Movies based upon historical events

[devonin]

Originally Posted by PinoySkillz

I may be wrong, but I don't think they ever advertised the movie as being based on the Battle of Thermopylae. They advertised it as being based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, and to that they were very accurate.

Er...okay...so I guess fighting in the name of being pedantic, you're right, you win, The movie 300 is suddenly completely immune to my every criticism...now...if you just replace instances of "300" with "Frank Miller's graphic novel 300" we can continue our discussion?

Originally Posted by PinoySkillz

The point is, if they made 300 the way you wanted it, it wouldn't be as entertaining.

Why does everyone seem to think that I'm saying you are never allowed to make any movie ever that isn't 100% based on history? I'm a -huge- fan of science fiction and fantasy, which have proven repeatedly that you can make a movie on -purely- fictional premises and make a fantastic movie.

All I've said, the entire point of my argument was this: If you -are- going to make a movie based on history, don't trample all over that history in the name of making a few more bucks.

Invent your own warring countries, your own generals and your own battle, and you can have one side bust out lasers halfway through, and I'll support that completely.

I just object to someone taking historical events and butchering them when they don't need to. Most people have -no- idea who Leonidas was, so if you've no intention of portraying Leonidas accurately, why bother naming him Leonidas? Name him something else, and do the same with the other characters, settings, and so forth and suddenly you aren't inaccurately portraying a historical event, you're just presenting your own take on a possible situation that could have occured in the time period.

Speculative historical fiction is a wonderful genre, and I read/watch/etc it extensively. My sole objection is: If you're going to use historical events and characters, use them properly and accurately. If you don't want to do that, then don't use historical events and characters.