Sometimes the real history is so absurd that they have to tone down a bit. In Hacksaw Ridge, after being hurt, Doss is carried off battle, in real life, he helped to rescue others soldiers for 3 hours before being rescue, even with shards on his legs.
I think this ended up being the case for To Hell and Back, starring Audie Murphy as himself, as well (though there were also more prohibitions on what you close back in the 1950s, too)
That is my favorite example. I also enjoyed the least poorly known fun fact--that _Death of Stalin_ had to show only a fraction of Zhukov's medals, already extremely numerous in the film, to avoid looking overly comical and distracting. Hardly a good example of a historically accurate movie but one everyone has a lot of fun with anyway.
I think that's also important. Period accuracy matters, and I think it's also something that shines through adaptations of period novels, like Barry Lyndon (or Pride and Prejudice, etc.)
I saw Das Boot a couple months ago and one thing about it was that despite being 3 and half hours long, for me, it felt like half the time. Every scene was gripping and I was so invested in their lives and wondered if they could manage to survive their journey in the boat. I think this should remind filmmakers that you can tell a great story without having to greatly dramatize the story. I never could expected to be this engaged with 100+ on a claustrophobic boat, but I was because the story it told was enough to interest me and make me just as anxious as the crew was during certain moments in the film.
This is an interesting point, and one I re-recognized this past Saturday, when I saw Seven Samurai in theaters. It's a 3.5 hour long movie, but it passes by fast. It's so well paced, and you're so invested in the story, it feels like no time has passed at all. Same with LOTR for me.
The original long version is the best. Had to look for it on the internet as a DVD. It does not seem long at all and really fills in the gaps cut out for the theatrical version.
@@wolf310ii You are aware that this was also based on a true event? I forgot the number of the U-boat, but it was bombed and went to the bottom of the sea at that point, to about the depth as depicted in the movie. This event led to removing the removal of the maximum diving depths of 80 meters for the VII series and was basically replaced by an "as you see fit".
One glaring inaccuracy in Tora! Tora! Tora! is when a group of Japanese planes begin their descent towards Wheeler Field. As they fly through Kolekole Pass, they zoom past a huge white cross. The problem is that the cross was erected decades later to honor those who died in the attack.
That was also the case for the Museum of American History. These are the difficulties that I, personally, find it difficult to criticize, especially for a movie like Tora! Tora! Tora!, if only because if they had access to the necessary compute power, they probably would've gotten rid of it. But when the lay of the land itself conspires against you...
@@Syntopikon I wasn't trying to criticize Tora! Tora! Tora! I thought it was great, especially since I lived in Hawaii (Schofield Barracks) at the time they were filming. My junior high school, Wheeler AFBJHS, had an actual P-40 Warhawk at the entrance to the campus and the producers for TTT borrowed it to use as an "extra" in the attack sequences.
Of course - and I didn't take it as criticism. Apologies, as I wasn't as clear as I should've been. I was more expounding on how I view what I perceive to be important and how I figure they would've approached the situation if the technology was advance enough. That's a pretty cool story! It must've been an interesting experience growing up there, at that time.
I have always liked this movie, in spite of the historical quibbles. The scenes in D.C. where everyone is trying to figure out what's going on really make the movie. Way, way better than that chick movie called "Pearl Harbor"
When it comes to moments like this, the decisions and politicking end up being the most important and interesting aspects (for me). It's also why I quite enjoy Lincoln. It's mostly a talking movie, very little action.
I love "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and I'm glad to see it getting attention. And I'd never heard of "Fires on the Plain"; thank you so much for helping this film find a wider audience.
Great movie, unlike the Michael Bay 2001 atrocity. Can’t fault the film-makers for not having authentic WWII Japanese carriers; these were on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by the end of the war. Of the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, four were sunk at the Battle of Midway, the Shokaku sunk at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Zuikaku at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Yup. They tried to get as close as they could, which is admirable in its own right. I'm sure if they had the budget or technology, they would've inched even closer, but they'd hit the point of diminishing returns soon enough.
Waterloo (1970) is widely considered to be VERY accurate to the Hundred Days and it's final battle scene involved thousands of Red Army soldiers acting as extras.
Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World is actually pretty damn close to the source material. The missunderstanding comes from thinking that the Film is based sole off of the Novel Master And Commander, the first book in the Aubrey/Maturin novels... The film was infact based off of the First novel AND the 10th, more so the 10th than the 1st. The 10th novel being called The Far Side Of The World.
I understand why they used the title, but of course Jack Aubrey was not Master and Commander but full Post Captain by the time of Far Side of the World.
Its also a missunderstanding thinking the movie was based on the 1st and 10th book. From the 10th book its mainly only the titel and the order to chase an enemy frigatte to protect the british whalers in the pacific. In the book there isnt even a sea battle, but a land battle between the stranded crew of the enemy ship, that sunk during a storm, and Aubreys crew, while the HMS Surprise was chasing a ship "off screen". It wasnt close to the source material, they picked events from serval books of the series and mixed them together
@@ryann6067 Ignore that guy. He's a Wehraboo; Someone so obsessed with the Wehrmacht that he himself has become an Izan and full of pro-Izan conspiracies and brainrot. The "[Leader] didn't die in the Bunker" is one such conspiracy that they're obsessed with.
Personal favourite of mine will always be the 1969 movie Battle of Britain, just for its ability to fit so many real planes into one shot and produce some of the best aerial combat sequences in film history. Some of the characters in the film are heavily fictionalised while others are real, but they all represent different perspectives of the battle, from veterans of the Battle of France to the WAAF servicewomen to Polish pilots
The Death of Stalin is another movie that's pretty accurate to the history it depicts. The "worst" it tends to do is it shortens the longer spans of time between events for a better flow of events. Most of the comedy comes from the absurdity of the fact that the way people are depicted in the movie was how they were in real life. The way people had to live just to not end up on Stalin's hit-list is absurd to the point of comedy.
I think the time dilation (for lack of a better word) is just a function of the medium (and it would be the case for TV, too). The latter part of your comment captures what the director said quite well: "I'm not saying it's a documentary. It is a fiction, but it's a fiction inspired by the truth of what it must have felt like at the time. My aim is for the audience to feel the sort of low-level anxiety that people must have [experienced] when they just went about their daily lives at the time." When it comes to history movies, I think conveying the feeling of the time is as important, if not more important, than the full measure of the event. The event, by itself, is just that - a thing. But I think it's the experiences of the people involved that we cling to, and that are most interesting. I was listening to Dan Carlin's Wrath of the Khan's podcast recently, and Paul MM Cooper's Fall of Civilizations podcast about the rise and fall of the Mongolian Empire, and it's the impact that the Mongol's had on the various civilizations that I find the most impactful (the conquest themselves are awe inspiring at a gloss, terrifying when considered in totality).
@@Syntopikon I unfortunately have to inform you that Dan Carlin's history podcasts are notorious for favoring an intriguing narrative over sticking to historical facts. Historians have near universally panned it. Carlin is not a historian, ignores the scientific consensus and gets dozens of smaller and larger facts wrong with each episode. It's absolutely painful to listen to if you know anything about the topics he talks about.
Pretty sure the real life Beria would've preferred the quick 'trial' and execution he got in the movie over the full dose of his own medicine he got in reality.
It had the misfortune of competing against Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. If it had come out a year or two earlier or later, things likely would have been different.
The men's hairstyles in "Apollo 13" are an abomination though. It's a movie that gets so much right, but every time we look at the three lead actors, it's immediately apparent that we're watching a movie made in the 1990s.
another historically accurate film that doesn't get much talk these days is Hamburger Hill. Like Fires on the Plain, it does not try to glorify war in any way but shows it as it is and the difficulty of living in a war zone. It was and still is overshadowed by Full Metal Jacket but I think Hamburger Hill is a superior war film in every way to FMJ.
back in the 90's I found an audio file of the actual transmission from Apollo 13 - imagine my shock when I heard him say " Houston, we've HAD a problem ". I realized that what might be the most famous quote in history is actually a misquote.
