve shady profit-sharing with the National Baptist Convention?

The discovery by one of Gary’s lawyers of a contract between the Canadian funeral group and the National Baptist Convention was largely responsible for getting O’Keefe, who had started to feel he would not win his case, to drop the idea of settling.

The information, unearthed by attorney Hal Dockins (Mamoudou Athie), revealed that the deal involved pastors receiving a small commission for recruiting church members to sell Loewen-backed “death care” products, from caskets to burial insurance.

But, as the movie details, while the company reaped millions from the arrangement, churches and salespeople wound up getting small amounts. “Hal handed that to us on a silver platter,” says Gary. “Suddenly, we were trying a much bigger race case.”

Which part of Willie Gary's life story isn't seen in 'The Burial'?

Gary has been married to his longtime sweetheart Gloria for decades, and the couple has four adult children, Kenneth, Sekou, Kobe and Ali.

Gary says the two are affectionate with each other as a rule, a love that is in evidence in “The Burial.” But he says when he read a proposed scene in which their onscreen doppelgangers – played by Foxx and Amanda Warren – got a bit frisky, the lawyer quickly registered an objection.

“For one thing, I’m churchgoing,” Gary says with a chuckle. “So I see this scene where my wife is, you know, shaking it up, and I said, ‘No, that’s not going to happen.’ ”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Burial' fact check: Is Jamie Foxx's new movie a true story?