Hollywood History - or "History re-written"

I'm getting sick of this now, what the hell is it with the American film industries obsession with trying to re-write history to show Americans single handedly saving the world and making the real heros look like American Arse kissing idiots and then calling it a "True Story"

Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan and U571 were bad enough now they have another one due out and with Tom Cruise staring who i thought would of been smarter than that but hey.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-12777448,00.html

BRITISH HISTORY RE-WRITTEN

Tom Cruise is set to star in a movie re-run of the Battle of Britain that suggests an American had a lot to do with winning it.


For those of you who don't know, the Battle of britain was the British Air forces finest moment, when we, heavily out numbered, managed to push back the German Luftwaffe at a great price and scarafice.

In this only 12!! yes 12!! Americans were involved in the battle of britain.


Cruise will play US airman Billy Fiske in the new film, which, to the fury of RAF veterans, bears the provisional title of The Few.


Mr Fiske was an American Business man who flew 3 missions, he never acheived any particular objectives, made any contributions of note or made any impact of special note to the effort, in fact didnt score a single hit on an enemy in his 3 flights and died when he crash landed on the 3rd mission.
I give him credit for going up there but at the end of the day he was less than special compared to many others that went up for their country.

The script has him lead the Allies to victory over the Luftwaffe,

One of just 12 Americans involved in the World War II battle, Fiske never downed a German plane and was killed when he crash-landed his aircraft.

This is where the excuses come in
An industry insider told the Daily Star the film would never sell if a Briton had the starring role.

"The hero must be American. The public wouldn't have it any other way. To get bums on seats the writers twist the facts."


Of course, after all everyone knows if your not American you would never REALLLLY acheive anything, especially not in a war!!! i mean im so sick of every American i meet without exception so far though in the case of my uncle he does it as a joke at least, when the subject of war, or sometimes even without reason, they ram down your neck how "They" saved our arses in WWII and in every major battle since =/, that i'm going to scream.
Now it seems they even want to try to re-write history to prove it =/, what was that about revisionist history?

I know some will say its just movies we all take it with a pinch of salt but how many times i've seen people who take the TV or Films for fact because "It said it was a true story!! it really happened!!" and then put there fingers in their ears and glaze over when you try to tell them the truth.

arghh drives me insane.
If you want to take such a sensetive subject as a major war where so many people sacraficed thier lives and make a Film about it well played, all the power to you but ffs don't insult everybody by then making the real heros look like incompetent retards and a Lone American the hero of the day and claim its a true story.

Would it really make a difference if the hero of the film had an American or British Accent?
If you realllly feel the American Public (You know this is who they are targetting) wouldnt pay any attention to it if the star is not American then dont use a British war with minimal American involvement as a scene.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

It's no accident. Marketeers shape history for pop consumption. Many corporations are carefully spoiling America for profit. The disturbing problem with overfeeding the collective ego is, as it expands outward into a ever larger, more self-impressive, hollow, and thinly-stretched star-spangled bubble, pop culture and dishonest politics continue to inflate things to the both ridiculous and tragic moment of culture pop.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I know, i dont mind a bit of "hollywood Science" or flights of fantasy thats what movies are about, but continualy feeding this Holier than thou kick and insulting entire countries by making a "true" story about them and writing off their sacrafice and efforts and portraying them as idiots fawning over the American Pretty boys who save the day once is bad enough, to do it 3, 4 times in a row.....

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

While I agree with you to a degree, the problem is that Hollywood directors will pretty much tell you that they are making movies, not documentaries. And the truth is, if people are depending on Hollywood for their education in history, well... And in defense of Hollywood, they never claim that their historical remakes are 'true' history. They may not put out any disclaimers saying that it is 'not true' either, they just don't really say anything about it either way.

 

i'm downloading Black Hawk Down right now....
how is the movie different than what really happened?

 

The movie is no different. It stays true to the book, which documents events based on participants, both American and Somalian.

 

othadp: "i'm downloading Black Hawk Down right now....
how is the movie different than what really happened?"

What really happened is that nearly 1,000 Somalis were killed, and thousands more maimed, for being in the way when scared, armed American teenagers got lost in a place they were not educated, trained, or briefed to function in. The movie conveys a bit of the fear, confusion, pain and brotherhood felt from the American perspective, leaving out the disproportionate amount of suffering and death the residents of Mogadishu endured.

Now you can ignore this and enjoy your popcorn and shoot-em-up.

 

does the film mention anything about the killings of the locals?

 

So all the dead Somalis were just innocent bystanders? A large number of Mogadishu residents didn't band together to kill the Americans sent there to feed them?

The movie was about the American troops. Why should it focus on anyone else?

 

Galt:

The question I was responding to was "how is the movie different than what really happened?"

I was only pointing out a disproportionality, and not qualifying the combattant status of the Somalis who were wounded and killed, which, since you asked, was largely but not entirely "innocent" (meaning these victims were not present for the purpose of killing Our Boys).

This thread is about hollywood distortion of history, American supremacism, and the results of this misrepresentation. Thank you for illustrating.

 

Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down had nothing to do with Americans saving the world. And nobody in U571 was kissing America's ass.

