Edmund Ironside
White Rabbit Object
Ever seen a historical movie which really grinds your gears. Lets talk about it!
You can vote for up to 7 movies.
You can vote for up to 7 movies.
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What are the most misleading (inaccurate and/or agenda pushing) historical movies ever!? (Poll included)
- Thread starter Edmund Ironside
- Start date
Edmund Ironside
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300
“The battle is definitely one of the most one-sided efforts in recorded history, though not quite on the scale the film would lead you to believe. The 300 Spartans were unable to match their enemy and formed an alliance with other Greek city-states, pushing their ranks to around 7,000. And while their attire revealed chiseled abs that looked great on camera — and served as a source of inspiration for the Halloween costumes of fraternity brothers nationwide that year — the Spartans would have worn actual armour instead of the glorified loincloths featured in the film.
The Persian Empire were also represented inaccurately in the film. Xerxes certainly wasn’t a weird, bald giant with a deep voice and an effeminate appearance, and the Persian Empire actually prohibited slavery because of their Zoroastrian beliefs.”
ScreenRant
10,000 BC
Wooly mammoths and metal tools being used to build the pyramids in 10,000 BC in Egypt, need I say anymore…
A beautiful mind
A couple of major issues here. Firstly John Nash’s hallucinations were entirely auditory, not visual as shown in the movie. Also the movie ignores the fact that his wife left him and they only later remarried.
Alexander
“The filmmakers condense several of his key life events into smaller ones, and some of his actions are even attributed to different individuals from those in history. The majority of actions and milestones depicted did in fact occur, though in different times and locations. For example, three major battles, the Battle of the Granicus, the Battle of Issus and the Battle of Gaugamela, are all merged into one.”
ScreenRant
Amadeus
The idea of animosity between Mozart and Salieri leading to the formers murder has very little foundation in history. Salieri was a married family man not a pious loner obssesed with Mozart.
Apocalypto
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 1
This what happens when you can’t decide whether you want to make a film about the classical Maya or the Aztecs and decide to do both. It would be like combining the Romans and Vikings in a movie! Mass human sacrifice, smallpox and the Spanish in a movie about the classical Maya, no thank you!
Argo
The majority of the most dramatic scenes did not happen. It also portrays the Iranians as bearded fanatics, says the British and New Zealanders refused to help (not true) and perhaps most egregiously gives all the credit to the Americans and ignores the massive role the Canadians played in the successful rescue.
Battle of the Bulge
“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”
How Stuff Works
Birth of a Nation
“One of the first great propaganda films, Birth of a Nation portrays the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as valiant defenders of society, struggling to fight the good fight against the evil "Blacks" that marred the South.”
Live about
Fun fact this was screened in the White House by Woodrow Wilson!
Blackhawk Down
“Blackhawk Down paints an intensely romantic picture of high-intensity combat: Soldiers in a brotherhood of arms, a sweeping musical score for every fallen comrade, and a battlefield that one can imagine navigating while picking off enemy fighters if only they were a bit more fit. Throw in some simplistic stereotypes of Somali warlords and heavy doses of American patriotism with slow-motion shots of the American flag flapping in the wind, and a bunch of very "cool" looking commandos, and one could easily leave this film not thinking that war is horrible, but that being surrounded by hundreds of armed Somalis in the Battle Mogadishu was fun.”
LiveAbout
Braveheart
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 2
When I looked at lists of the most historically inaccurate movies this movie featured more than any other! There are far too many issues to name, but this movie tends to check all the main boxes.
Timelines Issues: Wallace seduces King Edward II’s Wife, Isabella of France, and the resulting child from this being Edward III (Isabella was just 3 years old at the battle of Falkirk, and Edward III wasn’t born until 7 years after Wallace’s death).
Character Issues: Wallace being a noble, rather then being of poor birth as portrayed in the movie.
Costume Issues: Scots fighting in kilts (not invented until hundreds of years later) and wearing blue face paint (not worn since ancient Pictish times hundred of years earlier.)
Battle Issues: Battle of Stirling bridge not having a bridge (the presence of the bridge was crucial factor in the outcome of the battle).
Agenda pushing: Firstly Scottish nationalism. Such as implying a long struggle of freedom from English oppressions, even though prior to Edward I there had been no major invasion of Scotland in over 300 years. I've also heard it mentioned that it has an anti lgbtq agenda as seen in its portrayal of Edward II.
For more info see here:
Darkest Hour
“The idea that Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman), a man whose ideas about race and class were formed in Victorian times, would conduct an impromptu focus group aboard a tube train is, um, highly problematical.”
History Extra
It also portrays Churchill as being a spent political force prior to his return when in reality he was still respected and influential.
Enemy at the Gates
This is essentially Russian propaganda. There was a legendary Soviet sniper present at the battle of Stalingrad, however his German opponent is entirely fictional.
Gallipoli
A movie starring Mel Gibson with an anti English/British agenda, surely not!
