Thread: Looking for Best Historically Accurate movies

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

From my standpoint it was great - but remember, two years previous to that I had been in a decrepit open bay Gomer Pyle type 40 man basic trainee barracks at Harmony Church. I had a little fridge, a maid made my bed and cleaned my room, and I thought I was living large. Its all about context.

I usually was pretty spoiled. Whenever I went TDY to DC we would stay at the Wyndham in National Harbor. The worst hotels we usually stayed in were like Holiday Inn Express or Comfort Suites. Airshows were the best because usually the host base would pay out way and we would usually get hooked up big with hotel rooms. Thanks for the memories, United States Air Force.

Originally Posted by SeeingRed

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

From my standpoint it was great - but remember, two years previous to that I had been in a decrepit open bay Gomer Pyle type 40 man basic trainee barracks at Harmony Church. I had a little fridge, a maid made my bed and cleaned my room, and I thought I was living large. Its all about context.

I usually was pretty spoiled. Whenever I went TDY to DC we would stay at the Wyndham in National Harbor. The worst hotels we usually stayed in were like Holiday Inn Express or Comfort Suites. Airshows were the best because usually the host base would pay out way and we would usually get hooked up big with hotel rooms. Thanks for the memories, United States Air Force.

When I was assigned to the US Embassy in Bogota, they gave me a 4 bedroom apt which I shared with a USAF guy. They provided us with armed escorts to and from work everyday maid service, and 24 hr security guard at the apt. Then they moved me to lead a team in another part of the country and I lived in a little trailer. I liked the trailer better because I was away from the flag pole.

Originally Posted by Army Bronco

When I was assigned to the US Embassy in Bogota, they gave me a 4 bedroom apt which I shared with a USAF guy. They provided us with armed escorts to and from work everyday maid service, and 24 hr security guard at the apt. Then they moved me to lead a team in another part of the country and I lived in a little trailer. I liked the trailer better because I was away from the flag pole.

My buddy is stationed at the US Embassy in Islamabad right now. He shares a house with a Marine and a Soldier. Eff that noise. Not the roommates but Islamabad.

Originally Posted by SeeingRed

Originally Posted by Army Bronco

When I was assigned to the US Embassy in Bogota, they gave me a 4 bedroom apt which I shared with a USAF guy. They provided us with armed escorts to and from work everyday maid service, and 24 hr security guard at the apt. Then they moved me to lead a team in another part of the country and I lived in a little trailer. I liked the trailer better because I was away from the flag pole.

My buddy is stationed at the US Embassy in Islamabad right now. He shares a house with a Marine and a Soldier. Eff that noise. Not the roommates but Islamabad.

I'm sure no one ever said it was beautiful there.

Originally Posted by Army Bronco

I'm sure no one ever said it was beautiful there.

No way, but he is having a good time

Originally Posted by Dzone

How was Lincoln? I assumed it would be filled with a lot of white hatred of blacks. It does seem that many historical recreations really like to foment the racial anger. The Ken Burns History of Baseball series was largely a history of how persecuted black players have been since the sport was invented.

It was good. Very sentimental and they probably should've titled it Daniel Day-Lewis giving inspiring monologues, but I liked it.

Originally Posted by dbfan2007

I said this in another thread, but what irritated me about Lincoln was that it was really about his life. It started right before his second term. I thought "The 13th amendment" would have been a more suitable title. There's a lot of what you described in the movie. But also, there are a lot of people for slavery but think freeing the slaves would break the south and win the war.

There's a lot more to the civil war than slavery, but that seems to be the sole mention even in textbooks nowadays. I guess that's how it will be remembered in history. The good people of the north versus the racists of the south.

Well what was it but a war between the north and the pro-slavery south?

Originally Posted by aberdien

It was good. Very sentimental and they probably should've titled it Daniel Day-Lewis giving inspiring monologues, but I liked it.


Well what was it but a war between the north and the pro-slavery south?

Half of the country fighting for independence and the other half fighting to stay whole.

Originally Posted by dbfan2007

Half of the country fighting for independence and the other half fighting to stay whole.

But they wanted independence because they didn't want to be told that they couldn't have slavery since it was a big part of their economy.

