00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're looking at scenes from historical movies in which
00:09accuracy has seemingly been thrown out the window.
00:30This was Napoleon's final stand, where he faced off against the Duke of Wellington.
00:34Napoleon made numerous blunders, and Wellington made few, but it was the former who ultimately
00:38lost the fight.
00:39Ridley Scott paints a decidedly different picture of how it all went down.
00:43Napoleon didn't actually lead a cavalry charge at Waterloo, as he was meant to oversee
00:48rather than to personally get involved with the fight in his role as commander.
00:56There's significant evidence that he was also in ill health due to haemorrhoids at
01:02the time, so his leading a cavalry charge is a massive stretch.
01:06appears to be a British sniper present, who shoots a bullet through Napoleon's hat.
01:15Waterloo happened 39 years before the first sniper rifle was actually invented.
01:19There are plenty of other inaccuracies as well, but we don't have enough time to explain
01:23them all.
01:40Armistard is a wonderfully poignant film about the horrors of slavery.
01:43While it's a great watch, it's not as accurate as you'd hope.
01:46The court case wasn't such a pivotal moment for abolitionists as it was presented to be.
01:51Also, John Quincy Adams makes an iconic and powerful speech.
01:54While records indicate he spoke for hours, he was probably more focused on constitutional
01:59and international law, rather than the morals discussed in the movie.
02:13It also frames him as the sole saviour of the Armistad Africans, which downplays the
02:17role of Louis Tappan and Roger Sherman Baldwin.
02:20Also, while Adams opposed slavery, he was never an abolitionist.
02:40In 1980, after the Iranian Revolution, Canada and the US worked together to help six American
02:45diplomats escape Iran.
02:46The operation involved two CIA officers, six Canadians, one Irishman, and one Latin
02:51American.
03:02Argo dramatises this operation, but fails to show how essential the Canadians were.
03:06Its least accurate scene is arguably its intense airport escape.
03:10In Argo, they experience numerous dramatic difficulties here.
03:13In reality, while there was some tension and some worry, they managed to get through the
03:16airport with much less fuss.
03:22Meanwhile, the intense chase sequence is a complete fabrication.
03:32It's best to treat Argo as historically inspired fiction, rather than historical fiction.
03:41This movie was so inaccurate that criticisms began six months before it was actually released.
03:55It focuses on the investigation surrounding JFK's assassination.
03:59It's now mostly accepted to be full of inaccuracies, but the worst offender is arguably the magic
04:04bullet scene.
04:17This was a theory proposed by the Warrant Commission, and in the film it suggests that
04:20a single bullet could have done as much internal damage as it did.
04:24In reality, the argument was backed up by ballistics and medical evidence.
04:28In the film, the single bullet theory, as shown, omits key elements and some alterations
04:32of fact, even though it has been regarded as plausible by experts.
04:41The argument conveniently leaves us out, making it seem laughable, when it's actually been
04:45tested extensively.
05:01This movie is a fictionalisation of the Satsuma Rebellion, a samurai revolt against the Meiji
05:06government in 1877.
05:07Firstly, Tom Cruise's character is completely made up, though he was loosely based on French
05:12Guard officers involved in an earlier Japanese war.
05:21The Last Samurai also completely misunderstands and, or oversimplifies, the factors that caused
05:26the rebellion.
05:27It's difficult to pick a specific scene, since it's all so far from reality.
05:31We decided to choose the ninja attack, since the representation of ninjas is largely fictional.
05:44While ninjas, or more accurately, shinobi, did exist, and were essentially spy samurai,
05:49they were mostly a thing of the past by the Meiji Restoration, and even if they weren't,
05:54they wouldn't have looked anything like they did here.
06:07The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour was a major tragedy, while Michael Bay decided
06:12to turn it into a love story.
06:14Many Pearl Harbour survivors criticised its accuracy.
06:17Veteran Kenneth M Taylor, who appears to have inspired one of the male protagonists, called
06:21it a piece of trash.
06:23The whole attack scene is so far from reality, that the train tickets back would be through
06:27the roof.
06:31For example, the aircraft carriers used by the Japanese in the film were actually being
06:35used by the US Navy.
06:37They also used jet catapults and angled flight decks, which was 50s technology, as in, not
06:43yet invented.
06:46Plus, the US had P-40 planes at the time, but the film uses the P-40M, a plane invented
06:59two years after Pearl Harbour happened.
07:12One of the movie's most famous scenes is when Pocahontas saves John Smith from execution.
07:22The fact is a matter of historical debate.
07:24John Smith's accounts tell us he was never at risk of execution when captured.
07:31Also, Pocahontas would have been about 10 years old at the time, and John Smith would
07:35have been 17 years older.
07:36There isn't any evidence they were ever romantically involved.
07:39It's also a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the Powhatan people.
07:42It sensationalises European colonisation, which makes sense for an American movie.
07:57It avoids discussing the devastating impact colonisation had on indigenous peoples, probably
08:02because it's a kids' movie.
08:03Others argue they should avoid romanticising one of history's most brutal events.
08:20Mel Gibson played the leading role in this American Revolutionary War drama.
08:24Gibson's character was based on four real-life men, including Francis Swamp Fox Marion.
08:29He presents the British as complete monsters, and while they could be cruel, in reality,
08:34Marion and people like him were just as cruel.
08:40His main foe is Colonel Tavington, based on Bannister Tarleton.
08:44Its most controversial scene shows the British locking Americans in a church and burning
08:48it to the ground.
08:57Not a single record exists of the British committing an atrocity to civilians like this
09:01during this conflict.
09:02It villainises them to a cartoonish degree, yet such tactics would have been considered
09:07abhorrent by themselves.
09:24This was one of the most famous battles in history, fought between a Greek alliance led
09:27by the Spartans against the Persian Empire in 480 BC.
09:32Approximately 7,000 soldiers, with Leonidas at their helm, defended the pass of Thermopylae.
09:36Here, they faced off between 120,000 and 300,000 Persians, and held their ground.
09:48Zack Snyder's 300 depicts there being only 300 Greek soldiers present, all Spartans,
09:53which is clearly very off.
10:02Of course, we have to acknowledge that the film is based on Frank Miller's comic book
10:05limited series, but the seeming demonisation of the Persians isn't something we cannot
10:09mention.
10:10On a lighter note, the Spartans would not have had access to slow-motion technology,
10:13and would have fought entirely at regular speeds.
10:39Braveheart.
10:49Even to someone with only the most basic knowledge of Scottish history, Braveheart will feel
10:53like complete nonsense.
10:55It decimates accuracy in favour of making Mel Gibson look like a cool Scottish warrior.
11:04They wear tartan, centuries before it was common, and paint their faces blue about a
11:08millennium after it was popular.
11:10It's tough to pick only one scene for inaccuracy, but we decided on the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
11:15How come?
11:16Well, for a start, there isn't even a single bridge in the scene.
11:27As the name suggests, significant parts of the battle were fought on a thin bridge, with
11:32only enough room for a couple of horses.
11:35The battle tactics depicted were also very inaccurate.
11:37Show this film to a Scotsman or a historian, and they will be seething within seconds.
11:44So which historical scene made you the angriest for its lack of accuracy?
11:48Let us know in the comments below.
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