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 3
“The most notable deviation of the film from reality, and the one for which it has been most criticised, is its portrayal of the chain of command at the Nek. Although he is seen wearing an AIF uniform, Colonel Robinson is often mistaken for an Englishman due to his accent.[34][35] In reality, Colonel Robinson speaks with a clipped accent typical for an upper class Australian of the period. Colonel Robinson's character was based on the brigade major of the 3rd Brigade, Colonel John Antill, an Australian Boer War veteran. Indeed, very little British command and control was exercised at the Nek.
In his best-selling history novel, Gallipoli, published in 2001, Les Carlyon agreed that the film unfairly portrays the English during the battle, with Carlyon laying the blame for the debacle squarely at the feet of Antill and 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade commander Brigadier General Frederic Hughes: "The scale of the tragedy of the Nek was mostly the work of two Australian incompetents, Hughes and Antill."[36] The film implies that the fictional and benevolent General Gardiner called off the attack, when in reality the attack petered out when half of the 4th wave charged without orders while the surviving regimental commander in the trenches, Lieutenant Colonel Noel Brazier, attempted to get the attack called off.[citation needed]
Other critics, Carlyon included, have pointed out that the Australian attack at the Nek was a diversion for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force's attack on Sari Bair, not the British landing at Suvla. The British were therefore not "drinking tea on the beach" while Australians died for them. Two companies of a British regiment, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, suffered very heavy losses trying to support the Australian attack at the Nek once it was realised that the offensive was in trouble.[37]
Some have also criticised the film for its portrayal of British officers and their disdain for Australian discipline behind the lines. According to Robert Rhodes James, no evidence for any such disdain on the part of British commanders for their Australian troops exists.”
Wikipedia
Gladiator
“In the film, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is killed by his son Commodus, though in reality he died of chickenpox. Regarding Joaquin Phoenix’s snivelling, incestuous and creepy portrayal of Commodus, historical records indicate that he was nothing like this, and that he was a well-liked ruler for over a decade. He did fight in show combat, but was never murdered in the arena — in fact, he was strangled in the bath by his wrestling partner/lover Narcissus. “
ScreenRant
Gods and Generals
Pushes the lost cause myth.
For more info see Atun-Shei Films "Why Gods and Generals is Neo-Confederate Propaganda (and Objectively Sucks)."
JFK
“The conspiracy used in JFK was based on the 1967 spoof, The Case of Jim Garrison, which was revealed to be false in 1972. In the film, key witness Perry Russo is shown freely giving his testimony, though in reality, he was drugged before his testimony. A vital scene in the movie is David Ferrie’s breakdown and confession, though that has been proven to be a figment of the director’s imagination; Ferrie has always maintained his innocence.
Stone's thriller even managed to strongly imply that Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor in the White House, was a driving force behind the assassination, though very little evidence exists to support that claim.”
ScreenRant
Marie Antoinette
“Historians were mad at Sophia Coppola’s biopic in which Kirsten Dunst plays the French queen, arguing the film depicted the famous ruler as a shallow teenager in love with fashion and excess. The record rather shows the Antoinette as intelligent and politically savvy. And she probably never said her famous line: “Let them eat cake.”
Readers Digest
Newsies
“Newsies follows the fictional character of hobo Jack Kelly and his band of misfits as they go on strike and rise against Joseph Pulitzer and his new unfair newspaper regulations. In addition to the 1992 film, Newsies is also a Tony award-winning Broadway musical. “And the world will know!” They might not know that the film creates characters by combining different real people, changes the ending of the strike, and represents Pulitzer in a totally different way.”
MovieWeb
One Million Years BC
I don’t think you need me to tell you that humans never fought against dinosaurs!
Pearl Harbor
“Historians state that only a few Japanese fighters were ever shot down, while in the movie the number is well over 20. Also, fighter pilots would never have been sent to Tokyo to bomb targets. What’s more is that Rafe would never even have been allowed in the British squadron, as it was a violation of neutrality. The ultimate fictionalization comes when it is revealed that Rafe is not only a master aviator, but well-trained in the ancient art of Origami. An oddity, considering that Origami was only discovered by foreign troops after the war. These all pale in comparison to the moment when President Roosevelt stands up from his wheelchair to make a dramatic speech, of course.”
ScreenRant
Pocahontas
Only Braveheart was a more popular target than Pocahontas for lists of historically inaccurate movies.
“Some people have it in for the Disney animated adventure which depicts a romance between English adventurer and explorer John Smith and the native American chief’s daughter, who would actually have been around 10 or 11 years old when they met. There’s no evidence of any romance between them and she later converted to Christianity and married an English settler named John Rolfe. But depicting a Disney Princess being wed to the guy who probably founded the Virginia tobacco industry was presumably a no-no…”
History Extra
Shakespeare in Love
“While the story is not one draped in historical accuracy, the background and setting draw the eye to inaccuracies that stand out. The characters drink out of modern beer glasses and the Queen attends a play publicly; any plays she would have seen would have been performed in her own court. Add to that the theatres would have been closed anyway in the dying days of the bubonic plague outbreak, and you've got yourself a fairly impossible scenario.”