The 1953 film ‘The Cruel Sea’ is a counterpoint to ‘Das Boot’ It is written by a WW2 Royal Naval Reserve officer Nicholas Monsarrat who served on Corvettes during the Battle of the Atlantic
A masterpiece I would put in this category would be the 1959 film 'The Cruel Sea' that depicts the crew of a convoy escort ship in both the Battle of The Atlantic and the Arctic Convoys. Jack Hawkins is sublime in the role of the captain that is forced to make a brutal decision that tears him apart. Rare role for Donald Sinden and supporting cast of Denholm Elliot, Virginia Mckenna and an early role for Stanley Baker all on top form make this an absolute must see
COmpletely agree. A brutal war where the enemy is invisable until the very end and then they look no different than other seaman pulled from a sunken ship.
The film is actually toned down from the novel, which is even more bleak and ghastly. It was all filmed aboard a real Flower-class corvette, HMS Coreopsis, which during the filming was commanded by Captain Jack Broome, who in 1942 commanded the close escort to PQ17.
Das Boot brings up a point. Depth charges. In any WWII submarine movie, you can count 30-50 depth charges going off in the immediate vicinity of the sub. Way too many, way too near. Early on, destroyers carried as few as a couple dozen, while later in the war, they might carry several dozen. These would have to last through their entire mission or war patrol, so an attack on a sub would be only a few DCs, with extended prosecution dropping a few dozen only if you had multiple destroyers involved. And if they were all going off that close, the sub would be headed to the basement after the first 3 or 4. Most DCs were lucky to be dropped within a couple hundred yards of the sub and might be off by a mile.
All very true. In the Fall 1941 period of U-96's seventh war patrol (covered by the book and film) the three escorts that U-96 encountered were all British (although two of them were converted ex-USCG cutters they had been refitted with British ASW gear). The standard Commonwealth depth charge patterns that these ships could utilise were (1) a five-charge pattern, normally set to explode at a single pre-set depth from fixed options (e.g., 100 ft), consisting of three charges dropped from the stern racks about 120 ft apart, plus one charge fired about 120 ft to each side, forming a diamond-shaped pattern,; and (2) a ten-charge pattern that was essentially a "double-five" pattern pre-set to explode at two depths from fixed options (e.g., five standard charges at 100 ft and five "heavy" charges at 235 ft), an arrangement made possible by the faster sinking rate (17 ft/sec vice 10 ft/sec) of the "heavy" charge - which was simply a standard charge with a 150-lb weight added to one end, not a larger charge. It is pretty obvious that even if the pattern was extraordinarily well-placed (at the correct depth, in exactly right position), at most a 220-ft Type VII submarine like U-96 could only ever be (relatively) close to two charges in any pattern. Of course, the idea behind the depth charge pattern was to create a set of pressure waves to damage the submarine, since actually placing a charge close enough to crack the pressure hull (perhaps 20 ft) was a matter of pure luck and highly improbable. The visuals in "Das Boot", as I recollect, suggest multiple depth charge explosions extremely close to the boat. That part was certainly not historically accurate!
I think that's one of the things to consider - is it more important to capture history as it is, or history as it might've felt? I think different movies serve different purposes, but there are strong cases to be made for both.
... the Americas* - plural, no apostrophe. And Apocalypto not only was fiction but got historical facts completely wrong. The Maya vanished in the 9th or 10th Century, but in the final scene we see the first Spanish ships arrive which did not take place until 500 to 600 years later.
One more recommendation here: go and watch Ridley Scott's "The Duellists". Often overlooked, but a brilliant timepiece, masterfully executed on a minimal budget and with a perfect cast.
A Bridge Too Far is my personal favorite. Other than tanks being “modern” ones because there arent really any running tigers then or now, its very good. I especially like the jump scene, we will never see another like it again.
It's a great movie - the last of the pre-CGI films of epic proportions which could never be made today due to production cost. It does, however, contain some significant historical inaccuracies - the portrayal of German Field Marshall Model as an incompetent egoist who dismisses the captured Allied plans as fake for example. In fact Model was an extremely competent and capable general, and in the actual battle he recognized the plans as authentic and used them to ambush Allied airdrops and plan counterattacks.
My main gripe is that they tried to disguise the leopards as panthers, but it was such a half-assed job they might as well have just done what Patton and other films of the time did and not tried to disguise the tanks at all.
You will be glad to hear that there are now 2 fully restored and running Tigers, one at the Tank Museum at Bovington, UK, and one at the Musee des Blindes, France. Musee des Blindes also has a running King Tiger. But yes, when a Bridge Too Far was made none of these was restored or running.
I think Tora! Tora! Tora! did a great job capturing the internal politics and complacency on both sides. It accurate shows Yamamoto's comment about dictating a peace treaty with US would only happen if Japan conquered the US. Something he knew couldn't happen. Many Americans at that time didn't know he was actually criticizing Tojo by pointing out the US was not a pushover but would fit hard.
That's one of the more interesting parts about it, I think. One common criticism was that it covered the boring part of politics, but I find that in history, the talks leading up to decisions are as interesting as the decisions, and their consequences.
@@Syntopikon Oddly, I think the fact it covered the politics is of the movie's greatest strengths. It gave a very subtle tension and drama to the movie that many missed.
@@washingtonradio I agree. You could feel the tension rising as the film progressed, almost as in a suspense novel, which to me made the known outcome that much more understandable and authentic.
I would nominate The Battle of the River Plate film 1956. It's historically pretty faithful to the events and works as a drama. HMS Achilles had survived the war and plays itself in the film. The Admiral Graf Spee is played by the USS Salem which is a similar sized cruiser with three turrets instead of two on the real Graf Spee. The extra turret was explained away as a dummy to fool the allies, something the Graf Spee might believably have done.
For Das Boot the pronunciation of Boot is like the English word Boat (NOT pronounced like the foot ware "boot") but using a shorter and less emphasized "oh" sound than English "boat pronunciation", and Das with an "ah" sound so it would be said like Dahhs Bohht. I also disagree about Das Boot being a Hollywood action flick, it humanized the enemy and has a clear message of the incredible waste of war both its cost in material and cost in human loves.
@@johnschuh8616 As a vet I cannot agree more. Whether conscripted or drafted they did not get to choose the war their leaders engaged them in. If they fought with honor and operated by the laws of war and international conventions they deserve recognition for their service. When the Red Baron was shot down the Allies gave him a burial with full military honors out of respect for his service even though they were thrilled he had been cancelled.
... footwear* (because you wear it on you foot). And Das Boot was filmed entirely in Germany with all German staff and actors, meaning nothing "Hollywood" about it.
Without doubt 'The Cruel Sea' is much the best and reaiistic war movie based on a book by the same nane writtin by an officer who fought in the Atlantic
I would add 'Paths of Glory' to this list, in which Kirk Douglas plays a French officer in World War one, charged with defending three soldiers randomly selected from their regiment to be executed for cowardice following their unit's retreat. I believe the film was actually banned in France until the 1980's.
Two pointers on pronunciation. Boatswain is spoken as bos'un, rhyming with frozen. In German boot sounds very much closer to boat. This is a good selection of historically accurate films. More of course could be included. 😉 Esoecially if the criteria range farther than principally fidelity to events and personalities, to include a more general adherence to environmental detail and milieu in an otherwise totally fictional setting. Cheers! Glenn
Interessting thing about your Das Boot clip. It contains the only scene that was totally "movie only" and Buchheim was furious when he saw it. Its the moment when one of the crew throws an oily towel in Lt. Werners face. Buchheim said "An officer, even guest on board, is a supperior. If that would have happend to him, the crewmen would been court martialed" Also i would add "The Longest Day" to this list. Truely a unique piece of film all 4 factions showing their point of view, even some of the actual veterans in it
... a superior* / If that had* happened to him, the crewmen would have* been court martialed ("if" and "would" are never in the same part of the sentence!)
