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Post by waynewitt on Apr 21, 2008 12:16:16 GMT -4
Flags of our Fathers as well as Letters From Iwo Jima.
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Post by The Third Man on Apr 21, 2008 13:38:55 GMT -4
World War 2Lawrence of Arabia That has to be the most inaccurate World War II film ever made. Almost everything in it actually happened during WW I
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Bob B.
Bob the Excel Guru?
Posts: 3,072
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Post by Bob B. on Apr 21, 2008 16:21:44 GMT -4
I had a hard time singling out my favorites so I just made a list of historical movies I thought were pretty good. I split them into two groups. The first group attempts to tell the story of real people and/or events, although with considerable artistic license in some cases. The second group is based on real events or set within an historical context, but includes fictional stories and/or characters.
(Non-Fiction) Braveheart Amadeus The Bounty Gettysburg Glory Tombstone Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Bonnie and Clyde The Elephant Man Yankee Doodle Dandy The Lost Battalion Tora! Tora! Tora! Midway Patton Enemy at the Gates Band of Brothers (mini-series) Fat Man and Little Boy Nuremberg K-19 Thirteen Days Good Morning Vietnam The Right Stuff The Dish Apollo 13 From the Earth to the Moon (mini series) Awakenings All The President’s Men A Beautiful Mind Cinderella Man Raging Bull Brian’s Song We Are Marshall
(Fiction) Master and Commander Dances with Wolves The Last Samurai Das Boot The Bridge on the River Kwai Saving Private Ryan Apocalypse Now Platoon League of Their Own Hoosiers
Regarding my least favorite movies, two stick out in my mind: Titanic and Pearl Harbor. Despite the promos making them look like history movies, they were nothing but crappy love stories. There was a sprinkling of good scenes in both, but for most of the 3+ hours I was bored out of my mind.
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Post by Ginnie on Apr 21, 2008 17:29:43 GMT -4
I guess I might raise the question "what is meant by 'historical' here?" Does it mean something supposedly based on true events, like Lawrence of Arabia or just set in a historical period, like Master and Commander with a fictional story? Whatever is fun, Jason. Although 'Back to the Future' seems a stretch. My interpretation of 'historical' would be movies that are mainly based on real people and real events. Thus I wouldn't include 'The Godfather' but would include 'Serpico'. But I guess if you have a film based in 12th century England that is mainly fictional, it would be hard not to include it. But in the end it doesn't matter as long as we get some enjoyment out of this thread. ;D Maybe I should have said 'non-fictional' instead - that's closer to what I was thinking. T.E. Lawrence died in 1935 BTW. The events in the film occured in 1917-18, The ramifications of his actions continue to this day, but blame the British and French for that.
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Post by gillianren on Apr 21, 2008 18:33:29 GMT -4
Okay, now that I have time . . . .
Oh, so many movies! There are many--The Lion in Winter, the O'Toole-Hepburn version--that are amazing movies but dreadful histories. There are others--The Devils, which I saw last week--that are dreadful at both. There are probably some that are dreadful movies with amazing history, but it's harder to pull that off.
And then there's Glory, one of the best histories ever shown on film. They had to leave things out that seemed too over the top.
A brief list, including some from three of the four postulated categories.
Amistad Glory Schindler's List Eight Men Out, one of the only sports movies I like Good Night, and Good Luck (with that over-the-top guy playing McCarthy!) Bloody Sunday The Killing Fields The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Downfall The Assassination of Richard Nixon Amen. And the Band Played On (made for HBO but worth checking out) Citizen Cohn (ditto) Queen Christina (ah, Garbo!) The Great Escape (definitely amazing movie/lousy history) All the President's Men
And so forth. I could keep going; we all know how many movies I watch. But this starts to give you an idea. Pretty much all of these got either a 9 or a 10 in my journal.
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Post by Ginnie on Apr 21, 2008 19:33:35 GMT -4
Might need a few more clues than that, old bean Hey, is that alluding to my upcoming fiftieth birthday in a few weeks?
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Post by PhantomWolf on Apr 21, 2008 20:21:18 GMT -4
If you want a good acted, thought provoking, and well done recent history movie, I highly recommend Charlie Wilson's War. I would also note this is not a film that you can curl up and watch with your s.o. but it is one that will make you think, much along the lines of Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Be warned though, it does contain nudity, drug use (both for only the first few minutes), graphic violence, and real news footage of soviet vehicles being blown up in a non-survivable manner for those onboard.
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Bob B.
Bob the Excel Guru?
Posts: 3,072
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Post by Bob B. on Apr 21, 2008 21:50:24 GMT -4
Hey, is that alluding to my upcoming fiftieth birthday in a few weeks? Jeez, we're almost the same age; you're two weeks older than me.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Apr 21, 2008 22:25:46 GMT -4
Oh, I forgot I have Glory too. That's a good historical piece.
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Post by gillianren on Apr 21, 2008 22:46:29 GMT -4
PW, I couldn't curl up with half the movies I named and watch them with my SO; he claims not to like dramas, so it's like pulling teeth to get him to watch a lot of good movies. He did take me to see The Forbidden Kingdom this weekend, though, so that's, um, better than the time he took me to The Medallion.
I think, in retrospect, that I am blocking the bad ones. It's my whole thing about turning them off, I suppose. But what do you do?
Another couple of good ones with questionable history--Ghosts of Mississippi and Mississippi Burning, both of which I saw in the same college class. When the real Myrlie Evers saw James Woods in the Byron De La Beckwith makeup, she had to leave, because the makeup was so good. There's an approval for Ghosts of Mississippi, even if other parts aren't as accurate.
I will add that I have three historical fantasies, which I do enjoy but don't consider worthwhile histories--Ever After, A Knight's Tale, and Shakespeare in Love. All three are decent movies, but their history is awful. Truly, truly awful--but they're scarecely even trying.
Oh! An obscure entry--Dangerous Beauty. The Venetian Renaissance is not my primary era of focus, but I understand it's pretty decent, historically, and it is a gorgeous piece of film.
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Post by Kiwi on Apr 22, 2008 0:21:34 GMT -4
World War 2Lawrence of Arabia That has to be the most inaccurate World War II film ever made. Almost everything in it actually happened during WW I Oops! Corrected. That's what can happen when you post after midnight.
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Post by Ginnie on Apr 22, 2008 20:01:48 GMT -4
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Post by gillianren on Apr 23, 2008 0:20:55 GMT -4
I picked up Citizen Kane today, which might be termed as a biographical fantasy.
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Post by George Tirebiter on Apr 25, 2008 0:44:46 GMT -4
Gervais and Merchant also did a hilarious series of podcasts (available on iTunes and Audible), although the real star of the podcasts turned out to be producer Karl Pilkington. He's either a comedic genius who excels at playing the "funny idiot" or an actual idiot who's created some of the best unintentional comedy ever. His vacation diary from season 1 is pure comedic gold. Back to the OT, one historical film I'd like to see is a biopic on the painter Caravaggio. When I saw the Caravaggio episode of Simon Schama's Power of Art I kept thinking, "How is it that nobody's made a movie of this yet?"
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Post by Grand Lunar on Apr 26, 2008 7:06:25 GMT -4
I have a couple of faves:
A Night to Remember still stands out with me as the best film made on the sinking of the Titanic. True, we don't see the ship break in two. What makes it stand out to me is the depiction of characters and events.
Ghosts of the Abyss comes next, though this is more of a documentry, not a historical film.
Not sure what is the worst I've seen, as I haven't seen many historical movies.
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