Bozur
Amicus
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Post by Bozur on Mar 7, 2009 4:19:07 GMT -5
10 Historically Inaccurate Movies history.howstuffworks.com — Something about the words "based on a true story" flashing across the screen has the ability to capture a viewer's attention unlike anything else. These films look like blooper reels when you compare them to history books. here is a list of 10 movies that many historians find insufferable and others just find laughable. More… (Movies) history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/10-historically-inaccurate-movies.htm
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Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515
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Post by Bozur on Mar 7, 2009 4:29:26 GMT -5
some which are relating to Europe 8. "Shakespeare in Love" People are often surprised to learn how little historians know about the most celebrated playwright of the English language, William Shakespeare. Frustrated by the lack of information, some writers have chosen to indulge in conjecture by weaving tales of historical fiction into the knowledge gaps.
One example of such conjecture is the movie "Shakespeare in Love" (1998). In this steamy romance, Shakespeare finds his inspiration for the play "Romeo and Juliet" after falling in love with a young lady who aspires to be an actress. But historians have no reason to think that such a romance inspired Shakespeare's well-known tragedy. In fact, Shakespeare adapted the play's plot from other sources, so the idea that he developed the story gradually and hadn't figured out the tragic ending by the time he was writing the middle (as the film depicts) is highly unlikely.
There is the respected suspicion, however, that a woman of dark complexion -- known to scholars as the Dark Lady -- inspired many of his sonnets. Hence, critics question why the filmmakers didn't instead focus on this more likely romance. On a related note of inaccuracy, some take issue that the movie features no black characters in a time when London had a significant black population [source: Monk].
Others are quicker to forgive the inaccuracy of this film because it's also replete with winking anachronisms. If viewers catch on to these subtle in-jokes, they're probably less likely to take the rest of it seriously and walk away with mistaken ideas about Shakespeare.
5. "Braveheart" When "Braveheart" came out in 1995, it was an instant success. Director and actor Mel Gibson's portrayal of Scotland's hero William Wallace mesmerized audiences and won the movie five Oscars.
The film is set in 13th-century Scotland, when Wallace returns to his homeland to find it oppressed and taken over by the brutal, pagan king of England, Edward I. After the English soldiers kill Wallace's bride, he becomes enraged and driven to lead the Scottish in a revolt to expel the English. Against all odds, Wallace commands a stunning victory against the English in the Battle of Stirling Bridge. As he continues his revolt, he also has a love affair with Isabella, Edward's daughter-in-law.
King Edward, as far as historians know, never instituted the idea of primae noctis (which allowed the British officers to be the first to deflower a new bride) [source: von Tunzelmann]. Also, the Scottish rebels wear kilts throughout the film, which, according to historians, they wouldn't have sported [source: Barta].
Historians find this conjecture about Wallace and Isabella a little hard to swallow given that, at the time the film is set, Isabella was a baby. Similarly, Edward II is featured as an adult when in reality he was merely 13. Furthermore, the dialogue exaggerates the situation between the English and Scottish in the 13th century. Contrary to what the film portrays, the two countries had enjoyed a general period of peace for about a century beforehand, and the Scottish wouldn't have claimed that the country had never been free [source: Silverblatt].
4. "Gladiator" To his credit, director Ridley Scott employed a thoroughly qualified historian to help him make his film "Gladiator" (2000) as authentic as possible [source: Winkler]. This is despite the fact that Maximus (the main character portrayed by Russell Crowe) is fictional. And yet the movie, set in ancient Rome, still manages to tick off plenty of historians.
In the film, Emperor Marcus Aurelius doesn't trust his son, Commodus, and instead taps Maximus (an esteemed general) to take over and return Rome to the old Republic. Betrayed, Commodus kills his father and orders Maximus' execution. But Maximus escapes, gets captured by slave traders and ends up as a gladiator fighting for his life in the arena.
Historians scoff at plenty of assumptions in this film, especially the notion that Marcus would have wanted a return to the old Republic. In addition to that, the movie compresses Commodus' 13-year reign into what can't be more than two years. Commodus himself was younger and more physically fit than depicted, married and (not to mention) didn't commit patricide [source: Ward].
To add to the seemingly endless pile of inaccuracies, the movie features whole battles that didn't happen, large catapults that would never have been lugged into open battlefields, a breed of dog (German shepherd) that didn't exist at the time and Latin inscriptions with incorrect grammar [source: Ward]. Some have even pointed out the anachronism of Roman officers commanding soldiers who are wielding bows and arrows to "fire" (a term that wouldn't have been used until firearms were invented) [source: Washington Times].
2. "Battle of the Bulge" In World War II, the Battle of the Bulge was a decisive encounter occurring in 1944 between the Allied troops and the Germans in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. A triumphant Allied victory, it serves as great fodder for Hollywood.
The film titled "Battle of the Bulge" (1965) is set after the invasion of Normandy when the Allied forces have moved through France and into Belgium. Waiting for bad weather to ground the Allied air support, the Germans suddenly launch an offensive on unprepared troops. The Allies are losing and everything seems dismal until Lt. Col. Kiley realizes that the Germans are running out of gas. Using the gas that English-speaking German spies are hoarding, the Allies set the enemy's tanks ablaze when they come to collect their fuel supplies.
Although filming only 20 years after the actual battle, the filmmakers managed to forget a lot of important details. They shot what's supposed to be a bitterly cold Belgian winter in the temperate climate of Spain and made a half-hearted attempt to recreate the cold weather. The film also lacks the hilly and wooded terrain of the real battle. The Battle of the Bulge was primarily a tank battle, and historians find the tanks in the movie laughably inaccurate. In addition to being unlike the real Tiger and Sherman tanks used in battle, the newer Korean War-era tanks employed aren't even the appropriate color. And although fuel and resources were an issue in wearing down the Germans, historians claim the real scenario was very different from what was depicted in the ending of the movie [source: Niemi].
The movie incensed former U.S. President and Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower so much that he emerged from retirement to state his disapproval in a press conference [source: Niemi].
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Post by lvl100 on Mar 7, 2009 11:23:01 GMT -5
Since when movies should be taken seriously ?
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