Screenrant
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The movie tells the tale of a British Lt. Col who starts out trying to protect his men from the worst of Japanese brutality towards their POWS, but becomes increasingly obsessed with ensuring the success of the building of a bridge that they are being forced to construct for the Japanese.
“Although his name wasn't Nicholson, Lt. Col. Philip Toosey was the senior British officer who commanded operations for building the Thai-Burma Railway, the inspiration for the movie. Those who knew the real story objected that it tainted Toosey's honorable reputation. Toosey's obsession was not building the bridge, but rather keeping his men alive. His admirers claim he did the best he could to keep his men safe while not giving aid to the enemy.”
How Stuff Works
The Green Berets
Produced as a response to anti war sentiment in 1968.
“At the start of the film, a journalist who is skeptical of the war is given a lecture by an American Special Forces soldier who paints the conflict in Vietnam in starkly simplistic terms as being a fight for freedom against Communist forces. Later, the journalist travels to Vietnam where he witnesses the American forces participating in humanitarian acts, while the enemy engages in brutal violence (as if the Americans never participated in brutal acts of violence against civilians). Ultimately, the journalist realizes his ideological errors and reverses his previous opposition to the conflict. (In the film, there's no mention of the millions of dead Vietnamese or Agent Orange or the firebombing of civilian villages.)”
Liveabout
The Imitation Game
“Critics praised The Imitation Game, but it was still called out for its various inaccuracies. For instance, the film suggests Turig invented and built the machine that broke the German Enigma code, which isn't true. There was a machine that Polish cryptologists had already built before Turig began working for the British government.”
CBR
The Last Samurai
Two classic tropes here. Firstly inserting US Americans into situations they weren't ever in. Secondly simplifying a complicated conflict into a basic good vs bad narrative.
“While Japan did hire foreign military advisors, they never once hired an American, as their advisors were mostly French. While one can forgive the change of origin for the military advisor, it is still doubtful a retired Civil War veteran could become a master samurai at all, let alone in such a short period of time. Many shots in the film see Algren helping teach the Japanese how to shoot muskets, when at that time most Japanese men were already adept at shooting repeating rifles.
Samurai fought in this period to stay atop the social classes, though in The Last Samurai they are portrayed as nobleman fighting for the greater cause”
The Patriot
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 4
“The film is more akin to American patriot propaganda, particularly in the unfair representation of the British Soldiers whose depiction is reminiscent of the Nazi’s in World War II. This is most prevalent in the scene where the soldiers burn the elderly, women and children to death inside a church. Jason Isaacs’ evil British colonel was based on the historical figure Col. Tarleton, and there is no evidence that he ever broke the rules of engagement, let alone by shooting a child in cold blood.
While Gibson’s character is a sympathetic father in The Patriot, it is historically recorded that the man on which his character was based, Francis “The Swamp Fox’ Marion, hunted Native Americans for sport and raped his female slaves. He also didn’t have his children until after the war — when he married his cousin. While watching this movie, definitely keep in mind that it's almost entirely a work of fiction, albeit entertaining fiction. No fact typifies the inaccuracies in this movie quite like the final battle of Guilford Court House, where Martin defeats his nemesis. In reality, the Americans lost that skirmish.”
ScreenRant
The Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter, a historian of the era, said: "Any image of the American Revolution which represents you Brits as Nazis and us as gentle folk is almost certainly wrong. It was a very bitter war, a total war, and that is something that I am afraid has been lost to history....[T]he presence of the Loyalists (colonists who did not want to join the fight for independence from Britain) meant that the War of Independence was a conflict of complex loyalties."[42] The historian Richard F. Snow, editor of American Heritage magazine, said of the church-burning scene: "Of course it never happened—if it had do you think Americans would have forgotten it? It could have kept us out of World War I."[43][44]
If the demonizing of the British wasn't bad enough, there was an elephant in the room it almost entirely ignored.
Spike Lee wrote that after he and his wife went to see the film, "we both came out of the theatre fuming. For three hours The Patriot dodged around, skirted about or completely ignored slavery."
Wikipedia
Brandon F has about 5 videos on the various issues with the Patriot. Here is one of them:
The Sound of Music
"In the climactic scene of “The Sound of Music,” the von Trapps flee Salzburg, Austria, under the cover of night and hike across the surrounding mountains to safety in Switzerland. Had they scaled the Alps in real life, however, the von Trapps would have crossed into Nazi Germany, not neutral Switzerland, which was approximately 200 miles away. “Don’t they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!” complained Maria von Trapp after seeing the film. “In Hollywood you make your own geography,” came the reply from the film’s director, Robert Wise, according to author Tom Santopietro’s new book, “The Sound of Music Story.” The von Trapp’s real-life departure from Austria was less dramatic, if not just as timely as the one on the silver screen. In broad daylight, the family exited the gate at the rear of their villa and crossed the railroad tracks that ran behind it to board a train to Italy, where the family had citizenship once Captain Georg von Trapp’s birthplace became Italian territory in 1920. Salzburg residents saw off the captain, a pregnant Maria and the nine von Trapp children who were traveling with suitcases in tow under the guise of a family vacation in Italy. They left just in time; the next day the Austrian borders were sealed."
