It has always been a problem for Hollywood to change the facts to fit their dramatic narrative. For every film that depicts events accurately, there are ten that show history only as a background. We keep watching them, anyway. Possibly, it is the dresses, the shootings, or just the fun of watching the A-list actors doing the fights and revolutions. Whatever the reason for these “retellings” is, they influence those millions of people who do not watch the films, but hear or read about them as the past, i.e., those who see the movies and then read or hear about them, think of the past, for the better or, let us be honest, quite often for the worse. They represent the top 10 most misleading historical films and TV shows, which have been the furthest from the truth, with those that made historians reach for their blood pressure medication being placed last.
10. The Imitation Game (2014)
Benedict Cumberbatch cannot help but be brilliant when he is playing the role of Alan Turing, the genius who created the breakthrough to decrypt the Enigma machine that the Nazi’s used. The story of the film, however, is so far-fetched that it would be disgraceful for a spy during the Cold War to acknowledge it. It invents a story in which Turing is blackmailed by a Soviet spy owing to a compromising file and intensifies the antagonism towards his gender to the ultimate. One of the reviews cited says that mixing up things is one thing, but doing so based on the writer’s personal bias is something totally different. The movie should be complimented on letting the world know how brilliant Turing was, but at the same time, it confuses the very difficult side of his life.
9. Red Tails (2012)
George Lucas initially wanted to make the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black fighter pilots in WWII, really cool with a biopic, but in the end of the day, he gave us more Hollywood fiction than historical facts. The film lies about the Airmen never losing a bomber (which is false) and portrays the military’s institutional racism as a few bad guys who are evil-minded. It is concealed behind a more complicated façade, and a lot more uplifting than this paint-by-numbers war movie, which has been polished.
8. Windtalkers (2002)
In this Nicolas Cage action film, Navajo code talkers are assigned bodyguards under instructions to kill them if they are at risk of capture. That is absolute rubbish—no such instruction ever issued, and it would have been against the law in any event. The actual code talkers were real-life heroes whose courage didn’t require that kind of Hollywood hype.
7. Battle of the Bulge (1965)
This retro war film was such a disaster that even President Dwight Eisenhower emerged from retirement to gripe about it. The movie mucked up everything from the chronology and weather to the military strategy, which got a rare presidential fact-checking. When the general who commanded the actual battle needs to give a press conference to correct you, you realize your script went astray.
6. Defiance (2008)
Daniel Craig is the leader of a group of Jewish resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, but the film omits some disturbing aspects of their actual history. Polish historians complained about the way the film glossed over events involving violence against Polish civilians. The actual Bielski brothers were multifaceted characters—something the film does not care to investigate.
5. Mississippi Burning (1988)
Definitely strong. Factually? Not really. This FBI-centered film on the murder of civil rights activists in 1964 portrays the agency as the heroes of the tale and Blacks from the local communities as the ones who got the shaft. As these communities were the ones risking their lives for justice while the film turns them into bystanders. It ends up being a suspenseful and fun flick that wipes out those who were the most necessary characters of the movement.
4. Gladiator II (2024)
Ridley Scott’s follow-up film distracts the viewer with its outrageous, colorful effects from the first movie to a large extent, and also does not consider the actual events of history whatsoever. Scott once said, “We’re not making a documentary.” Affected as he is by the statement, I would still agree with him, but I’m sure that Roman historians would definitely not be impressed by this one.
3. Napoleon (2023)
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon was to be a flamboyant portrayal, but it turned out to be confusing. The movie mixes up the timelines, depicts Napoleon shooting at the pyramids, and shows his personal life just to reach the cinematic peaks. The French historians were nowhere near being delighted, and they claimed that the film left out major things, such as the resurrections of slavery and most of Napoleon’s real achievements. Rather than a biopic, the film looked more like the bloopers of France.
2. Pearl Harbor (2001)
Among a multitude of explosions was the only love triangle of World War II that Michael Bay focused on in his blockbuster. The Doolittle Raid in the movie is entirely made up, as well as Roosevelt’s involvement, and the idea of Japan invading America is so incorrect that it is almost laughable. Is it beautiful to view? Definitely. Is it a WWII history accurate? Not a bit.
1. U-571 (2000)
The submarine thriller that caused the ire of an entire nation is at the top of the list. In U-571, the Americans are portrayed as the ones who took the Enigma machine from the Germans on a submarine, while in reality, it was the Brits who got it, and quite a few months before the U.S. was even involved in the war. The historical inaccuracy was so large that it made the British Prime Minister publicly condemn the movie and the American President issue his apology. It’s not really the kind of legacy that directors dream of.
So the next time you see “inspired by true events,” don’t forget to put it down with a pinch of salt. Hollywood’s past may be good and dramatic, but it’s mostly more fiction than fact. We keep watching, though—as long as the popcorn is fresh and the music is nice—only we might also have to have a history book next to us.