Questions tagged [historical-accuracy]
Questions about the precise conformity of events or characters portrayed in films or TV shows to real figures/events.
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Was the absence of black people in Jacques Tati's Play Time normal at that time and just a reflection on social norms of Paris?
The movie Play Time by director Jacques Tati is generally regarded to be his masterpiece. However one thing that a kind of puzzled me is that there were absolutely no black people in the movie besides ...
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Why is Burt Munro still the 1000cc record holder, 60+ years later?
In the movie The World's Fastest Indian, New Zealander Burt Munro set a record of 200 mph on his Indian bike. This record has stood for 60 years in the under 1000cc category.
I'm curious about the ...
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Is the depiction of a corrupt and murderous 16th-century ruler of Japan in "Shōgun" based on historical facts?
In the 2024 miniseries Shōgun (Season 1, Episode 5, "Broken to the Fist"), there's a scene where Lady Mariko reveals that she was the daughter of the late Lord Akechi Jinsai. She mentions ...
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Did the "Killers of the Flower Moon" train station brawl scene have any deeper historical context or significance?
Early on in the movie Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), there's this scene right after Ernest Burkhart (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) arrives at a train station in the Osage Nation Reservation in ...
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What was the last work to feature the World Trade Center as actual footage instead of CGI or stock footage?
I was watching the 1998 Godzilla with my youngest when he remarked, "hey, it's WTC!" as the towers appeared in the background.
This got me wondering, what was the last work produced that ...
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Is the scene of PM Indira Gandhi calling an IRS officer in Raid fictionalized or real?
In Raid, there is a scene in which Indira Gandhi calls to look for other legal options and the officer asks for a written order, because he pointed out it could be anyone calling with the PM’s voice.
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How historically accurate is the climactic briefing scene in Downfall?
Despite the usual number of goofs and some controversy about its historical accuracy, the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang) is generally acknowledged to contain many authentic parts. Various ...
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Why do English ealdormen put money onto a cloth to seal their oath?
Around 26:20 of the episode 7 of Vikings Vallhala, we see the English ealdormen sealing their conspiration against King Canute and the Vikings by throwing pieces of silver onto a piece of cloth. Then ...
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Who's who in the Oranienburg scenes in "The Zone of Interest"?
Towards the end of Jonathan Glazer's film The Zone of Interest (2023), there are a few scenes that take place in a building (or buildings) among senior officials managing the KL system. I'm curious ...
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Why is this expletive used in "300: Rise of an Empire", considering the movie's historical setting predates the term's documented emergence? [closed]
According to the Wikipedia article on the etymology of the word "fuck":
it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475
With this in mind, why is that word used in 300: Rise ...
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What is the painting J. Paul Getty buys in 'All the Money in the World'?
In Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World", J. Paul Getty forks a sizable chunk of money for a painting instead of paying his grandson's ransom. To me, the painting looked like Raphael's Madonna ...
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Reason Behind Napoleon's Divorce in Ridley Scott's Movie: Historical Accuracy?
I recently watched Ridley Scott's film about Napoleon and was intrigued by a particular plot point - Napoleon's divorce. The film seemed to suggest that his divorce was influenced by restrictions on ...
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How acurate are depictions of reservation life in the Disney+ series Reservation Dogs?
With the obvious exception of scenes depicting the paranormal and the deliberately outlandish, does the Disney+\FX series Reservation Dogs show an accurate depiction of life on a Native reservation in ...
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Did Napoleon really personally charge into battles?
In the new movie, Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott; we see Napoleon personally leading his men into battle during the siege of Toulon (as a captain), the battle of Borodino (as the Emperor), the ...
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Did Native American fighters really manage to sneak up to European trappers by climbing / jumping trees?
In the movie, The Revenant, Hugh and his group of trappers were ambushed by Native Americans after a fruitful pelt hunt.
There was at least one Native American fighter who had climbed onto a tree and ...
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What was the significance of the necklace?
At the end of the movie, when Leonidas knows he is going to die, he tells Dilios to go back and tell everybody what happened. He also takes some sort of braid or string out of the back of his hair and ...
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Is it true that average people treated Bonnie and Clyde as if they were heroes?
