This is what I was wondering as exchanges are quite compelling, how close was any of it was to the transcripts. Their politics aside, the judge is painfully frustrating making you just want to punch him through the screen. I always wonder why somebody like him is not questioning how history is going to look upon him in the end.
Apparently his portrayal is actually one of the most accurate. Dude was already like 70 years old at the time and would stay on the bench a further 20 years. Great argument for term limiting judges. The piece I was reading breaking down where the film deviated from the truth noted that they did a survey of attorneys and like 80% thought he was incompetent or whatever. Like, they do these surveys of judges in Colorado because the voters determine if judges are retained, not sure why you'd run those surveys on federal judges. Anyway, since Sorkin was changing things, it begs the question of whether, even though the judge was in reality over the top, you would want to tone it down for believability. Sometimes reality is unbelievable.