Movies based upon historical events

Re: Movies based upon historical events

No.

Freedom of speech and whatnot; they can do really whatever they want to do, and so long as there's a hint of a relation they can still say "based on" whatever.

Take United 93. Part of it was very strictly adhering to what happened, while the other part was pure conjecture. It was still based on the historical event.

--Guido

Re: Movies based upon historical events

it's not a freedom of speech issue to me, you can make any movie you want about anything you want, and I'm in support of that, but if you're going to make a movie -about- X, it just seems to me that you should really make an effort to actually make your movie -be- about X

Re: Movies based upon historical events

The Amityville Horror was based on a true story.

So was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Notice: both stories were 1000% sensationalized and every aspect of the true story was changed for the films.

To be blunt, "based on" means jack crap. Obviously there are certain movies which may be entirely historical, but for every one which is entirely faithful, you get 50,000 others like Titanic or World Trade Center.

ps wasn't the film 300 actually based on a graphic novel or something? Seems like your disappointment at lack of historical accuracy should be directed at the artist of that comic.

Re: Movies based upon historical events

whatever makes money works

im not saying all directors are like that, but if you can take an event and slightly change it to put in action and ****, and that is what will sell, then that's what you might do

directors also have the leeway to say what THEY think happened, and how they interpret it. again, freedom of speech

Re: Movies based upon historical events

I'm not sure why people keep mentioning freedom of speech like I was somehow trying to say that they are -forbidden- to make a movie based on historical events.

All I've been saying is "You can make a movie about that stuff ANYWAY without claiming it was a rendition of specific evenst, so why claim it's a rendition of specific events if you can't be bothered to get even -some- of it historically accurate?"

Re: Movies based upon historical events

Well, you said "obliged", and my first thought was that you insinuated "required", which indeed WOULD make it a free speech issue. Now that I think about it, though it reads more like a professional obligation.

But anyway, what does "based on" mean? Hell, any movie that features a few standing against many could legitimately be "based on" the battle of Thermopylae. Surely you wouldn't require every single movie with that theme to be historically correct.

O Brother, Where Art Thou was based on a Shakespearean play (The Tempest?), but didn't claim it outright to my knowledge.

Pretty much every movie can claim to be "based on" something in the past, probably historical. There shouldn't be any obligation to make the movie historical, though.

--Guido

Re: Movies based upon historical events

O Brother Where Art Thou was based on Homer's Odyssey, and didn't directly claim it, but was obviously intended to be seen as such. (And also was a fantastic movie) But was additionally a fictional work based on a fictional work that was probably intended as a fantastical myth version of something that probably happened.

And I see the point about how easy it is to say something is "based on" something else, but I'm not saying that every story archetype has to be expressed by a faithful reproduction of a historical event in that archetype, I just mean "If you're going to -say- it is X, then you have a professional obligation to actually be true to X"

No, I'd require every single movie claiming to be about that specific battle to be historically correct. If it has a similar theme but isn't claiming to be that historical battle, it isn't under an obligation to be correct to that specific historical battle.

Re: Movies based upon historical events

My bad. I know there was some movie recently made that was based on a Shakespearean play, though... (Not Romeo and Juliet).

That's ridiculous, though! "Based on" NEVER has implied factual, historical accuracy, movie or no. Movies are works of fiction, not documentaries. Saying that it's "based on" some event is really just telling everyone that the creator didn't make that stuff up; he knows that it's not 100% original.

--Guido

Re: Movies based upon historical events

It really just boils down to my dissatisfaction as a historian with the way that people slap "based on such-and-such" or in the case of something like 300, seem to blatantly say "This movie is of the battle of Thermopylae" onto all sorts of things, then don't even make the most basic attempts to make their movie historically accurate.

I mean, I'm not here to quibble about how they used sturrups on the horses in gladiator, when they didn't use stirrups there at that time, or other tiny little details like that, it's when they just seem to completely ignore the entire historical record outright because it's not "hollywood" enough.

I just think its irresponsable to directly reference historical events, and then portray them in a wildly inaccurate way. It has lead to a very wide-spread ignorance of what many world historical times and places were actually like, because the population at large only gets their education in history from things like movies and television telling them "this is how it was."

Re: Movies based upon historical events

Film makers should NOT be obliged to be 100% historically accurate. Movies are meant to entertain, not educate. If the director wants to add something to the movie (ie. a 7ft. monster) to increase the entertainment value at the cost of historical accuracy, then so be it.

If you want to learn about a historical event then watch a documentary on the History channel or read about it in a text book.

Re: Movies based upon historical events

Agreed. If you have ever researched the true Battle of Thermopylae (I had to in 10th grade for World History 2) there are so many things left out in "300," it would make a historian's head spin. However, that's not the point. It's all about entertaining the audience. If the director of "300" made this movie historically accurate, not only would the movie be incredibly boring, it would be a giant waste of money to make. It was aimed at red-blooded young men and that's just what they got in return: a box-office success.

Re: Movies based upon historical events

Your 300 analogy fails anyway because, like Afro said, the movie 300 was based on a graphic novel. It was VERY true to that on which it was based, so you should be applauding it!

So, do you think graphic novels should now be historically accurate?

--Guido

Re: Movies based upon historical events

You know Guido, I bet Sin City was based on the organized crime periods of the 1920's and 1930's too. =P

/sarcasm

Re: Movies based upon historical events

Sure are, which is fine, and I have no problem with that. But don't tell me you're entertaining me with a movie about X, and then have your movie completely ignore the history of X. You can make a movie about a small army in ancient times holding off superior numbers, and not make it the greeks and persians and that battle of that war. Heck, use your own alternate world where there are dinosaurs if you want to add a dinosaur to the battle, go nuts, that's the joy of fiction.

I just feel that if you're going to apply the label of being based on non-fiction, you owe it to the history you intend to profit from to at least -try- to represent that history accurately. Don't want to? Then don't apply the label of basing it on non-fiction.

I find it hard to believe that you could both do a proper job researching that battle -and- find that battle to be incredibly boring.

I'm a little distressed how suddenly there was a cavalcade of more hostile posting. I extend my belief to more media than just film certainly. I'm not inconsistant in my opinions about things. If in any medium you intend to state that you are representing historical events, I feel that you should therefore make an effort to portray those events properly.

There are plenty of ways to make an "Ancient World" era war movie that don't require picking an existing set of peoples, battles and conflicts to make a useful plot.