# Historical Inaccuracies in Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745 "2003-03-16T06:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/1 "2003-03-16T06:30:04Z")
My husband is almost to the point of refusing to watch movies with me that have a historical setting. He says it sort of ruins it for him when I bark out every five minutes, “Hey! They weren’t wearing \* that \* in (year),” or “That hadn’t even been invented yet!” I understand that sometimes perfect accuracy is seen as “getting in the way” of plot lines, but minor details such as incorrect costumes or props can totally turn me off to a film. (And that’s not even mentioning major gaffes such as dates and characters.) Just as an example, Hubby and I watched the \* North And South \* miniseries not too long ago, and I pointed out that married women did not wear low-cut ball gowns outside in the daytime. When we watched \* The Patriot \* I laughed at the spiffy-clean uniforms of the British soldiers. (Portable dry-cleaning on the battlefield?) Do little mistakes like this bother the rest of you history buffs? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/2 "2003-03-16T06:51:54Z")
Forsooth! But even Shakespeare had them. I seem to remember a clock and a jacket in _Julius Caesar_. For me part of the fun of movies is spotting them. But if your husband is into a state of suspended disbelief, I can understand why he would not want to be brought back to reality. I’m pretty good at spotting music from the late 1950’s in movies about the early and mid fifties. And I’m pretty good at remembering hair-styles by decade. As for historical importance, I believe that in the last couple of years a movie about the Enigma decoding device had the U.S. Navy doing something that the British Navy actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/3 "2003-03-16T06:57:10Z")
you’re talking historical nitpicking. I’m no history buff, but I do think they’re fun. Spotting a jet contrail or a set of telephone lines in a story set in Roman times or thereabouts is always a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/4 "2003-03-16T10:43:48Z")
**Lissa** , I agree with you. What bugs me most though are not costuming inaccuracies, as I can’t always spot them. It’s the historical accuracies. Like having Mel Gibson boink a French princess that wouldn’t even have arrived in England yet. Or Cate Blanchett going nuts the way she did in _Elizabeth_. That movie was probably the most historically inaccurate of any I’ve seen. Or seeing wheeled vehicles in the city of Rome during the day, or armed troops(at least during the Republican period). ---
**Author:** ![ChalkPit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@ChalkPit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChalkPit)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/5 "2003-03-16T10:55:12Z")
There are gazillions of these kinda things, and many internet sites devoted to them. [MovieMistakes.com](http://MovieMistakes.com) and [SlipUps.com](http://SlipUps.com) for example. Take pretty much ANY warfilm, and you can usually rip them to pieces for using the wrong rifle, or using a wrong period armoured vehicle etc etc ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/6 "2003-03-16T13:31:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > When we watched \* The Patriot \* I laughed at the spiffy-clean uniforms of the British soldiers. (Portable dry-cleaning on the battlefield?) That’s the least of this movie’s crimes against history. FTR, minor inaccuracies like clothing details or hairstyles don’t really bother me that much, but the really egregious stuff drives me up the wall. Worst recent example was that execrable submarine movie _U571_ in which an _American_ sub crew recovers a German Enigma machine. And to top it all off, the director was actually surprised when UK moviegoers were pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![legion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@legion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legion)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/7 "2003-03-16T13:38:02Z")
Well, I watched “We Were Soldiers” on DVD last night and the whole film was ruined by the location. I don’t know where it was filmed but it looked like some country club or a golf course somewhere. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Intaglio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71e660/32.png) [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/8 "2003-03-16T14:00:34Z")
I get bent out of shape when I watch a Movie or TV show that features specifically the US Navy, but other branches of the Military incorrectly. For example, I was checking out JAG on CBS and they had an episode, where a woman was the first fighter pilot off an Aircraft Carrier, and a woman Senator, was making the Navy fly her, even though the Commanding Officer grounded her. A senator has that kind of pull, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, over the CO, or the fleet Admiral. OK, the pilot goes back to flight rotation, and she crashes her very expensive jet and kills herself, but not her Navigator - who was also a Woman. Gee, Senator, you think the CO knows what he’s doing when he grounds the pilot. In that same episode two JAG officers are on the Aircraft Carrier’s flight Deck, one male and one female in Uniform, and they’re talking and the girl goes, if you want to kiss me you can, and he does. You can not kiss anyone on a ship and especially not in Uniform. Shows/Movies who can’t get a military consultant, or do homework about the military - kill me. For the proper dress in uniform cause I’ve seen where the uniform is worn wrong, and a female has long hair and doesn’t put it up, or too much or wrong kind of make up, or jewelry is incorrect, or a male has his hair too long. Or when they have regulations, military etiquette incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/9 "2003-03-16T14:01:22Z")