History Channel
U-571
Yet another movie where the USA takes credit for other peoples work!
“Director Jonathan Mostow’s film gives the American squad credit for capturing the enigma machine and helping crack the encrypted Nazi messages. None of these Americans actually had anything to do with the codes being broken, it was a joint effort between Polish and British mathematicians in a far away office.”
ScreenRant
(Dis)honorable mentions not included in the poll
Agora
Has issues with both agenda pushing and historical accuracy.
Agenda pushing is not specific, but there appears to be a general pro atheism anti Christian narrative being pushed. Its portrayal of Pagan vs Christian tension tends to be very black and white (literally, the Christians almost exclusively wear black) and has the Christians as fairly united and extremist (even though there were many competing movements among the Christians). Various unhistorical elements added all seem to show Christians in a negative light such as the destruction of the library (even though it had already been twice destroyed and books were no longer kept there), the stoning of the Jews in the theatre, Cyril condemning Hypatia's teaching because she is a woman, and the heliocentric "breakthrough." The movie also links her death to be religiously motivated even though Socrates Scholasticus the main source for her death presents Hypatia's murder as entirely politically motivated and makes no mention of any role that Hypatia's paganism might have played in her death. Agora also strongly implies that Hypatia was an atheist, which directly contradicts the historical fact that she was a Neoplatonist.
More general historical inaccuracies relate to crediting scientific discoveries to Hypatia which likely had already occurred such as the hydrometer or the astrolabe, and that she was involved in the study of the heliocentric model. Finally a more minor quibble but she may have been as old as 65 when she was murdered which makes Rachel Weisz playing her (who was 38 at the time) a little bit young!
Wikipedia
Dunkirk
This movie is pretty hisotically accurate but does fall foul of agenda pushing. Making what was a defeat for the British (and the French) appear as a British victory. Ignoring the the contributions of the French Free forces who were key to delaying the German attack. It also could have featured the Royal Indian Army Service Corps on those beaches. Observers said they were particularly cool under fire and well-organized during the retreat. They weren’t large in number, maybe a few hundred among hundreds of thousands, but their appearance in the film would have provided a good reminder of how utterly central the role of the Indian Army was in the war. Their service meant the difference between victory and defeat. In fact, while Britain and other allies were licking their wounds after Dunkirk, the Indian Army picked up the slack in North Africa and the Middle East.
Slate
Thunder in the Sun
The film is infamous among Basques for its misunderstandings of Basque customs, such as the use of the xistera (a device of the jai alai sport) as a weapon or shouting irrintzi ululations as meaningful communication.
Wikipedia
The Viking Queen
About a Celtic Queen (The plot combines elements of life of the historic queen Boudica ) and her dealings with the Romans. Begins with a scene where the Celts are sacrificing to a Greek god. Also the very title of the movie is a little confusing!
“The battle is definitely one of the most one-sided efforts in recorded history, though not quite on the scale the film would lead you to believe. The 300 Spartans were unable to match their enemy and formed an alliance with other Greek city-states, pushing their ranks to around 7,000. And while their attire revealed chiseled abs that looked great on camera — and served as a source of inspiration for the Halloween costumes of fraternity brothers nationwide that year — the Spartans would have worn actual armour instead of the glorified loincloths featured in the film.
The Persian Empire were also represented inaccurately in the film. Xerxes certainly wasn’t a weird, bald giant with a deep voice and an effeminate appearance, and the Persian Empire actually prohibited slavery because of their Zoroastrian beliefs.”
ScreenRant
10,000 BC
Wooly mammoths and metal tools being used to build the pyramids in 10,000 BC in Egypt, need I say anymore…
A beautiful mind
A couple of major issues here. Firstly John Nash’s hallucinations were entirely auditory, not visual as shown in the movie. Also the movie ignores the fact that his wife left him and they only later remarried.
Alexander
“The filmmakers condense several of his key life events into smaller ones, and some of his actions are even attributed to different individuals from those in history. The majority of actions and milestones depicted did in fact occur, though in different times and locations. For example, three major battles, the Battle of the Granicus, the Battle of Issus and the Battle of Gaugamela, are all merged into one.”
ScreenRant
Amadeus
The idea of animosity between Mozart and Salieri leading to the formers murder has very little foundation in history. Salieri was a married family man not a pious loner obssesed with Mozart.
Apocalypto
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 1
This what happens when you can’t decide whether you want to make a film about the classical Maya or the Aztecs and decide to do both. It would be like combining the Romans and Vikings in a movie! Mass human sacrifice, smallpox and the Spanish in a movie about the classical Maya, no thank you!
Argo
The majority of the most dramatic scenes did not happen. It also portrays the Iranians as bearded fanatics, says the British and New Zealanders refused to help (not true) and perhaps most egregiously gives all the credit to the Americans and ignores the massive role the Canadians played in the successful rescue.
Battle of the Bulge
“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”
How Stuff Works
Birth of a Nation
“One of the first great propaganda films, Birth of a Nation portrays the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as valiant defenders of society, struggling to fight the good fight against the evil "Blacks" that marred the South.”
