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Historic Mistakes in Films Quiz
8 years ago
Hollywood has never let truth stand in the way of a good story, so they have a reputation for playing fast and loose with history. Here's a chance for you historians to get even.
Because there are often multiple mistakes in any given "historic" movie, I'm going to concentrate on one particular character in each film.
1) "Gladiator" 2000 - Commodus - Joaquin Phoenix: In the movie, Commodus killed his father, usurped the throne, fought as a gladiator, and his assassination resulted in the restoration of the Republic and many following years of peace. Is any of this true?
2) "Hidalgo" 2004 - Frank Hopkins - Viggo Mortensen: In the movie, Hopkins is a renown long-distance rider whose unfortunate involvement with the US Cavalry causes him to be partly culpable for the massacre at Wounded Knee. This results in his becoming an alcoholic who seeks redemption, of a sort, in entering a race in Arabia called the "Ocean of Fire". A race he ultimately won riding a pinto mustang named Hidalgo. How much of this is true?
3) "Patton" 1970 - Gen George Patton - George C Scott: A fair amount of care was taken to "get things right" while creating this film. Aside from substitutions in locale necessitated by circumstance, what is historically wrong with this movie?
4) "The Adventures of Robin Hood" 1938 - King Richard - Ian Hunter: This character is represented in a lot of Robin Hood dramas as the ideal king, I just happened to pick the classic one. In this film, King Richard goes off on Crusade, leaving his younger brother Prince John in charge. Richard, unaware of John's tyrannical behavior, eventually returns to England and sets things to rights, including restoring Robin of Locksley's title and lands. Is any of this true?
5) "Tombstone" 1993 - Johnny Ringo - Michael Biehn: This film has a number of historical problems, including the inclusion of a love story that is greatly fictionalized, but I've chosen to concentrate on a relatively minor character simply because the film treatment of Johnny Ringo is symptomatic of how Hollywood bends history. In the film, Johnny Ringo is depicted as a cold-blooded psychopath who is so frighteningly violent, Wyatt Earp is hesitant to confront him. To spare him the necessity of doing so, Doc Holliday confronts Ringo and shoots him. Is any of this true?
6) "Becket" 1964 - King Henry II of England- Pete O'Toole: In the film, Henry II is lusty, aggressive, womanizing king whose best friend is the Saxon Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor. When the post of archbishop in Canterbury becomes vacant, Henry II appoints Becket, assuming Becket will promote Henry's best interests when they conflict with those of the Church. Becket sides with the Church, sending Henry into a rage. In a drunken stupor, Henry asks "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest...?" His drinking buddies --various knights and lords in his employ-- hear this and assume it's a request for Becket's assassination. They kill Becket, resulting in his martyrdom, and Henry is finally forced to accept penance to quell growing political unrest. How much of this is true?
Because there are often multiple mistakes in any given "historic" movie, I'm going to concentrate on one particular character in each film.
1) "Gladiator" 2000 - Commodus - Joaquin Phoenix: In the movie, Commodus killed his father, usurped the throne, fought as a gladiator, and his assassination resulted in the restoration of the Republic and many following years of peace. Is any of this true?
2) "Hidalgo" 2004 - Frank Hopkins - Viggo Mortensen: In the movie, Hopkins is a renown long-distance rider whose unfortunate involvement with the US Cavalry causes him to be partly culpable for the massacre at Wounded Knee. This results in his becoming an alcoholic who seeks redemption, of a sort, in entering a race in Arabia called the "Ocean of Fire". A race he ultimately won riding a pinto mustang named Hidalgo. How much of this is true?
3) "Patton" 1970 - Gen George Patton - George C Scott: A fair amount of care was taken to "get things right" while creating this film. Aside from substitutions in locale necessitated by circumstance, what is historically wrong with this movie?
4) "The Adventures of Robin Hood" 1938 - King Richard - Ian Hunter: This character is represented in a lot of Robin Hood dramas as the ideal king, I just happened to pick the classic one. In this film, King Richard goes off on Crusade, leaving his younger brother Prince John in charge. Richard, unaware of John's tyrannical behavior, eventually returns to England and sets things to rights, including restoring Robin of Locksley's title and lands. Is any of this true?
5) "Tombstone" 1993 - Johnny Ringo - Michael Biehn: This film has a number of historical problems, including the inclusion of a love story that is greatly fictionalized, but I've chosen to concentrate on a relatively minor character simply because the film treatment of Johnny Ringo is symptomatic of how Hollywood bends history. In the film, Johnny Ringo is depicted as a cold-blooded psychopath who is so frighteningly violent, Wyatt Earp is hesitant to confront him. To spare him the necessity of doing so, Doc Holliday confronts Ringo and shoots him. Is any of this true?