Fires on the Plain was one of the first major films I saw that brings the true bleak horrors of war degradation to the screen. Historically speaking it being set in the chaotic end of the Pacific War in the Philippines adds to it's dark material given just how brutal the campaign was. Ironically the main character survives in the novel and is remembering the events in postwar Tokyo.
I saw "Lincoln" not long after it was released; it was totally engrossing, and as far as I could tell, very accurate. As a Vermonter, I have a fondness for Thaddeus Stevens, a Vermont native, (who might very well have said, as did Stephen A. Douglas, another native Vermonter, "Vermont is a fine state to be from, provided you leave it early and never return.").
There are some authentic, correct (and very good!) movies about Finlands war, e.g; Tali-Ihantala 1944 (2007). Unknown soldier (2017). Beyond the Front Line (2004). The Winter war (1989). Tali-Ihantala was the greatest armoured battle on Nordic Soil. The movie uses 3 preserved StuGs from the Armour museum in Parola. (Which is unusual, German armour in movies are almost always mock-ups. But Finlands Armour was not annihilated, but preserved at museums & collections.) Tali-Ihantala 1944 is on UA-cam. Very recommended!
To be fair, Movies about real life characters such as Aimo Koivunen and Richard Bong would be very entertaining without really having to sacrifice much in terms of historical accuracy.
This would give me an excuse to read a bunch more + rewatch/reread LOTR, so I'ma add it to the list for sometime next year. Gonna take some time for sure.
I can't count how many times I've seen "Das Boot" It is the perfect film. I can smell the oil, sweat, and spoiling food. I discovered J'attendrai and Rina Ketty (on the phonograph) because of this film.
Another very accurate movie is "The Onion Field, " which used the actual police reports and court documents for details, as well as the author of the book. I'm not sure how many creative liberties the movie "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" took, but that might also be one to add to this list.
Was not aware of The Onion Field - will add to my list of must watches. I enjoy neo-noir, so I think I'll probably like it. "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", insofar as I've gleaned from the numerous history books I've read, is quite true to life. In fact, the only reason it didn't make it here was I was afraid people would castigate me for not doing the true story, which could take hours, if not days to recount, justice.
@Syntopikon One could spend an entire week just talking about Abraham Lincoln's long history of training in martial arts, sword fighting, and parkour. Totally understandable.
a little surprised that " Come and see " is not on this list considering the huge contribution to the film of eye-witness accounts by those who actually lived through the German occupation of Belarus.
I spoke about Come and See in the context of Fires on the Plain, but it certainly could've had its own section. But both are so bleak, I thought that one, in full, was enough. I would like to do a video on censored & banned movies, and I think I'll probably include it there.
ZULU! An accurate portrayal of a terrifying battle between 125 British defending Rorkes Drift outpost against 4000 Zulu warriors. 11 Victoria crosses were awarded for this battle.
@@Syntopikon Zulu has a number of historical inaccuracies in the way some of the characters are portrayed, and the final "backs to the wall" scene never happened historically, but overall it probably gives a fair impression of the action. Edit: the award of so many VCs was (and still is) controversial as the defenders were cut off and had no choice but to stand and fight. It is widely seen as a propaganda move to offset the defeat of a much larger British force at Isandlwana earlier the same day, which is portrayed in the prequel film "Zulu Dawn" (also of questionable historical accuracy, as accounts of exactly what happened vary).
Speaking of authenticity and accuracy, "Boatswain" is pronounced "bos'n." Also unlike officers in the British army, who could buy their commissions, naval officers started training about the age of 10. They had to learn not just military tactics but seamanship.
The only film of these I didn't see is Fires on the Plain. I hope I'll find it somewhere. All the others are all classics and great films. Especially Das Boot, but I might be biased. 🙂 Saw it multiple times and first at a quite young age. I also visited the studio where it was made. And "crawled" through the U-Boot where they filmed most of the scenes.
very good comment on "Das Boot". Buchheim also said that the party (with the oranges-turned-b**bs) never would've happened on a german war u-boot. i also suspect the oily-towel-to-face scene. anyway, awesome movie, certainly the best submarine war movie, and (still) the most realistic.
The 1970 film Waterloo. The dubbing is a bit dodgy and some of the acting is over the top. But I'm pretty sure that it is very much what the battle looked like. At least in terms of numbers involved. Enjoyed your video 👍🏼
Great video, and I enjoyed your selection of as-historically-accurate-as-possible films. "Fires on the Plain" sounds grim AF. Not that it's important, but for future reference 'Boot' in German is pronounced pretty similarly to 'boat' in English but stretched out to two syllables, kinda like "bow-it" :)
Good to know! I imagine it won't be the last I talk about it lol Yeah, Fires on the Plain is pretty depressing. It's one of those movies I don't really see that come up in war film rankings, likely because it's old, in black-and-white, and in Japanese, which is partly why I wanted to highlight it here.
@@Syntopikon Did this Licoln movie, include the fact that the President, years before he was elected, had begun puncturing his brain with mercury drugs?
The Great Raid was obsessively accurate, the only miss I saw was the lack of a 'Black Widow' night fighter flying over the camps (they used an anonymous light bomber type).
One realistic tidbit about "All the President's Men" that you fail to mention: Frank Wills -- the security guard at the Watergate complex who noticed the burglars and called the police -- plays himself In the movie.
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Also a forgotten movie that is very accurate is the British War movie from 1946 " Theirs is the Glory" A movie about the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. Filmed and acted on the Real orignal battlefield of Arnhem and acted by the real 1st British Airborne division that fought there in Sept 1944
I love all those movies! 💖 all historical movies should be accurate. Falsificstion of history should be banned, or at least there should be disclaimers if something "took creative liberties" ( "cleopatra was black")
That movie is just a kick in the nuts. Couldn't believe that the basic story is actually true, even the mass execution with an anti-aircraft cannon. I was genuinely disturbed and could not properly sleep for three days.
I’d argue, not the entire movie, but the majority of the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan was pretty accurate. Little things like backwards facing beach obstacles and U.S. Sailors brining Troops on the landing craft rather than the British who actually did. Overall was realistic enough to drive veterans out of theaters and setup a hotline for them to call when it came out because it was that realistic to them.
My dad and I used to watch Tora! Tora! Tora! together when I was a kid. It’s a good movie. I really need to check out Fires on the Plain. It reminds me of All Quiet on the Western Front from what I have seen here.
This should incude 'Battle of Britain' dir. Guy Hamilton which not only is it accurate, but unlike some British war movies does not have any American (Token) actors; like the 'Great Escape which, due to Hollywood money and interference, had ridiculous US actors in major plot scenes.
Apollo 13 is one of my favorite movies of all time. Ever since I saw it in the theater, I've loved it. It's such a good story, well-told. In my opinion, it's easily Ron Howard's best film. My feelings on All the President's Men are pretty much the opposite. I had always heard about what a great film it is and then I watched it and was let down. It was slow, dull, sometimes hard to follow, and altogether I was just left with the impression that the movie is overrated. It took me two viewings to decide how I felt about Lincoln but, having seen the film twice, I think that is might be Spielberg's last great film. If it's not Lincoln then it's Munich, but it might be Lincoln. At the very least, Lincoln is several steps ahead of anything else Spielberg has done in the last 19 years.
Happy to find another Apollo 13 fan. Whenever I can't think of something to watch, it's my go to. You know how it ends, but the drama has never lessened for me. Interestingly, I feel the opposite about All the President's Men. I went in with high expectations because I had heard all the adulation, and I found that it lived up to it. But I also really enjoy movies with a lot of dialogue and thinking (really enjoyed Locke, too). I'm hoping Spielberg has something special. He has an "event" film at Universal, which sort of suggests that he might have something epic.
