Posted on 11/07/2014 5:43:15 PM PST by PJ-Comix
I remember reading about an interview with journalist Lowell Thomas. He was asked what he thought about the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" since he knew T.E. Lawrence and one of the characters in the film was loosely based on him. Thomas replied that he began to take notes when the movie came on the screen but quickly put his notes aside because the Lawrence he knew personally and the one he saw on the screen bore no factual resemblance to each other.
In fact most movies supposedly based on fact in reality are quite inaccurate so it would be easy to ask for your list on factually inaccurate movies. Instead, I am asking for your list of factually accurate movies. That is movies based on real events to come closest to factual accuracy.
Okay, I'll lead off. Because I read the book before seeing the movie, I would say "The Right Stuff." Some liberties with truth were taken but in general the facts of the space program were pretty accurate. Also "Nicholas and Alexandra" for the same reason as before, I read the book and the movie was mostly truthful except perhaps it did not show what a vacuous idiot Nicholas II was.
I think ‘Tora, Tora, Tora’ was pretty accurate.
Much more accurate than “Pearl Harbor.” I was routing for the Japanese to shoot down Ben Affleck.
I have heard from someone who was there, that “We Were Soldiers” is fairly accurate.
Anything by Michael Moore has to rate right up there.
“Blackhawk Down”?
“We Were Soldiers”
/johnny
“Gone With The Wind” has always been considered one of the most accurate portrayals of a novel on the big screen.
My father, who was at Pearl Harbor and saw Tora, Tora, Tora, would beg to differ.
Harry Potter? All movies exaggerate. Just read an article on “Lone Survivor” concerning this issue. I understand “Blackhawk Down” was pretty accurate.
“Battle of the Bulge” was pretty accurate. Not a great war flick but it was underrated.
I said list the most factually ACCURATE films.
I think the original “In Cold Blood” was very accurate assuming Truman Capote’s book was accurate. I lived in Garden City for five years and the only difference was I read an article in the paper where Alvin Dewey disagreed somewhat with the portrayal of “Dick Hickock” in the movie and book but I think that was about it.
“Longest Day”?
Oliver Stone’s flicks have a great deal of accuracy as well. Take “JFK” .....he got the fact that JFK was president and was assassinated correct. So what if the other 98% of the movie was b.s.
“Patton” pretty much followed history but some key elements were left out.
My comment on “The Right Stuff”. The book was written about Chuck Yaeger but the script focused on the astronauts and touched on Yeager only as an aside.
Are you kidding? That was one of the most factually inaccurate films about WWII starting with those American tanks the Germans were using.
“All the Presidents Men?”
Military training movies were quite accurate especially CBN and of course the VD training.
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