# Most historically accurate/inaccurate movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079 "2002-07-02T18:39:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/121 "2004-08-06T12:46:44Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > They were quite honest about films like Black Hawk Down, and the Jessica Lynch movie, where they admitted changing a lot of facts to keep the USA in a good light. What facts were changed in Blackhawk Down? ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/122 "2004-08-06T13:44:58Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Does anyone know if there are any 9/11 movies in the works? Perhaps the wounds are too fresh, but I thought a portrayal of the last hours of the WTC would be a pretty compelling movie. There’s already been a TV movie - I saw part of it on Hallmark. I don’t know about historical accuracy though, as I didn’t see enough of it to judge. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/123 "2004-08-06T13:51:41Z")
> [@Ms Boods](#): > > _Caligula_ drives me absolutely bonkers – actually, I’m not sure which sends me more into Herbert Lom-style twitches, the horrible historical inaccuracies, or that I’ve read comments on the imdb and met people who think it is historically accurate. Well, considering the fact that _Caligula_ was financed by Penthouse, I don’t think historical accuracy was the ultimate goal. It probably was a bit more historically accurate when Gore Vidal was on the project (how much I can’t say), but when he left they threw his script away. But yeah, I agree that it’s sad that people think THAT movie is a good basis for ancient history. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/124 "2004-08-06T14:39:03Z")
> [@fallapart](#): > > “At least Disney never got ahold of Hugo’s other famous novel _Shudders_.” > > Oh come on!!, Wouldn’t it be fun to see Les Mes redone in cartoon form with animals??..i have to go take a bath in boiling water now ☹ I once posted an April Fool’s Day joke on Usenet describing the "upcoming Disney version of _Animal Farm_. I got at least three replies from people who didn’t realize that I was joking. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/125 "2004-08-06T14:43:42Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Can you give some examples of what makes one accurate and the other inaccurate? I wasn’t there, but one of my instructors in ROTC in college was with the 101st ABN in Vietnam and he told me that Hamburger Hill was the most realistic Vietnam movie he’d seen to that point (late 80s). ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/126 "2004-08-06T14:56:49Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > What facts were changed in Blackhawk Down? Not much, and most of what was was done for the sake of the narrative, not knuckling under to the Pentagon. The only thing they could have shown but didn’t that would have shown the military in a bad light was the fact that the Somali gunmen were using women and children for cover and, eventually (after taking some casualties from this tactic), the US troops began shooting through the women and children to get the gunmen. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/127 "2004-08-06T15:02:44Z")
> [@ITR champion](#): > > If you’re looking for inaccuracy, it’s hard to beat the movie version of _Wild Wild West_. At least, my American history textbook never mentioned anything about a giant mechanical spider. Kevin Smith has a real funny story about that in his DVD _An Evening With …_ . Seems that the producer, Jon Peters, talked to Smith about wanting a giant spider in the third reel of the _Superman_ movie he was making. But that never got off the ground, and Peters went on to produce _WWW_. And so the spider was included, Smith says, because Peters wanted to see a big spider in a movie. > [@MsRobyn](#): > > Here in San Antonio, there’s a lot of concern over how Ron Howard is going to depict the battle at the Alamo. Given that the true historical record is virtually nonexistent, I’m not sure that it can be all that accurate, at least in terms of history. I had forgotten about the Alamo. Oh come on - someone had to say it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/128 "2004-08-06T15:03:09Z")
> [@Ms Boods](#): > > Yes, there are tales of Roman aristocratic depravity in Suetonius and the _SHA_ but the whole point was that such stories were meant to be horrid and scandlous to the contemporary Romans, too. There’s also the question of how accurate Suetonius was in the first place. Picture future historians forming a picture of turn-of-the-21st-century American politics from \*The Clinton Chronicles{/I] and _Farenheit 911_. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/129 "2004-08-06T15:13:42Z")
I was really shocked when my father-in-law (who lived through it!) asked me if the events in Apollo 13 really happened because I’m an amateur astronomy buff. :eek: I really like the little things in _A Lion in Winter_, that seem to my very untrained eye to be accurate. Peter O’Toole breaks the ice in the basin to wash his face, the dogs in the castle, Katharine Hepburn wrapping presents in cloths. I tire of Hollywood depictions of midieval castles where everyone’s perfectly clean and the castle’s immaculate and such. _Timeline_, tho’ not a great movie, also had dirty castles and sorta-grimy nobles. ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/130 "2004-08-06T15:35:10Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > What facts were changed in Blackhawk Down? They didn’t tell you very much - remember that this was one very small segment of a one hour show which covered Hollywood/pentagon collaberation since WW2. I haven’t actually seen ‘Black Hawk Down’ so my info comes only from this documentary. One of the main characters in the real story was a guy called John Stebbins - who was imprisoned a couple of years later for rape and child molestation. He was written out of the story and Ewan Mcgregor’s character was manufactured to replace him [with a different name - the Pentagon said that they didn’t want to ‘glorify’ this Stebbins guy]. Some important scenes were also cut out - the ones they mentioned were ones that showed conflict between different army units and soldiers going off against orders to act the hero. I found the documentary very interesting - they said right out that their role was propaganda - they didn’t back Forrest Gump because they didn’t want an American soldier to look so stupid. A lot of the movies that they didn’t back were ones that showed soldiers having doubts about what they were doing - they only back movies that show the forces in the best possible light - even if they have to twist the truth to do it. Judging by what was said, this Jessica Lynch flick should be a mine of disinformation - but, as they said, many americans get their image of the armed forces from the movies - and really believe that this is a true image. ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/131 "2004-08-06T15:38:23Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Not much, and most of what was was done for the sake of the narrative, not knuckling under to the Pentagon. The only thing they could have shown but didn’t that would have shown the military in a bad light was the fact that the Somali gunmen were using women and children for cover and, eventually (after taking some casualties from this tactic), the US troops began shooting through the women and children to get the gunmen. Funny, they didn’t mention this in the documentary, they just said that not much was shown of the Somali. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/132 "2004-08-06T16:26:17Z")