6) "Becket" 1964 - King Henry II of England- Pete O'Toole: In the film, Henry II is lusty, aggressive, womanizing king whose best friend is the Saxon Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor. When the post of archbishop in Canterbury becomes vacant, Henry II appoints Becket, assuming Becket will promote Henry's best interests when they conflict with those of the Church. Becket sides with the Church, sending Henry into a rage. In a drunken stupor, Henry asks "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest...?" His drinking buddies --various knights and lords in his employ-- hear this and assume it's a request for Becket's assassination. They kill Becket, resulting in his martyrdom, and Henry is finally forced to accept penance to quell growing political unrest. How much of this is true?
2. I think it's believed the entire story is fictional, as its all based on stories told by Hopkins himself and no one can find any corroborating evidence.
3. I think I remember reading there are inaccuracies in the opening speech, but I don't remember. The rest is considered somewhat close, though there are events of his life left out
4. I'm... not sure any of the Robin Hood legend is considered true or has been proven, but I never really researched it lol
5. Don't know about the rest, but This always intrigued me. No one knows the circumstances around his death. he was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head among some trees. Earp and Holliday claimed to have killed him and posed it to look like suicide from my understanding
4: The whole Robin Hood thing is bunk. Richard the Feudalmind never even set foot in England. Whether Robin Hood is fiction or not.
6: That is how the legend goes. Facts are that four of Henry's knights murdered Becket in the church. The Pope made the very bad mistake of excommunicating the whole nation until Henry did Penance. It taught the English that the Church did not make the rain fall or the crops come in. It frankly set up the English for the break with the Church several Henrys down the road.
2) "Hidalgo" 2004 -The race occured, but that's about it
3) "Patton" 1970 - most of the movie came from a biography by Ladizlaz Farago (sic) and had a few errors. The rivalry between Monty and Patton may have been a bit overstated in the movie,
4) "The Adventures of Robin Hood" 1938 - King Richard - Richard the Lionhearted Died on his return and never returned to England.
5) "Tombstone" 1993 - The best analysis of Tombstone, so far = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvvNRx0riOE
6) "Becket" 1964 - I assumed a fair amount of it was true, but that certain events and people were shuffled around. Not up on the current scholarship.
Patton never defied orders in order to take Palermo, his orders were to capture it if at all possible.
He did berate a soldier he thought was suffering from battle fatigue, (what we would now call PTSD), in contradiction of what was already known about how to treat those suffering from it¹. What the movie leaves out that the man was actually sick with yellow fever and that Patton was mad at himself once he found out.
1: To be honest, the British had largely figured it out in WWI.
2. I have no idea
3. Rommel and Patton never faced-off on the battlefield. And, according to Patton's family, the Patton of the film wasnt a big enough of an asshole.
4. Richard did go off on crusade. The truth of Robin of Loxley is in much contention. Richard never managed to return to England, dying on the way back. I believe Prince John's rule is accurate, which, I think, ends with the Magna Carta.
5. I'm not sure on the details of Ringo's life, sadly. I want to say he was shot at the O.K. Corall or in the aftermath when the Earps and Doc went after the rest of the gang.
6. That one, I think, is actually true!
This is all off the top of my head with no looking stuff up :D
Richard eventually returned to england to get to terms with John, but not because Robin helped ferret him out on Castle Trifels; that is too, a nice legend.
Another odd fact: of Peter O'Toole's (arguably) three best performances, those three are historical figures and two are even the same man? T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and Henry II in both Becket and The Lion In Winter...
He was assassinated in his bath by a gladiator.
2. I am unfamiliar with the story behind Hidalgo, so cannot answer this one.
3. Been too long since I watched it, so my memory isn't fresh on the accuracies, beyond the fact that George C scott is a tall and robust man, and the real general Patton was short and fairly scrawny.
4. There is no historical evidence for the existence of a "Robin of Locksley". No birth, death or title records with this name have ever been found, despite considerable research for more than a century. The person Robin Hood may have been invented by Sir Walter Scott for his novel "Ivanhoe".
5. Johnny Ringo was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head. It may have been suicide, but more likely was murder. It is one of the west's great unsolved mysteries.
6. Most of the events in Beckett are true. Thomas Becket was a drinking buddy of Henry's, and Henry made him archbishop because he thought Becket would become a faithful pet. But Thomas Becket actually had a change of heart as the enormity of the title began to weigh on him, and became truly pious and began to oppose Henry.
The murder was a genuine surprise for Henry, and he submitted himself for real penance in grief after his friend's death.
Thomas Becket became Saint Thomas a' becket, and is still considered one of the most tragic and heroic martyrs in England's history. (The movie is one of my favorites, by the way.)
-Badger-