When movies get facts wrong. . .

[connorkimbro]

This really bothers me. Like, when the refer to something that has actually happened in the past, like an event. For example, in the movie hedwig and the angry inch, the berlin wall is said to have fallen on nov 9th, 1988, when everyone clearly KNOWS that it happened in 1989, NOT 1988. That was a rather important even, one which would have been incredibly easy to look up and verify, one which was somewhat important to the plotline of the movie, and yet, there it is, completely incorrectly.

What are some other things like this that you've noticed in movies?

[Dis]

I remember watching Star Trek and thinking. This is baloney. We didn't have ww3 in the 1990's. What the hell?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Dissident
I remember watching Star Trek and thinking. This is baloney. We didn't have ww3 in the 1990's. What the hell?

Record from that era are sketchy at best.

[devilmunchkin]

pocahontas
*sighes*

[Serb]

Ha-ha-ha
Congratulations connorkimbro
You've start to open your eyes. Majority of Hollywood movies have such bull****. The twisting of facts is the favorit thing for an american's directors. Look "The Patriot" or any movie about WW2 for example. But the most silly film in my list is "Armaggedon" with Bruce Willis. What a bull****, I wonder how he accepted this role? Wind on asteroid was realy funny thing.

[connorkimbro]

Oh, not just started to open my eyes. . .

anyhow there are instances where this doesn't bother me. Armageddon, for example, didn't really bother me. It was enough sci-fi for me to suspend disbelief, even though there are LOTS of unbelievable, anti-factual things in there. What i mean is more historical facts, like, rather IMPORTANT historical facts, ya know?

If it's ww2, and the actors are using, say, the wrong kind of gun. . .no big deal . . . but if they say that ww2 ended in 1947? that'd be unacceptable.

[Dis]

On a related note, it's funny how bad Star Trek 3 got it wrong.

Their view of a nuclear aircraft carrier (one I served on even- although it was filmed on a conventional aircraft carrier) was preposterous. but most of that information is inside knowledge. So I don't hold it against them. But it is funny putting a thingamabob outside the secondary shield of the reactor compartment while the reactor is shut down, and getting enough energy to power a warp powered space craft.

But it's a sci-fi movie, so I can't complain.


I'll try to think of some modern day drama or action movies that fit this decription.

[Serb]

few examples made by jamorobo in "Stop the America bashing" forum:
Quote originaly posted by jamorobo:

" My quibble comes from American media portraying Britian badly especilly in WW2. Yep the big 1 where american takes all the credit

eg.

Saving private Rian = A fairy tale war where britian never existed and was never on the beaches. It portrays the americans valiently crusading on the beaches getting slaughted against overwelming enemys. where the truth was the omaha beach was so hard to takes as the US did not want to use any help from the british who offered:

armoured amphibious fighting vehicles, flamethrower tanks, flailing tanks ( used to destroy mines ) etc..to help them on the beach.

Not to mention the airstrikes from the american planes which were ment to destroy to fortifications but completly missed!





U-571

Complete load of crap, The Brits got the first Enigma of a Sub 4 months before the US entered the war. The us did get 1 in the end but in 1944.


Now on to the Patriot

The Gibson character was based on a US army genral who " Raped his own slaves, shot Indians for fun and married his own cousin!"

The red coats were shown to round up woman and children in a church and set it on fire. When is actually somthing that the Germans did in WW2.
A historian said " With their own record of killing 12 million American indians and surporting slavery 4 decades after britian abolished it, Americans wish to project their historical guilt on to someone else. "

Further complantes were drawn by south georgia's Black population being shown as either happy loyal slaves or Jovial freemen.

I could go on to say about Braveheart, Titanic but i can't be bothered.


Ps. Independance day- when the plan is formed and they start using morce code to transmit everying, Look where they place the british......... Iraq, 2 english blokes with stupid accents which only royaly have, AND in the middle of Iraq a place not normally acocated with england but to the script writer Iraq and the english are the same thing and are both at the top of the list to ridicule.


As you can see American just in its film industry has made alot of people unhappy. Esp the english by removing them and putting a large "Made in USA" it its place."

[Dis]

I don't agree with Private Ryan. This movie wasn't about the English. If you want a movie about British experiences in Normandy- make one yourself.

The movie was long enough. Why include scenes with the British? That wasn't what the movie was about.

I agree about U-571. Really cheesy.
Same with the Patriot.

But the movies are just giving the public what it wants. People don't go to movies wanted to see good characters rape their slaves. That's not the way the general public works. The general public are morons. And I believe this is true throughout the world. And I'm getting tired of only americans being portrayed this way. There are stupid people throughout the world.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Dissident
But the movies are just giving the public what it wants. People don't go to movies wanted to see good characters rape their slaves. That's not the way the general public works. The general public are morons. And I believe this is true throughout the world. And I'm getting tired of only americans being portrayed this way. There are stupid people throughout the world.

Yeah, there are many stupid people throughout the world. But even this stupid people do not proclaim bustards as heroes. This is what I call a twisting of facts, and this thing is what I'm hate most of all in american's movies. In other words this thing is called- a lies.
I can continue list started by jamorobo, but I'll do not want it, this list is too huge.

[Asher]

Hollywood movies aren't documentaries. They're there to entertain the target audience, and if that means bending the truth or outright lies they'll do it. It's really common.

It's particularly horrible with the World War histories and Computer movies. Anyone remember the 3D hacking in Hackers?
The entire basis of U-571?

I'm more annoyed at the people whining about the inaccuracies of these movies, because they aren't documentaries, they're pieces to entertain us.

That's why it's "based on a true story", not "true story".

[connorkimbro]

Asher: I'm talking less about twisting of facts for the sake of plot, and more of just getting a simple fact wrong, just making a mistake. How easy is it to check a date and see that, no, it was 1989 that the berlin wall came down, not 1988?

[Asher]

I see your point with those. Most bigger budget flicks have people to catch things like that.

[Serb]

Originally posted by connorkimbro
Asher: I'm talking less about twisting of facts for the sake of plot, and more of just getting a simple fact wrong, just making a mistake. How easy is it to check a date and see that, no, it was 1989 that the berlin wall came down, not 1988?

Don’t you realize that is the biggest problem of Hollywood?
They to start the propaganda of their vision of those events, while their do not know nothing about those events. Their was unable to simply check the dates.
And this is not the simply mistake of some one from the scenarists. If whole crew was known about which events they making their movie, someone sure will said about this to director, and erase this mistake. This is the main problem. They do movies, and proclaims that their vision is right, while they do not know nothing about those evnts or even don’t known nothing when it’s happens.

[Zoid]

Let´s face it Hollywood spews out as much propaganda as Nazi-Germany or the Soviets ever did. I don´t see any difference between say "The Patriot" and Leni Riefenstahl´s "Triumf des Willens" (Das dokument vom Reichsparteitag 1934) or Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht (Nürnberg 1935) or Sergei Eisensteins "Oktyabr" (October, 1927) or "Bronenosets Potyomkin" (Battleship Potemkin, 1925)