Mulan
History does not just exist in the past ; it also shapes the nowadays . Every meter citizenry stress to depict historical events , the way such result are present influences duologue and understandings of current events . This is why it is important that movie bookish employ their platforms responsibly .
Unfortunately , the one matter coherent about historical picture is how ahistorical they can be . Sometimes these changes are benign attempts to heighten the drama or make a simpler narrative . However , sure flick misrepresent the past in ways that can be dangerous .
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Birth of a Nationglorifies the Ku Klux Klan as the salvation of ( white ) American virtuousness . It was the first film ever shown in the White House , and the flick ’s racist propaganda inspired M ofAmericans to show their nationalism by connect the KKK . The film ( in)famously evidence a Black character ( played by a white-hot histrion in blackface ) who preys on a white-hot woman , then heroically frames the KKK for lynch this man .
Its word picture of the Civil War and the result Reconstruction are inaccurate , especially the ahistorical “ Lost Cause ” reinterpretation of the American South and its motivations for sparking the American Civil War . Beyond its glory of white supremacist terrorists , The Birth of a Nationperpetuates the racist stereotype that Black human being are sexually more crimson , which continues to contribute to today ’s prejudice against African - Americans in the form of lynching , mass imprisonment , and more .
Anonymous (2011)
Every so often , a hypothesis emerges that William Shakespeare might not have author his plays . Some scholarly person conceive his wife assisted him , while others claim his friend - turned - rival Kit Marlowe co - wrote some productions . This lead to conspiracies that Shakespeare did not writeanyof his drama – conspiracies that are just flat - out 100 % amiss . If only someone told that to the gang working onAnonymous .
Anonymousposits that Edward de Vere , the 17thEarl of Oxford , was the “ literal Shakespeare , ” with William only steal the credit . This theory is not new and has been discredited long before the movie was even greenlit .
The Patriot (2000)
There is nothing remotely historical aboutThe Patriot , besides the weapon system and costumes . Everything from the struggle to the soldiers ' need is so poorly handled that the handwriting should have been load into a cannon and fired at the theater director . What makesThe Patriotparticularly life-threatening is how it reinvents American revolutionary history .
Set in South Carolina , The Patrioterases almost all signs of racial oppression , having only three racist characters despite racism being the era ’s norm . In world , Colonial South Carolina denied exemption to most half its population . The Patriotdenies the universe of these people ’s distress to give up white audiences from these uncomfortable truths . Unsurprisingly , The Patriotwas helmed byAnonymous’directorRoland Emmerich and starred the controversial Mel Gibson , who appears thrice here .
Apocalypto (2006)
Apocalyptowas directed by Mel Gibson , who seemed determined to limn the Maya civilisation as a clustering of bloody-minded homicidal slaver obsess with widespread human sacrifice . Yes , the Mayadidpractice human ritual killing . However , the kind of sacrifices depict here and the scale on which it was exercise are in maintain with the Aztecs , not the Maya . By commingle two different people and cultures , Gibson indicate little regard for the identity of those he is portraying .
Apocalyptoalso ends with the arrival of Spanish ship . While Spanish Conquistadors did pass over out the last the great Maya cities , the vast Maya Empire find out here went into decline a full six centuries earlier .
300 (2006)
The Battle of Thermopylae take place in 480 BCE when a military force of300 Spartans ( and a few thousand other Greeks)held off a heavy Persian army . Modern historiographer believe the Persian army enumerate a few hundred thousand , though the moving-picture show says it was a million - firm . The Spartans were a expectant warrior society and this was one of the great battle of the ancient world . regrettably , white-hot supremacist have used this story of a small group of Europeans fending off Middle Eastern invaders to reinforce their feeling – and300fully adopt this tale .
Here , Persians are show as monstrously deformed while also being an empire comprised of non - Europeans who are gathered in one big shivery strange muckle of barbarians . Their elite fighters , " The Immortals , ” are dehumanized as dark pointy - toothed devil . Their male monarch , Xerxes , is sissified and clear in contrast to the manly and gruff Spartan king Leonidas . In real life , the Persian Empire was a great civilization that outdo the Greeks . Truth be told , the Spartans just take a unattackable defendable locating .
Jud Süß / Süss the Jew (1940)
Jud Süß(orSüss the Jewin English ) is actual Nazi propaganda . The movie is one of three oft - cited model of how the Nazis used film to promote antisemitic falsehoods .
The titular graphic symbol , Süß , is ( very ) loosely base on the historical Jewish courtier Joseph Süß Oppenheimer who serve up Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg . The film slander Süß by portray him as a conniving , lie , manipulative , grabby sneak , and depicts other Jews as rotter - corresponding and filthy . It is impossible to list all of the unsavory anti - Semitic stereotypes here . Just know that Himmler insisted German police and SS members see it .
Mulan (2020)
It is incertain whether there really was a Mulan . Her story is ground on a Hellenic Formosan poem , The Ballad of Hua Mulan , written in the 4 - 6thCentury BCE . As such , it makes no sense that the hot - action remake point her opposing the Invasion of the Rourans in the 4thCentury CE ; almost a millenary after her era . The architecture , wear , weapons , and other element of Chinese culture are drawn from many different regions and geological era , which can perhaps be explain by the screenplay ’s four non - Chinese writers .
However , the ethnical insensitiveness catch past China ’s censors because they wantedMulanfor a more nefarious role : the promotion of the suppression of “ dissidents ” in China . As the moving picture criticAccented Cinema has noted , Mulandoes not end with a message of empowerment , but one of subservience to the emperor and the state . to boot , Mulanactually thanks the Xinjiang security effect ( which are responsible for for the genocidal oppression of the Uighurs ) for helping make the film possible .
Pocahontas (1995)
Disney’sPocahontasattempted to respectfully picture Native American culture . It failed . The historical Powhatan ( recognize to history as Pocahontas ) was a nipper , not a young woman , while John Smith was a gray-haired bearded ex - pirate with a penchant for killing Ottoman Turks .
Pocahontasis a hodgepodge of Native American stereotypes that undertake to soothe white guilt trip by directly equating the Powhatan people and their allied tribes with the bigoted Europeans . In short , Disney tried to turn a narration of child abduction into a romanticism while blaming autochthonal mass for the result genocide that destroy them . But hey , “ Colors of the Wind ” was a catchy call , right ?
Gone with the Wind (1939)
For a long clip , Gone with the Windwas harbinger as one of the great films of cinematic chronicle . unluckily , like many films about the American Civil War and Reconstruction , it draw the events in some baffling ways .
While all the white people are beautiful and kickshaw , their pitch-dark slaves are show as firm and happy prole rather than abused dupe subject to forced labor . There is also a scenery depicting matrimonial rape which has really not maturate well . Similar toThe Birth of a Nation , break down With The Windromanticizes the Civil War - era South , comment over the racism and atrocities practice by the Confederacy before , during and after the war .
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
As he state in interviews , Mel Gibson made this modern - solar day scriptural featureas an look of his religious belief . The histrion speak in Aramaic , the form of Hebrew used during the Roman occupation of Judea , but this does n’t make a moving-picture show historically accurate . While there are numerous films about the sprightliness ( and death ) of Jesus of Nazareth , Gibson ’s pic was based on the knightly Passion play that were used to bring up up antisemitism .
Whether or not Jesus was actual , The Passion of the Christunambiguously blames His death on the Jews . It would seem that Gibson ’s faith ( as presented in the movie ) is less about the kindness and generousness that Jesus taught and more about using grotesquely violent imagery to vilify the Jewish people .
NEXT:10 War Books Too perverted To Be Turned Into photographic film
