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Most Inaccurate Historical Movies (Name films with the most glaring lack of historical accuracy)
self | September 24, 2011 | PJ-Comix

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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: braveheart; history; movies; vanity
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To: GeronL

I’m a female red head.

You were warned.

;D


81 posted on 09/24/2011 5:11:06 PM PDT by Salamander (Alice Cooper hit me with a stick.)
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To: mlo

I know.

Oxymoron heaven, innit?

;D


82 posted on 09/24/2011 5:11:52 PM PDT by Salamander (Alice Cooper hit me with a stick.)
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To: rsobin

lol. The new Star Trek movie was obviously and overtly the result of people messing with the time line. Which was sort of the point of the film and now they gave themselves a whole new universe to play in. Besides wasn’t Spock only supposed to want a girl every 7 years, how did Uhura get that timed??


83 posted on 09/24/2011 5:11:52 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: 21twelve
“We Were Soldiers Once and Young” was fairly accurate I believe.

The dirt was the wrong color. Should have been more red.

84 posted on 09/24/2011 5:13:08 PM PDT by Chuckster (The longer I live the less I care about what you think.)
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To: Chaguito
Bridge on the River Kwai

In real life any British prisoner who raised even the slightest objection to the Japanese would be instantly bayoneted...or worse.

85 posted on 09/24/2011 5:13:27 PM PDT by PJ-Comix (The Pay to Play Cabal Cafeteria now serving oatmeal muffins)
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To: TruthHound
Hirohito’s order to switch ordinance from torpedos to bombs.
I believe that was Admiral Nagumo.
86 posted on 09/24/2011 5:13:51 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: abb

“Oliver Stone’s JFK”

That was the first one that came to mind...


87 posted on 09/24/2011 5:14:16 PM PDT by IMTOFT (At least I'm enjoying the ride...)
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To: Mmogamer

I had to watch Braveheart because my son was an extra in it- funny stuff...


88 posted on 09/24/2011 5:15:03 PM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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To: PJ-Comix
6. The Alamo:

I know it wasn't that stinker, but one "Alamo" I saw had Texans using lever-action Winchesters! I threw a rod so bad the wife thought I had a coronary. Well, maybe I did. Frigging awful. Being a gun nut, I could fill pages with inaccuracies. I can overlook breechloading trapdoor Springfields having a flint hammer to portray earlier muzzle loaders, but lever-actions in 1836?

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.

Probably those into clothing could add a bunch also, but the ones you mention are right up there. Saw the trailer for the new Pearl Harbor and when I saw clipper bows on the ships, I passed. Like another poster mentioned, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" passed the test.

89 posted on 09/24/2011 5:15:29 PM PDT by Oatka ("A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." –Bertrand de Jouvenel)
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To: Salamander

Yeah, yeah...details details..


90 posted on 09/24/2011 5:16:37 PM PDT by Mmogamer (I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
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To: 21twelve
"The other was “The Sound of Music”. (Hmm - I wonder how accurate that one was!? I’m thinking it might have been halfways okay?)"

I've checked on that one. Based on actual people, but not very accurate.

91 posted on 09/24/2011 5:17:03 PM PDT by mlo
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To: Clock King
Great...another Roots hater.

Never said I hated it. I'd probably give it 3 1/2 stars, myself.

Just pointing out that it was not as historical as was touted.

That IS the topic of this thread, isn't it?

92 posted on 09/24/2011 5:18:01 PM PDT by digger48
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To: Oatka

There is a Polish movie about when the Soviets attempted to invade Poland in 1920 but failed that I am interested in. Does anybody know the title of that movie and if it has English subtitles?


93 posted on 09/24/2011 5:18:12 PM PDT by PJ-Comix (The Pay to Play Cabal Cafeteria now serving oatmeal muffins)
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To: 21twelve

Actually, “The Sound of Music” was not that accurate...the father in reality was a very warm loving father, Maria had a real streak of anger...the family had sold the rights to the story and had no say in the movie...there are several good books on the real story...

‘Soldiers’, when compared to the book, was a close as they could be considering the battle took three days over three different areas, and the movie was only 2 1/2 hours, I think...I know the producers worked closely with some the people portrayed to make it as close as possible


94 posted on 09/24/2011 5:19:23 PM PDT by IMTOFT (At least I'm enjoying the ride...)
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To: PJ-Comix

King David," with Richard Gere.


95 posted on 09/24/2011 5:19:55 PM PDT by jonatron (This is the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave.)
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To: Oatka

Devil’s Brigade: In real life they never wore a red beret or even any kind of beret.


96 posted on 09/24/2011 5:20:41 PM PDT by PJ-Comix (The Pay to Play Cabal Cafeteria now serving oatmeal muffins)
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To: PJ-Comix

Any movie that depicts Naval Officers and enlisted men wearing their DRESS UNIFORMS in the middle of the ocean.


97 posted on 09/24/2011 5:22:03 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: PJ-Comix
99.9% of movies are inaccurate so I'll just mention a really small scene. A small jet starts up to the sounds of old radial piston engine. And then the Lear Jet that took off somehow lands as Cessna jet. Amazing.
98 posted on 09/24/2011 5:22:03 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: TruthHound
Yes. Nagumo's order, and the decision of Lt. Commander John C. Waldron (leader of Hornet's immortal Torpedo 8) to follow his gut and break formation with the rest of the initial striking American air group:

American carrier aircraft had difficulty locating the target, despite the positions they had been given. The strike from Hornet, led by Commander Stanhope C. Ring, followed an incorrect heading of 263 degrees rather than the 240 heading indicated by the contact report. As a result, Air Group Eight's dive bombers missed the Japanese carriers. Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8, from Hornet), led by Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron broke formation from Ring and followed the correct heading. Waldron's squadron sighted the enemy carriers and began attacking at 09:20, followed by Torpedo Squadron 6 (VT-6, from Enterprise) at 09:40.

Commander Waldron and his men sacrificed themselves, but brought the Japanese fleet to ruin with their sacrifice.

Despite their losses, the American torpedo attacks indirectly achieved three important results. First, they kept the Japanese carriers off balance, with no ability to prepare and launch their own counterstrike. Second, their attacks pulled the Japanese combat air patrol out of position. Third, many of the Zeros ran low on ammunition and fuel. The appearance of a third torpedo plane attack from the southeast by Torpedo Squadron 3 (VT-3) at 10:00 very quickly drew the majority of the Japanese CAP to the southeast quadrant of the fleet. Better discipline, and employment of all the Zeroes aboard, might have enabled Nagumo to succeed.

It's a tale right up there with the exploits of Taffy 3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Waldron

99 posted on 09/24/2011 5:22:03 PM PDT by kiryandil (turning Americans into felons, one obnoxious drunk at a time (Zero Tolerance!!!))
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To: skeeter

Yes, the Ben Affleck character was indeed an extraordinary pilot. Not only did he fly a fighter plane at Pearl Harbor, he was a good enough bomber pilot to fly a B-25 a few months later on the Doolittle Tokyo raid.


100 posted on 09/24/2011 5:23:53 PM PDT by LiveFree99
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