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.
“We Were Soldiers” has that annoying sequence where, as soon as a soldier gets killed, his telegram magically appears in the taxidriver’s mail bag.
Greengrass has made documentary-level movies: “Bloody Sunday” and “United 93”.
Also, check out old BBC films “The War Game” and “Culloden”.
I think you mean ‘Full Metal Jacket’
Twin Towers is as spot-on accurate as survivors McLoughlin and Jimeno not only helped write the screenplay but were involved in the production from start to finish.
Well the material that was in the movie ‘Gone With the Wind’ was also in the book, but there was a TON of stuff in the book that wasn’t in the movie...it’s always that way, or else the movie would have to be 20 hours long.
“...it’s always that way, or else the movie would have to be 20 hours long”
That’s why the mini-series is such a great format.
The later A Bridge Too Far took a similar approach, being based on a history by Cornelius Ryan as The Longest Day was. Although fictional, the 1945 war film They Were Expendable accurately reflects the courageous losing fight that American forces in the Philippines made against the Japanese in 1941 and 1942.
As is often the case, historical accuracy tends to undermine dramatic quality. Of all the movies referred to above, They Were Expendable is the most engaging. Virtually unwatchable are the accurate but leaden Midway and MacArthur.
I heard an elderly gentleman in the local barber shop voice the exact same thing.
shaking and in a cold sweat due to the level of accuracy.
When they shut the sound off it was just like hitting a landmine again. Spooky.
My uncle Tom, who was in the Marines during that time said as much.
CC
Although the overall story was fiction loosely based on truth, I remember hearing WWII veterans who were there say that the portrayal of the D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan was very true to what really happened.
“We Were Soldiers” has that annoying sequence where, as soon as a soldier gets killed, his telegram magically appears in the taxidriver’s mail bag.
If you think about it, there was nothing in the movie that said the telegrams arrived while the actual battle was still going on.
Plan 9 From Outer Space
“Can you PROVE that it didn’t happen?!!!” - Criswell
Twelve O’Clock High
Memphis Belle
The Battle of Midway (John Ford)
Jim Thorpe, All American
and of course, Knute (with Ronald Reagan)
Add:
King of Kings
The Greatest Game Ever Played
I’ll second that.
It’s Texas.
They have chainsaws.
On a Friday night, they be in a mood for a massacre.
No one said “Hey, Hold my beer and watch this!”
“Titanic” was not *too* bad. ‘Apollo 13’ got most of the facts right from what I know, not sure as to the personalities.
I always got a kick our of ‘300’ because I think that movie is *EXACTLY* the way the Spartans would have liked to view themselves; obviously it wasn’t ‘accurate’, but I bet to a man they would have enjoyed it.
In the fiction sense, the one I would most like to see would be a dead-on version of ‘Starship Troopers’; *NOT* the POS of that name that was made, but if they’d just follow Heinlein’s book it would be an awesome movie.
Yeah, Speilberg went absolutely OCD with that sequence.
CC
Having been a fan of movie Westerns and real historical writings on the Old West period from 1865 to 1899, I muttered under my breath “They finally got it right!” the first time I saw Tombstone. I have read hundreds of historical books on that period and with, as you say “some liberties with truth” it was very accurate to the time, the clothing, guns and holsters, language, and 19th Century feel, etc. were all right on the money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.