Published On: Mon, May 23rd,

Top 10 Historically Mistaken Movies

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A movie based on a true story is the most captivating thing for a viewer. Stories related to real events, places and people tend to supplement an additional element of charm to a film. Some directors consider that their imaginative license allows them to project far outside what could be sensibly termed as “historically true.” Viewers then continue to consider these historically mistaken films under the inappropriate supposition that these films are entirely accurate.
Characters are removed and added, romantic attractions are formed, and instants are fabricated or exaggerated completely. And sometimes even the dates are changed entirely. Despite of this trickery and bending of truth, most of these moves are broadly admired by fans; however they seldom ascertain to be very famous among historians.

1. JFK


Oliver Stone possesses a noticeable love for creating historical films. This thriller movie shows a New Orleans District Attorney who exposes that besides the official story there is lot more to the assassination of Kennedy. ‘JFK’ is considered one of the most historically erroneous movies. The opening of movie is a mixture of both recreated and archived footage, providing viewers the image that the film will move forward like a documentary style. It persuasively combines conspiracy and truth, building up the promotion of ‘JFK’ treacheries in the time since his murder.

The Case of Jim Garrison was used as a foundation of the conspiracy used in ‘JFK’, which was later exposed to be untrue in 1972. The movie shows main eyewitness Perry Russo easily delivering his testimony, but in real, he was intoxicated before the testimony. Another important scene which shows David Ferrie’s confession and breakdown, however that was just a fabrication of the director’s mind; Ferrie has always upheld his innocence. The movie implied that Kennedy’s White House successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, was a main motive behind the murder, however very little proof exists to back that claim.

2. J. Edgar


John Edgar Hoover was the founder and 1st director of FBI who was popular for often overstepping his Federal dominion. However the movie is amazingly made and performed in, it makes large diversion from the original tale. And it particularly misses harassment of artists, noticeable Hollywood figures, judges, and exaggerates some events out of proportion. The film depicts Edgar as a tortured visionary and gives a lower profile of wrong deeds he has done, justifying them as essential for the greater good.

3. Apocalypto


The Mayans in this movie were shown as fundamental savages but in reality, the Mayans were quite a peaceful people. Most of them rarely did any human sacrifice. If this ever happened, it was in contradiction of unfaithful elites, not common-folk. Moreover, the movie concludes with the advent of the Spaniards, which never happened in Mexico till almost 400 years subsequent to the collapse of Mayan.

4. Gladiator


In Gladiator, Russell Crowe performed as Maximus Decimus Meridius, an imaginary Roman General. He is deceived and falls to slavery from General, where he earns prevalent respect combating as a gladiator. When numerous historians were engaged to discuss the historical accuracy of the movie, ‘Gladiator’ was also ranked one of the most historically mistaken movies.
Some characters which were right around Maximus really exist in history, but the facts were blurred in the move. The film shows that the Roman Ruler Marcus Aurelius is murdered by his descendant Commodus, but according to history he expired of chickenpox. As far as Joaquin Phoenix’s creepy, incestuous and sniveling depiction of Commodus is concerned, history shows that he wasn’t like this; rather he used to be a well-liked emperor for more than 10 years. He was not killed in the arena; rather he was choked while bathing by his lover/wrestling partner Narcissus.

5. Marie Antoinette


Sofia Coppola’s spectacular representation of France leading to the French Revolution is a lovely film. The vitality of both costuming and color palette gave the movie an exclusive visual appearance; one that nearly helped camouflaged the historical precision.
Coppola’s visual appearance was one of the major issues in the movie. The colors, with which clothes were dyed, were unavailable in that era. You can even observe a pair of Converse shoes under a dress. The storytelling department showed the greatest liberties. In the film, Marie Antoinette shared bed with Louis-Auguste, which never happened in real. Her seduction spanned over a few months in the movie, while in real life, it was 7 years. The film lacks any sort of politics. It shows people don’t like the queen, but it does not tell the reason behind it. The whole movie is monotonously spent between eating, shopping, being fettered upon, and an intimate relationship with Count Axel Fersen — which is disputed according to history. All of these things make this movie one of the most historically mistaken movies.

6. 300


Based on olden times, this movie is one of the top historically mistaken movies. The combat is surely among the most one-sided struggles in documented history, but not on that scale which was portrayed in the movie. The 300 Spartans did not match their enemy and made a coalition with other Greek states, increasing their number to nearly 7,000. Their attire in the movie was composed of carved abs looking fabulous on camera — but they actually used to wear actual armor in the place of the adored loincloths shown in the movie.

The film also portrayed the Persian Empire wrongly. Xerxes definitely was not a bald, weird giant having a deep voice and a womanish appearance. The Persians was against slavery as of their Zoroastrian views. In reality, these were Spartans who owned the largest numbers of slaves in Greece. Another unusual thins is the Spartans mocking the Athenians for being “boy lovers,” while Spartans themselves were not away from their Pederasty.

7. Alexander

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This classic about Alexander’s world conquest has been experiencing the controversy from the time it was released, including a susceptible lawsuit against Warner Bros and Oliver Stone, for its inaccurate representation of history. The main criticism from historians is that the movie is a mere compression and reduction of Alexander life events, than being an accurate biography of his achievements. The filmmakers shorten numerous of his major life events into reduced ones. Most of his actions and achievements shown in the movie did in fact happen, though in different locations and times. For instance, 3 major fights, the Battle of Gaugamela, the Battle of Issus and the Battle of the Granicus, are all compounded into one.

8. The Patriot


This movie is more parallel to American patriot theme, principally in the biased depiction of the British Soldiers whose representation is evocative of Nazi’s in WWII. This characteristic is most predominant in the scene where children, women and elderly are burnt to death by the soldiers in a church. While Gibson’s role is a compassionate father in ‘The Patriot’, history says that the person, on whom Gibson’s character was grounded, Francis Marion aka The Swamp Fox, hunted Native Americans for fun and raped his slaves. He also had no children until after the war. The major erroneousness was depicted in the last fight of Guilford Court House, in which Martin conquests his opponent. In history, the Americans lost that battle.

9. Pearl Harbor


The movie, Pearl Harbor, shows fictional characters Rafe and Danny, who are posted in ‘Pearl Harbor’ at the time of attack, watching them flight into planes to shoot the enemy fighters down.
Historians are of the view that just a few Japanese units were ever shot down. On the other hand, the movie shows the death of more than 20. Fighter pilots were never sent to Tokyo in order to bomb targets. Moreover, Rafe was never allowed in the British squadron, because it was a defilement of neutrality. The final dramatization comes when it is exposed that Rafe is not just a master pilot, but well-trained in the antique art of Origami. In reality, Origami was only learned by overseas troops after the battle. All of these pale in contrast to the instant when President Roosevelt gets up from his wheelchair for delivering a dramatic speech.

10. Braveheart


The film exaggerates a lot, including a highly altered timeline, because real life characters’ ages simply do not line up. The film shows armies randomly ramming into the opponent as compared to actual strategic warfare. The renowned kilts which enable the Scottish to look prominent against their English rivals are also being worn around three hundred years too early. The main mistakenness is romantic interest by Wallace. In the movie, Wallace seduces Isabella of France, Wife of King Edward II, and the consequential child was Edward III. As far as the history books are concerned, Isabella was only 3 years at the battle of Falkirk. Moreover, Edward III was born some 7plus years after the death of Wallace.

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