Live about
Fun fact this was screened in the White House by Woodrow Wilson!
Blackhawk Down
“Blackhawk Down paints an intensely romantic picture of high-intensity combat: Soldiers in a brotherhood of arms, a sweeping musical score for every fallen comrade, and a battlefield that one can imagine navigating while picking off enemy fighters if only they were a bit more fit. Throw in some simplistic stereotypes of Somali warlords and heavy doses of American patriotism with slow-motion shots of the American flag flapping in the wind, and a bunch of very "cool" looking commandos, and one could easily leave this film not thinking that war is horrible, but that being surrounded by hundreds of armed Somalis in the Battle Mogadishu was fun.”
LiveAbout
Braveheart
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 2
When I looked at lists of the most historically inaccurate movies this movie featured more than any other! There are far too many issues to name, but this movie tends to check all the main boxes.
Timelines Issues: Wallace seduces King Edward II’s Wife, Isabella of France, and the resulting child from this being Edward III (Isabella was just 3 years old at the battle of Falkirk, and Edward III wasn’t born until 7 years after Wallace’s death).
Character Issues: Wallace being a noble, rather then being of poor birth as portrayed in the movie.
Costume Issues: Scots fighting in kilts (not invented until hundreds of years later) and wearing blue face paint (not worn since ancient Pictish times hundred of years earlier.)
Battle Issues: Battle of Stirling bridge not having a bridge (the presence of the bridge was crucial factor in the outcome of the battle).
Agenda pushing: Firstly Scottish nationalism. Such as implying a long struggle of freedom from English oppressions, even though prior to Edward I there had been no major invasion of Scotland in over 300 years. I've also heard it mentioned that it has an anti lgbtq agenda as seen in its portrayal of Edward II.
For more info see here:
Darkest Hour
“The idea that Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman), a man whose ideas about race and class were formed in Victorian times, would conduct an impromptu focus group aboard a tube train is, um, highly problematical.”
History Extra
It also portrays Churchill as being a spent political force prior to his return when in reality he was still respected and influential.
Enemy at the Gates
This is essentially Russian propaganda. There was a legendary Soviet sniper present at the battle of Stalingrad, however his German opponent is entirely fictional.
Gallipoli
A movie starring Mel Gibson with an anti English/British agenda, surely not!
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 3
“The most notable deviation of the film from reality, and the one for which it has been most criticised, is its portrayal of the chain of command at the Nek. Although he is seen wearing an AIF uniform, Colonel Robinson is often mistaken for an Englishman due to his accent.[34][35] In reality, Colonel Robinson speaks with a clipped accent typical for an upper class Australian of the period. Colonel Robinson's character was based on the brigade major of the 3rd Brigade, Colonel John Antill, an Australian Boer War veteran. Indeed, very little British command and control was exercised at the Nek.
In his best-selling history novel, Gallipoli, published in 2001, Les Carlyon agreed that the film unfairly portrays the English during the battle, with Carlyon laying the blame for the debacle squarely at the feet of Antill and 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade commander Brigadier General Frederic Hughes: "The scale of the tragedy of the Nek was mostly the work of two Australian incompetents, Hughes and Antill."[36] The film implies that the fictional and benevolent General Gardiner called off the attack, when in reality the attack petered out when half of the 4th wave charged without orders while the surviving regimental commander in the trenches, Lieutenant Colonel Noel Brazier, attempted to get the attack called off.[citation needed]
Other critics, Carlyon included, have pointed out that the Australian attack at the Nek was a diversion for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force's attack on Sari Bair, not the British landing at Suvla. The British were therefore not "drinking tea on the beach" while Australians died for them. Two companies of a British regiment, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, suffered very heavy losses trying to support the Australian attack at the Nek once it was realised that the offensive was in trouble.[37]
Some have also criticised the film for its portrayal of British officers and their disdain for Australian discipline behind the lines. According to Robert Rhodes James, no evidence for any such disdain on the part of British commanders for their Australian troops exists.”
Wikipedia
Gladiator
“In the film, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is killed by his son Commodus, though in reality he died of chickenpox. Regarding Joaquin Phoenix’s snivelling, incestuous and creepy portrayal of Commodus, historical records indicate that he was nothing like this, and that he was a well-liked ruler for over a decade. He did fight in show combat, but was never murdered in the arena — in fact, he was strangled in the bath by his wrestling partner/lover Narcissus. “
ScreenRant
Gods and Generals
Pushes the lost cause myth.
For more info see Atun-Shei Films "Why Gods and Generals is Neo-Confederate Propaganda (and Objectively Sucks)."
JFK
“The conspiracy used in JFK was based on the 1967 spoof, The Case of Jim Garrison, which was revealed to be false in 1972. In the film, key witness Perry Russo is shown freely giving his testimony, though in reality, he was drugged before his testimony. A vital scene in the movie is David Ferrie’s breakdown and confession, though that has been proven to be a figment of the director’s imagination; Ferrie has always maintained his innocence.
Stone's thriller even managed to strongly imply that Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor in the White House, was a driving force behind the assassination, though very little evidence exists to support that claim.”
