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Hollywood has never let the truth get in the way of a good story! Join us as we count down our picks for the most historically inaccurate movie scenes ever put to film! Is historical accuracy important, or is a great story all that matters? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:02Remember this day, man, for it will be yours for all time.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the movie scenes that put the fiction in historical
00:15fiction.
00:22Number 20. Connecticut voting against the 13th Amendment. Lincoln.
00:26I rise on this sad and solemn day to announce that I'm opposed to the amendment.
00:36As the decision comes down on the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States, we watch as delegates
00:42from several states cast their votes.
00:45When the voters from Connecticut are recognized, they vote no.
00:48However, the historical record shows that all delegates from Connecticut actually voted in favor of the 13th Amendment.
00:54Congressman Joe Courtney took this as an insult against the entire state, and was not going to take it lying
01:00down.
01:01He actually wrote to Steven Spielberg with his complaints.
01:04Of course, if any state could have a problem with how Lincoln portrayed them, Ohio took even more heat.
01:15Number 19. Siege of Kerak, Kingdom of Heaven.
01:28In an effort to create a more heroic, philosophical version of the Ayyubid leader, the Ridley Scott historical epic softens
01:36a lot of the real Saladin's edges, in what is seen as a response to the time it was made.
01:41Kingdom of Heaven highlights Saladin's mercy, which is definitely based in fact.
01:46However, the scene where the siege of Kerak is settled over an intellectual discussion between Saladin and Baldwin IV of
01:53Jerusalem is a wild inaccuracy.
01:56The real reason Saladin left the siege is because Renald of Shatayan's forces were coming to join the battle.
02:02It's nice to think that such can be settled over a little chat, though.
02:14Number 18. The final scene, The King's Speech.
02:18I'm a thistle sifted. I'm a sifted thistles, and a sift of unsifted thistles.
02:23A sift of sifted thistles, and a sift of unsifted thistles, because I'm a...
02:27Daddy, darling, make sure it's not so strong.
02:30The entire climax of this Oscar winner for Best Picture depends on the magnitude of the King's famous 1939 address.
02:38Hesitant monarch King George VI spends the entire movie trying to overcome his stutter with the help of speech therapist
02:46Lionel Logue.
02:47On the big day, everyone in the United Kingdom seems to be listening in, including current Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
02:54and future Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
02:56But, according to historical advisors, this was not actually the case.
03:01High-ranking officials like these men would have been busier actually planning the war than listening to a speech meant
03:07to galvanize the British public to follow them.
03:11We shall prevail.
03:15Number 17. Harboring a Soviet Spy. The Imitation Game.
03:20What if I don't fancy being with Joan in that way?
03:26Honoring Alan Turing's brilliance and contributions to ending the Second World War and to modern computing, the 2014 biopic takes
03:34several liberties.
03:35One of the most controversial is the fictionalized subplot about the cryptographer being blackmailed by a Soviet agent working alongside
03:43him at Bletchley Park.
03:45When Turing discovers his identity, the character, based on the real-life John Cairncross, threatens to expose Turing's sexuality, which
03:54is outlawed in England.
03:56Because if you tell him my secret, I'll tell him yours.
04:00Although it adds suspense to Turing's inevitable, historically accurate fate, that's exactly why critics and historians deride the scene.
04:08It turns the cruel and unjust treatment of a national hero into a spy-thriller plot point.
04:14Number 16. Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots meeting.
04:19Mary Queen of Scots.
04:20Together we could conquer all of those who doubt us.
04:23Do not play into their hands.
04:25Our enmity is precisely what they hoped for.
04:29I know your heart has more within it than the men who counsel you.
04:33Despite retellings to the contrary, Elizabeth I and Mary of Scotland never met in real life.
04:39The battle between the two cousins was played out mostly by proxy.
04:43The feud was the product of advisors, international politics, and religious differences.
04:48Elizabeth's Protestantism and adherence to the Church of England made her Catholic cousin a nuisance and a potential liability,
04:55as there were still many Catholic partisans in England.
04:58But versions of the story that include the pair meeting, often in secret, are taking great dramatic license.
