Historical inaccuracy in films

[Clun]

Just watching Elizabeth : The Golden Age and it cuts to a scene in the Highlands with majestic mountains (Munro’s?), locks and rivers, then the subtitle comes up Fotheringay Castle . I recall that was actually somewhere out towards Rutland way, generally flat and a bit woody.

I’m sure there are others?

Gladiator. Almost all of it.

'Robin Hood walks to Hadrians Wall in a day apparently on his way from Dover to Nottingham'.

Yes that was hilarious. 'We sup by nightfall at my father's house'. And when they got there most of the Merrie Men and other Nottinghamshire locals had west country accents.

If anything I imagine "sex" would be the word. "Fairer sex" and all that.

Yes, I feel there is a trend to try and make historical films more "woke", if that is the correct word. Like in Bohemian Rhapsody, everyone was totally cool about Freddy Mercury being gay and having AIDs. I suspect they weren't so kind in reality, but he's dead so can't say anything.

I read a review about The Line of Beauty and someone actually complained that it was irresponsible to show gay men having sex without a condom. How can you tell the story about a gay man with AIDs in the 80s if you show them using condoms? i suppose if you made a film about the Great Fire of London, all the houses should be fitted with fire extinguishers and smoke alarms. It makes no sense to me!

@vampirethriller

Gladiator. Almost all of it.

And yet they wanted to include a scene of the gladiators walking around the arena shouting the names of products and services available in the town (which really did happen) but omitted it as it would have been deemed "unrealistic" by todays history-shy audiences.

Also Victorian street children with shiny washed hair and boots with socks. Street children would probably be barefoot, if they did have boots they would be scruffy and have holes in them.

Costumes always look too new, as if they were put on for the first time that morning. To be realistic, there should be a few creases, and the fabric should be a little bit worn - unless it's a situation where the character would be wearing a brand new outfit.

Yes, I feel there is a trend to try and make historical films more "woke", if that is the correct word.

Many years ago, I read a comment that what attracted writers and audiences to historical films was that they gave a chance to put contemporary values into that setting. So we are really watching 20th (now 21st) century people interacting in the context.

If they were really portrayed in context, we'd turn off after a minute.

In 'East is East' the wallpaper is out of period. It's supposed to be set in 1971 but the house is papered with 1980s wallpaper (I know this because we had the same paper in a room at home and I remember when it was put up).

One that's always wound me up even more than Braveheart is U 571. Very loosely based on how a working Enigma machine was retrieved from a German U boat, which finally gave boffins a chance to understand how German encryption was being done. The only trouble is, the U boat was captured by HMS Bulldog and the boffins were the team at Bletchley Park. The movie shows the whole thing being done by the US Navy.

Don't get me started on Braveheart and the depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Teeth. When poor people are shown on screen, regardless if the time period, they nearly always have rotten teeth. Only sugar causes tooth decay and poor people wouldn't have been able to afford sugar especially prior to the slave trade.

Not inaccuracy as such, but I have never got over Daniel Craig playing Ted Hughes in Ted and Sylvia. He was just not big enough. TH was a huge man and DC just looked a bit....wimpy.

I just watched a The Crown episode and prince Philip refers to Princess Anne's 'showjumping career'. That irritated me beyond measure. She was a Three Day Eventer. Such a simple simple simple thing to get right.

Many years ago, I read a comment that what attracted writers and audiences to historical films was that they gave a chance to put contemporary values into that setting. So we are really watching 20th (now 21st) century people interacting in the context.

If they were really portrayed in context, we'd turn off after a minute.

That's interesting! I suppose Bridgerton took it to an extreme though!

@FudgeFlake

One that's always wound me up even more than Braveheart is U 571. Very loosely based on how a working Enigma machine was retrieved from a German U boat, which finally gave boffins a chance to understand how German encryption was being done. The only trouble is, the U boat was captured by HMS Bulldog and the boffins were the team at Bletchley Park. The movie shows the whole thing being done by the US Navy.

U 571 …….Plus one to your comments about that particularly horrifically mangled reinterpretation of history to suit a Hollywood audience..

TBH given the demands of producers and others involved in the money side of the industry I don’t think you can really expect any film set in the past to accurately portray historical fact.

Troy had added llamas as well as Brad Pitt.

Hollywood teeth in any film set before 1960.

‘I don’t think you can really expect any film set in the past to accurately portray historical fact’

Yet some films do do it well. The recent Emma was pretty good as was the recent David Copperfield irregardless of the blind casting (which was fab and how it should be done).

It’s not just historical inaccuracies that irritate, it’s the thoughtlessness. There was something I watched where the whole plot placed importance on a sycamore leaf when the bloody leaf they hold up doesn’t belong to a sycamore. How hard would it have been to get it right?

@FudgeFlake

One that's always wound me up even more than Braveheart is U 571. Very loosely based on how a working Enigma machine was retrieved from a German U boat, which finally gave boffins a chance to understand how German encryption was being done. The only trouble is, the U boat was captured by HMS Bulldog and the boffins were the team at Bletchley Park. The movie shows the whole thing being done by the US Navy.

Yes and the code had been cracked before the US joined the war, it's possible that was revealed to the US in order to get them in to the war.

Oh and women's hair, it's always waist length, hair doesn't always grow that long no matter how long you have been growing it.

Another thing (I was reminded by the 80s wallpaper) everyone's home is depicted as having everything from the last couple of years.

People can't and in the past certainly couldn't run out and buy the latest oven, table, wall paper etc. So a house in 1940 might have furniture from 20 years before.

The same with clothes, particularly older women's clothes. In the ladykillers Mrs Willberforce is dressed almost like an Edwardian, a common look for an older woman in the 1950s.

If it were remade today (I'm ignoring the US remake) I wonder if she would be wearing a swing dress with a full skirt?

Fotheringhay is near Oundle, I lived near there many moons ago. It looks nothing like the Highlands!
And I agree with all the other nonsense others have pointed out. People always look to clean for me.

@Thecatsbutler

Wallace wasn't poor, his wife's name was Marion not Murran.Kilts weren't worn in that time period. Primae Noctis was an urban myth. Painted faces weren't in fashion. Isabella of France was only 4years old. Robert Bruce never betrayed Wallace. Braveheart was actually Robert Bruce's nickname.

But apart from that......

@LadyJaye

Don't get me started on Braveheart and the depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Yes the clue is in the name - Battle of Stirling Bridge. Seems that the filmmakers forgot that fact when they filmed that scene. There really wasn't very much at all that was accurate about this film

Don't the Enigma films also tend to completely skim over the large amount of work smuggled out of Poland?

Dalgleish on C5, it's set in the early 1970s and someone referred to "a serial killer". That phrase did not exist until at least the 1990s.

@WinterFirTree

I just watched a The Crown episode and prince Philip refers to Princess Anne's 'showjumping career'. That irritated me beyond measure. She was a Three Day Eventer. Such a simple simple simple thing to get right.

YES. DH had to tell me to stop ranting in the end…

@dayswithaY

Dalgleish on C5, it's set in the early 1970s and someone referred to "a serial killer". That phrase did not exist until at least the 1990s.

It did, the earliest use is debated but it was certainly in use in the 1970s

fakehistoryhunter.net/2019/09/15/serial-killer-not-coined-by-fbi-in-1970s/