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?

Modern documentaries about filmed historical events using three actors with the wrong hair , face and uniform standing around looking pensive / worried / determined...recent documentary about the Bismarck nearly blew me gasket . Tons of perfectly evocative newsreel around, no need for a tubby unshaved actor trying to look all Royal Navy at war .

Modern documentaries about filmed historical events using three actors with the wrong hair , face and uniform....

Like the covers of novels set in WW2 showing young women in the uniform of a nurse or a WAAF or a Wren with their hair hanging loose on their shoulders. It would never have been allowed!

One thing I've noticed in a lot of the "re-enactments" used in modern "documentaries" is the astounding number of people - such as Cromwell - who we never realised were left-handed.

It's so prevalent (that is statistically significant) that I wonder if there is some production process that reverses the image (although posters and writing seem the right way round).

@ginandbearit

Modern documentaries about filmed historical events using three actors with the wrong hair , face and uniform standing around looking pensive / worried / determined...recent documentary about the Bismarck nearly blew me gasket . Tons of perfectly evocative newsreel around, no need for a tubby unshaved actor trying to look all Royal Navy at war .

Or a Lucy Worseley in a mob cap/stomacher /crinoline.

@politics4me

Going on from points raised upthread: The 'Softening' of characters from book to screen. I first noticed this in Cadfael. I realise he has turned to God but I doubt a mercenary soldier of that period would have become as cuddly as portrayed by Derek Jacobi.

I read the books, and no, he wasn't that soft and cuddly. Although it's clear he had mellowed from his mercenary days.

A drama about Guy Fawkes where he was pursued by guards...with Rottweilers. Rotties only came to England in the 1930s.

I read a book recently (admittedly a light romance type novel) set in WW2. All the husbands/boyfriends and fathers disappeared off to 'France' in 1939 not to return until 1945, a week after VE day. Meanwhile one of the female characters had a baby with a (black) US airman, and everyone just accepted
the baby including the fiance.

The baby bit was slightly unbelievable... but if you are setting a story in a well know historical era you would at least research basic facts about it? It was a sort of mash up of the two wars....

@TurquoiseDragon I don't think he'd have condoned the unmarried couple having sex in the church either! People would have trouble with the location today. Let alone in 1137!

I'm not so sure that Mary Queen of Scots would have spoken English with a French accent. She learned French from childhood, of course, but she also spoke Scots, which was also a first language. I don't think there is much in the historical record of how much Scots she retained, but if she did continue to speak it, she might have had a Scots lilt when she spoke English (although not to the extent of Samantha Morton's, I agree with that.)

@SenecaFallsRedux

I'm not so sure that Mary Queen of Scots would have spoken English with a French accent. She learned French from childhood, of course, but she also spoke Scots, which was also a first language. I don't think there is much in the historical record of how much Scots she retained, but if she did continue to speak it, she might have had a Scots lilt when she spoke English (although not to the extent of Samantha Morton's, I agree with that.)

Did she speak any Scots at all ?

It may be viscous propaganda, but my memory was she had a knack (that Charles I perfected to it's logical conclusion) of rubbing people up the wrong way in the name of Divine Right of Monarchs.

From what I've read Mary could speak French as her first language but always had Scottish tutors, so spoke Scots fluently but with a French accent. She could also speak Latin. Her English, however, was not good.

@SenecaFallsRedux

I'm not so sure that Mary Queen of Scots would have spoken English with a French accent. She learned French from childhood, of course, but she also spoke Scots, which was also a first language. I don't think there is much in the historical record of how much Scots she retained, but if she did continue to speak it, she might have had a Scots lilt when she spoke English (although not to the extent of Samantha Morton's, I agree with that.)

There would have been no cause for her to ever speak English/Scots during all her years at the French court. Infact, English wasn't typically the first language of choice even at the English court. Elizabeth I was famously quoted as saying she spoke several languages far more fluently than she spoke English.

The lack of hats is my pet peeve! (Never mind gloves...)

Mary Queen of Scots did speak Scots fluently. I was listening to In Our Time recently and this was discussed by the panel of historians. They said she did speak regularly and was encouraged to do so. She had four Scottish children with her and they all spoke it. They were all called Mary.

if you are setting a story in a well known historical era you would at least research basic facts about it?

If you're keen enough to be writing a novel set in the era, wouldn't you know the main facts before you even start? Dunkirk, the Fall of France and D-Day are fairly well known historical events....

Have to wonder what the publisher was thinking.

@DGRossetti

One thing I've noticed in a lot of the "re-enactments" used in modern "documentaries" is the astounding number of people - such as Cromwell - who we never realised were left-handed.

It's so prevalent (that is statistically significant) that I wonder if there is some production process that reverses the image (although posters and writing seem the right way round).

Are you watching on YouTube?

It's a way to get around copyright law (or an attempt to) something like a letter from one Tudor to another is not copyright so can be shown (I think I'm no expert) but the enactment is so they use a morror image.

Bloody hell I have YouTube on in the background and a doc has come on about the Romanov at the Ipatiev house.

The girls have just arrived, all with long flowing hair. They had their heads shaved when they had measles not long before.

Another horsey related on for me - hunting scenes which always seem to be set in mid summer with lush green grass and the trees in full leaf.

And the modern bits and bridles in period films. It's my small hill to die on

@Clun

Yes, Robin Hood. But a 1970’s version I seem to recall. One of his men climbed over a wall and presented the sole of a Dr Marten boot to the camera.

That was Ray Winstone in Robin of Sherwood. Remember it vividly

@SydneyCarton. Yes, I agree.