ScreenRant
Marie Antoinette
“Historians were mad at Sophia Coppola’s biopic in which Kirsten Dunst plays the French queen, arguing the film depicted the famous ruler as a shallow teenager in love with fashion and excess. The record rather shows the Antoinette as intelligent and politically savvy. And she probably never said her famous line: “Let them eat cake.”
Readers Digest
Newsies
“Newsies follows the fictional character of hobo Jack Kelly and his band of misfits as they go on strike and rise against Joseph Pulitzer and his new unfair newspaper regulations. In addition to the 1992 film, Newsies is also a Tony award-winning Broadway musical. “And the world will know!” They might not know that the film creates characters by combining different real people, changes the ending of the strike, and represents Pulitzer in a totally different way.”
MovieWeb
One Million Years BC
I don’t think you need me to tell you that humans never fought against dinosaurs!
Pearl Harbor
“Historians state that only a few Japanese fighters were ever shot down, while in the movie the number is well over 20. Also, fighter pilots would never have been sent to Tokyo to bomb targets. What’s more is that Rafe would never even have been allowed in the British squadron, as it was a violation of neutrality. The ultimate fictionalization comes when it is revealed that Rafe is not only a master aviator, but well-trained in the ancient art of Origami. An oddity, considering that Origami was only discovered by foreign troops after the war. These all pale in comparison to the moment when President Roosevelt stands up from his wheelchair to make a dramatic speech, of course.”
ScreenRant
Pocahontas
Only Braveheart was a more popular target than Pocahontas for lists of historically inaccurate movies.
“Some people have it in for the Disney animated adventure which depicts a romance between English adventurer and explorer John Smith and the native American chief’s daughter, who would actually have been around 10 or 11 years old when they met. There’s no evidence of any romance between them and she later converted to Christianity and married an English settler named John Rolfe. But depicting a Disney Princess being wed to the guy who probably founded the Virginia tobacco industry was presumably a no-no…”
History Extra
Shakespeare in Love
“While the story is not one draped in historical accuracy, the background and setting draw the eye to inaccuracies that stand out. The characters drink out of modern beer glasses and the Queen attends a play publicly; any plays she would have seen would have been performed in her own court. Add to that the theatres would have been closed anyway in the dying days of the bubonic plague outbreak, and you've got yourself a fairly impossible scenario.”
Screenrant
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The movie tells the tale of a British Lt. Col who starts out trying to protect his men from the worst of Japanese brutality towards their POWS, but becomes increasingly obsessed with ensuring the success of the building of a bridge that they are being forced to construct for the Japanese.
“Although his name wasn't Nicholson, Lt. Col. Philip Toosey was the senior British officer who commanded operations for building the Thai-Burma Railway, the inspiration for the movie. Those who knew the real story objected that it tainted Toosey's honorable reputation. Toosey's obsession was not building the bridge, but rather keeping his men alive. His admirers claim he did the best he could to keep his men safe while not giving aid to the enemy.”
How Stuff Works
The Green Berets
Produced as a response to anti war sentiment in 1968.
“At the start of the film, a journalist who is skeptical of the war is given a lecture by an American Special Forces soldier who paints the conflict in Vietnam in starkly simplistic terms as being a fight for freedom against Communist forces. Later, the journalist travels to Vietnam where he witnesses the American forces participating in humanitarian acts, while the enemy engages in brutal violence (as if the Americans never participated in brutal acts of violence against civilians). Ultimately, the journalist realizes his ideological errors and reverses his previous opposition to the conflict. (In the film, there's no mention of the millions of dead Vietnamese or Agent Orange or the firebombing of civilian villages.)”
Liveabout
The Imitation Game
“Critics praised The Imitation Game, but it was still called out for its various inaccuracies. For instance, the film suggests Turig invented and built the machine that broke the German Enigma code, which isn't true. There was a machine that Polish cryptologists had already built before Turig began working for the British government.”
CBR
The Last Samurai
Two classic tropes here. Firstly inserting US Americans into situations they weren't ever in. Secondly simplifying a complicated conflict into a basic good vs bad narrative.
“While Japan did hire foreign military advisors, they never once hired an American, as their advisors were mostly French. While one can forgive the change of origin for the military advisor, it is still doubtful a retired Civil War veteran could become a master samurai at all, let alone in such a short period of time. Many shots in the film see Algren helping teach the Japanese how to shoot muskets, when at that time most Japanese men were already adept at shooting repeating rifles.
Samurai fought in this period to stay atop the social classes, though in The Last Samurai they are portrayed as nobleman fighting for the greater cause”
The Patriot
Mel Gibson historically inaccurate movie counter = 4
“The film is more akin to American patriot propaganda, particularly in the unfair representation of the British Soldiers whose depiction is reminiscent of the Nazi’s in World War II. This is most prevalent in the scene where the soldiers burn the elderly, women and children to death inside a church. Jason Isaacs’ evil British colonel was based on the historical figure Col. Tarleton, and there is no evidence that he ever broke the rules of engagement, let alone by shooting a child in cold blood.