Well, All Presidentś Men may have the ultimately faithfull office desk - byt I, as an European, hadn´t a clue what the whole affair was about. Hasn´t a movie try to send a message?
@@jimmybonez8928 "boat" is closer to German "Boot" than the English word for a type of footwear "boot", but it's still a little different. The way "O" is pronounced in German - "OH" - does not exist in the English language or only in the Scottish dialect. So, no need to overdo it with the exclamation points.
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In Apollo 13, the joke that Lovell makes about Guenther Wendt (I wonder wer Guenther went) in german accent was not his, it was Wally Schirra in Apollo 7. Yet it was too good of a joke to let it out of the movie though.
I wonder where* Günther went (wer = "who" in German)
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@einundsiebenziger5488 I know it means who but the joke it phonetically. In German you pronounce the W as V so he said I vonder ver Guenther Vent. They were mocking about his accent.
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@einundsiebenziger5488 actually it was Donn Eisele who said it before the Apollo 7 mission, right flight wrong astronaut
However, in the Kriegsmarine it was customary to distinguish the crew of a warship from a merchant ship by addressing them as "Soldaten". I know I've read that in accounts by survivors of the Bismarck.
OK, David Jones, I see your point, but that's the German Navy. In the United States Navy, though, we are always addressed as Sailors. (I think the people in the Merchant Marine are addressed as "Merchant Sailors" but I am not positive.
@@RasEli03 The movie is the most accurate war movie to date(maby along with Tora Tora) xd you should check out Armchair Historian review if you are looking for confirmation, it is for sure more accurate than most movies on this list, a Bridge too far has it all, real life dialogs, real costumes and vehicles, and scenario that maches history in tiny detail
We Were Soldiers, like every Mel Gibson "historical" movie, is laughably inaccurate in many ways. Even having Col Moore himself as an advisor for the film didn't help.
@@mikearmstrong8483 Gibson was not able to mess this up as the director was obsessed with making the film as accurate as possible. I cannot speak to the battle scenes though they ring true to what I know and have seen of how the Eras weapons and soldiers were trained and those that I know who were there in Nam at the time say it was accurate. The domestic scenes of the Wife and training prior to the unit deploying was very real down to the fact they used Ft Benning for those scenes. Bottom line it was as accurate as th3e director could possibly make it. The reason I can say that the domestic scenes were accurate is I was on Ft Benning at the time, and they rang true to how people there lived at the time.
@GhostRider-sc9vu First: We lost the battle. Withdrawing to the LZ, the battalion was ambushed and suffered much heavier casualties than shown in the film. We bugged out and left the VC in control of the area. Second: There was never any bayonet charge. Third: The idea of a helicopter hovering just above the ground in the middle of an enemy camp while pivoting to fire is laughably ludicrous, as any helo pilot will tell you. Fourth: Broken Arrow does NOT and never has meant a unit being overrun needs all available air support. It is meant to report a class of nuclear weapon accident. There is a very specific reporting procedure to a very specific level of command, and one does not declare Broken Arrow by just yelling the words into a radio. That myth started long after the battle, printed in a book written by the son of Col Moore's FAC liason. It has been repeated so often that some douche put it in Wikipedia, which doesn't fact check entries. I was trained on Broken Arrow reporting and there is a completely different term for a unit being overrun. And it still requires a specific reporting procedure, not just yelling the words.
Sometimes the real history is so absurd that they have to tone down a bit. In Hacksaw Ridge, after being hurt, Doss is carried off battle, in real life, he helped to rescue others soldiers for 3 hours before being rescue, even with shards on his legs.
I think this ended up being the case for To Hell and Back, starring Audie Murphy as himself, as well (though there were also more prohibitions on what you close back in the 1950s, too)
Just because it happened does not make it believable.
@@JiveDadson Interestingly, one complaint some people had about Apollo 13 was that it was too Hollywood - they couldn't believe it happened.
That is my favorite example. I also enjoyed the least poorly known fun fact--that _Death of Stalin_ had to show only a fraction of Zhukov's medals, already extremely numerous in the film, to avoid looking overly comical and distracting. Hardly a good example of a historically accurate movie but one everyone has a lot of fun with anyway.
It's wild how real life can seem like fiction sometimes lol
Barry Lyndon is Kubrick's forgotten masterpiece. The movie, whilst not portraying many real events, is extremely authentic to its time period.
I think that's also important. Period accuracy matters, and I think it's also something that shines through adaptations of period novels, like Barry Lyndon (or Pride and Prejudice, etc.)
Agreed.
I saw Das Boot a couple months ago and one thing about it was that despite being 3 and half hours long, for me, it felt like half the time. Every scene was gripping and I was so invested in their lives and wondered if they could manage to survive their journey in the boat.
I think this should remind filmmakers that you can tell a great story without having to greatly dramatize the story. I never could expected to be this engaged with 100+ on a claustrophobic boat, but I was because the story it told was enough to interest me and make me just as anxious as the crew was during certain moments in the film.
This is an interesting point, and one I re-recognized this past Saturday, when I saw Seven Samurai in theaters. It's a 3.5 hour long movie, but it passes by fast. It's so well paced, and you're so invested in the story, it feels like no time has passed at all. Same with LOTR for me.
@@theloz3r One day you should try the long version, it's 4 and a half hours long and totally worth it!
The original long version is the best. Had to look for it on the internet as a DVD. It does not seem long at all and really fills in the gaps cut out for the theatrical version.
The "sinking" at Gibraltar was greatly dramatized and would it have happend like in the movie, the real U96 would still be at the bottom of the ocean
@@wolf310ii You are aware that this was also based on a true event? I forgot the number of the U-boat, but it was bombed and went to the bottom of the sea at that point, to about the depth as depicted in the movie. This event led to removing the removal of the maximum diving depths of 80 meters for the VII series and was basically replaced by an "as you see fit".
One glaring inaccuracy in Tora! Tora! Tora! is when a group of Japanese planes begin their descent towards Wheeler Field. As they fly through Kolekole Pass, they zoom past a huge white cross. The problem is that the cross was erected decades later to honor those who died in the attack.
That was also the case for the Museum of American History. These are the difficulties that I, personally, find it difficult to criticize, especially for a movie like Tora! Tora! Tora!, if only because if they had access to the necessary compute power, they probably would've gotten rid of it. But when the lay of the land itself conspires against you...
@@Syntopikon I wasn't trying to criticize Tora! Tora! Tora! I thought it was great, especially since I lived in Hawaii (Schofield Barracks) at the time they were filming. My junior high school, Wheeler AFBJHS, had an actual P-40 Warhawk at the entrance to the campus and the producers for TTT borrowed it to use as an "extra" in the attack sequences.
Of course - and I didn't take it as criticism. Apologies, as I wasn't as clear as I should've been. I was more expounding on how I view what I perceive to be important and how I figure they would've approached the situation if the technology was advance enough.
That's a pretty cool story! It must've been an interesting experience growing up there, at that time.
I have always liked this movie, in spite of the historical quibbles. The scenes in D.C. where everyone is trying to figure out what's going on really make the movie. Way, way better than that chick movie called "Pearl Harbor"
When it comes to moments like this, the decisions and politicking end up being the most important and interesting aspects (for me). It's also why I quite enjoy Lincoln. It's mostly a talking movie, very little action.
I love "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and I'm glad to see it getting attention. And I'd never heard of "Fires on the Plain"; thank you so much for helping this film find a wider audience.
Great movie, unlike the Michael Bay 2001 atrocity. Can’t fault the film-makers for not having authentic WWII Japanese carriers; these were on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by the end of the war. Of the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, four were sunk at the Battle of Midway, the Shokaku sunk at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Zuikaku at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Yup. They tried to get as close as they could, which is admirable in its own right. I'm sure if they had the budget or technology, they would've inched even closer, but they'd hit the point of diminishing returns soon enough.
