This is good.
[Quote] The items before the description are at the cite.
We all accept that movies stretch the truth in the interest of
building drama. The following ten flicks, however, treat the truth
like it was Silly Putty -- pulling and twisting it until it's
unrecognizable.
10,000 B.C.
Director Roland Emmerich is usually a stickler for realism (see:
sending a computer virus via Macintosh to aliens in Independence Day).
So we hate to inform him that woolly mammoths were not, in fact, used
to build pyramids. Heck, woolly mammoths weren't even found in the
desert. They wouldn't need to be woolly if that were the case. And
there weren't any pyramids in Egypt until 2,500 B.C or so.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
Gladiator
Emperor Commodus was not the sniveling sister-obsessed creep
****trayed in the movie. A violent alcoholic, sure, but not so whiny.
He ruled ably for over a decade rather than ineptly for a couple
months. He also didn't kill his father, Marcus Aurelius, who actually
died of chickenpox. And instead of being killed in the gladiatorial
arena, he was murdered in his bathtub.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
300
Though this paean to ancient moral codes and modern physical
training is based on the real Battle of Thermopylae, the film takes
many stylistic liberties. The most obvious one being Persian king
Xerxes was not an 8-foot-tall Cirque du Soleil reject. The Spartan
council was made up of men over the age of 60, with no one as young as
Theron (played by 37-year-old Dominic West). And the warriors of
Sparta went into battle wearing bronze armor, not just leather
Speedos.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
The Last Samurai
The Japanese in the late 19th century did hire foreign advisers
to modernize their army, but they were mostly French, not American.
Ken Watanabe's character was based on the real Saigo Takamori who
committed ritual suicide, or "seppuku," in defeat rather than in a
volley of Gatling gun fire. Also, it's doubtful that a 40-something
alcoholic Civil War vet, even one with great hair, would master the
chopsticks much less the samurai sword.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
Apocalypto
This one movie has given entire Anthropology departments
migraines. Sure the Maya did have the odd human sacrifice but not to
Kulkulkan, the Sun God, and only high-ranking captives taken in battle
were killed. The conquistadors arriving at the end of the film made
for unlikely saviors: an estimated 90% of indigenous American
population was killed by smallpox from their infected livestock.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
Memoirs of a Geisha
The geisha coming-of-age, called "mizuage," was really more of a
makeover, where she changed her hairstyle and clothes. It didn't
involve her getting... intimate with a client. In the climactic scene
where Sayuri wows Gion patrons with her dancing prowess, her routine -
which involves some platform shoes, fake snow, and a strobe light -
seems more like a Studio 54 drag show than anything in pre-war Kyoto.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
Braveheart
Let's forget the fact that kilts weren't worn in Scotland until
about 300 years after William Wallace's day and just do some simple
math. According to the movie, Wallace's blue-eyed charm at the Battle
of Falkirk was so overpowering, he seduced King Edward II's wife,
Isabella of France, and the result of their affair was Edward III. But
according to the history books, Isabella was three years old at the
time of Falkirk, and Edward III was born seven years after Wallace
died.
Movie Info | Production Photos
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
In 1585, when the movie takes place, Queen Elizabeth was 52
years old - Cate Blanchett was 36 when she shot the film - and was not
being courted by suitors like Ivan the Terrible (who was dead by
then). And though the movie has her rallying the troops at Tilbury
astride a white steed in full armor with a sword, in fact she rode
side saddle, carrying a baton. She was more of a regal majorette than
Joan of Arc.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
The Patriot
Revolutionary War figure Francis "The Swamp Fox" Marion was the
basis for Mel Gibson's character, but he wasn't the forward-thinking
family man they show in the flick. He was a slave owner who didn't get
married (to his cousin) until after the war was over. Historians also
say that he actively persecuted and murdered native Cherokees. Plus,
the thrilling Battle of Guilford Court House where he vanquishes his
British nemesis? In reality, the Americans lost that one.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
2001: A Space Odyssey
According to this film, in year 2001 we would have had manned
voyages to Jupiter, a battle of wits with a sentient computer, and a
quantum leap in human evolution. Instead we got the Mir Space Station
falling from the sky, Windows XP, and Freddy Got Fingered. Apparently
the lesson here is that sometimes it's better when the movies get the
facts all wrong.
Movie Info | Trailers & Clips | Production Photos
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