While Gibson’s character is a sympathetic father in The Patriot, it is historically recorded that the man on which his character was based, Francis “The Swamp Fox’ Marion, hunted Native Americans for sport and raped his female slaves. He also didn’t have his children until after the war — when he married his cousin. While watching this movie, definitely keep in mind that it's almost entirely a work of fiction, albeit entertaining fiction. No fact typifies the inaccuracies in this movie quite like the final battle of Guilford Court House, where Martin defeats his nemesis. In reality, the Americans lost that skirmish.”
ScreenRant
The Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter, a historian of the era, said: "Any image of the American Revolution which represents you Brits as Nazis and us as gentle folk is almost certainly wrong. It was a very bitter war, a total war, and that is something that I am afraid has been lost to history....[T]he presence of the Loyalists (colonists who did not want to join the fight for independence from Britain) meant that the War of Independence was a conflict of complex loyalties."[42] The historian Richard F. Snow, editor of American Heritage magazine, said of the church-burning scene: "Of course it never happened—if it had do you think Americans would have forgotten it? It could have kept us out of World War I."[43][44]
If the demonizing of the British wasn't bad enough, there was an elephant in the room it almost entirely ignored.
Spike Lee wrote that after he and his wife went to see the film, "we both came out of the theatre fuming. For three hours The Patriot dodged around, skirted about or completely ignored slavery."
Wikipedia
Brandon F has about 5 videos on the various issues with the Patriot. Here is one of them:
The Sound of Music
"In the climactic scene of “The Sound of Music,” the von Trapps flee Salzburg, Austria, under the cover of night and hike across the surrounding mountains to safety in Switzerland. Had they scaled the Alps in real life, however, the von Trapps would have crossed into Nazi Germany, not neutral Switzerland, which was approximately 200 miles away. “Don’t they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!” complained Maria von Trapp after seeing the film. “In Hollywood you make your own geography,” came the reply from the film’s director, Robert Wise, according to author Tom Santopietro’s new book, “The Sound of Music Story.” The von Trapp’s real-life departure from Austria was less dramatic, if not just as timely as the one on the silver screen. In broad daylight, the family exited the gate at the rear of their villa and crossed the railroad tracks that ran behind it to board a train to Italy, where the family had citizenship once Captain Georg von Trapp’s birthplace became Italian territory in 1920. Salzburg residents saw off the captain, a pregnant Maria and the nine von Trapp children who were traveling with suitcases in tow under the guise of a family vacation in Italy. They left just in time; the next day the Austrian borders were sealed."
History Channel
U-571
Yet another movie where the USA takes credit for other peoples work!
“Director Jonathan Mostow’s film gives the American squad credit for capturing the enigma machine and helping crack the encrypted Nazi messages. None of these Americans actually had anything to do with the codes being broken, it was a joint effort between Polish and British mathematicians in a far away office.”
ScreenRant
(Dis)honorable mentions not included in the poll
Agora
Has issues with both agenda pushing and historical accuracy.
Agenda pushing is not specific, but there appears to be a general pro atheism anti Christian narrative being pushed. Its portrayal of Pagan vs Christian tension tends to be very black and white (literally, the Christians almost exclusively wear black) and has the Christians as fairly united and extremist (even though there were many competing movements among the Christians). Various unhistorical elements added all seem to show Christians in a negative light such as the destruction of the library (even though it had already been twice destroyed and books were no longer kept there), the stoning of the Jews in the theatre, Cyril condemning Hypatia's teaching because she is a woman, and the heliocentric "breakthrough." The movie also links her death to be religiously motivated even though Socrates Scholasticus the main source for her death presents Hypatia's murder as entirely politically motivated and makes no mention of any role that Hypatia's paganism might have played in her death. Agora also strongly implies that Hypatia was an atheist, which directly contradicts the historical fact that she was a Neoplatonist.
More general historical inaccuracies relate to crediting scientific discoveries to Hypatia which likely had already occurred such as the hydrometer or the astrolabe, and that she was involved in the study of the heliocentric model. Finally a more minor quibble but she may have been as old as 65 when she was murdered which makes Rachel Weisz playing her (who was 38 at the time) a little bit young!
Wikipedia
Dunkirk
This movie is pretty hisotically accurate but does fall foul of agenda pushing. Making what was a defeat for the British (and the French) appear as a British victory. Ignoring the the contributions of the French Free forces who were key to delaying the German attack. It also could have featured the Royal Indian Army Service Corps on those beaches. Observers said they were particularly cool under fire and well-organized during the retreat. They weren’t large in number, maybe a few hundred among hundreds of thousands, but their appearance in the film would have provided a good reminder of how utterly central the role of the Indian Army was in the war. Their service meant the difference between victory and defeat. In fact, while Britain and other allies were licking their wounds after Dunkirk, the Indian Army picked up the slack in North Africa and the Middle East.
Slate
Thunder in the Sun
The film is infamous among Basques for its misunderstandings of Basque customs, such as the use of the xistera (a device of the jai alai sport) as a weapon or shouting irrintzi ululations as meaningful communication.