05:04To take a meeting with Mary could have potentially compromised Elizabeth's position as Queen.
05:09If you still seek my protection, you would do well to watch your words.
05:13I will not be scolded by my inferior.
05:17You're inferior.
05:18I am a steward, which gives me greater claim to England than you possess.
05:23Number 15. Commodus kills his father, Gladiator.
05:27Why, you pressed me to your chest and held me tight.
05:32Would have been like the sum of my heart for a thousand years.
05:38What is this enemy you hate so much?
05:41History is full of complex characters who are neither all good nor all bad.
05:47When you make a movie, though, you need to differentiate between your heroes and your villains.
05:52Commodus is one of the nastiest bad guys in any Gladiator movie.
05:55His character is riddled with inaccuracies, but one of the worst is the scene where he murders his father, Emperor
06:02Marcus Aurelius.
06:03I would put to my whole world.
06:07If you would only love me.
06:14The movie contends that the Emperor was going to name Maximus as his heir instead of the cruel and stupid
06:20Commodus.
06:21This is totally untrue, as Maximus himself is a product of fiction.
06:26The real Marcus Aurelius died of unknown circumstances, but if he had been assassinated, that probably would have been a
06:33major scandal.
06:34Number 14. Bathroom Scene – Hidden Figures
06:49Telling the previously untold stories of the African-American women who worked at NASA during the tense space race era,
06:56Hidden Figures takes several Hollywood liberties.
06:58Taraji P. Henson's character, a fictionalized version of Catherine Goebel Johnson, spends much of the movie having to run across
07:05the Langley Research Center to find a public restroom.
07:08The triumphant moment when Kevin Costner's character smashes the sign designating segregated bathrooms was actually invented for the movie.
07:25The subplot is partially inspired by something that happened to Janelle Monae's real-life character, Mary Jackson.
07:32However, Johnson herself had used a whites-only bathroom at Langley for years before she realized that the facility was
07:39segregated.
07:40Number 13. The Von Trapps Escape – The Sound of Music
07:52It's no small feat to make a feel-good musical that ends with The Nazis Annexing Austria.
07:58The Von Trapps Family Singers' story of escaping through the Alps and crossing into the neutral nation of Switzerland makes
08:04for inspirational stuff.
08:06While they did escape the clutches of the invading Germans, the real story is more ordinary.
08:11Salzburg is too far from the Swiss border to make an escape on foot possible.
08:16The real family boarded a train which took them to Italy, where they then were able to make for Switzerland,
08:22England, and finally, the United States.
08:30Number 12. Americans on the U-571
08:33U-571
08:43There are few scenes in this movie that actually are true to life.
08:47Early in the film, Navy submarine S-33's crew boards the German submarine U-571 and begins a mission to
08:55secure a ciphered device, the Enigma machine.
08:58The entire premise of this is false.
09:01Americans did not infiltrate the submarine to capture the German Enigma machine, the British did.
09:08U-571 got its fair share of criticism for including American soldiers in an event they literally had no involvement
09:15in.
09:16Prime Minister Tony Blair even came out against the film when it was released, calling it offensive to the British
09:22soldiers who lost their lives.
09:44The Egyptian pyramids are one of the most storied and legendary feats of human architecture.
09:50The Egyptian pyramids are one of the most storied and legendary feats of human architecture.
09:53In the sense of historical eras in general, history butts up against science fiction.
09:58Here's the thing… this is such a ridiculous movie, that even calling it historical fiction is a stretch in itself.
10:06But the idea that the ancient Egyptians were building the pyramids alongside woolly mammoths is worth calling out for inaccuracy.
10:13It's highly unlikely many woolly mammoths were alive in 10,000 BC, let alone cooperating with humans like this.
10:36This was Napoleon's final stand, where he faced off against the Duke of Wellington.
10:41Napoleon made numerous blunders and Wellington made few, but it was the former who ultimately lost the fight.
10:48Ridley Scott paints a decidedly different picture of how it all went down.
10:52Napoleon didn't actually lead a cavalry charge at Waterloo, as he was meant to oversee rather than personally get involved
10:58in the fight in his role as commander.
