Most Historically Accurate Films/Documentaries/Video

[Hax]

How about "The Divine Weapon", which is a movie about the Korean hwacha. I don't know that much about Korean history, so I can't say anything about its historical accuracy, but how can you not admire this:

[Macilrille]

I can come up with no new adds for the period, but for others, films and TV-shows to see are

Band of Brothers (HBO again)
Stalingrad, German, 1993
Das Boot, German ??
The Iron Cross, American or British, so-so in accuracy but the first film to not merely portray Germans as total villains but see things from their PoV and OK portrayal of life at the front
The Duellists, 1997, Ridley Scott's first film (you have to search the cover to find his name). Napoleonic Era.
All Kurosawa's films are good, whether or not they are accurate on all points they are in spirit.
Battle for Algiers, propagandistic but in some ways pretty faithful in its portrayal of at least Les Paras.


1612 is best avoided by historically interested, except for the total badass mercenary Spaniard Alvar. My friend Jan writes a summary here if you scroll down a bit.


Avoid
Ran (Korean)
Mongol (Mongolian or Russian)

[Brennus]

Vercingétorix: La légende du druide roi (2001) has legionaries wearing LS, tut tut.

[Lvcretivs]

@Macrille: 'Ran' is actually Kurosawa's last epic jidai-geki - certainly you must have confused it with one of these Korean 'historical romances'

[Apázlinemjó]

Saving Private Ryan - is quite accurate, but I was laughing at the Mustang "bombers" at the end of the movie.
The Pacific - is said to be good too, though I've not seen it yet, just read the critics about it.
Enemy at the gates - seemed ok too for me, anyone?
Alexander - isnt really accurate as they mix the battles and leave a lot of important events out of the movie.
All Quiet on the Western Front - I like this movie, but I don't really know if it is accurate or not, I don't really like to study the WWs, someone?

[Brennus]

Saving Private Ryan - is quite accurate, but I was laughing at the Mustang "bombers" at the end of the movie

That is true, it can't be that difficult to find airworthy P-47s. My main objection to Saving Private Ryan is the fact it makes no mention of the contribution by British Commonwealth, Canadian or Polish forces, even the landing craft drivers (who were actually British) are replaced by Americans.

[Macilrille]

SPR is in fact very inaccurate.
Lvcretivs that is true. Damn... there was one really- really bad Korean spin-off of the Chinese "historical" fighting films (which are bad enough in itself, edit THEMselves).

Nothing new... is both quite accurate and, AFAICR, faithful to the book by and large. I forgot that :-( Baaaad Palle.

[Intranetusa]

How about "The Divine Weapon", which is a movie about the Korean hwacha. I don't know that much about Korean history, so I can't say anything about its historical accuracy, but how can you not admire this:
http://www.hwacha.net/img/hwacha/hwa...ring_photo.jpg

From what I saw in the preview and read from reviews, the Divine Weapon is extremely inaccurate. The movie talks about a war between Ming-China and Korea. I'm pretty sure that is bogus since Korea and the Ming were on very good terms (Korea was a tributary of the Ming), and the Ming sent troops to Korea to help
them fight off two Japanese invasions.

And ironically, I think the movie also has Koreans wearing the Ming-Chinese clothing (Ming era hanfu), and the Ming-Chinese themselves wearing Manchurian Qing era clothing.

Fire arrow rocket launchers and their cart-launching systems were invented during the Song Dynasty and also used during the Ming. The Koreans didn't invent them and used them against the Ming in any battles because they were allies. The Koreans did independently create gunpowder (due to a ban on exporting gunpowder) and created the hwacha, which is basically a larger version of Chinese fire arrows/launcher.

[Intranetusa]

Unusually Accurate (for movies):
Tora Tora Tora, Rome miniseries, Alexander (I loved the phalangites)

Somewhat Accurate:
Kingdom of Heaven, Lawerence of Arabia, The 300 Spartans (I'm disappointed they still left out the other 7000+ Greek hoplites)


Not Accurate:
Troy, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor, Dances With Wolves, Red Cliff, Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, The Last Samurai, Elizabeth, Braveheart, Apocalypto, The Patriot (The last 3 are Mel Gibson's, cuz he fails)

Batshit insanely not accurate:
300, 10,000 B.C.

[antisocialmunky]

Saying Curse of the Golden Flower is inaccurate is like saying that RAN or Hamlet is inaccurate. It is but that's not the point since the film is supposed to just be loosely based on actual events. :-\

[Cadwalader]

I find 10,000 BC can be quite enjoyable if I watch it through the same eyes as I would read a Robert E. Howard story with. I would of course prefer it were an attempt to portray life in the paleolithic, but I don' think the world will ever be that nerdy.

[Ca Putt]

I'd even put 300 a small bit above 10.000 bc(yes I write that way) still both below anythign that can be called accurate. apart from this silly panoply and some ideals you could claim it's the way he tells it with all due exagerations.(I cought a fish that was THIS big...) whereas 10.000 is absolutely absurd in quite about every way, I would not have been supprised if those stargate egyptians woulde used lasers. the ending somewhat supprised me, as it was even more cheesy than I would've imagined. it's one thing if soldiers use a perverted mix peleponesian and classical equipment and old men exxagerate the number of foes. putting egyptian pyramids, horse archers, mammoth hunters, Terror birds, funny ships, spice craving blue eyes in one movie and calling it 10.000 bc is something different. true it was fun to complain about it with my pals(don't get me wrong, it did not work with 300, that only ispired questions like:" did they really fight bare chested?" or "arrent elephans smaller?"). in general iwould'e preffered having it called " the first hero" or "the mammoth hunter" not because these names sound better(they don't) but because they don't include the claim to be at least semi historical. i mean "300" that sounds like brainless buchering already "10.000 bc" sounds like: hear the story that HAS HAPPEND 12000 years ago.

[Intranetusa]

Saying Curse of the Golden Flower is inaccurate is like saying that RAN or Hamlet is inaccurate. It is but that's not the point since the film is supposed to just be loosely based on actual events. :-\

I loved Hero, but CotGF made me absolutely hate Zhang Yimo. That movie was ridiculously cheesy to an extreme.

[antisocialmunky]

Yeah I think its jsut a stylistic thing with him. But historically speaking a large amount of plays from antiquity had that level of silly melodrama.

[Ludens]

Somewhat Accurate:
Tora Tora Tora

Could you tell me why? Like I said, it always seemed more a documentary than a film to me.

I find 10,000 BC can be quite enjoyable if I watch it through the same eyes as I would read a Robert E. Howard story with. I would of course prefer it were an attempt to portray life in the paleolithic, but I don' think the world will ever be that nerdy.

And then it wouldn't be an (attempted) blockbuster, but a documentary .

[Intranetusa]

Could you tell me why? Like I said, it always seemed more a documentary than a film to me.

Corrected

[Badass Buddha]

Could you tell me why? Like I said, it always seemed more a documentary than a film to me.

Wikipedia to the rescue!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tora!_T...torical_errors

Overall, I would still say it's pretty good.