I was looking into the movie Tarzan and Jane and found several historical inaccuracies (mostly plot-driven, like the WWI spy who somehow exists in the late 19th century) which made me curious about other movies that fib their history facts. We generally accept them, when all is said and done. It's a fight not worth fighting. There are so many movies out there that twist the truth, and yet we accept it as "creative license," however, how does this truly affect the viewing public, especially impressionable children? I went ahead and looked up a list of historically inaccurate movies which don't follow the history books:
1. Pocahontas: The real story took place between a little girl and a grown man, probably in his forties. There was no love story, no passionate kiss beneath Mother Willow (no magic really, but it is Disney we're talking about). They did get one thing right--in the sequal, Pocahontas falls in love with John Rolfe, and in real life they got married. 1 point for Disney.
2. Shakespeare in Love: While I haven't seen this movie, I know the general plot (thank you Wikipedia!) and it is apparently strewn with anachronisms. Additionally, there is no proof to the story; it's pure conjecture, and also highly unlikely. There is so little known about Shakespeare's life (aside from the plays and sonnets he wrote) that people feel the need to press modern ideals on him and come up with films like this.
3. Braveheart: Oh, Mel Gibson. What are we going to do with you? Not only does this movie take place during a time of peace between Scotland and England, but it messes up more important facts than that. Don't get me wrong, I hear it's a great movie (again, a movie I haven't seen), but a lot of the traditions of the period are ignored or substituted for things they wouldn't have done (wear kilts), plus the ages of many key characters are misconstrued to fit with the plot (for example, making a character an adult when they were originally a child).
4. Gladiator: The list of historically inaccurate movies I haven't seen is much larger than the ones I have seen. So this movie shouldn't have had any problems; the director hired an academic historian for crying out loud. However, it is often attributed with the problems of changing characters ages, misrepresenting time lapses (for example, the reign on one character seems to be two years when in reality it was about thirteen), and mistranslated Latin (Come on, people! It's a story about gladiators! At least get the Latin right...) However, the funniest mistake would have to be the army leaders which yell out to their archers "fire!" a phrase which didn't exist until the invention of guns in the 18th century.
5. Pearl Harbor: The main issue with this movie was little things like the main characters shooting down more planes together than the real life people did combined. But hey, at least they did a good job on costumes, right?
While I don't think it's great that movie makers change the facts, I think it is sometimes necessary because not all events translate well to the screen. And let's be honest--we don't watch movies to be educated, we watch them to be entertained. And that's the main priority of a film-maker, to entertain people. How he or she goes about doing that, is their business. I, for one, am just glad they make historical movies. I love history!
TGWLAE
Picture:
Website: http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/10-historically-inaccurate-movies.htm
1. Pocahontas: The real story took place between a little girl and a grown man, probably in his forties. There was no love story, no passionate kiss beneath Mother Willow (no magic really, but it is Disney we're talking about). They did get one thing right--in the sequal, Pocahontas falls in love with John Rolfe, and in real life they got married. 1 point for Disney.
2. Shakespeare in Love: While I haven't seen this movie, I know the general plot (thank you Wikipedia!) and it is apparently strewn with anachronisms. Additionally, there is no proof to the story; it's pure conjecture, and also highly unlikely. There is so little known about Shakespeare's life (aside from the plays and sonnets he wrote) that people feel the need to press modern ideals on him and come up with films like this.
3. Braveheart: Oh, Mel Gibson. What are we going to do with you? Not only does this movie take place during a time of peace between Scotland and England, but it messes up more important facts than that. Don't get me wrong, I hear it's a great movie (again, a movie I haven't seen), but a lot of the traditions of the period are ignored or substituted for things they wouldn't have done (wear kilts), plus the ages of many key characters are misconstrued to fit with the plot (for example, making a character an adult when they were originally a child).
4. Gladiator: The list of historically inaccurate movies I haven't seen is much larger than the ones I have seen. So this movie shouldn't have had any problems; the director hired an academic historian for crying out loud. However, it is often attributed with the problems of changing characters ages, misrepresenting time lapses (for example, the reign on one character seems to be two years when in reality it was about thirteen), and mistranslated Latin (Come on, people! It's a story about gladiators! At least get the Latin right...) However, the funniest mistake would have to be the army leaders which yell out to their archers "fire!" a phrase which didn't exist until the invention of guns in the 18th century.
5. Pearl Harbor: The main issue with this movie was little things like the main characters shooting down more planes together than the real life people did combined. But hey, at least they did a good job on costumes, right?
While I don't think it's great that movie makers change the facts, I think it is sometimes necessary because not all events translate well to the screen. And let's be honest--we don't watch movies to be educated, we watch them to be entertained. And that's the main priority of a film-maker, to entertain people. How he or she goes about doing that, is their business. I, for one, am just glad they make historical movies. I love history!
TGWLAE
Picture:
Website: http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/10-historically-inaccurate-movies.htm