In the movie The Highwaymen, Bonnie and Clyde were surrounded by bystanders in a city and people were waving at them as if they were movie stars.
Is this historically accurate?
The narrative is that ...
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Is it common to see diversity of backgrounds shown in locations where You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah takes place?
It seemed the people who went to the religous school came from diverse backgrounds. Is this common? Like is it representative of the percentages that would normally occur?
For reference, as Sarah ...
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Did the father in Missing (1982) feel he was to blame somewhat in real life?
At the end of the movie, the American officials state that they are just protecting business interests, and that he was a businessman himself. Did the father in real life feel he was at least ...
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Did John Glenn really ask for that?
In Hidden Figures when John Glenn's rocket was about to be launched into space there was some uncertainty regarding the calculation results provided by IBM 7090. Al Harrison was discussing this with ...
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Why do the cast of Excalibur (1981) have full plated armor when that didn't exist back then?
Why do the cast of Excalibur (1981) have full plated armor when that didn't exist back then?
Is this due to stereotypes about King Arthur and knights in shining armor? This was supposed to take place ...
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Were the dancing scenes in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies period accurate?
The 2016 feature film Pride and Prejudice and Zombies contains a number of scenes depicting dancing, most notable the ball at the Bingley's manor house where the Parson dances claps hands with his ...
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In Vietnam, did U.S. combat aviators ever wear camouflage flight suits?
In Flight of the Intruder (1991), LCDR Virgil Cole (Willem Dafoe) wears a tigerstripe† flight suit. Though I have seen lots of photographs of U.S. aviators during the Vietnam War, I had never seen a ...
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What is Wakko wearing in the "about the 90s" part of the "Catch Up Song" in the 2020 Animaniacs reboot?
In the first episode of the 2020 Animaniacs reboot, the Warner siblings sing a song about what happened between 1996 (when the last episode took place) and 2017 (when the reboot was being written). At ...
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Was Freemasonry such a big problem in 1980s UK policing?
One of the themes of The Gold is that the police of 1983 have many members in influential Masonic lodges, and that this played a role in protecting some criminals and also corrupt police. The main ...
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How historically accurate is Outlander?
Caveat: OBVIOUSLY I'm NOT asking if the idea of a time-travelling 20th century Lady is accurate ;)
How historically accurate is the TV show Outlander?
I'm thinking specifically of its depiction of ...
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Why are there Hawaiians in First Cow?
First Cow is set in the Oregon frontier in 1820. In one part of the movie, one of the main characters, Cookie, passes out from a head injury and is rescued by a man and woman speaking a non-English ...
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Inter-enemy/opponent/stranger chitchat in True Grit -- is this found in other westerns?
NOTE although I have said this in comments already: The Coen brothers are not responsible for this dialog: it is in the original book and movie.
To me an extremely striking feature of the movie True ...
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Is the portrayal of people of color in Enola Holmes movies historically accurate?
In the recent Enola Holmes movies, some characters are played by people-of-color actors who appear to have social standings similar to those of white people. Does this portrayal of non-white people in ...
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Did Sean Parker tell Mark Zuckerberg to drop the "The"?
As depicted at about the 1 hour 11 minute mark of The Social Network (2010), Sean Parker — co-founder of Napster, and an early investor in and later the first President of Facebook — tells Mark ...
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How accurately does the 2009 movie "City of Life and Death" depict the actual Japanese victory march of Nanking in 1937?
From the 2009 film City of Life and Death, footage of the Japanese victory march of Nanking in 1937 can be found here on YouTube.
I was just wondering, how accurately does the movie depict the actual ...
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What's the relation of FDR and Wilson to War on Terror/terrorism?
In House of Cards, Frank Underwood brings up FDR and Wilson when saying that he wants to declare war on ICO (fictional terrorist group possibly related to ISIS). What's the relation please? I mean, ...
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Is the scene from Rush where Niki Lauda meets his future wife really the way it happened?
A cursory search on the internet points to a few truth vs fact points about the movie "Rush", but none of them addresses the popular scene where Niki Lauda meets and wins over his future ...
