Most historically inaccurate movies

[DMB]

Here is The Times's list of the top ten:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6738785.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Any that were worse than the ones listed here?

[Monad]

The Passion of Christ

[BigEvil]

lol, the list has 3 Mel Gibson movies.

[Gooch's Dad]

Well, "300" of course.

[munnki]

Here's a few I think are rather outstandingly inaccurate...

10,000 BC - Mammoths being used as worker animals, for a start... it gets worse from there...

The Last Samurai - There are no records of Civil War veterans fighting among the Samurai...

Birth of a Nation - The KKK storming in to rescue the Southern states from the uppity bootlegging negros....

Gone With The Wind - revisionism of above but ultimately nonsense drenched...

Shakespeare In Love - perhaps it could get points for tackling that 'Was Shakespeare Gay?' debate...

erm... there's loads but that's a few...

[Preno]

Here is The Times's list of the top ten:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6738785.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Any that were worse than the ones listed here?God, Marie Antoinette was horrible. Some of the others were at least amusing to watch, but this one was pure rubbish.

[Goldie]

Before I read it all I was going to add Marie Antoinette. Not that I am some history scholar, but you don't have to be brilliant to see it's BS.

[Matty]

Saving Private Ryan, i was quite surprised to not see that piece of shit in there.
It was even worse than Pearl Harbor, which was of course horrible.

_pM8PrqY5Rg


Oh and the flintstones movie, humans and dinosaurs coexisting, sheesh. :)

[Anne]

Are these opinion or fact?

SPR was based on a true story, or a series of true stories. What made that 'inaccurate'?

GwtW? She lived through it--- again, inaccurate?

that's about above posts. About the article:

I'm confused about the "There is also strong evidence that Francis Marion, the basis for Gibson’s character, was a slave-owning serial rapist who murdered Cherokee Indians for fun. " Ok, Marion was a slave owner (he was a plantation owner during the revolution, that's like saying 'he wore a wig') and he fought the Cherokee (murder for fun? a stretch) but where's the 'strong evidence' for any of this--- all I can find are links back to the article quoted...

I'd like to see it. I've done a small amount of research into FM and I'd be interested.

[Valheru]

Evita.

She could never sing as well as Madonna. That, right there.

[Valheru]

Well, "300" of course.

I don't care! :D That movie kicks ass.

[Valheru]

That list is full of shit, anyway.

The most historically inaccurate movie of all time is (wait for it)































































2001 : A Space Odyssey :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[Matty]

THAT is a good call. :D

SPR was based on a true story, or a series of true stories. What made that 'inaccurate'?

Have you seen it. Did you not notice that every single "Allied" soldier fighting the Germans was fucking American? Every one. As far as that film is concerned, WWII was the US vs the Germans. Yee fucking Haw, cowboy and all that.

I felt for every member of my grandparents generation who were totally ignored to make it more palatable for the "US Saves The World" bit that all US movies seem contractually obliged to include.

It was basically a WWII version of Independence Day, except Independence Day does at least have a 30second bit acknowledging that other countries and soldiers exist.

[DMB]

But that is trumped by the first one on The Times list

1 U-571, 2000

Rather cynically, American screenwriter David Ayer depicted American rather than British naval officers capturing the first Enigma machine, “in order to drive the movie for an American audience.” The first Enigma machine was in fact seized by officers from HMS Bulldog in 1941 and by the time the USA joined the war later that year, Britain had cracked the code. The post-release furore led Tony Blair, Prime Minister at the time, to agree that it was “an affront to the memories” of those involved and Bill Clinton, then US President, to write a letter emphasising the film’s fictional nature. In 2006, Ayer told the BBC he had come to regret the alteration: “Both my grandparents were officers in World War II, and I would be personally offended if somebody distorted their achievements.”

So they took a true story that happened before America entered the war and made it a story about Americans. A lot of British people resented that. The men involved were very brave.
See HMS Bulldog (H91) and http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/10/enigma/enigma12.htm

[munnki]

They also made Turing straight in that movie... If I'm not mixing it up with another enigma movie... I'll check...

[Anne]

THAT is a good call. :D

SPR was based on a true story, or a series of true stories. What made that 'inaccurate'?