> [@](#): > > I tire of Hollywood depictions of midieval castles where everyone’s perfectly clean and the castle’s immaculate and such. I’d just like to see a movie with a medieval castle that looks right. Often filmmakers will shoot at an actual castle for the sake of “authenticity” – the problem is that even a well-preserved castle today _looks_ hundreds of years old, with exposed, weathered stone. In its heyday, a decent castle had its walls plastered and whitewashed, presenting a smooth surface, sometimes gaily painted. You could build a castle out of concrete and it would actually look more authentic. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/133 "2004-08-06T16:58:14Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > Funny, they didn’t mention this in the documentary, they just said that not much was shown of the Somali. Read the book. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/134 "2004-08-06T17:53:25Z")
Wow - two years, and no one’s mentioned JFK! I thought I would because it is the only kind of inaccurate movie that I object to - one that claims to be accurate but isn’t. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/135 "2004-08-06T18:15:17Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > Funny, they didn’t mention this in the documentary, they just said that not much was shown of the Somali. The book, as implied by RikWriter, does cover both sides very well. The movie is centered from the American point of view. I doubt it would have been possible to get a Western audience to connect to or understand what to them would be a very alien culture. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/136 "2004-08-06T18:17:28Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > The Patriot was ruined for me from the very scene where the black plantation worker on Mel’s farm says “We’re not slaves we’re free men.” Yeah, my ass your free. It is insulting to my intelligence that the producers/directors of this film wanted me to believe a South Carolina plantation didn’t derive their labor from slaves. I guess Mel Gibson just didn’t want to make a controversial historical movie. 😃 > [@Shodan](#): > > Wow - two years, and no one’s mentioned JFK! Actually, **Brother Cadfael** did. But he only beat you to the punch by a few hours and it’s a glaring omission. I haven’t seen a lot of the movies listed here, but I was trying to think of the best one. I think _JFK_ is it. Aside from relying on a bunch of ridiculous theories and lame sources, Stone also changed a lot of things to ‘sex it up.’ Even the conspiracy theorists can’t have been very happy with it, since he made it look like they believed some things they’d long ago rejected. The most famous scene in the movie didn’t happen at all, and he had to change and erase a ton of things about his hero (Garrison) because he was really a sketchy and not altogether sane character. Aside from Kennedy and Oswald getting shot, it’s almost pure fiction. 😛 If there’s a Lifetime Achievement award, I think Gibson should get it. (Hey, that might be fun- a Historical Society of some sort could do their equivalent of the Razzies or those Bad-Movie-Physics awards.) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/137 "2004-08-06T18:22:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Wow - two years, and no one’s mentioned JFK! I think it’s already been mentioned once or twice in this thread. Probably deserves a thread of its own. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/138 "2004-08-06T18:52:11Z")
> [@burundi](#): > > It’s like when a filmmaker adapts a novel and completely changes the ending. I refused to see Disney’s _Hunchback of Notre Dame_ because I knew there was no bloody way they were going to be remotely faithful to Hugo’s text. UGH! This burns me, too. Even in fiction (Blade Runner / DADoES, to name one). On the upside, my -hatred- for Disney’s ‘sweet-i-fi-cation’ of movies did inspire me to read _Hunchback_, which I found to be an absolutely -outstanding- book. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/139 "2004-08-06T19:23:11Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Of course Shakespeare (and movies based on his plays) must have set a record for most historical inaccuracies for one author… Heh. This is true, of course, but it might also bear saying that among Elizabethan English history plays I’ve read, Shakespeare’s are probably the _most_ accurate. I find that rather amusing. 😉 (And of course a lot of what we would call inaccuracies are picked up from his sources, too…) _Elizabeth_- this movie had everything going for it- Cate Blanchett could have been a perfect Elizabeth, there was a hefty budget, Joseph Fiennes is talented and could pass for Dudley, but they LITERALLY hired a director who had never even HEARD of Elizabeth I. [/quote] I had a prof once who occasionally, on the final for his “Age of Elizabeth” seminar, asked “What did _Elizabeth_ get wrong?” as an essay question. 😃 > [@](#): > > I love both the book and the miniseries I CLAUDIUS, but they were both way off the mark historically. The real Claudius doesn’t seem to have been quite so bumbling or naive But he wasn’t really bumbling or naive in the book/mini either, just acting like he was in order to stay alive! Which isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of liberties taken (for instance, the historical Claudius was almost certainly no republican…) ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079/140 "2004-08-06T19:36:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh come on!!, Wouldn’t it be fun to see Les Mes redone in cartoon form with animals??..i have to go take a bath in boiling water now Down here in Finland, and many other parts of Europe as well, I guess, there’s a serious love going on for Donald Duck. Not only is there a high-circulation Donald Duck magazine with comics from Don Rosa, Carl Barks and other masters, there are also cheap Donald Duck pocketbooks with (usually rather sub-par) comics by mostly-Italian drawers. Italians love to make duck versions of literature classics, and one of these stories was a duck version of Les Miz. I’ve also seen a duck version of, of all things, _1984._ What I’d really like to see is a duck version of _Atlas Shrugged._ Or, even better, a Disney film with the theme. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-historically-accurate-inaccurate-movies/117079.md?page=8)