Historical Accuracy in TV and Film

[The Brain]

It was horrible, bad awful.  It sucked more than the suckiest suck that ever sucked.  It was so bad that my grandfather who had two strokes was watching it and demanded the channel be changed to anything else.  The only redeeming factor that it had was that it ended, but that was an eternity too late.

You understand the cinema.

[DontSayBanana]

Obvious Trojan horse for Turtledove fanwank is obvious (and a mouthful).

The line must be drawn here!

[Eddie Teach]

So obvious that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Ideologue]

I guess he assumes Tim is going to use the opportunity to spring maps upon our unsuspecting eyes.

If so, he's certainly biding his time.  But I guess revenge is dish best served cold.  P.S. First Contact sucks.

[jimmy olsen]

I guess he assumes Tim is going to use the opportunity to spring maps upon our unsuspecting eyes.

If so, he's certainly biding his time.  But I guess revenge is dish best served cold.  P.S. First Contact sucks.

First Contact is awesome! 

[Ideologue]

I think you must be thinking of Contact, the outrageously good Zemeckis film?

[jimmy olsen]

I think you must be thinking of Contact, the outrageously good Zemeckis film?

I agree that that movie is good, but no I am not. I mean what I say.

[Ideologue]

Maybe you mean the episode "First Contact," which was pretty good and didn't involve Picard's first devolution into unbelievable action heroism and Star Trek's worst, most ruinous villain concept, the Borg Queen.

[CountDeMoney]

Maybe you mean the episode "First Contact," which was pretty good and didn't involve Picard's first devolution into unbelievable action heroism and Star Trek's worst, most ruinous villain concept, the Borg Queen.

Nor destroy official Star Trek canon dating to TOS concerning Zephrem Cochrane.

[CountDeMoney]

Barry Lyndon simultaneously plays with common depiction and understanding of the period while also presenting 18th Century Europe in all it's glory. 

Apocalypto got a lot of the specifics wrong, but I think the constant genocide required by Mesoamerican native beliefs was accurately depicted.  It was really neat to get in to the head of a simple hunter-gatherer, never having seen a town, thrown in to a dying city of tens of thousands to be slaughtered for reasons you can't comprehend.

...

The New World is one of my favorite movies of all time, and gets to some of the heady cultural contact of the 17th Century and the Puritanical protoliberal hope of the colonists. 

I love The Leopard.  I have no idea why movies tend to avoid depiction of the mid-19th Century national unifications.  There's a lot of room for drama. 

...
Danton.  Gerard Depardieu's performance is memorable, and it doesn't devolve in to complete hysterical melodrama. 

Agree on all points.  Of the above, Danton is probably my fave.  Pszoniak as Robespierre was superb, and totally nailed everything I've read about his persona and demeanor.

Kingdom of Heaven is a terrible movie.  It gets a lot if the history right, and the combat is accurately depicted as more of bunch of big men in iron shirts pushing shields at eachother, but the Noble Muslim v. Evil Christian bullshit is extremely tiresome, as is the Hitchensy New Atheism of a fucking Crusader.  Also, the "HEY I'M FROM FUCKING NORTHERN FRANCE BUT I'M GOING TO TEACH YOU BROWN SHITS HOW TO BUILD A FUCKING WELL!" scene was retarded.  Deeply, deeply stupid movie, and the extraordinary performance of Eva Green and (especially) Edward Norton are wasted. 

Noble Muslims make me feel all we-are-the-world icky good, and I hate that.  Particularly since they were lobbing off Christian heads like they were going out of style at the time.
Although, Saladin was cool as shit in that flick.

The Tudors just isn't very good.  A man who had one bastard to his name and 6 wives was not going to be fucking outside of marriage all the time.  I also really resent any depiction of Sir Thomas "Burn the fucking Protestants" Moore as a stand-in for Erasmus. 

  What's not to love about that?  And nobody in mouthbreathing TV Land knows who the fuck Erasmus is anyway.  Might as well bitch that Guy Du Faur de Pibrac doesn't ever get enough screen time.

Also, Elizabeth.  Cate Blanchette was great, but I'm really tired of seeing the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the persecution of the local Catholic population as the great destruction of the Spanish Empire.  That's happening on the other side of the channel in the Low Countries.

Just kinda tough to tackle that entire topic.  I thought Helen Mirren was a better Liz, anyway.  I'd have gone down on Her Majesty's carpet in either case.

[Razgovory]

Wasn't Psellus raised Mormon?  I think they are still taught that the Pope is the anti-christ.  Probably explains his antipathy toward More and the Hapsburgs.

[crazy canuck]

I also really resent any depiction of Sir Thomas "Burn the fucking Protestants" Moore as a stand-in for Erasmus. 

You must have really hated A Man for All Seasons

[Siege]

Rob S. Pierre was the leader of the Legislaturist Revolution on the Republic of Haven.

[Ed Anger]

David Weber. 

[grumbler]

David Weber.   

Weber usually starts well in a given series of books, but pretty quickly gets into silliness like "Rob S. Pierre" and a series of deus ex machina developments.