Me, too❤ And the "Longest Day" and "All Quiet on the Western Front."
Waterloo (1970) is widely considered to be VERY accurate to the Hundred Days and it's final battle scene involved thousands of Red Army soldiers acting as extras.
RAISE THE BLACK FLAGS NO PITY NO PRISONERSSS
Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World is actually pretty damn close to the source material. The missunderstanding comes from thinking that the Film is based sole off of the Novel Master And Commander, the first book in the Aubrey/Maturin novels... The film was infact based off of the First novel AND the 10th, more so the 10th than the 1st. The 10th novel being called The Far Side Of The World.
I understand why they used the title, but of course Jack Aubrey was not Master and Commander but full Post Captain by the time of Far Side of the World.
Its also a missunderstanding thinking the movie was based on the 1st and 10th book. From the 10th book its mainly only the titel and the order to chase an enemy frigatte to protect the british whalers in the pacific. In the book there isnt even a sea battle, but a land battle between the stranded crew of the enemy ship, that sunk during a storm, and Aubreys crew, while the HMS Surprise was chasing a ship "off screen".
It wasnt close to the source material, they picked events from serval books of the series and mixed them together
Downfall is a masterpiece. It's almost a documentary because it's so accurate!
Yup - that's another good one.
Minus him ending up in Argentina…
@@fooberdooge3103lol which never happened, given he died in Berlin in April ‘45.
@@ryann6067 Ignore that guy. He's a Wehraboo; Someone so obsessed with the Wehrmacht that he himself has become an Izan and full of pro-Izan conspiracies and brainrot. The "[Leader] didn't die in the Bunker" is one such conspiracy that they're obsessed with.
@@ryann6067 The body they had in Berlin was a woman.
Personal favourite of mine will always be the 1969 movie Battle of Britain, just for its ability to fit so many real planes into one shot and produce some of the best aerial combat sequences in film history. Some of the characters in the film are heavily fictionalised while others are real, but they all represent different perspectives of the battle, from veterans of the Battle of France to the WAAF servicewomen to Polish pilots
Salute to Spain, for holding on to so many authentic German planes.
The Death of Stalin is another movie that's pretty accurate to the history it depicts. The "worst" it tends to do is it shortens the longer spans of time between events for a better flow of events. Most of the comedy comes from the absurdity of the fact that the way people are depicted in the movie was how they were in real life. The way people had to live just to not end up on Stalin's hit-list is absurd to the point of comedy.
I think the time dilation (for lack of a better word) is just a function of the medium (and it would be the case for TV, too). The latter part of your comment captures what the director said quite well: "I'm not saying it's a documentary. It is a fiction, but it's a fiction inspired by the truth of what it must have felt like at the time. My aim is for the audience to feel the sort of low-level anxiety that people must have [experienced] when they just went about their daily lives at the time."
When it comes to history movies, I think conveying the feeling of the time is as important, if not more important, than the full measure of the event. The event, by itself, is just that - a thing. But I think it's the experiences of the people involved that we cling to, and that are most interesting. I was listening to Dan Carlin's Wrath of the Khan's podcast recently, and Paul MM Cooper's Fall of Civilizations podcast about the rise and fall of the Mongolian Empire, and it's the impact that the Mongol's had on the various civilizations that I find the most impactful (the conquest themselves are awe inspiring at a gloss, terrifying when considered in totality).
@@Syntopikon I unfortunately have to inform you that Dan Carlin's history podcasts are notorious for favoring an intriguing narrative over sticking to historical facts. Historians have near universally panned it. Carlin is not a historian, ignores the scientific consensus and gets dozens of smaller and larger facts wrong with each episode. It's absolutely painful to listen to if you know anything about the topics he talks about.
Pretty sure the real life Beria would've preferred the quick 'trial' and execution he got in the movie over the full dose of his own medicine he got in reality.
I have noted that down. I had not realized there is a death of Stalin movie 😎
Should have won the Academy award for Master and Commander.
It had the misfortune of competing against Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. If it had come out a year or two earlier or later, things likely would have been different.
The men's hairstyles in "Apollo 13" are an abomination though. It's a movie that gets so much right, but every time we look at the three lead actors, it's immediately apparent that we're watching a movie made in the 1990s.
another historically accurate film that doesn't get much talk these days is Hamburger Hill. Like Fires on the Plain, it does not try to glorify war in any way but shows it as it is and the difficulty of living in a war zone. It was and still is overshadowed by Full Metal Jacket but I think Hamburger Hill is a superior war film in every way to FMJ.
100% agree!
I actually know a guy who served at Hamburger Hill and he said the movie is pretty close to reality.
@@ImSomethingSpeciali know a guy who served there as well. He was highly decorated from the action there. Sadly, he recently passed away.
I've yet to watch it, but will add it to the list. Looks interesting, and seems unanimously acclaimed.
Agree, based on my convestion with Vietnam vets who saw the movie and were there IRL adn saw action. "What can they do to you? Send you to Vietnam?
These days all you get is "based on true events" with the worst example being "Saving Private Ryan".
I never knew that trivia about “Houston, we have a problem.” A+ job as always, my friend.
I appreciate it, man!
@ My pleasure! That Dante quote was also nicely done. lol
Glad you picked up on it lol
back in the 90's I found an audio file of the actual transmission from Apollo 13 - imagine my shock when I heard him say " Houston, we've HAD a problem ". I realized that what might be the most famous quote in history is actually a misquote.
The 1953 film ‘The Cruel Sea’ is a counterpoint to ‘Das Boot’ It is written by a WW2 Royal Naval Reserve officer Nicholas Monsarrat who served on Corvettes during the Battle of the Atlantic
A masterpiece I would put in this category would be the 1959 film 'The Cruel Sea' that depicts the crew of a convoy escort ship in both the Battle of The Atlantic and the Arctic Convoys. Jack Hawkins is sublime in the role of the captain that is forced to make a brutal decision that tears him apart. Rare role for Donald Sinden and supporting cast of Denholm Elliot, Virginia Mckenna and an early role for Stanley Baker all on top form make this an absolute must see
This is a movie I wasn’t even aware of. Thanks!
@@Syntopikon You are welcome, I am sure you will enjoy it
COmpletely agree. A brutal war where the enemy is invisable until the very end and then they look no different than other seaman pulled from a sunken ship.
Jack Hawkins was a superb actor.
The film is actually toned down from the novel, which is even more bleak and ghastly. It was all filmed aboard a real Flower-class corvette, HMS Coreopsis, which during the filming was commanded by Captain Jack Broome, who in 1942 commanded the close escort to PQ17.
Das Boot brings up a point. Depth charges.
In any WWII submarine movie, you can count 30-50 depth charges going off in the immediate vicinity of the sub. Way too many, way too near.
Early on, destroyers carried as few as a couple dozen, while later in the war, they might carry several dozen. These would have to last through their entire mission or war patrol, so an attack on a sub would be only a few DCs, with extended prosecution dropping a few dozen only if you had multiple destroyers involved.
And if they were all going off that close, the sub would be headed to the basement after the first 3 or 4. Most DCs were lucky to be dropped within a couple hundred yards of the sub and might be off by a mile.
