# Not so inevitable movie plots? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468 "2011-05-19T16:59:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/61 "2011-07-13T21:33:23Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Not to be pedantic, but “pedanticism” is legit the way it was used in that post. No it isn’t. [Cite.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14016098#post14016098) Someone’s got to pick up the slack. “Pedantry” does its job just fine - it doesn’t need “pedantic” to submit itself to the back-formation of a spurious noun, or we’ll end up on the slippery slope to abominations like “pedanticisionation” and there’ll be nothing for it but Aslan roaring “Time!” and the stars falling from the heavens. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/62 "2011-07-13T21:59:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > March was an officer of the Kripo or _Kriminalpolizei_, assigned to Berlin. He was not an officer of the Berlin city police department, if that’s what you mean. At the time, the Kripo was under SS jurisdiction. The book (and the movie) correctly have him in the black uniform of the SS; here’s Rutger Hauer in the role: [http://www.thefancarpet.com/uploaded\_assets/images/gallery/3805/Fatherland\_35717\_Medium.jpg](http://www.thefancarpet.com/uploaded_assets/images/gallery/3805/Fatherland_35717_Medium.jpg) OK, thanks. Haven’t seen the movie, read the book. Perhaps if I’d seen Rutger Hauer in that uniform I wouldn’t have made that mistake! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/63 "2011-07-13T22:16:54Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > A pedant would know that the plural of “doofus” is “doofusi.” > [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > It’s actually “doofodes”. :dubious: It’s _doofi_. Or am I being wooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/64 "2011-07-13T23:05:29Z")
[Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doofus) suggests _doofuses_, which seems right since it doesn’t actually have a Latin root. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/65 "2011-07-13T23:43:39Z")
I’ve never liked the double-s structure myself, makes people sound like their stuttering on the S. I’ll stick with doofi, and damn the Latin roots. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/66 "2011-07-14T01:01:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yet another example of the _opposite_ of what the OP is asking for. Yet strangely, it was a really interesting post. Isn’t it nice that people can post things that fit the general theme of the OP without being bound by hyper-restrictive ops? What a boring board this would be if hyper-restrictive OPs were allowed to strangle discussion. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/67 "2011-07-14T01:51:19Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/68 "2011-07-14T02:15:24Z")
[the Tudors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tudors) - not a movie, but a TV show, but deviates enough from established history in so many ways that it could give a whole ampitheater of historians a collective stroke. To start with, Henry VIII looked like [this](http://www.nndb.com/people/427/000086169/henry-viii-3.jpg), not [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mY5ifjRJwWk/SO24wv7wO4I/AAAAAAAABZw/r9xLihtQzL8/s400/070329_tudors_vmed_11a.widec.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/69 "2011-07-14T02:32:39Z")
To be fair to the TV show, Henry VIII did not get fat until after his leg injury. Before that time he was very athletic and considered attractive. That said, you are correct that the TV show plays very fast and loose with history, but then have you ever seen a historical drama that didn’t? and I have nothing to ad to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468/70 "2011-07-14T03:06:28Z")
Sticking to movies that mixed real historical figures with fictional ones… 1. In \*\*\*The Untouchables, \*\*\*we see Eliot Ness kill mobster Frank Nitti by throwing him off a roof. In reality, Ness didn’t kill any major mobster, and the real Frank Nitti controlled the rackets in Chicago for many years. Nitti didn’t die until 1943, long after Prohibition ended. 2. In _ **Gladiator,** _ Maximus kills the Emperor Commodus in the Colosseum, after which the Roman Republic is re-established and the Senate rules Rome again. In reality, Commodus was murdered, and followed by a rapid succession of new emperors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-inevitable-movie-plots/582468.md?page=3)