"Oliver Stone's Defense of JFK." This table only looks at the last 5 years of data rather than all years of the Bracket Matrix. In the movie, Cranston is reviving a role from the stage play of the same name — one that earned him a Tony award — that covers LBJ's first year in office. In real-life, Pocahontas and Powhatan were told he died on his way to England, which was not true. The respect given to women, to the king, and to Achilles’ elite warrior group, the Myrmidons, all are historically accurate because it is very similar to the respect given in … This is despite the fact that Maximus (the main character portrayed by Russell Crowe) is fictional. They reify this folkloric legend into a real person, pronouncing unabashedly that she was Mary Hayes. (Feb. 16, 2009) http://books.google.com/books?id=WVFhcBcv_X8C, Normey, Robert. (Feb. 16, 2009) http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/wardgladiator1.html. What's more, no fighter pilots would've been sent to Tokyo to serve as bomber pilots [source: LaSalle]. "JFK" director Oliver Stone testifies before a House subcommittee to seek the release of documents concerning President Kennedy's assassination. Johnson wants King to wait. The explorers hired Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trader, as an interpreter and agreed to let his pregnant wife tag along. It even blames Lyndon Johnson for helping in the cover-up. However, try as they might, filmmakers who attempt to portray anything about the past very seldom satisfy their harshest critics. Simon & Schuster, 2005. The Allies are losing and everything seems dismal until Lt. Col. Kiley realizes that the Germans are running out of gas. This is no accident. On a related note of inaccuracy, some take issue that the movie features no black characters in a time when London had a significant black population [source: Monk]. "Hollywood vs. history: Historians say 'Pearl Harbor's version of World War II attack is off the mark." D01. To add to the seemingly endless pile of inaccuracies, the movie features whole battles that didn't happen, large catapults that would never have been lugged into open battlefields, a breed of dog (German shepherd) that didn't exist at the time and Latin inscriptions with incorrect grammar [source: Ward]. Unlike the good professors who take historical accuracy as sacrosanct, I allow artists to interpret the history and try to tell a story, tell a perspective, without having to be 100% accurate. In the film, Emperor Marcus Aurelius doesn't trust his son, Commodus, and instead taps Maximus (an esteemed general) to take over and return Rome to the old Republic. The elimination of poverty. Carnes, Mark C. "Past Imperfect." As he continues his revolt, he also has a love affair with Isabella, Edward's daughter-in-law. "Pearls of Wisdom." For instance, the film lifts a fictional line from the Japanese admiral directly from "Tora! Turner Classic Movies. As the highest-ranking Allied officer, Nicholson takes charge of the operation. Of course, there are those who subscribe to this particular theory or others like it. All rights reserved. Historian Lawrence Suid has said that the film's action bears little more than a "remote resemblance" to the real event [source: McCrisken]. In reality, argues Lambert, Ferrie adamantly denied involvement and offered to take a lie detector test to prove it. Pocahontas is depicted here saving John Smith's life. (Feb. 16, 2009) http://books.google.com/books?id=AK9bmadu-AUC, Monk, Claire, Amy Sargeant. Not only that, but the movie depicts Custer turning to alcohol in 1865, when in reality he swore off the stuff after an embarrassing incident in 1862. Some have even pointed out the anachronism of Roman officers commanding soldiers who are wielding bows and arrows to "fire" (a term that wouldn't have been used until firearms were invented) [source: Washington Times]. Profession­al film reviewers are tame compared to the wrath of nit-picking historians. Genesis Is Historically True The story follows U.S. Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer through his life and military exploits, culminating in the controversial battle that took his life along with the 200 soldiers he led. In addition to that, critics of Stone like Patricia Lambert argue that the filmmaker fabricated events that contradict known facts [source: Normey]. Commodus himself was younger and more physically fit than depicted, married and (not to mention) didn't commit patricide [source: Ward]. After the English soldiers kill Wallace's bride, he becomes enraged and driven to lead the Scottish in a revolt to expel the English. Using the gas that English-speaking German spies are hoarding, the Allies set the enemy's tanks ablaze when they come to collect their fuel supplies. Bryan Cranston has been on a hell of an acting journey. But what you cannot do is have anybody in the play say or do something that is intrinsically antithetical to who they were.". (Feb. 16, 2009) http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4562. "British Historical Cinema." According to Carnes, when Darryl F. Zanuck was criticized for making things up in The Longest Day (1962), he shot back, “Anything changed was an asset to the film. "Pocahontas." Impact Selma does a magnificent job of recreating important historical scenes, such as the events of 7 March 1965 – known as Bloody Sunday – … Similarly, Edward II is featured as an adult when in reality he was merely 13. This was done to better compare