All very true. In the Fall 1941 period of U-96's seventh war patrol (covered by the book and film) the three escorts that U-96 encountered were all British (although two of them were converted ex-USCG cutters they had been refitted with British ASW gear). The standard Commonwealth depth charge patterns that these ships could utilise were (1) a five-charge pattern, normally set to explode at a single pre-set depth from fixed options (e.g., 100 ft), consisting of three charges dropped from the stern racks about 120 ft apart, plus one charge fired about 120 ft to each side, forming a diamond-shaped pattern,; and (2) a ten-charge pattern that was essentially a "double-five" pattern pre-set to explode at two depths from fixed options (e.g., five standard charges at 100 ft and five "heavy" charges at 235 ft), an arrangement made possible by the faster sinking rate (17 ft/sec vice 10 ft/sec) of the "heavy" charge - which was simply a standard charge with a 150-lb weight added to one end, not a larger charge. It is pretty obvious that even if the pattern was extraordinarily well-placed (at the correct depth, in exactly right position), at most a 220-ft Type VII submarine like U-96 could only ever be (relatively) close to two charges in any pattern. Of course, the idea behind the depth charge pattern was to create a set of pressure waves to damage the submarine, since actually placing a charge close enough to crack the pressure hull (perhaps 20 ft) was a matter of pure luck and highly improbable. The visuals in "Das Boot", as I recollect, suggest multiple depth charge explosions extremely close to the boat. That part was certainly not historically accurate!
"Wer viel schmeißt, hat bald nichts mehr." - Kaleu, "Das Boot"
"He who chucks a lot, soon will have nothing left."
@@TomFynn
Are you talking about depth charges or a night of heavy drinking?
@@TomFynn That' was my first thought! I saw the film in cinema in 1981... German here btw.
@@TomFynn Actually, it's KaleuN. KApitän- LEUtNant... In the Army, it's the rank of a captain.
Apocalypto was pure fiction, but it did a good job of capturing the craziness of living in the America's at that time.
I think that's one of the things to consider - is it more important to capture history as it is, or history as it might've felt? I think different movies serve different purposes, but there are strong cases to be made for both.
@@Syntopikon I am fuly on board when the filmmaker is trying to capture the spirit of an era or person. Even if that results in liberties.
... the Americas* - plural, no apostrophe. And Apocalypto not only was fiction but got historical facts completely wrong. The Maya vanished in the 9th or 10th Century, but in the final scene we see the first Spanish ships arrive which did not take place until 500 to 600 years later.
Fantastic video! happy to see new topics.
Glad you liked it!
One more recommendation here: go and watch Ridley Scott's "The Duellists". Often overlooked, but a brilliant timepiece, masterfully executed on a minimal budget and with a perfect cast.
A Bridge Too Far is my personal favorite. Other than tanks being “modern” ones because there arent really any running tigers then or now, its very good. I especially like the jump scene, we will never see another like it again.
It's a great movie - the last of the pre-CGI films of epic proportions which could never be made today due to production cost. It does, however, contain some significant historical inaccuracies - the portrayal of German Field Marshall Model as an incompetent egoist who dismisses the captured Allied plans as fake for example. In fact Model was an extremely competent and capable general, and in the actual battle he recognized the plans as authentic and used them to ambush Allied airdrops and plan counterattacks.
My main gripe is that they tried to disguise the leopards as panthers, but it was such a half-assed job they might as well have just done what Patton and other films of the time did and not tried to disguise the tanks at all.
You will be glad to hear that there are now 2 fully restored and running Tigers, one at the Tank Museum at Bovington, UK, and one at the Musee des Blindes, France. Musee des Blindes also has a running King Tiger. But yes, when a Bridge Too Far was made none of these was restored or running.
I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I liked Fury. My Dad was in armored in the Huertgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
The 1992 film Dien Bien Phu has amazing parachute drop scene too.
Excellent list. I might have added "Zulu".
Excellent video! I love all of these movies and it was great to hear about all of these little details.
Glad you liked it! Yeah, some movies end up getting, for lack of a better phrase, the right thing right.
I think Tora! Tora! Tora! did a great job capturing the internal politics and complacency on both sides. It accurate shows Yamamoto's comment about dictating a peace treaty with US would only happen if Japan conquered the US. Something he knew couldn't happen. Many Americans at that time didn't know he was actually criticizing Tojo by pointing out the US was not a pushover but would fit hard.
That's one of the more interesting parts about it, I think. One common criticism was that it covered the boring part of politics, but I find that in history, the talks leading up to decisions are as interesting as the decisions, and their consequences.
@@Syntopikon Oddly, I think the fact it covered the politics is of the movie's greatest strengths. It gave a very subtle tension and drama to the movie that many missed.
@@washingtonradio I agree. You could feel the tension rising as the film progressed, almost as in a suspense novel, which to me made the known outcome that much more understandable and authentic.
Counting on the Navy to think the Army is stupid and vice-versa in Imperial Japan is/was a meme of epic proportions.
I would nominate The Battle of the River Plate film 1956. It's historically pretty faithful to the events and works as a drama. HMS Achilles had survived the war and plays itself in the film. The Admiral Graf Spee is played by the USS Salem which is a similar sized cruiser with three turrets instead of two on the real Graf Spee. The extra turret was explained away as a dummy to fool the allies, something the Graf Spee might believably have done.
I would have placed the German film Stalingrad from 1992 in the list. It clearly shows how the battle of Stalingrad was a meat grinder.
For Das Boot the pronunciation of Boot is like the English word Boat (NOT pronounced like the foot ware "boot") but using a shorter and less emphasized "oh" sound than English "boat pronunciation", and Das with an "ah" sound so it would be said like Dahhs Bohht. I also disagree about Das Boot being a Hollywood action flick, it humanized the enemy and has a clear message of the incredible waste of war both its cost in material and cost in human loves.
Never forget that the enemy were out fellow human beings, when acting as heroes or cowards; saints or devils
@@johnschuh8616 As a vet I cannot agree more. Whether conscripted or drafted they did not get to choose the war their leaders engaged them in. If they fought with honor and operated by the laws of war and international conventions they deserve recognition for their service. When the Red Baron was shot down the Allies gave him a burial with full military honors out of respect for his service even though they were thrilled he had been cancelled.
... footwear* (because you wear it on you foot). And Das Boot was filmed entirely in Germany with all German staff and actors, meaning nothing "Hollywood" about it.
Without doubt 'The Cruel Sea' is much the best and reaiistic war movie based on a book by the same nane writtin by an officer who fought in the Atlantic
I would add 'Paths of Glory' to this list, in which Kirk Douglas plays a French officer in World War one, charged with defending three soldiers randomly selected from their regiment to be executed for cowardice following their unit's retreat. I believe the film was actually banned in France until the 1980's.
Yup, banned in France and quite a few other places.
The problem with"Hamburger Hill" was that it came out after"Platoon" and before"Full Metal Jacket".😮😅😊😢
The most underrated Vietnam War Movie is 1991's"Flight Of The Intruder"
I originally read Das Boot. Afterwards, it was made into a movie of course. The movie follows the book religiously. Absolutely Great film!
One can almost smell it, so real is its.
It's a shame, that this didn't win a Oscar...
@@melchiorvonsternberg844 ... an* Oscar
Two pointers on pronunciation.
Boatswain is spoken as bos'un, rhyming with frozen.
In German boot sounds very much closer to boat.
This is a good selection of historically accurate films. More of course could be included. 😉 Esoecially if the criteria range farther than principally fidelity to events and personalities, to include a more general adherence to environmental detail and milieu in an otherwise totally fictional setting.
Cheers!
Glenn
Excellent! Well done.
Well done list. Cheers
Interessting thing about your Das Boot clip. It contains the only scene that was totally "movie only" and Buchheim was furious when he saw it.
Its the moment when one of the crew throws an oily towel in Lt. Werners face. Buchheim said "An officer, even guest on board, is a supperior. If that would have happend to him, the crewmen would been court martialed"
Also i would add "The Longest Day" to this list. Truely a unique piece of film all 4 factions showing their point of view, even some of the actual veterans in it
... a superior* / If that had* happened to him, the crewmen would have* been court martialed ("if" and "would" are never in the same part of the sentence!)
Fires on the Plain was one of the first major films I saw that brings the true bleak horrors of war degradation to the screen. Historically speaking it being set in the chaotic end of the Pacific War in the Philippines adds to it's dark material given just how brutal the campaign was. Ironically the main character survives in the novel and is remembering the events in postwar Tokyo.