Wikipedia
The Viking Queen
About a Celtic Queen (The plot combines elements of life of the historic queen Boudica ) and her dealings with the Romans. Begins with a scene where the Celts are sacrificing to a Greek god. Also the very title of the movie is a little confusing!
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Haven't seen them all.
Birth of a Nation is horrible, inaccurate and very powerful. More disturbing than you'd think a silent b&w film could possibly be.
Mel Gibson should have his own special section.
edit: The Patriot and U-571 really grind my gears
Birth of a Nation is horrible, inaccurate and very powerful. More disturbing than you'd think a silent b&w film could possibly be.
Mel Gibson should have his own special section.
edit: The Patriot and U-571 really grind my gears
Edmund Ironside
White Rabbit Object
I've updated my opening post so now there is a quick guide to why all the movies could be considered especially misleading. Hope that helps (if anyone actually reads this thread)!
They made a 2nd! I still haven't watched the first.I doubt many would watch 300 for historical accuracy - I mean, it even has a sitar-playing Baphomet
At least it wasn't as unwatchable as 300 2, of which I only could bear to see 3 minutes.
I very much doubt I ever will.
The movie is indeed blatant propaganda, just not a Russian one.
Book is far more accurate and impartial, though far from flawless too.
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Lexicus
Deity
300 is deeply, deeply fascist. The film's portrayal of good guys and bad guys is the opposite of historical reality; think of Sparta as the Taliban but with more child-rape while Persia was, relatively speaking, like an America run by Bernie Sanders.
Birth of a Nation is another obvious candidate, with good guys and bad guys reversed so that the terrorists in the Klan are portrayed as noble freedom fighters.
Birth of a Nation is another obvious candidate, with good guys and bad guys reversed so that the terrorists in the Klan are portrayed as noble freedom fighters.
Buster's Uncle
AC2 Owner
I doubt anyone is arguing different, just that the Spartans were nasty pieces of work -which they generally were- and the Persians were no worse than the typical huge lasting empire, which is actually not so bad, for conquerors. The ones that lasted held onto what they conquered largely by not being horrible oppressors of anything they intended to keep...
^It doesn't seem to be the persian resume, that they weren't seen as horrible oppressors. Their empire sort of collapsed pretty fast when met with an opposing force of smaller size but meant to attack them (even before Macedonia, both Athens and Sparta conquered large parts of Persia on their own, let alone the revolt in Egypt).
Sparta was Sparta, they barely saw themselves as part of a civilization, and after their first defeat to Thebes they never again rose to prominence. Did ally with Persia, against Alexander, only to be defeated again.
It didn't have to be that way, though (with Sparta). And at least they did have free women (women ended up controlling most of the money in Sparta, due to men serving in the army forever).
Sparta was Sparta, they barely saw themselves as part of a civilization, and after their first defeat to Thebes they never again rose to prominence. Did ally with Persia, against Alexander, only to be defeated again.
It didn't have to be that way, though (with Sparta). And at least they did have free women (women ended up controlling most of the money in Sparta, due to men serving in the army forever).
Buster's Uncle
AC2 Owner
And the Romans overran the Persian successor states at least once, never the other way round. So? Nobody's an angel, but 300 made them the opposite to a ridiculous degree.
Buster's Uncle
AC2 Owner
There's movies 'improving' the historical story, and then there's the hatchet job 300 did.
Personally I am ok with movies that are supposedly history-related, going for sensationalism first and foremost if they opt for that. Another example would be Braveheart or Patriot; while they aren't to be seen as historically accurate, there's a reason why they were blockbusters.
"Another colonial" is worth the actor's weight in gold alone ^^
"Another colonial" is worth the actor's weight in gold alone ^^
Buster's Uncle
AC2 Owner
Open question for anyone who's actually seen Birth of a Nation - how much of it was burning out blacks as opposed to carpetbaggers? Serious question, as I'd actually be slightly inclined to take my lumps defending the latter a little if that's the case...
Gori the Grey
The Poster
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Shakespeare in Love, because it get's Shakespeare's compositional process exactly backwards. Through the movie they show him struggling to devise a plot for Romeo and Juliet (originally Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter), and then just hearing lines as he walks through London and putting them in his play. In fact, the plot for R&J was set in an instant once he decided to do a version of Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbe, but it's his line-level composition that is distinctively, inimitably Shakespearean.
(I actually like the movie.)
(I actually like the movie.)
I want to check all of them.
Caesar of Bread
Trans Gordon Ramsay
Birth of a Nation is a definite #1 for agenda pushing, while Pocahontas is #1 for inaccurate/misleading.
IMO, Amadeus could be counted off of this group of movies because it was basically a comedy. Thank God nobody said any of the Monty Python movies. Those things are masterpieces.
IMO, Amadeus could be counted off of this group of movies because it was basically a comedy. Thank God nobody said any of the Monty Python movies. Those things are masterpieces.
Lexicus
Deity
I'm all for self-determination and yay Athens for winning the battle of Marathon, but I will die on the hill of Sparta being basically the worst society in human history. Also credit to Thebes for the strategy of helot liberation
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