LL-L "Media images" 2002.04.30 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 30.APR.2002 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: erek gass <egass at caribline.com>
Subject: LL-L "Media images" 2002.04.29 (05) [E]

Though it seldom deals with language (is it astonishing that movie
characters use language the audience easily understands?), the HISTORY
CHANNEL (an American cable TV channel) has compared a number of movies
to actual events.  They gave the movie, Braveheart, praise in some
areas, noted some rather transparent flaws (e.g., the Battle of Sterling
Bridge had no bridge in the movie), noted the loose accounting of time,
and bypasses of whole periods of time (e.g., when Wallace was an envoy
in France).  Then they iterated the reality of a movie made for
entertainment, and pure history -- history isn't always interesting --
there are times when nothing important is happening!

While American productions may be a little looser with accuracy than the
British filmmakers allow, I don't believe that Americans should bear the
full brunt of criticism for replacing pure history with invention for
entertainment's sake.  The movie, "Cromwell", about England's great
advocate of representative democracy, Oliver Cromwell, was, I believe a
British project.  It took vast liberties with actual fact from the
opening to the closing (as a student of the period, I could go on and
on).  But as a "character study" of the man, I think it portrays him
well.  Often, actual history takes a back seat to amusement, and those
watching need to realise this in advance.  Audiences need to relate to
the portrayals or they won't bother to see the movie at all.  We
shouldn't expect much more out of movies than titillation and
entertainment -- real education in history will come from studyingand
evaluating the actual sources the moviemakers themselves used (and
abused) rather than accepting a loose entertainment as actual
history.

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