11:01There's significant evidence that he was also in ill health due to hemorrhoids at the time, so his leading a
11:06cavalry charge is a massive stretch.
11:08Also, there appears to be a British sniper present who shoots a bullet through Napoleon's hat.
11:14Waterloo happened 39 years before the first sniper rifle was invented.
11:19There are plenty of other inaccuracies, but we don't have time to explain them all.
11:23Do I have permission to fire?
11:24Certainly not.
11:26Generals commanding armies have better things to do with their time than to shoot at one another.
11:30Hold your fire riflemen on pain of death.
11:32Number 9.
11:33John Quincy Adams' speech, Amistad.
11:36How is it that a simple, plain property issue should now find itself so nobled as to be argued before
11:43the Supreme Court of the United States of America?
11:46Amistad is a wonderfully poignant film about the horrors of slavery.
11:49While it's a great watch, it's not as accurate as you'd hope.
11:52The court case wasn't such a pivotal moment for abolitionists as it was presented to be.
11:57Also, John Quincy Adams makes an iconic and powerful speech.
12:01While records indicate he spoke for hours, he was probably more focused on constitutional and international law, rather than the
12:09morals discussed in the movie.
12:10It also frames him as the sole savior of the Amistad Africans, which downplays the role of Lewis Tappan and
12:17Roger Sherman Baldwin.
12:18Also, while Adams opposed slavery, he was never an abolitionist.
12:23But who we are is who we were.
12:29Number 8.
12:30Airport Scene, Argo.
12:45In 1980, after the Iranian Revolution, Canada and the US worked together to help six American diplomats escape Iran.
12:53The operation involved two CIA officers, six Canadians, one Irishman, and one Latin American.
12:58Argo dramatizes this operation, but fails to show how essential the Canadians were.
13:04Its least accurate scene is arguably its intent airport escape.
13:08In Argo, they experienced numerous dramatic difficulties here.
13:12In reality, while there was some tension and some worry, they managed to get through the airport with much less
13:18fuss.
13:19Meanwhile, the intense chase sequence is a complete fabrication.
13:34It's best to treat Argo as historically inspired fiction, rather than historical fiction.
13:40Number 7.
13:41The Magic Bullet, JFK.
13:43The Magic Bullet enters the president's back, headed downward at an angle of 17 degrees.
13:50It then moves upward in order to leave Kennedy's body from the front of his neck.
13:55This movie was so inaccurate that criticisms began six months before it was released.
14:00It focuses on the investigation surrounding JFK's assassination.
14:04It's now mostly accepted to be full of inaccuracies, but the worst offender is arguably the magic bullet scene.
14:11This was a theory proposed by the Warren Commission, and in the film, it suggests that a single bullet couldn't
14:17have done as much internal damage as it did.
14:19In reality, the argument was backed up by ballistics and medical evidence.
14:23In the film, the single bullet theory as shown omits key elements and some alterations of fact, even though it
14:29has been regarded as plausible by experts.
14:32The argument conveniently leaves this out, making it seem laughable when it's been tested extensively.
14:37Anyone who's been in combat will tell you, never in the history of gunfire has there been a bullet this
14:42ridiculous.
14:42Number six, Ninjas versus Samurai, The Last Samurai.
14:46This movie is a fictionalization of the Satsuma Rebellion, a samurai revolt against the Meiji government in 1877.
15:04Firstly, Tom Cruise's character is made up, though he was loosely based on French guard officers involved in an earlier
15:11Japanese war.
15:12The Last Samurai also completely misunderstands and or oversimplifies the factors that caused the rebellion.
15:18It's difficult to pick a specific scene, since it's all so far from reality.
15:23We decided to choose the ninja attack, since the representation of ninjas is largely fictional.
15:33While ninjas, or more accurately shinobi, did exist, and were essentially spy samurai, they were mostly a thing of the
15:41past by the Meiji restoration.
15:42And even if they weren't, they wouldn't have looked anything like they did here.
15:53Number five, Attack on Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor.
15:57The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was a major tragedy, which Michael Bay decided to turn into a love
16:03story.
