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Hollywood has alway used poetic license, bending the truth to give the audience a feel good factor is now coming under the spotlight. Whist they are great films, fact should be fact in such cases. What do you think??

War films that bend the truth

Matt

 If you want reality then watch the newsreels. If you want drama, then watch the movies. It's a choice! At least it it is while we still have choice, which may not be very long at all.

 I think some groups and/or individuals are stretching out a bit too much just to find things to b*tch about. Seriously, it gets to be rather annoying at some point.

Bending the truth is an understatement. Hollywood is in the business of making money & I don't mind what they do providing it's made clear that it's entertainment & not presented as history. Unfortunately if the film is successful most people come to accept the Hollywood version as fact.

I'm using Hollywood as a general term for the film industry as a whole as they're all guilty of this practice. Some famous British war films have influenced the general public's ideas on recent history. As history is no longer taught in schools it has become accepted as the truth.

There is a glaring error in that Telegraph article which serves to illustrate my point.

U-571 (2000)

Story of how American submariners stole the Enigma code machine from a German U-boat. Fine, except in real life the submariners were British.

The only submariners were German. The film U-571 is based on 3 separate incidents involving 3 different U-Boats. One incident involved the US Navy.
May 1941. U-110 was boarded by crew from the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Bulldog. They recovered an example of the German Navy Enigma machine intact.
October 1942. U-559 was forced to the surface by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Petard. The vital Enigma codebooks were salvaged before it eventually sank taking Lt. Tony Fasson & Able Seaman Colin Grazier with it.
June 1944. U-505 was captured by the US Navy destroyer USS Pilsbury & towed into port where a new type of Enigma machine was recovered.

True story here. http://www.lawbuzz.com/tyranny/u571/u571_ch1.htm

I find the typical TV documentaries far more objectionable as they are generally heavily biased views of history presented as fact.

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U-571 IMO is the worst example. IIRC they were forced to put a mention of the "true" story in the end credits - which also, IIRC is when 95% of cinema goers have already left the cinema. I have not, and never will watch this film purely out of principle.

Pearl Harbo(u)r was just a bit of a joke really. Can't really call it a war film - it was a story set around the backdrop of two men who appear to win the war single handedly whilst battling over the Kate Beckinsale, fighting the BoB from a stately home, defending PH by themselves etc etc. Which is a shame. Thankfully 30 years earlier someone made Tora Tora Tora.

Saving Pte R I have no issues with as such - it told a semi-ficticious story very well, withing the setting of D-Day, which brought the event well into the public eye. The only sad thing was the completely unecessary slating of Gen Montgomery by the Ted Danson character. The scriptwriters obviously weren't brave enough to have his character slate someone such as Bradley or Patton, which in my experience would probably be a lot more likely.

U-571 IMO is the worst example. IIRC they were forced to put a mention of the "true" story in the end credits - which also, IIRC is when 95% of cinema goers have already left the cinema. I have not, and never will watch this film purely out of principle.

I've never watched it either & it's not fair to critcise something you haven't seen. IMHO

Perhaps it would have been more fitting if they'd named the film U-505. The true story of the capture of U-505 is epic enough to stand on its own. http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/

U-571 IMO is the worst example. IIRC they were forced to put a mention of the "true" story in the end credits - which also, IIRC is when 95% of cinema goers have already left the cinema. I have not, and never will watch this film purely out of principle.

I've never watched it either & it's not fair to critcise something you haven't seen. IMHO

I'm not criticising the "quality" of the film, just the principle (or lack of)
in its production.

American films stretching it for an American market. More appealing for them to go see a film about Americans stealing the enigma code machine than the truth.

It's all about money. It's just quite sad that people can end up believing what they see. I wonder how many people who have seen that film actually think the Americans did it.

And when the film does put the truth in the credits, everyone has left. So it's a bit pointless really...

Of course these films have some inaccuracies. If it was fully accurate than no one would be so interested. Saving Private Ryan wasn't just about who fought where but how they fought and the brotherhood of soldiers.

i don't know but if you want a really historical accurate movie/series you should check out Band of Brothers.

Enemy at the gates was twisted from real life, but it was still a kick ass movie. The confrontation between Vassili and the Major guy was real but went down differently then in the movie.

Pearl Harbo(u)r was just a bit of a joke really. Can't really call it a war film - it was a story set around the backdrop of two men who appear to win the war single handedly whilst battling over the Kate Beckinsale.

Kate Beckinsale wasn't even born until 1973, so she couldn't have been at Pearl Harbor.

Also, in 'Saving Private Ryan', I assume that at the start of the film, we are seeing Pte Ryan as an old man, visiting the American cemetery at Omaha Beach? The story is then recalled by him yes? So how could he have recalled the events that happened to the Company of soldiers sent to find him? - he didn't meet them until the end of the film.

Pedant...

Saving Private Ryan wasn't just about who fought where but how they fought and the brotherhood of soldiers.

SPR isn't an offender in this case (other than the pointless jibe from the scriptwriter mentioned earlier). As Steven Spielberg has a knack of doing, he made an excellent semi-ficticious film based around the stories of several real events.

I'm trying to follow Ross kemp in afghanistan on Discovery Channel... Some amazing footage in it....

I'm trying to follow Ross kemp in afghanistan on Discovery Channel... Some amazing footage in it....

I've never been a Ross Kemp fan, but that is an excellent, if humbling, programme.

I'm trying to follow Ross kemp in afghanistan on Discovery Channel... Some amazing footage in it....

I've never been a Ross Kemp fan, but that is an excellent, if humbling, programme.

I like the way it shows that modern wars aren't clean video games...

I also now know why Esselback loves the 50cal  :)