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Why would U boats even try to torpedo a Fletcher-class destroyer?
Some US Navy veteran — I cannot remember the name — chided Greyhound 2020, because it's unrealistic that U boats would even attempt to torpedo a US Navy WWII destroyer.
But Retired US Navy Admiral ...
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What culture is Xerxes' attire in 300 actually based on?
It's well known that 300 took a number of creative liberties in its visual depictions of characters, and especially that Xerxes looked pretty much nothing like the historical Xerxes. However, movie ...
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Is it historically true that Ip Man beat a Japanese General in a martial-art match?
In the film Ip Man (2008), Ip Man fights Japanese Army general Miura in a martial arts match and beats him.
Is that incident historically true?
If not, what was the real incident?
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Who is the employee that Steve Jobs fired?
In Jobs (2013) there is a scene whereby Steve Jobs fires an employee for disagreeing with him on "fonts":
Who is the employee who disagreed with Steve Jobs ...
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How realistic were the events in "Conspiracy"?
The 2001 film "Conspiracy" is about the so-called "Final Solution" to the problem of getting rid of Jews as efficiently, cheap, and fast as possible in Nazi Germany. Many hotshots ...
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Is the beard on Toshiro Mifune's samurai characters an exception?
I'm not sure whether historically samurai — members of the Japanese warrior caste — were supposed to always be clean-shaven or not. But I seem to recall that samurai characters in film are mostly ...
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Why did Spielberg use fictional characters (informants Louis and Papa) in Munich
Background to the Movie
Steven Spielberg has said, that the Munich is about vengeance, regret and dilemmas one faces when making hard personal decisions, while visualising empathy and human ...
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Japanese Americans serving during WW2
In the original "Karate Kid", during the scene when Mr. Miyagi is drunk and talking about his wife, he mentions that she was in an internment camp when she died. It seems strange that the ...
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Deliberate miscalibration of shells in Schindler's List -- did this happen in real life?
Schindler explicitly tells iirc Stern (Ben K's character) that he knows the shells won't work and that he in fact wants this. This strikes me as unlikely for two reasons: one, the immense risk of ...
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Why does Brigitte Mohnhaupt deliberately destroy the execution myth and how accurate is her closing dialogue?
At the very end of The Baader Meinhof Complex, after the efforts for pressing the RAF leaders free have failed and they thus commited suicide in Stammheim prison, Brigitte Mohnhaupt speaks to the next ...
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Why was Charlie Chan talking about the US in WWII 3 months before Pearl Harbor?
In the final scene in Charlie Chan in Rio, released in September, 1941, Jimmy Chan gets drafted into the US army. He moans about having a war on his hands but brags that with him in the army, "...
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Could Crocodile Dundee have a Bowie knife in NY
When Mick Dundee first arrived in NY, he went for a walk carrying a Bowie knife on his belt. After a mounted policeman brought him back to his hotel, he gave Mick his knife back.
After that scene, ...
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Is the Entertainment Weekly article real?
The titular character in The Great Buck Howard (2008) is based on The Amazing Kreskin. In a pivotal moment in the story, Buck Howard passes out after discovering he had been mocked in the pages of ...
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What is the connection between Ragnar from Vikings and Ragnar from The Last Kingdom?
The popular History series Vikings is run by Ragnar Lothbrok, the main character who is a Viking that set his eyes on England. Vikings is inspired by historical events. In The Last Kingdom we follow ...
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Does mutiny and ship ownership make any sense for pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean?
Jack Sparrow complains of the mutiny against him and the taking of his ship, but who enforces him being captain or ownership of the ship, if not the crew itself? So why would he talk in such terms?
I'...
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In 1917, would a British Army Colonel truly have told a Lance Corporal to "fuck off"?
At 2:07 of this clip from the 2019 movie 1917, Colonel MacKenzie (of the Second Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment), whose "decorations indicate he's a veteran of the Boer War as well", ...
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Why did King Henry V have Cambridge and Grey’s heads cut off?
In Netflix movie The King (2019), what mistakes have Cambridge and Grey made to have King Henry V have their heads cut off? Wikipedia article on this movie didn't give me clear explanation on this.
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