The only Gary Cooper movie I detest. Utter rubbish.
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.
Inglorious Bastards.
Hitler never died in no theater, fer dangsake!
“Pearl Harbor” just sucked all around.
Awful movie.
Star Wars.
I was there. It didn’t happen that way.
The Glenn Miller Story. The last song in the movie was “Little Brown Jug” which he supposedly had wanted to play for the first time as a surprise for his wife. This was set in 1945. He recorded it in the late 30’s.
I went and looked over my movie collection, to see if I could find more accurate ones other than the ones I’ve mentioned already.
One is Apollo 13, which I heard one of the original astronauts say was pretty accurate except for the language - we just didn’t “talk that way” (profanity) then.
Another I thought in the battle dogfights might be “Flyboys” - there are some inaccuracies - one of the most notable ones was the color of the german planes (admittedly made because the bright red added “pop”) but while the lives were all made up supposedly the “feel” of the WWI brigade was authentic.
Also Miracle was supposedly true in a lot of ways, even down to the late night skating scene. The original coach Herb Brooks was a major consultant.
Yep, “Battle of the Bulge” should be at the top of the list.
Supposedly the real Maria hung around the set, trying to get on camera. She was a real piece of work - it was the father that was the sweet guy.
There is a scene where she was a walk on.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Except there were no Americans in The REAL Great Escape.
Good call on all of those. There is supposedly a recent one about the Red Barron that is supposed to be very accurate albeit a couple of characters were composite. I do recall a WWI one about trench warfare that was so accurate it disturbed vets.
—Braveheart was rubbish.—
Likewise, Robroy.
He was, in essence, a cattle thief.
A screenplay based on the book ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ by David Hackett Fischer would make a great movie without a shred of fiction inserted.
This is easy: Inherit the Wind. See www.themonkeytrial.com. It will make your blood boil!
Also see the new movie, ALLEGED, at www.allegedthemovie.com. I wrote the screenplay (full disclosure).
LOL, that was just good Nazi killing catharsis in no way accurate, but as fun as hell.
Glenn Miller story also showed V-1 flying bombs landing in London BEFORE D-Day. They didn’t arrive until after D-Day.
Except no Americans were involved.
I think I read that they were added so American audiences would watch the film.
The only Gary Cooper movie I detest. Utter rubbish.
By "stealing" do you mean adding previously recorded film, or recreating the scene in full copy mode? I hadn't heard that before. Midway is one of our greatest ever victories. I love watching that film.
To: PJ-Comix
Chuck Connors as a tall blue-eyed Geronimo.
I remember at the time of seeing that movie how ridiculous it seemed on the surface, but also liking Conners in the role.
More inaccuracies in that movie than a person can count.
Exodus.
The passengers of the Exodus eventually made aliyah but the true facts were nothing at all like the film.
It was not Britain’s finest hour.
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