Have you seen it. Did you not notice that every single "Allied" soldier fighting the Germans was fucking American? Every one. As far as that film is concerned, WWII was the US vs the Germans. Yee fucking Haw, cowboy and all that.

I felt for every member of my grandparents generation who were totally ignored to make it more palatable for the "US Saves The World" bit that all US movies seem contractually obliged to include.

It was basically a WWII version of Independence Day, except Independence Day does at least have a 30second bit acknowledging that other countries and soldiers exist.

I think Eddie already did that skit...

:p

[Berthold]

The historic Spartacus was not crucified but killed in action.

The Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner (well, not history exactly :)) has a bad mechanic blunder: When they shoot, for a test, with a longbow at a helmet, just look at the helmet as the arrow is sticking through it (it's shown long enough).

[willynilly]

I can't believe not a single western made the list. All those James brothers and Billy the Kid movies?

[Berthold]

Considering all the Western movies supposedly about times before breechloading firearms had been invented (or were in common use)...

As for that, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" was quite nice (at least to me; I'm not really a gun expert).

[Matty]

THAT is a good call. :D

SPR was based on a true story, or a series of true stories. What made that 'inaccurate'?

Have you seen it. Did you not notice that every single "Allied" soldier fighting the Germans was fucking American? Every one. As far as that film is concerned, WWII was the US vs the Germans. Yee fucking Haw, cowboy and all that.

I felt for every member of my grandparents generation who were totally ignored to make it more palatable for the "US Saves The World" bit that all US movies seem contractually obliged to include.

It was basically a WWII version of Independence Day, except Independence Day does at least have a 30second bit acknowledging that other countries and soldiers exist.

I think Eddie already did that skit...

:p

yup he did, though he was being funny, i wasnt. He was very right to fire that one in the direction of an unapologetic American audience becasue that film was a fucking insult.

Though it seems like American filmmakers have little to no compunction for claiming for the USA acts actually carried out by other countries. Good ones anyway.

[DMB]

I remember my father (who fought in WW2) used to sing a song that went

It weren't the Yanks that won the War
'Twas my boy willy...

[dancer_rnb]

I remember my father (who fought in WW2) used to sing a song that went

It weren't the Yanks that won the War
'Twas my boy willy...

Shouldn't that be "twas my boy Ivan?"

[Anne]

Truth in advertsing, Truth in storytelling, no belief in God or homeopathy...

Jeez, Matty, there is no fantasy in your life at all, is there?

[willynilly]

Matty like his fantasy with the ladies. Bern, chicka, bern-bern.

Sorry, I'm in a really good mood today. :p

[Mediancat]

I can't read the list.

Is JFK on it?

because if not, it sure as hell should be.

Rob

[Anne]

no, it's not.

[Matty]

Truth in advertsing, Yes. IMO companies should NOT be allowed to lie through their teeth about the effects of a product. Especially when peoples health is at stake.
Truth in storytelling, Says who. I love a good story. You were the one claiming SPR was more than just a story ;)

no belief in God or homeopathy...Now you are just taking the piss :) But i agree they are both fantasies with no truth to them.

Jeez, Matty, there is no fantasy in your life at all, is there?
heh. i fantasize plenty, you know that picture of Nancy*** on the double bed full of grass? :)

i just think that stuff that is billed as historically accurate should be so **. Especially when it is touted as historically accurate AFTER the fact, becasue dumb people believe that shit. Now i know you have the stance that if they are too dumb to detect obvious bullshit then more fool them, and in many cases i agree. But certainly not all.

** With the exception of Fargo becasue that lie about the "based on a true story" bit was genius even if it killed some dumbass Asian chick (see i do agree, sometimes)

*** Nancy from weeds that is, not Nancy Regan.

[Mediancat]

Here (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jfkmovie.htm) has a nice list of the JFK inaccuracies.

Big is that Jim Garrison was present for Damned little of the actual trial; also that kevin Bacon's "Willie O'Keefe" is a stand-in for someone who was one of the most ludicrously bad witnesses ever, a man named Perry raymond russo -- but they eliminated most of Russo's weirdnesses so the Clay Shaw conspiracy would seem more plausible for the movie.

Rob

[Joykins]

GwtW? She lived through it--- again, inaccurate?