Hey Fires On The Plane I saw that as a kid you should also see The Human Condition
Also The Burmese Harp is another.
Sad that due to the decline of public education, fictional movies are all that people know of history
Das Bo-oht not Das “boot”
Better to pronounce it like the English boat, that’s much closer.
daniel day lewis commands the screen in almost every movie.
Yup. One of the, if not the, finest actors of our time.
One film often overlooked film in this category is 1984’s The Killing Fields.
How about The Battle of Algiers? It sure seems realistic.
Yup, I think The Battle of Algiers would qualify.
I agree with you on "Fires on the Plain" which told the real life war story without pulling any punches.
Happy to hear someone else saw it. It’s one of the most powerful films ever made.
Great show. Some to add to your list thought, if you want to do another. Zulu, sink the Bismark, Gettysburg, waterloo.
Bismarck*, Waterloo*
I saw "Lincoln" not long after it was released; it was totally engrossing, and as far as I could tell, very accurate. As a Vermonter, I have a fondness for Thaddeus Stevens, a Vermont native, (who might very well have said, as did Stephen A. Douglas, another native Vermonter, "Vermont is a fine state to be from, provided you leave it early and never return.").
Lol that's a good fun quote.
@@Syntopikon It is indeed! Needless to say, Douglas did NOT carry Vermont in the 1860 election!
@@Syntopikon Well, to anyone living OUTSIDE Vermont! 😂
There are some authentic, correct (and very good!) movies about Finlands war, e.g;
Tali-Ihantala 1944 (2007).
Unknown soldier (2017).
Beyond the Front Line (2004).
The Winter war (1989).
Tali-Ihantala was the greatest armoured battle on Nordic Soil. The movie uses 3 preserved StuGs from the Armour museum in Parola. (Which is unusual, German armour in movies are almost always mock-ups. But Finlands Armour was not annihilated, but preserved at museums & collections.)
Tali-Ihantala 1944 is on UA-cam. Very recommended!
To be fair, Movies about real life characters such as Aimo Koivunen and Richard Bong would be very entertaining without really having to sacrifice much in terms of historical accuracy.
The Conspirator, 2010 is closely accurate too. It is the trial of Mary Surratt, regarding President Abraham Lincoln's assassination trial .
Haven’t seen that one. Sounds interesting, and not a perspective I was aware of.
Now you could do a list of the more acurate adaptations based from novels
This would give me an excuse to read a bunch more + rewatch/reread LOTR, so I'ma add it to the list for sometime next year. Gonna take some time for sure.
I can't count how many times I've seen "Das Boot" It is the perfect film. I can smell the oil, sweat, and spoiling food. I discovered J'attendrai and Rina Ketty (on the phonograph) because of this film.
Another very accurate movie is "The Onion Field, " which used the actual police reports and court documents for details, as well as the author of the book.
I'm not sure how many creative liberties the movie "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" took, but that might also be one to add to this list.
Was not aware of The Onion Field - will add to my list of must watches. I enjoy neo-noir, so I think I'll probably like it.
"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", insofar as I've gleaned from the numerous history books I've read, is quite true to life. In fact, the only reason it didn't make it here was I was afraid people would castigate me for not doing the true story, which could take hours, if not days to recount, justice.
@Syntopikon One could spend an entire week just talking about Abraham Lincoln's long history of training in martial arts, sword fighting, and parkour.
Totally understandable.
a little surprised that " Come and see " is not on this list considering the huge contribution to the film of eye-witness accounts by those who actually lived through the German occupation of Belarus.
I spoke about Come and See in the context of Fires on the Plain, but it certainly could've had its own section. But both are so bleak, I thought that one, in full, was enough. I would like to do a video on censored & banned movies, and I think I'll probably include it there.
@@Syntopikon fair enough👍
ZULU! An accurate portrayal of a terrifying battle between 125 British defending Rorkes Drift outpost against 4000 Zulu warriors. 11 Victoria crosses were awarded for this battle.
Not one I've seen, but one that's been on the to watch list for a while.
@@Syntopikon Zulu has a number of historical inaccuracies in the way some of the characters are portrayed, and the final "backs to the wall" scene never happened historically, but overall it probably gives a fair impression of the action.
Edit: the award of so many VCs was (and still is) controversial as the defenders were cut off and had no choice but to stand and fight. It is widely seen as a propaganda move to offset the defeat of a much larger British force at Isandlwana earlier the same day, which is portrayed in the prequel film "Zulu Dawn" (also of questionable historical accuracy, as accounts of exactly what happened vary).
Speaking of authenticity and accuracy, "Boatswain" is pronounced "bos'n."
Also unlike officers in the British army, who could buy their commissions, naval officers started training about the age of 10. They had to learn not just military tactics but seamanship.
The only film of these I didn't see is Fires on the Plain. I hope I'll find it somewhere. All the others are all classics and great films. Especially Das Boot, but I might be biased. 🙂 Saw it multiple times and first at a quite young age. I also visited the studio where it was made. And "crawled" through the U-Boot where they filmed most of the scenes.
very good comment on "Das Boot". Buchheim also said that the party (with the oranges-turned-b**bs) never would've happened on a german war u-boot. i also suspect the oily-towel-to-face scene. anyway, awesome movie, certainly the best submarine war movie, and (still) the most realistic.
Master and commander is a mix of several books.
The 1970 film Waterloo. The dubbing is a bit dodgy and some of the acting is over the top. But I'm pretty sure that it is very much what the battle looked like. At least in terms of numbers involved.
Enjoyed your video 👍🏼
Glad you liked it! I've heard good things about Waterloo. It's on the list of movies to watch!
So of the scenes looked like a painting from the period.
@@jonmce1 would love to see it on a big screen
Great video, and I enjoyed your selection of as-historically-accurate-as-possible films. "Fires on the Plain" sounds grim AF. Not that it's important, but for future reference 'Boot' in German is pronounced pretty similarly to 'boat' in English but stretched out to two syllables, kinda like "bow-it" :)
Good to know! I imagine it won't be the last I talk about it lol
Yeah, Fires on the Plain is pretty depressing. It's one of those movies I don't really see that come up in war film rankings, likely because it's old, in black-and-white, and in Japanese, which is partly why I wanted to highlight it here.
@@johnnzboy The way "about" is pronounced in Minnesoota?
@@JiveDadson I'm afraid I can't say, I'm not sure how the Minnesotans pronounce 'about'...
Google Translate's pronunciation is quite good.
Life on those ships got interesting when the fresh food ran out.
I've seen most of these movies and will see the rest. Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of the best war films I've ever seen.
I love the irony at the beginning
But, but, what about *Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter?* 😁
1:1 accuracy. It's all real.
@@Syntopikon Did this Licoln movie, include the fact that the President, years before he was elected, had begun puncturing his brain with mercury drugs?
1969 Battle of Britain
The Great Raid was obsessively accurate, the only miss I saw was the lack of a 'Black Widow' night fighter flying over the camps (they used an anonymous light bomber type).
Have not seen it. Will check it out.
One realistic tidbit about "All the President's Men" that you fail to mention: Frank Wills -- the security guard at the Watergate complex who noticed the burglars and called the police -- plays himself In the movie.
Also a forgotten movie that is very accurate is the British War movie from 1946 " Theirs is the Glory" A movie about the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. Filmed and acted on the Real orignal battlefield of Arnhem and acted by the real 1st British Airborne division that fought there in Sept 1944
Have not seen that one, either. I've got roughly half a dozen new movies to watch now. Looking forward to it!
I love all those movies! 💖 all historical movies should be accurate. Falsificstion of history should be banned, or at least there should be disclaimers if something "took creative liberties" ( "cleopatra was black")
Old cinema was better.
