 The original song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" that formed the basis for the film's central plotline was, for the most part, a true story.However, other than this and the hippie wedding at the end of the film, most of the other events and characters in the film were fictional creations of the screenplay's writers.According to Guthrie on the DVD's audio commentary, the film used the names of real people but took numerous liberties with actual events.