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"10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies" - Yahoo!
#1
Some fun reading.

Yahoo! has come out with a list of the most recent ahistorical films :

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/10mosth ... urate.html

Hollywood has always played fast and loose with history, even with WWII movies like 'Patton'. The question is : have Hollywood epics gotten worse or better ?

~Theo
Jaime
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#2
But they missed out 'U537' (or whatever the number was): the US navy dodging submarines and the German navy to get hold of 'enigma'. That could be my favourite. The US did not take part in any attempt to capture 'enigma', and didn't even know about its existence until after the war!!

Or what about the one they produced during WWII? Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it (anybody??), but it had Frank Sinatra and his men landing on a Japanese-held island and taking it 'single-handedly'. They showed the film to Australian troops and they promptly walked out. The US hadn't taken part in the attack on the island - it had all been done by the Aussies!

What about Anthony and Cleopatra?

There's just too many!! :lol:
Ian (Sonic) Hughes
"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides, Peloponnesian War
"I have just jazzed mine up a little" - Spike Milligan, World War II
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#3
But 2001: A Space Odyssey? That's ridiculous, it was (in his time) a movie about the future. :roll:
Valete,
Titvs Statilivs Castvs - Sander Van Daele
LEG XI CPF
COH VII RAET EQ (part of LEG XI CPF)

MA in History
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#4
I've seen a few Midieval movies that make me wonder if they even went to the library...ever.

1,000,000 BC with Raquel Welch. Now that's realism! (Showing my age, again, I suppose.)
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#5
......or the current re-make, called "10,000 B.C." or similar (mentioned). Not only is it ahistorical, but it has 'galloping' mammoths, when no large animal (elephants, rhinos etc) can lift all four feet from the ground (physical limitation due to gravity and scale effect - the reason an elephant or rhino does not have the proportions of a mouse) !!! :roll: Smile D lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

....and to add to Sonic's anecdote, there is the movie where Errol Flynn and the Americans won the Burma campaign single-handed. British 14th Army veterans ("The Forgotten Army") are outraged to this day......funnily enough, you don't see this shown nowadays !! Smile
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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#6
I would have included Bridge on the River Kwai. (I know one of the former POWs.)
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#7
You have to laugh at the last entry though...2001: A space odessy.

That was pretty funny!
____________________________________________________________
Magnus/Matt
Du Courage Viens La Verité

Legion: TBD
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#8
Practically any of the John Wayne WW2 movies. The names of the places were pretty much correct, and that's about all you can say for them.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#9
The US did know about the Enigma during WWII. Over a dozen navy enigmas were captured during the war, but the US only captured one - the rest were all British. Probably should have had a British crew in the U-571, but I guess they didn't think it would do as well
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#10
Actually, I think they have gone down the wrong road with Apocolypto,
as it would be more obvious that the appearance of the conquistidors
would not mean they were saved, rather that, while life sucked for those to be sacrificed, the strange arrival was to rock them to the core, even if they did not realise it..... I don't think it was meant to appear as if they were coming to save them, tho' perhaps the poor natives were given to hope...... :wink:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#11
Where to begin...?

It would probably be easier to compose a list of the most accurate films. Well, perhaps not easier but it would certainly be a shorter list.

Battle of the Bulge is a classic of inaccuracies -- so much so that the former commander of the 5th Panzer Army reportedly said, after viewing the film, 'That had nothing to do with the battle I was in.' (Or something like that -- wish I could find that source now.)

One might add Saving Private Ryan, but we have been down this road before...

Be that as it may, it is an amusing list and yes, I though the inclusion of 2001 most appropriate.

As William Gibson said -- the future is already here, just badly distributed.

Now if we could just get those flying cars from Blade Runner...

:wink:

Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
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#12
Quote:Now if we could just get those flying cars from Blade Runner...

:wink:

Narukami

Bladerunner, or maybe The Jetsons?
____________________________________________________________
Magnus/Matt
Du Courage Viens La Verité

Legion: TBD
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#13
Quote:You have to laugh at the last entry though...2001: A space odessy.

That was pretty funny!
I'm sorry Matt, I'm afraid you cna't say that.
Dan/Anastasios of Sparta/Gaius Statilius Rusticus/ Gaius Germanicus Augustus Flavius Romulus Caesar Tiberius Caelius (Imperator :twisted: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt=":twisted:" title="Twisted Evil" />:twisted: )
Yachts and Saabs are for whimps!
Real men have Triremes and Chariots 8) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" />8) !
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#14
Quote:The US did know about the Enigma during WWII. Over a dozen navy enigmas were captured during the war, but the US only captured one - the rest were all British. Probably should have had a British crew in the U-571, but I guess they didn't think it would do as well

Whoops! I was told they didn't have any! :oops:

You live and learn (or you don't live long!! :lol: )!
Ian (Sonic) Hughes
"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides, Peloponnesian War
"I have just jazzed mine up a little" - Spike Milligan, World War II
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#15
Call me a whining little so-and-so, but my biggest gripe is, with the scadzillions spent on spectacle films (and, if luck is with the producers megascadzillions raked back in) the least they could do is get the costumes right.

I mean I don't care if Julius Caesar recovers from his wounds, fathers Octavian by Cleopatra and rules happily from Capri till Nero takes over - just please let his soldiers wear Montefortino helmets (not HBO ones) mail shirts (not studded leather cuirasses, however butch) oval curved scutums (not red-painted toilet doors dripping with more "bronzework" than even Victor Mature could credibly have lifted.)

The thing is, every film has to have a "look" (e.g. the comic-book hard-edgeness of Gladiator and 300). Hence, we get really gritty legionary helmets from the English Civil war, a battle scene shot by the same guys I'm sure who shot the landing scenes from Saving Private Ryan with wistful music to boot. Don't even get me started on the frisbee hoplite shields and Immortal katanas.

And, as long as there are Oscars for Costume design, no Art Director is going to be content with drag copied from the pages of history.

And, and, and...

Oh, mutter, mumble, whimper, gibber,....
Spurius Papirius Cursor (Howard Russell)
"Life is still worthwhile if you just smile."
(Turner, Parsons, Chaplin)
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