Posted on 09/24/2011 4:19:32 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
I am a huge history buff so and enjoy watching movies about events in the past. However, many of these movies really irk me because they are incredibly inaccurate as to the historical facts. Here is a sampling of movies that have bugged me due to their historical inaccuracies:
1. Battle of the Bulge: So just how inaccurate was this 1965 movie? So inaccurate that former President Eisenhower who was Supreme Commander of the Allies in Europe denounced this film in a press conference. To watch this movie you would think that some Boston detective was able to predict all the German tactical moves based on such police work as shutting off the engine of a spotter plane in the middle of a fog bank in order to hear sounds of tank treads. Oh, and the German Panzers looked exactly like M47 Patton tanks which is what they were. As to the heavily forested Ardennes forest, at times it looked like a deforested western prairie.
2. Gunfight at the OK Corral: Couldn't Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp have bothered to grow a mustache or at least wear a fake one? The cleanshaven Earp in that movie is a slap at the intelligence of anybody with even a little knowledge about Wyatt Earp. Also the real life gunfight took just a few seconds, not at all like the extended gunfight in the movie which did not take place at the OK Corral but NEXT to it.
3. Huns. Why is it that every movie depicting Huns make them look like white guys? In actuality the Huns were a nomadic tribe from deep inside Asia who looked like ugly Mongolians with scarred faces. And the movie Attila the Hun looks like Jack Palance which is just wrong.
4. Confederate uniforms. This really bugs me. Civil War movies which depict Confederates late in the war wearing immaculate uniforms. Only officers had uniforms at that stage of the war that were in decent shape. The uniforms of the average foot soldiers were either one step up from rags or were stolen Federal uniforms dyed a beechnut color. And even those latter uniforms were usually in bad shape.
5. Pearl Harbor: Did anybody else cringe when Franklin D. Roosevelt rose from his wheel chair and walk a few steps to make a point? Guess what? That never happened.
6. The Alamo: Final Mexican attack took place in the dark before daybreak not in the middle of the day as depicted in the film. Also Col. Travis in the movie spoke with a clipped British accent. Oh, and the character of supposed frontiersman Smitty from Tennessee looked and sounded like he was an urban guy from South Philly.
I know a lot of people here on FR loved that movie, but it basically annoyed because those true patriots didn't get their due. Also there was a character played by Chris Cooper is clearly Light Horse Harry Lee the father of Robert E. Lee. Can't give a Lee his due can we Hollyweird! In short a highly inaccurate movie on the Revolutionary War.
In the DVD version of The French Connection, the director, William Friedkin, explained how they made an actual story into a movie. I thought that explained much about movie making.
A two-year event became a two-week event. Several federal agencies were represented by one FBI man. A crude Corsican became a suave Frenchman because someone came back with the wrong French actor who was actually Spanish. Etc.
That was one of the better Special Features I’ve seen.
BTW - The Gladiator DVD I had contained some good but misplaced Special Features. They were where you make your audio choices.
Inglorious Bastards. While historically inaccurate, I am a sucker for a happy ending.
Mark
Also the Affleck character went directly from the Air Corps into the RAF which was a big No-No.
That brought a chuckle. Sort of - until thinking about what an intimate knowledge of the color of the dirt means to you. Thank you for your service. And now I’m wondering if you mean the red from the clay soils - or the red from the blood.
My daughters watched “Forrest Gump” over the summer as part of their reading and movie regarding the Vietnam War! I’m waiting for some night when mom isn’t around to watch “We Were Soldiers Once and Young” with them.
In a river crossing scene in the old "Red Badge of Courage", the Union troops are holding 1880s trapdoors over their heads as they ford a stream. One guy is holding up a M1906 Springfield. Closeups did show Audie Murphy shooting a M1861 though, so Huston gets a pass.
Drives me nuts too. Love John Wayne Westerns, but come on, Model 1894 Winchesters in 1870? The list goes on and on, Civil War movies with Model 1873 Colt's .45 cartridge revolvers, Wichesters disguised to look like Henry rifles, etc. The one film that did finally get ti right was Tombstone; period correct weapons, holsters saddles and clothes.
I wondered why that guy was yelling "Dive! Dive!" on an aircraft carrier. ;-)
Pocahontas.
Pocahontas.
I can't do two off-hand, but I remember seeing "Earthquake" in SENSOROUND.
Mark
We achieved a far lower level of debauchery than portrayed in this movie. Trust me, my nickname is Otter.
“Airplane” - the doomed aircraft drones like a DC3 with the props slightly out of synch.
But I guess that’s not a historical movie. Historic, yes.
My father, who fought in the Bulge as a first division army ranger, was so insulted by the Fonda movie that he walked out of the theater and demanded that the management refund everyone’s money! The scene he made was more epic than the film! If you knew him you would know how deep his disgust must have been! He never complained about anything!
Wouldnt it be easier and much shorter of a list to post accurate historical movies? (still cant think of one).
“The Great Escape” was pretty accurate, although , like all, there was poetic license. Steve McQueen wasn’t actually there
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Warsaw_1920
Some movie outtakes here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwNpVsdIb-k
My father, a WWII Ardennes infantry vet and POW, hated Batlle of the Bulge with a passion. Between that cheesy movie and Traitor Jane, Henry Fonda was never forgiven by my old man.
He also despised Hogan’s Heroes, but he thought the set was perfect.
Heston: "YOU'RE GUESSING!"
Holbrook playing the Intelligence Officer: "Well we like to call it analysis."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I always thought How the West Was Won captured the sense of the westward movement as an unstoppable migration that rolled over everything in it’s path.
The absolute worst in my memory was China Syndrome. There are worse I’m sure but I’ve not seen them.
There were 76 prisoners who initially escaped but none of them were Americans. They had been moved to a separate camp and thus missed out on the Great Escape.
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