Saving Private Ryan was a fictional story about a half dozen troops risking their lives to find a soldier who may not even be alive. Trying to find this soldier would have no realistic affect on the outcome of the war, and therefore it was not a "save the world" mission.

Black Hawk Down was a fact-based movie about Americans not trying to save the world, but trying to save Africans from themselves.

To the best of my knowledge, U571 was fact-based fiction (the effort to steal the Enigma machine was real, but I think the British did it), but Americans weren't portrayed as saviors of the world; real heroes weren't portrayed as idiots; and nobody kissed the Americans' asses.

 

And how exactly did I illustrate this? By pointing out that American troops faced a very real threat from a large number of civilian hostiles (making them very difficult to single out from non-hostiles)?

EDIT: I don't doubt that many innocent Somalis were uninentionally killed in this fiasco - and American troops should never have been there, in my opinion - but it was the result of the "world community's" good intentions gone bad (in case you forgot that America wasn't the only nation with troops in Somalia, since it was a UN mission).

 

Don't take it too personally, Galt. Avoiding a debate about American interventionism, and returning toward topic:

Hollywood's influence is immense- and hollywood is for the most part a nationalist whore, reinforcing a perilous American myth of supremacy and righteousness.

 

Hollywood a nationalist whore???? Have you heard the crap that came out of Hollywood regarding this country and the President. I don't buy this crap of "we support the troops, but get out". If you support them, you let them know with positives, and quit undercutting everything and acting like your arrogant opinion means more than everyone elses'. You may not like the President, but in a time of war, you do.

Most of Hollywood is made up of rich, overpaid actors, directors etc. who have too much time, don't think and don't have a clue. Examples: Sean Penn, Madonna, Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Jeanie Garafolo, etc. No clue idiots who say nothing useful, do nothing, and can be refuted at every turn. BTW, why is Alec Baldwin still here? I thought he was leaving the country if Bush was elected.

The Battle of Britain movie is just like Braveheart, takes something that happened, then makes it how they think they can make the most money. Half the stuff in the film never occured at the time they had it, battles changed, Bruce never betrayed Wallace, Wallace was actually fighting for Bailiol, the Irish were never at the battle. If I was English, I would have been offended by the movie's inaccuracies.

 

"You may not like the President, but in a time of war, you do."

OK. Let's just skip elections and go to the movies until the war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terroron war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror on war on terror and war and war and terror and terror is over then, shall we?

 

Next election, vote for someone else. That's your right. I am assuming you are American, otherwise oh well.

 

Yer goddam right I am, and will. Let's just hope it counts this time.

 

Hehe, the problem is, if you're voting Democrat, not much to pick from. All they do is rail on Bush, but can't define what they each stand for. I'm all for Al Sharpton, baby, he's the man who can make a difference for the Democrats and for America!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Ok, back on topic now!

 

If you want to learn history pick up a book. People go to the movies because they want action/suspense/romance/whatever. If you don't like what Hollywood does to true stories, then why don't you go finance your own $100 million motion picture and make it textbook accurate. Until then just think of movies as any other form of entertainment: they are in it to make money and "exactly textbook true" doesn't sell more tickets. The problem is people like psycho who think movies are made to be accurate, like it's a cardinal rule or something. My suggestion is to watch the History Channel.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

As a Canadian I am by definition neutral, so I have a solution to redress the balance of Hollywood history. I am currently working on a number of scripts which I hope will soon be turned into multi-million dollar motion picture extravaganzas:

Custer The story of a deranged and psychotic American driven by lust, greed and brutality to attack defenceless natives in the West simply for the thrill of murder. His days of torturing, brutalising and reigning with terror in the West are cut short by a valiant English colonist who teaches the natives to fight back and respect themselves. Custer is finally cut down in a climactic battle seen with our hero (played by Jude Law) cutting him down as he attempts to butcher more natives. Film ends to 'God Save the Queen' performed by Blur.

Grace Biopic drama about how one British man, WG Grace, who re-invented America's national pastime and dominated a country. Film opens with Baba Ruth grabbing an ice-cream from the hands of an adoring young fan. He has the baseball establishment in his pocket and is ruled by greed with penchant for fast cars and faster women. WG Grace is contacted by the owner of the Chicago Cubs who will be handed over to the evil Ruth if they don't post a winning season. In desperation the owner approaches a cricket legend who agrees to play for one season only. In the process he teaches the Americans about fair play, the will to win and has a heart of gold for the young fans who flock to them. Grace clubs 80 home runs (a record which still stands to this day) and the Cubs beat the Yankees in the World Series. 'Star Spangled Banner' performed by the Sex Pistols. Stephen Fry stars as Grace.

Revolution Comedy. The story of how an incompetent but well meaning bunch of colonists decide to take on their British rulers and fight for freedom. All is not going well for the misfit army which is run by half-witted and naive leaders such as George Washington (played by Jim Carrey). All seems lost until an inspirational Arab arrives to teach them the ways of the Koran and how to fight. He turns the army around and gains respect from the British for his striking and bold tactics and brilliant use of terrain and strategy. In the end his American second in command turns traitor driven by religious zeal, but his men rally round him in support and he wins the day! The Arab becomes the first American President and he establishes a secular country based on the peaceful teachings of Islam.

I'm working on some more after these three shoot me to fame!