16:12Many Pearl Harbor survivors criticized its accuracy.
16:15Veteran Kenneth M. Taylor, who appears to have been inspired by one of the male protagonists, called it, quote, a
16:21piece of trash.
16:22The whole attack scene is so far from reality that the train tickets back would be through the roof.
16:27For example, the aircraft carriers used by the Japanese in the film were actually being used by the U.S.
16:33Navy.
16:34They also used jet catapults and angled flight decks, which was 50s technology, as in, not invented yet.
16:41The U.S. had P-40 planes at the time, but the film uses the P-40N, a plane invented
16:47two years after Pearl Harbor.
16:54Number four, Pocahontas saves John, Pocahontas.
17:04One of this movie's most famous scenes is when Pocahontas saves John Smith from execution.
17:10This fact is a matter of historical debate.
17:12John Smith's accounts tell us he was never at risk of execution when captured.
17:16Also, Pocahontas would have been about 10 years old at the time, and John Smith would have been 17 years
17:23older.
17:23There isn't any evidence that they were ever romantically involved.
17:31It's also a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the Powhatan people.
17:36It sensationalizes European colonization, which makes sense for an American movie.
17:41It avoids discussing the devastating impact colonization had on indigenous peoples, probably because it's a kid's movie.
17:47Others argue they should avoid romanticizing one of history's most brutal events.
17:53Pocahontas.
17:56I'm so sorry.
17:58Number three, Church Scene, The Patriot.
18:10Mel Gibson played the leading role in this American Revolutionary War drama.
18:15Gibson's character was based on four real-life men, including Francis Swamp Box Marion.
18:20It presents the British as complete monsters, and while they could be cruel, in reality, Marion and people like him
18:28were just as cruel.
18:29His main foe is Colonel Tavington, based on Bannistray Tarleton.
18:33Its most controversial scene shows the British locking Americans in a church and burning it to the ground.
18:46Not a single record exists of the British committing an atrocity to civilians like this during this conflict.
18:53It villainizes them to a cartoonish degree.
18:56Yet, such tactics would have been considered abhorrent by themselves.
19:08Number two, Battle of Thermopylae, 300.
19:12This was one of the most famous battles in history, fought between a Greek alliance led by the Spartans against
19:18the Persian Empire in 480 BC.
19:21Approximately 7,000 soldiers, with Leonidas at their helm, defended the Pass of Thermopylae.
19:36Here, they faced off against between 120,000 and 300 Persians, and held their ground.
19:42Zack Snyder's 300 depicts there only being 300 Greek soldiers present, all Spartans, which is clearly very off.
19:49Of course, we have to acknowledge that the film is based on Frank Miller's comic book limited series,
19:55but the seeming demonization of the Persians isn't something we cannot mention.
19:59On a lighter note, the Spartans wouldn't have had access to slow motion technology,
20:04and would have fought entirely at regular speeds.
20:16Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's album, Balance.
20:20Classical music reimagined as rock, hard rock, and metal.
20:24Check out the full track and album below.
20:26Gold buys silence, guilt buys prayer.
20:31I am the echo, you can't outrun the jokes on you.
20:36The blade's begun.
20:40Number 1. Battle of Stirling Bridge, Braveheart.
20:51Even to someone with only the most basic knowledge of Scottish history, Braveheart will feel like complete nonsense.
20:58It decimates accuracy in favor of making Mel Gibson look like a cool Scottish warrior.
21:04They wear tartan centuries before it was common, and paint their faces blue about a millennium after it was popular.
21:11It's tough to pick only one scene for an accuracy, but we decided on the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
21:17How come?
21:17Well, for a start, there isn't even a single bridge in the scene.
21:22As the name suggests, significant parts of the battle were fought on a thin bridge, with only enough room for
21:28a couple of horses.
21:35The battle tactics depicted were also inaccurate.
21:39Show this film to a Scotsman or a historian, and they will be seething within seconds.
21:44Patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields of Bannockburn.
21:51They fought like warrior poets.
21:54They fought like Scotsmen.
21:56Is historical accuracy important, or do you think a good story is more important?
22:01Tell us in the comments.
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