I would add The Captain from 2017. It's not a 100% accurate but at least 90% and the story itself is just unbelievable.
That movie is just a kick in the nuts. Couldn't believe that the basic story is actually true, even the mass execution with an anti-aircraft cannon. I was genuinely disturbed and could not properly sleep for three days.
Fires on the Plain is now on my must-not-watch list.
You missed the Finnish movie called Unknown Soldier! There are three versions of the movi the first from 1950.s and the latest yn 217.
I've not seen this one - will add it to the list.
I’d argue, not the entire movie, but the majority of the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan was pretty accurate. Little things like backwards facing beach obstacles and U.S. Sailors brining Troops on the landing craft rather than the British who actually did. Overall was realistic enough to drive veterans out of theaters and setup a hotline for them to call when it came out because it was that realistic to them.
My dad and I used to watch Tora! Tora! Tora! together when I was a kid. It’s a good movie. I really need to check out Fires on the Plain. It reminds me of All Quiet on the Western Front from what I have seen here.
I would have liked to have seen "Last of the Mohicans" or "Downfall" on this list.
This should incude 'Battle of Britain' dir. Guy Hamilton which not only is it accurate, but unlike some British war movies does not have any American (Token) actors; like the 'Great Escape which, due to Hollywood money and interference, had ridiculous US actors in major plot scenes.
Apollo 13 is one of my favorite movies of all time. Ever since I saw it in the theater, I've loved it. It's such a good story, well-told. In my opinion, it's easily Ron Howard's best film.
My feelings on All the President's Men are pretty much the opposite. I had always heard about what a great film it is and then I watched it and was let down. It was slow, dull, sometimes hard to follow, and altogether I was just left with the impression that the movie is overrated.
It took me two viewings to decide how I felt about Lincoln but, having seen the film twice, I think that is might be Spielberg's last great film. If it's not Lincoln then it's Munich, but it might be Lincoln. At the very least, Lincoln is several steps ahead of anything else Spielberg has done in the last 19 years.
Happy to find another Apollo 13 fan. Whenever I can't think of something to watch, it's my go to. You know how it ends, but the drama has never lessened for me.
Interestingly, I feel the opposite about All the President's Men. I went in with high expectations because I had heard all the adulation, and I found that it lived up to it. But I also really enjoy movies with a lot of dialogue and thinking (really enjoyed Locke, too).
I'm hoping Spielberg has something special. He has an "event" film at Universal, which sort of suggests that he might have something epic.
Das Boot and M&C are my 2 favourite movies! There might be a pattern 😅
A pattern of excellent taste 🤘
What about The bounty
I use to say that one shouldn't have to be ignorant in order to enjoy a movie.
You may add "Der Untergang" to your list :D
Well, All Presidentś Men may have the ultimately faithfull office desk - byt I, as an European, hadn´t a clue what the whole affair was about. Hasn´t a movie try to send a message?
It’s pronounced BOAT, my dude. Das BOAT!!!!
The German word for boat happens to be “Boot”. It is Das Boot.
@ yeah, BUT PRONOUNCED LIKE BOAT!!!!! That’s why I wrote it was PRONOUNCED BOAT!!! See my point???!!!
Yes. Das Boot is pronounced Das 'Boat'. The o vowel is shortened a bit but it's more or less the same.
@ precisely!!!
@@jimmybonez8928 "boat" is closer to German "Boot" than the English word for a type of footwear "boot", but it's still a little different. The way "O" is pronounced in German - "OH" - does not exist in the English language or only in the Scottish dialect. So, no need to overdo it with the exclamation points.
In Apollo 13, the joke that Lovell makes about Guenther Wendt (I wonder wer Guenther went) in german accent was not his, it was Wally Schirra in Apollo 7. Yet it was too good of a joke to let it out of the movie though.
I wonder where* Günther went (wer = "who" in German)
@einundsiebenziger5488 I know it means who but the joke it phonetically. In German you pronounce the W as V so he said I vonder ver Guenther Vent. They were mocking about his accent.
@einundsiebenziger5488 actually it was Donn Eisele who said it before the Apollo 7 mission, right flight wrong astronaut
Minor point about the pronunciation of Das Boot - it should rhyme with boat, not boot.
One of the most disturbing is Helter Skelter about the Manson family.
You should make a similar video but about movies that predicted the future like Contagion for example.
Contagion wasn't even slightly close to anything that actually happened
another good one is the stug scene from the final defense 1944
Surly Downfall should make this list
Surely*
3:09 in the what of it?
The thick of it 😭
It’s sad that so many film critics don’t see historical accuracy as an end in its own right.
Boot not the shoe.
Das Shoe?
Bless you!
Das boot was incredible
We are not "Soldiers" on Submarines. Soldiers are in the Army. We, being in the Navy, are Sailors.
Fair enough. It’s something I’ll remember to get right in future videos.
Thank you!
However, in the Kriegsmarine it was customary to distinguish the crew of a warship from a merchant ship by addressing them as "Soldaten". I know I've read that in accounts by survivors of the Bismarck.
OK, David Jones, I see your point, but that's the German Navy. In the United States Navy, though, we are always addressed as Sailors. (I think the people in the Merchant Marine are addressed as "Merchant Sailors" but I am not positive.
A military navy sailor is a soldier. Only civil sailors are sailors only.
Lore of Movies That Are Historically Accurate momentum 100
movie that respect history are far and too few
You forgot a Bridge to far
It's not extremely accurate, it is very authentic and gets some things right tho!
@@RasEli03 The movie is the most accurate war movie to date(maby along with Tora Tora) xd you should check out Armchair Historian review if you are looking for confirmation, it is for sure more accurate than most movies on this list, a Bridge too far has it all, real life dialogs, real costumes and vehicles, and scenario that maches history in tiny detail
What about "We Were Soldiers" (2002), "Casualties of War" (1989) and "Stalingrad" (1993)? Aren't these considered accurate war films?
We Were Soldiers, like every Mel Gibson "historical" movie, is laughably inaccurate in many ways. Even having Col Moore himself as an advisor for the film didn't help.
@@mikearmstrong8483 Gibson was not able to mess this up as the director was obsessed with making the film as accurate as possible. I cannot speak to the battle scenes though they ring true to what I know and have seen of how the Eras weapons and soldiers were trained and those that I know who were there in Nam at the time say it was accurate. The domestic scenes of the Wife and training prior to the unit deploying was very real down to the fact they used Ft Benning for those scenes. Bottom line it was as accurate as th3e director could possibly make it.
The reason I can say that the domestic scenes were accurate is I was on Ft Benning at the time, and they rang true to how people there lived at the time.
@@GhostRider-sc9vu
The domestic scenes were very accurate.
The battle scenes were horseshit for at least 4 reasons right off the bat.
@@mikearmstrong8483 The reasons?
@GhostRider-sc9vu
First: We lost the battle. Withdrawing to the LZ, the battalion was ambushed and suffered much heavier casualties than shown in the film. We bugged out and left the VC in control of the area.
Second: There was never any bayonet charge.
Third: The idea of a helicopter hovering just above the ground in the middle of an enemy camp while pivoting to fire is laughably ludicrous, as any helo pilot will tell you.
Fourth: Broken Arrow does NOT and never has meant a unit being overrun needs all available air support. It is meant to report a class of nuclear weapon accident. There is a very specific reporting procedure to a very specific level of command, and one does not declare Broken Arrow by just yelling the words into a radio. That myth started long after the battle, printed in a book written by the son of Col Moore's FAC liason. It has been repeated so often that some douche put it in Wikipedia, which doesn't fact check entries. I was trained on Broken Arrow reporting and there is a completely different term for a unit being overrun. And it still requires a specific reporting procedure, not just yelling the words.
I saw all those movies My Top 3 fires of the plain; tora tora; das boot .
One Life staring Anthony Hopkins. 😀