I reccomend avoiding [Shanghai Knights](http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0300471). Fast and loose with history - but in a good way 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/10 "2003-03-16T14:19:07Z")
Ha! _U-571_, may have been bad, but let’s face it - _Braveheart_ had them fighting the Battle of Stirling Bridge with no bridge! Especially when the bridge was such an integral part of the English defeat. And that business about inventing really long spears to take down the horses? What a crock. And no mention of Andrew de Moray? Another crock. And of course, the Scots didn’t put up nearly the fight at Falkirk as it looks like in the movie. And no Irish troops charging and joining the Scots. Just English bowmen severely thinning the Scottish ranks and then a cavalry charge that annihilated them. And of course, Robert Bruce wasn’t really prompted by nationality but because he had killed the Comyn in a church and if he didn’t take the Scottish throne and hold of Edward he was dead. And they call Edward a cruel pagan in the intro. Cruel he may have been, but not any worse than anyone else at the time, and a pagan he certainly was not. OK, I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/11 "2003-03-16T14:33:01Z")
Well, in **The Elephant Man** they called him “John” when there was already proof that his real name was “Joseph”. For some reason, the real Treves crossed out the name “Joseph” when writing his memoirs and called him “John”. Also, they switch some events around, but probably for dramatic purposes. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/12 "2003-03-16T15:45:26Z")
Oh, yeah, my friends know better than to go see history-based movies with me. Comedies like _Shanghai Knights_ don’t bug me–it’s clearly all in fun, and no one is supposed to take it seriously. It’s when movies claim to be serious studies of an event that it gets me. It’s torturous–I love history and a good story, but so often those movies drive me mad with their inaccuracies. What gets me most are anachonistic attitudes. 'Cause we all know that the only racists in the 19th century were nasty villains, not people like Leo DiCaprio. And, of course, working class servants or medieval peasants would think nothing of talking back to wealthy landowners. Gaah! > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Baker_ > Cate Blanchett going nuts the way she did in Elizabeth. That movie was probably the most historically inaccurate of any I’ve seen. I think I must have been the only person in the theater thinking “Enough with the kissy-face! Give me more 16th century politics!” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/13 "2003-03-16T15:49:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by legion \* > **Well, I watched “We Were Soldiers” on DVD last night and the whole film was ruined by the location. I don’t know where it was filmed but it looked like some country club or a golf course somewhere.** I’m in complete agreement. Strange, I never knew that Vietnam looked so much like southern California… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/14 "2003-03-16T16:01:24Z")
And how about _Enemies at the Gate_ and the way they had all those Germans and Russians talking English? ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/15 "2003-03-16T16:07:49Z")
Yeah, I noticed in ‘A Knight’s Tale…’ Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/16 "2003-03-16T16:26:09Z")
I am _already_ clenching my buttcheeks in anticipation of how much the upcoming **Colditz** movie is going to piss me off (and not only because that yammering mannequin Tom Cruise is slated to star). **Lissa** , have you seen _Topsy-Turvey_? ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/17 "2003-03-16T16:50:39Z")
My brother in law who knows a great deal about military history was pretty peeved to see the British soldiers wearing their red coats in combat in “The Four Feathers”. He tells me they changed their field uniforms a few years prior to this after a failed Egyptian campaign. He also knews what kind of weapons they would have been carrying, their effective ranges, and calibre. He knew that in this Sudanese war, it was the first time the British square formation was broken. Pretty cool and not really that annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/18 "2003-03-16T17:12:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Feynn \* > \*\*He tells me they changed their field uniforms a few years prior to this after a failed Egyptian campaign. > \*\* I presume that he was thinking of the Sudanese War (Gordon Relief) of 1884-1885. The Brits won all the battles, but they failed to save Gordon. The film “Manhattan Melodrama” (best known for the fact that Dillinger was shot after seeing it) has a great error. As I recall, a plot point is that the gangster saved the DA in the General Slocum fire of 1904. Not only do neither of them have German names, but they’re also a few years too young (the film is set in 1934). ---
**Author:** ![plastic\_conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@plastic\_conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plastic_conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/19 "2003-03-16T18:00:29Z")
I’m usually not nit-picky about some innacuracies. I didn’t mind that they changed the order of events for _Man On The Moon_, for example. The one movie with inaccuracies that did really bug me was _Quills_. The depictions of de Sade and his writings/philosophy were inaccurate and ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745/20 "2003-03-16T18:46:25Z")
_Braveheart_-Cecil debunked the whole “right of first night” thingy, for crying out loud! ARGH! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-inaccuracies-in-movies/161745.md?page=2)