bracketologists with the most recent set of data, to drop the early years when brackets consisted of 65 teams instead of 68, and to match a real committee member's term of 5 years. A photograph of the real Battle of the Bulge, complete with a very snowy Belgian forest. Other times, filmmakers want to make a point about a modern issue or ignite wartime patriotism by invoking analogous events of the past, even if that means bending details. She eventually did marry a British man, but it was John Rolfe, not Smith. The Inaccuracies: Far from a scrappy commoner who clawed his way up from the mud to defend his homeland, William Wallace was actually a knight from a noble family, and his father Malcolm wasn't killed by the English, but fought on the English side in exchange for political favor. ", So it seems like, as with lots of historical dramas, All the Way changes details while staying true to its own themes. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. The Bible has proven to be more historically and archaeologically accurate than any other ancient book. Copyright 2001. Although h­ailed as a fascinating portrayal of the ethical dilemmas facing Allied POWs held captive by the Japanese in World War II, "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) was seen as a slap in the face to one esteemed, real-life British officer. See more. The “Republican South” wasn’t always so much of a given, and HBO’s “All the Way” makes the case that a lot of this political shift started because Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of civil rights when he ascended to the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, turning it into the election issue of that year and provoking the ire of a GOP establishment that wasn’t on the right side of … (Feb. 16, 2009) http://books.google.com/books?id=k1E_wzIY7xwC, Flynn, Gillian. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. The reviewers say that the British were depicted like Hitler's Nazis. (Feb. 16, 2009) http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,128642,00.html, LaSalle, Mick. Savvy theatergoers have already had a chance to fact-check the material. Eisenhower sent troops to Arkansas to stop Gov. But at the same time, Van Dusen explained to OprahMag.com that the series is in no way strictly history, but a modern take on a period drama that resulted in fantasy. This happened in 1995, when Disney released its own version of the Pocahontas story. (Feb. 16, 2009) http://books.google.com/books?id=FPafAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1, von Tunzelmann, Alex. “I’m not a historian, I’m not a documentarian, and I always try to make that distinction,” playwright Robert Schenkkan told the New York Times. Here is the "Note on Historical Accuracy": This play is not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian. Though every work of art takes artistic license, and history is always up to different interpretations, here Cranston has a responsibility to adhere to at least a germ of truth about LBJ. In All the Way, which HBO will premiere on May 21, he shifts to play the real-life Lyndon B. Johnson. Filmmakers shoot a scene set in ancient Rome. “Let’s not start another battle when we haven’t even won the first,” he says, referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he signed into law with King standing right behind him. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. If viewers catch on to these subtle in-jokes, they're probably less likely to take the rest of it seriously and walk away with mistaken ideas about Shakespeare. Another word often used to characterize the Bible is "infallible". The Battle of the Bulge was primarily a tank battle, and historians find the tanks in the movie laughably inaccurate. Furthermore, the dialogue exaggerates the situation between the English and Scottish in the 13th century. Something about the words "based on a true sto­ry" flashing across the screen has the ability to capture a viewer's attention unlike anything else. They declared that Stone's film was "a desecration to the memory of President Kennedy" and "a fraudulent misrepresentation of the truth to the American public" [source: Benoit]. One thing that is surprisingly accurate: Cranston looks like LBJ. The movie centers around the character of British commander Col. Nicholson, a role that earned actor Alec Guinness a Best Actor Oscar. (Feb. 16, 2009) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/05/29/DD192071.DTL, McCrisken, Trevor B., Andrew Pepper. The film’s historical problems are compounded by the study guide now being distributed to schools, which encourages educators to use Amistad to teach about slavery. Something about this formula must carry some resonance with American audiences. If you're at all familiar with the story, you know that along the way, they encountered a very helpful woman from the Shoshone tribe named Sacagawea. LawNow. Modern viewers take issue with the movie's stereotypical, one-dimensional depiction of Native Americans as well, particularly Chief Crazy Horse, the Lakota Sioux war chief. 2009. The most scathing comments about "JFK" came from Gerald Ford and David Belin, two prominent members of the Warren Commission (the official body that concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in the assassination). That's the lack of a Robert Kennedy, who was a major player at the time. The Bible is essentially a religious history. 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