Hollywood loves to take creative liberties with history! Join us as we examine the most egregious moments where filmmakers sacrificed facts for drama. From missing bridges at Stirling to fictional church burnings, these scenes might entertain but they certainly don't educate. Which historical blunder makes you cringe the most?
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're looking at scenes from historical movies in which
00:09accuracy has seemingly been thrown out the window.
00:30This was Napoleon's final stand, where he faced off against the Duke of Wellington.
00:34Napoleon made numerous blunders, and Wellington made few, but it was the former who ultimately
00:38lost the fight.
00:39Ridley Scott paints a decidedly different picture of how it all went down.
00:43Napoleon didn't actually lead a cavalry charge at Waterloo, as he was meant to oversee
00:48rather than to personally get involved with the fight in his role as commander.
00:56There's significant evidence that he was also in ill health due to haemorrhoids at
01:02the time, so his leading a cavalry charge is a massive stretch.
01:06appears to be a British sniper present, who shoots a bullet through Napoleon's hat.
01:15Waterloo happened 39 years before the first sniper rifle was actually invented.
01:19There are plenty of other inaccuracies as well, but we don't have enough time to explain
01:23them all.
01:40Armistard is a wonderfully poignant film about the horrors of slavery.
01:43While it's a great watch, it's not as accurate as you'd hope.
01:46The court case wasn't such a pivotal moment for abolitionists as it was presented to be.
01:51Also, John Quincy Adams makes an iconic and powerful speech.
01:54While records indicate he spoke for hours, he was probably more focused on constitutional
01:59and international law, rather than the morals discussed in the movie.
02:13It also frames him as the sole saviour of the Armistad Africans, which downplays the
02:17role of Louis Tappan and Roger Sherman Baldwin.
02:20Also, while Adams opposed slavery, he was never an abolitionist.
02:40In 1980, after the Iranian Revolution, Canada and the US worked together to help six American
02:45diplomats escape Iran.
02:46The operation involved two CIA officers, six Canadians, one Irishman, and one Latin
02:51American.
03:02Argo dramatises this operation, but fails to show how essential the Canadians were.
03:06Its least accurate scene is arguably its intense airport escape.
03:10In Argo, they experience numerous dramatic difficulties here.
03:13In reality, while there was some tension and some worry, they managed to get through the
03:16airport with much less fuss.
03:22Meanwhile, the intense chase sequence is a complete fabrication.
03:32It's best to treat Argo as historically inspired fiction, rather than historical fiction.
03:41This movie was so inaccurate that criticisms began six months before it was actually released.
03:55It focuses on the investigation surrounding JFK's assassination.
03:59It's now mostly accepted to be full of inaccuracies, but the worst offender is arguably the magic
04:04bullet scene.
04:17This was a theory proposed by the Warrant Commission, and in the film it suggests that
04:20a single bullet could have done as much internal damage as it did.
04:24In reality, the argument was backed up by ballistics and medical evidence.
04:28In the film, the single bullet theory, as shown, omits key elements and some alterations
04:32of fact, even though it has been regarded as plausible by experts.
04:41The argument conveniently leaves us out, making it seem laughable, when it's actually been
04:45tested extensively.
05:01This movie is a fictionalisation of the Satsuma Rebellion, a samurai revolt against the Meiji
05:06government in 1877.
05:07Firstly, Tom Cruise's character is completely made up, though he was loosely based on French
05:12Guard officers involved in an earlier Japanese war.
05:21The Last Samurai also completely misunderstands and, or oversimplifies, the factors that caused
05:26the rebellion.
05:27It's difficult to pick a specific scene, since it's all so far from reality.
05:31We decided to choose the ninja attack, since the representation of ninjas is largely fictional.
05:44While ninjas, or more accurately, shinobi, did exist, and were essentially spy samurai,
05:49they were mostly a thing of the past by the Meiji Restoration, and even if they weren't,
05:54they wouldn't have looked anything like they did here.
06:07The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour was a major tragedy, while Michael Bay decided
06:12to turn it into a love story.
06:14Many Pearl Harbour survivors criticised its accuracy.
06:17Veteran Kenneth M Taylor, who appears to have inspired one of the male protagonists, called
06:21it a piece of trash.
06:23The whole attack scene is so far from reality, that the train tickets back would be through
06:27the roof.
06:31For example, the aircraft carriers used by the Japanese in the film were actually being
06:35used by the US Navy.
06:37They also used jet catapults and angled flight decks, which was 50s technology, as in, not
06:43yet invented.
06:46Plus, the US had P-40 planes at the time, but the film uses the P-40M, a plane invented
06:59two years after Pearl Harbour happened.
07:12One of the movie's most famous scenes is when Pocahontas saves John Smith from execution.
07:22The fact is a matter of historical debate.
07:24John Smith's accounts tell us he was never at risk of execution when captured.
07:31Also, Pocahontas would have been about 10 years old at the time, and John Smith would
07:35have been 17 years older.
07:36There isn't any evidence they were ever romantically involved.
07:39It's also a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the Powhatan people.
07:42It sensationalises European colonisation, which makes sense for an American movie.
07:57It avoids discussing the devastating impact colonisation had on indigenous peoples, probably
08:02because it's a kids' movie.
08:03Others argue they should avoid romanticising one of history's most brutal events.
08:20Mel Gibson played the leading role in this American Revolutionary War drama.
08:24Gibson's character was based on four real-life men, including Francis Swamp Fox Marion.
08:29He presents the British as complete monsters, and while they could be cruel, in reality,
08:34Marion and people like him were just as cruel.
08:40His main foe is Colonel Tavington, based on Bannister Tarleton.
08:44Its most controversial scene shows the British locking Americans in a church and burning
08:48it to the ground.
08:57Not a single record exists of the British committing an atrocity to civilians like this
09:01during this conflict.
09:02It villainises them to a cartoonish degree, yet such tactics would have been considered
09:07abhorrent by themselves.
09:24This was one of the most famous battles in history, fought between a Greek alliance led
09:27by the Spartans against the Persian Empire in 480 BC.
09:32Approximately 7,000 soldiers, with Leonidas at their helm, defended the pass of Thermopylae.
09:36Here, they faced off between 120,000 and 300,000 Persians, and held their ground.
09:48Zack Snyder's 300 depicts there being only 300 Greek soldiers present, all Spartans,
09:53which is clearly very off.
10:02Of course, we have to acknowledge that the film is based on Frank Miller's comic book
10:05limited series, but the seeming demonisation of the Persians isn't something we cannot
10:09mention.
10:10On a lighter note, the Spartans would not have had access to slow-motion technology,
10:13and would have fought entirely at regular speeds.
10:39Braveheart.
10:49Even to someone with only the most basic knowledge of Scottish history, Braveheart will feel
10:53like complete nonsense.
10:55It decimates accuracy in favour of making Mel Gibson look like a cool Scottish warrior.
11:04They wear tartan, centuries before it was common, and paint their faces blue about a
11:08millennium after it was popular.
11:10It's tough to pick only one scene for inaccuracy, but we decided on the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
11:15How come?
11:16Well, for a start, there isn't even a single bridge in the scene.
11:27As the name suggests, significant parts of the battle were fought on a thin bridge, with
11:32only enough room for a couple of horses.
11:35The battle tactics depicted were also very inaccurate.
11:37Show this film to a Scotsman or a historian, and they will be seething within seconds.
11:44So which historical scene made you the angriest for its lack of accuracy?
11:48Let us know in the comments below.