Gone With The Wind was written (and filmed!) during the Great Depression. It was a 1930s look at the Old South and thus seen through 2 filters.

The things about Gone With the Wind isn't so much inaccuracies as its biases.

[Celsus]

Movies about a historical era and movies claiming to a pretense of historicity are different things. So Saving Private Ryan doesn't pretend to be true though it has some real characters like George Marshall (nor does it really claim to depict the totality of D-Day, just one unit's landing which of course probably would have been completely American), nor does Zorro (no real characters), whereas Schindler's List or Young Guns kinda sorta do pretend to be true or based on real characters.

The British do get kinda sore about their 'achievements' not being given due regard, or Yanks telling their stories for them (with more aplomb, thanks to Hollywood). But movies like Boudica were terrible too :D

So for movies pretending to be real that completely fluff everything about the history: U-571, Braveheart etc.

For movies that are set in a historical period but not necessarily pretending to be true and also happen to fluff everything about that period: 300, any Carry On film, etc. etc.

[DMB]

To do justice to the Carry On films --if anyone can! -- the "historical" ones don't pretend to do other than recycle a lot of misunderstandings and cliches, rather like 1066 and all that (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=1066+and+all+that). It's all about lame jokes.

I like Carry On... Up the Khyber. It is full of awful jokes. The heriditary ruler who is fighting the British is called the Khasi. But "khazi" (pronounced the same way) is Cockney slang for a lavatory. And so on.

[lpetrich]

Here (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jfkmovie.htm) has a nice list of the JFK inaccuracies.

Big is that Jim Garrison was present for Damned little of the actual trial; also that kevin Bacon's "Willie O'Keefe" is a stand-in for someone who was one of the most ludicrously bad witnesses ever, a man named Perry raymond russo -- but they eliminated most of Russo's weirdnesses so the Clay Shaw conspiracy would seem more plausible for the movie.

Rob
Seems to me that JFK's career is getting Raglanized.

That is, his career is getting fit into Lord Raglan's Mythic-Hero profile.

Criteria 16 - 19 state that (16) the hero loses the favor of the gods or his people, (17) gets driven from his throne and his kingdom, and (18) dies a mysterious death, (19) often atop a hill.

The conspiracy theories about his death fit (18) very well, and they seem like attempts to bring about (17). But the various conspirators do not fit (16) very well -- to fit, they'd have to be something like the Congress and the news media and many ordinary American citizens.

A parade car is not quite a hill, but it is a prominent place, so it almost satisfies (19).

[Matty]

To do justice to the Carry On films --if anyone can! -- the "historical" ones don't pretend to do other than recycle a lot of misunderstandings and cliches, rather like 1066 and all that (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=1066+and+all+that). It's all about lame jokes.

I like Carry On... Up the Khyber. It is full of awful jokes. The heriditary ruler who is fighting the British is called the Khasi. But "khazi" (pronounced the same way) is Cockney slang for a lavatory. And so on.

Well if we are also looking at comedy value ones as opposed to those that were meant to be accurate, i dont think king Arthur's knights actually used coconuts. and i'm fairly sure the holy handgrenade wasnt around either

[Christina]

But the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog was real.

[DMB]

Yup. The serious point is that no-one could suppose that Carry on up the Khyber or Monty Python and the Holy Grail is meant to correspond to any sort of reality. OTOH dumb people might think that Braveheart had something to do with Scottish history.

[Joykins]

I would love to see a movie treatment of a Flashman book--wasn't one made of Flash for Freedom?

[DMB]

There was one called Royal Flash, starring Malcolm McDowell as Flashman, Alan Bates as von Sterberg and Oliver Reed as Bismark. See Royal Flash (film) and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073639/

[Oolon Colluphid]

There was one called Royal Flash, starring Malcolm McDowell as Flashman, Alan Bates as von Sterberg and Oliver Reed as Bismark. See Royal Flash (film) and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073639/

If the Carry On team had done it, he'd have been Flushman, no doubt :D

[Anne]

Flashman! heh.

Great character.

[Ray Moscow]

Considering all the Western movies supposedly about times before breechloading firearms had been invented (or were in common use)...

As for that, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" was quite nice (at least to me; I'm not really a gun expert).