Originally Posted by aberdien

But they wanted independence because they didn't want to be told that they couldn't have slavery since it was a big part of their economy.

I'm basically being nitpicky here. I agree that slavery was the cause of most of it. I agree with your statement. I just think it's one of those things where history is taught to favor the victors. If the south wins, the probably abolish slavery within 100 years. They exist as their own country, and celebrate their independence every year. Assuming the USA and CSA could still survive separate. As for the reason each soldier was fighting, it wasn't to abolish or keep slavery, in my opinion. Most northerners were racist and had slaves anyway. Most southerners were fighting for their state. Like I said, it's just nitpicking on my part.

Originally Posted by dbfan2007

I'm basically being nitpicky here. I agree that slavery was the cause of most of it. I agree with your statement. I just think it's one of those things where history is taught to favor the victors. If the south wins, the probably abolish slavery within 100 years. They exist as their own country, and celebrate their independence every year. Assuming the USA and CSA could still survive separate. As for the reason each soldier was fighting, it wasn't to abolish or keep slavery, in my opinion. Most northerners were racist and had slaves anyway. Most southerners were fighting for their state. Like I said, it's just nitpicking on my part.

I gotcha, we'll just hafta agree to disagree then ha.

Originally Posted by aberdien

I gotcha, we'll just hafta agree to disagree then ha.

Let's just get high instead.

Just to follow up about Glory Road. From Wikipedia...

In the game between East Texas State University and Texas Western, East Texas State fans are shown throwing popcorn and drinks, and yelling racial epithets. In a later scene, racial slurs are shown painted onto the hotel rooms of the black Texas Western players. After verification that the events never took place, Texas A&M University–Commerce (formerly East Texas State University) asked for an apology from Disney and the makers of the film.^[7] Disney did not directly apologize, rather, it explained that the movie was not a documentary and that it had been necessary to consolidate events given the time limitations of the film, and that Disney did not intentionally set out to misrepresent any group and was sorry for any misunderstanding.^[8] The President of Texas A&M–Commerce said that, given the way the school was shown in the film, it was hard to believe that Disney could plausibly argue that the portrayal of the school was unintentional.^[8] The scene even prompted the Texas state senate to consider a bill which would allow financial assistance from the state to be withheld for films that portray the state negatively.^[9]

Wow.

What about the movie The Express? It portrayed Texas really racist during that last football game.

Originally Posted by Army Bronco

What about the movie The Express? It portrayed Texas really racist during that last football game.

Again from wikipedia...

Journalists and film critics noted that a scene of "racist vitriol"^[9] involving the October 24, 1959 game between Syracuse and West Virginia University, was fictitious and, as Film Journal International critic Frank Lovece noted, "veers remarkably toward outright slander."^[10] He said the game was "falsely shown as taking place at WVU's Mountaineer Field" in Morgantown, West Virginia, "rather than at Syracuse's own Archbold Stadium," the Orangemen's home field in New York state.

...

Syracuse quarterback Dick Easterly, who played with Davis in Morgantown the following year, on October 22, 1960, after the events of the Cotton Bowl Classic against the University of Texas, recalled no such events and said, "I apologize to the people of West Virginia because that did not happen. I don't blame people in West Virginia for being disturbed. The scene is completely fictitious."^[11]

and regarding the Cotton Bowl against Texas,

Moreover, some claim that the racial tension depicted in the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic versus the Texas Longhorns is inaccurate, though this is highly disputed. Bobby Lackey, quarterback for the University of Texas states, "I told the Cotton Bowl people that those things didn't happen, and they were making up stories to try and sell more movie tickets, I wasn't going to watch any of that."

There were clearly some dust-ups during that game and the Texas roster, as was the entire Southwest Conference at the time, was all-white. I would not have been shocked to find out some n-words were said either by players or fans. That's just how things were back then. I have known older folks who used the n-word without any malice at all. It just meant "a black man" to them. And they would have used the term the same way they might have used "kraut" or "mick". It was just shorthand to describe someone's ethnicity.

But the overall point is that the scriptwriters in both films were way over the top in their portrayal of racial incidents in a "based on a true story" historical depiction. And why did they do this if it was untrue? To sell tickets? To foment race hatred? Or both?