History Vs. Hollywood

Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger in The Patriot.

In my opinion movies are a fascinating place to view history. It's all right there in front of you. The battles, the costumes, the settings and all of the inaccuracies.

 In my review of The Patriot, I note the odd treatment of the slaves. How they were all so friendly to the man that technically owned them. How the word nigger was never used. Of course this is liberal Hollywoods way a not putting off any ticket buyers. Of course it is an inaccuracy. The word nigger existed and was used commonly. Another big historical flaw in this movie is the fact that everyone simply speaks American without any accents. Check the history books, we almost became a nation that spoke German. A vote was taken and the English language won out, and not by a landslide.

Along the same lines of Hollywood ignoring this countries racial difference was last week's made for TV remake of Brians Song. Granted this was a Disney produced movie, but it was definitely made for adults. In the original version, made just a few years after the events that inspired the movie, the word nigger is used. In the new version it is no where to be heard. In the original version the, dying of cancer, "white" Brian Piccolo remarks "no wonder I have a craving for chitlins" after finding out his "black" friend, Gale Sayers has donated blood for him. Of course that joke was changed to a non-offensive, unfunny "no wonder my knee hurts" line, referring to Sayers knee injury.

I have always been bothered by outright butchering of history for the sake of the movie maker. In Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg makes Oscar Schindler into a hero. The final scene where he breaks down and cries about how he wishes he could have saved just one more jew is about as far away from what really happened as you could get. In reality he packed up his valuables and ran from the approaching allies. Had he been such a hero what would he have to fear from the allied troops?

Schindler was little more than a shameful opportunist. He used free slave labor for his factory. Yes, he saved lives by having them work in his factories, but his goal was his personal profit, and not to be some hero. The genius of The Godfather was that Coppola took an amazingly flawed, immoral character and made you love him, despite all of his crimes. It was too bad that Spielberg could not have followed suit with Schindler's List.

I did watch a film recently that was historically inaccurate but still educational. It's called The Seventh Cross and stars Spencer Tracy. It is about seven POWs who escape a Nazi prison camp. Spencer Tracy's character speaks fluent German  and goes to a doctor to have his hand looked at. The doctor says to Tracy "I am required by law to inform you that I am a Jew, before working on you." This film was made in 1944. There were no openly practicing jewish doctors left in Germany in 1944. Thus this scene is bogus. However, what we can learn from that scene is just how ignorant Americans were to what was actually happening to Jews in Europe in 1944.

So watch Pearl Harbor and view a momentous event from our countries past. Enjoy all of the spectacle of Gladiator, or the grandeur of Gone With The Wind. Just remember that these are all Hollywoodized versions of history. If you want a more accurate look at history then read a book. Speaking of books, in Orwell's 1984 the politicians changed history. In reality it is Hollywood.