# Historically based movies with gross inaccuracy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712 "2010-07-23T14:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/141 "2015-03-31T17:18:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **U-571** is condemned by British historians because it made Americans the heros, but the movie was a good adventure story. I came in to toss **Argo** on the pile. The film frames it like the US spearheaded the extraction operation while the UK and New Zealand declined to get involved. My understanding is that Canada actually spearheaded the operation, and the UK and NZ embassies also assisted. The US was one of several players, rather than the only ones to step in after everyone else chickened out, as the movie suggests. The movie at least had the refugees hiding out with the Canadian ambassador, but then used the ambassador’s departure from Iran to push the plot forward. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/142 "2015-03-31T17:24:04Z")
> [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > I came in to toss **Argo** on the pile. … A lot of Canadians were quite pissed off about that movie and how it completely downplayed Canada’s involvement. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/143 "2015-03-31T17:46:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > My personal favorite is **300** , which is so overblown over-the-top preposterous that it’s great guilty fun. You can’t even _begin_ listing all the errors and misconceptions – you’ll fall over yourself trying to get them all out. You mean to tell me there really weren’t any executioners with saw bladed forearms or goats who played the lyre? That ruins it, thanks a lot! ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/144 "2015-03-31T17:52:05Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > “Grotesque?” Hyperbolize much? Having rugged character Richard Crenna play the not conventionally handsome Ross Perot in “On Wings of Eagles” seemed a little fantastical. Better? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/145 "2015-03-31T17:58:43Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Having rugged character Richard Crenna play the not conventionally handsome Ross Perot in “On Wings of Eagles” seemed a little fantastical. > > Better? They should gotten [this guy](https://iscfc.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/mb_ndr_moreau.jpeg) (next to Brando) to play Perot. The only time I’ve ever yelled out in a movie theater was when he made his first appearance–“Hey! It’s Ross Perot!” and people cracked up. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/146 "2015-03-31T18:14:09Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > They should gotten [this guy](https://iscfc.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/mb_ndr_moreau.jpeg) (next to Brando) to play Perot. The only time I’ve ever yelled out in a movie theater was when he made his first appearance–“Hey! It’s Ross Perot!” and people cracked up. Hey, he’s not conventionally handsome, either 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/147 "2015-03-31T18:22:17Z")
> [@Bruce\_Wayne](#): > > You mean to tell me there really weren’t any executioners with saw bladed forearms or goats who played the lyre? That ruins it, thanks a lot! Sadly, we all have to be disabused of our childish conceptions. No barely-restrained giants who can take a dagger to the eye without too much complaint, or armored war-rhinoceros, or magicians with gunpowder bombs. I’ll let you keep the scorpion-shaped arrowheads, though. That’s not too much of a stretch. Just don’t go to see any Santa Claus movies with me. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/148 "2015-03-31T23:39:41Z")
I think the only accurate thing about the Errol Flynn as George Custer biopic “They Died With Their Boots On” is Custer did love eating onions. But most every Custer film has with with long hair when he died at the Little Bighorn. He actually got his hair cut short(for comfort) when he left on the expedition. ``` A few years ago C-Span re-enacted the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 at the actual locations. The man playing Lincoln had a beard. Apparently even C-Span feels its viewers are too stupid to recognize Lincoln without the beard he grew after the 1860 election. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/149 "2015-04-01T00:15:55Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > A lot of Canadians were quite pissed off about that movie and how it completely downplayed Canada’s involvement. Multipurposing this quote: **The Longest Day** ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/150 "2015-04-01T01:10:19Z")
Earlier posters have mentioned “The Great Escape” for having Americans in the breakout (they had been transferred earlier, although there was one American serving in the Canadian army who was 200th on the list) and Steve McQueen’s character. A few other other things: the escape is shown happening in good weather. Actually there was a snowstorm which forced the prisoners to seek shelter, which made it easier to capture them. The movie shows a huge number forced out of a truck and machine-gunned. Actually they were shot in much smaller groups of two or so. The prisoner making it to Spain is supposed to be Australian (played by the American James Coburn). He was actually Dutch. The two who escaped by rowboat were actually Norwegians. They actually went to a brothel set aside for neutral Swedish sailors. They met some of these sailors, who smuggled them into their ship’s cargo hold accessible by a ladder that made it difficult to get dogs into. One thing that is reasonably accurate is the ringleader played by Richard Attenborough was caught when an inspector spoke English and Big X’s companion (Gordon Jackson) replied in English. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/151 "2015-04-01T01:48:07Z")
_Argo_ was wildly inaccurate: > **[Argo (2012 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film))** > > Argo is a 2012 American historical drama thriller film directed, produced by, and starring Ben Affleck. The screenplay, written by Chris Terrio, was adapted from the 1999 memoir The Master of Disguise by U.S. C.I.A. operative Tony Mendez and the 2007 Wired article "The great Escape: How the CIA used a fake Sci-Fi Flick to rescue Americans from Tehran" by Joshuah Bearman. The film deals with the "Canadian Caper," in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, under the g... ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/152 "2015-04-01T02:19:55Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > _Argo_ was wildly inaccurate: > > [Argo (2012 film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)) I remember when the events it portrays actually happened. I saw a sign on a hotel marquee: “Canadians stay free”. While we didn’t know the details of how the Canadians got the hostages out, we knew that they were sheltered and hidden in the Canadian Embassy, and that Ambassador Ken Taylor was the real hero of the story. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/153 "2015-04-01T04:23:40Z")
“The Great Escape” had no motorcycle escapes and nobody blind trying to fly an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/154 "2015-04-01T19:25:24Z")
The blog \*[An Historian goes to the Movies](https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/)\*has reviewed several of movies mentioned in this thread such as _300_ and \*Elizabeth \*. My favorite is his \*[Robin Hood](https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/category/robin-hood/)\*review. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712/155 "2015-04-02T03:29:54Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Bridge on the River Kwai > > [Bridge on the River Kwai; the true story](http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/kwai.htm) > > \*\*The film’s story was loosely based on a true World War II incident, and the real-life character of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey. One of a number of Allied POW’s, Toosey was in charge of his men from late 1942 through May 1943 when they were ordered to build two Kwai River bridges in Burma (one of steel, one of wood), to help move Japanese supplies and troops from Bangkok to Rangoon. > > In reality, the actual bridge took 8 months to build (rather than two months), and they were actually used for two years, and were only destroyed two years after their construction - in late June 1945. The memoirs of the ‘real’ Colonel Nicholson were compiled into a 1991 book by Peter Davies entitled The Man Behind the Bridge.\*\* In addition, the only prisoner to have escaped was a Brit, not an American, and he never returned leading a raiding party. Plus the bridge’s eventual destruction was due to aerial bombing. [The bridge still stands today](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bridge_over_River_Kwai.jpg). The angular sections are the replacements after the bombing, the curved sections are originals. We were just there again three months ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-based-movies-with-gross-inaccuracy/547712.md?page=7)