The realities of "Historical Movies" and how they are not truly historical or "love triangles."

Essay by SamanthaLynne1983College, Undergraduate November 2003

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Historical Movies: Fact or Fiction

Very few movies that are historically accurate make big money in the theatres. Not many historical events contain enough action and romance to entertain the audience of this generation. The further back in history you go, the less facts you have to work with and the easier it is to fictionalize the event. While the movies Pearl Harbor and Titanic were fairly true to history, Gladiator, Braveheart, and The Patriot wandered closer to works of fiction.

The movie Pearl Harbor is about the historic event of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. While the film shows all the events before, during, and after the Japanese attack, much of the story involves a love triangle between two American servicemen, and a woman. One American (Ben Affleck) joins the British Royal Air Force and is said to have died. The woman falls in love with his friend, the other American serviceman (Josh Harnett).

Later Ben Affleck comes back, and the woman is torn apart. The two servicemen go off in a retaliation attempt against Japan after Pearl Harbor and Josh Harnett dies.

There are many deviations from the truth in this movie such as Affleck joining the British Royal Air Force. In reality, a U.S. serviceman could not join the R.A.F. Also in the movie Admiral Kimmel tried to warn everybody of the attack, but in real life he actually did not believe the reports of an actual attack on Pearl Harbor. In addition, there was no real proof that the people Josh Harnett and Ben Affleck played were actually real people. The history was changed to create more heroic individuals for Americans to relate to and enhanced with a fictional love story to make the event more personal. A more accurate view of...