Yep. Lots of firearms featured in even high-budget Civil War movies that weren't produced until about a decade or more later. Oh well, poetic license and all that.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was also set way out west where (AFAIK) there were never any major Civil War battles. Still, it's a great movie.

[Joykins]

Royal Flash. That's the one I was thinking of when I typed _Flash For Freedom_. I blame it all on the pain meds :rolling:

[Garrett]

Sahara. We know what happened to the CSS Texas, and for sure it never went to Africa. The movie is about an alternate reality, I guess. But Cruz and McConaughey are fun to watch.

[Anne]

Is that the movie's fault or the book, though?

Cussler is not exactly a stickler for uh... reality.

Just cars.

[David B]

Krakatoa East of Java gets off to a bad start, though perhaps it is more geographically inaccurate than historically.

David

[Berthold]

If somewhere you find "indigenous Austrian marine fauna" mentioned in a post WWI publication, that's just nostalgia. ;)

[Matty]

Sahara. We know what happened to the CSS Texas, and for sure it never went to Africa. The movie is about an alternate reality, I guess. But Cruz and McConaughey are fun to watch.

I do like the Cussler books and thought that was an alright adaptation of an already hilariously far fetched story. Just about all of Cusslers stories wind up with The library of Alexandria somehow turning up under a Texan farm., Or the lost city of El Dorado being found under the Hudson river.

Al cracks me up and, Pitt? Whaddaguy.

Great fun. For sure. Historically accurate in any way?, We'll lets just say i'm sceptical. :)

[Anne]

Cussler is like ... <not going to say McD's not going to say McD's > cotton candy.

Not good for you, but good while it's going down...

<whew didn't say McD's>

[Matty]

Yeah but Cussler doesnt have a paedophile clown selling his books as"

Great literature in a fun format, using only the very best literary devices, plots and characterisation, and perfectly healthy to be enjoyed as part of a balanced reading list. Cmon kids, read one and i'll give you three cents worth of plastic tat free. (25 to collect, come again tomorrow)

Does he? McD's does.

[Anne]

He doesn't?

Clive Cussler's No 1 bestseller Sahara was a spectacular success around the world, thrilling millions with its combination of relentless action and non-stop entertainment. Now he plunges his irrepressible hero Dirk Pitt into a heart-pounding new adventure.

A desperate call for help from a sticken archaeological expedition brings Dirk Pitt to a sacred well high in the Andes. What he discovers as he attempts to rescue two divers lost in its perilous depths leads him into deadly confrontation with a band of ruthless art-thieves, who plunder ancient sites for their precious artefacts.

Dirk Pitt's extraordinary adventures take him to the fabled Lost City of the Dead, lead him in search of a Spanish galleon washed miles inland by a giant tidal wave centuries before, and eventually set him on the trail of a fabulous hoard of Inca gold. But Pitt will need all his skills and tenacity simply to survive as he races to track down the sacred site - before the richest prize known to man is lost to the world for ever...

'Clive Cussler's hero Dirk Pitt is made of strong stuff, handling the improbable with nerves of steel.. he is one of the best adventure heroes around' Today

'Nobody does it better than Clive Cussler, America's finest adventure writer' Stephen Coonts

'Clive Cussler is the guy I read' Tom Clancy

[Matty]

and that makes it out to be better than a fluff adventure novel how? One of the things i like about Cussler is that its is awlays billed as the mental equivalent of a Schwarzenegger movie. Its doent exactly sell itself as classic literary or silver screen genius now

Plus you miss the distinction.
http://images.google.ca/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/fat_america.jpg&usg=AFQjCNFA8gIdDAY3Nsjbff8kpXHM8EysjA
"Burgers n fries are a healthy part of the traditional American diet, they are good for you and delicious, and i demand the freedom to eat as many as i want. " said the chubby minger

But that isnt the same as McDs saying it is it? No one really gives a fuck what that shemulleted tubby goon has to say.

[Anne]

jeez, Matty--- your hot button is showing... ;)

You expect me not to push it?

go do some research on interspecies sex... I'm off...

[dancer_rnb]

well, at least he wasn't eating fish and chips.............:p

[munnki]

Christ... I just watched Year One... it manages to be both a bag of shite and historically inaccurate....