For as long as cinema has existed, there have beenwar moviesgetting the facts wrong about real historical conflicts. Whendepicting battles on the big screen, filmmakers have a lot of tough decisions to make when balancing entertainment value with the cold, hard facts of what actually occurred. In the process of adapting wartime stories for the big screen, a lot of the nuances of the historical account can be lost, and plenty ofportrayals of World War II, the Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East have received significant criticism for straying too far from the truth.
While not every moviebased on true eventsneeds to be completely accurate, when depicting warfare, it’s important to get the facts right, as audiences may misinterpret films as totally true accounts if not otherwise stated.Some war movies were so historically inaccurate that political figures and world leaders spoke against themas dishonoring the legacy and actions of genuine veterans. Although it’s easy to simply accept what you see on screen as the true story, these inaccurate war movies prove it’s important to question and research what’s presented to you on film.
9Braveheart (1995)
Directed by Mel Gibson
Today, it’s impossible to speak about the Scottish warrior William Wallace without audiences conjuring the image of Mel Gibson passionately shouting, “Freedom!” However, althoughBraveheartmay have been a compelling war drama, itsdepiction of the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of Englandwas marred by inaccuracies. Described byThe Sunday Timesas one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever made,Bravehearttraded pretty much the entire true historical account in favor of an epic adventure.
Braveheartgot so much wrong that even the characters featured in the film don’t even fully make sense. While Gibson’s love interest, Queen Isabella, was a real historical figure, during the time the movie was set, she would have been just two years old. With criticisms toward the events, dates, characters, names, and clothes shown on screen, anyone looking to learn the actual facts of William Wallace’s legacy should steer clear ofBraveheartand read a book instead.
8The Green Berets (1968)
Directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg
There’s no such thing as a non-political war movie, and when depicting genuine conflicts, that comes with a responsibility to deliver a film that at least tries to be historically accurate.The Green Beretswas an example of a movie that totally failed this responsibility and cannot be seen as anything other than pro-war, anti-communist propaganda designed to help combat the American public’s growing opposition to the Vietnam War. While this John Wayne movie did well at the box office, its depiction of the Americans as unquestionably good while the Viet Cong were shown as totally evil was not accurate.
The Green Beretswas a prime example of a movie made to sway public opinion and was produced while the Vietnam War was still ongoing. With this context in mind, the film focuses on a purely American point of view, with the opposing Vietnamese soldiers depicted as depraved murderers without any sense of empathy. By depicting complex political events without any respect for the nuances of ideology that informed the war,The Green Beretstotally ignored the colonial history of Vietnamand the motivations of the Viet Cong.
7Windtalkers (2002)
Directed by John Woo
Nicolas Cage reunited with theFace/Offdirector John Woo for a storybased on code talkers from the Navajo Nation during World War IIcalledWindtalkers. Navajo Native Americans played an important role in many battles against the Japanese, as they could use their little-known tribal languages as a form of secret communication, but Woo’s movie was more concerned with focusing on the heroics of the white American soldier played by Cage than it was with acting as a tribute to the genuine code talkers.
Woo himself commented on the backlash toWindtalkers(viaVulture) and said that he wanted to make a story about “friendship and understanding,” but the studio “wanted a John Wayne movie” with “explosions every few minutes.” He said the film was initially supposed to be released in 2001, but this was delayed due to 9/11 and the studio’s viewpoint being that “the enemy has to be destroyed.” It seemsWindtalkerswas yet another example of war movies made in the direct aftermath of 9/11 being swallowed up by the all-consuming nature of that world-changing event.
6Battle Of The Bulge (1965)
Directed by Ken Annakin
The actual Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during the Second World War and a surprise attack that stands as the third-deadliest campaign in American history. While Ken Annakin’s epic war movieBattle of the Bulgewas made to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the genuine battle, it was a highly fictionalized account that failed to depict the truth of the events accurately.
Battle of the Bulge
Cast
A dramatization of Nazi Germany’s final Western Front counterattack of World War II.
As a major battle that stretched across parts of Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg and lasted nearly a month,Battle of the Bulgeattempted to condense all of this into under three hours and in the process got a lot wrong. From the terrain that soldiers found themselves on to the truth of the actual battle conditions, there’s very little the film actually got right.Even the chronology of the battle was swapped around to maximize the dramatic effect, and the movie contains virtually no portrayals of actual senior Allied leaders, civilians, or military.
5Enemy At The Gates (2001)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Enemy at the Gateswas a highly fictionalized account of events surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad, which focused on the snipers' duel between the Soviet Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law) and the German Major Erwin König (Ed Harris.) As an interesting study of the Eastern Front during World War II, whileEnemy at the Gatesoffered a different perspective to what’s normally seen in movies about the Second World War, it was brought down by major historical inaccuracies.
From the incorrect portrayal of Vasily, wartime developments, and even a map containing a modern depiction of Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries as independent states, these blatant mistakes were impossible to ignore.Enemy at the Gatesalso implied Switzerland and Turkey were invaded by Nazi Germany and misrepresented the role of blocking detachments in the Red Army. For all the things that were good aboutEnemy at the Gates, it’s pretty astounding that a mainstream movie was able to make it to theaters with this many glaring mistakes.
4Red Tails (2012)
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
As the final Lucasfilm production before it was acquired by Disney,Red Tailswas a personal project for executive producer George Lucas, who first began developing the film back in 1988. Telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War,Red Tailstold a highly fictionalized account of the 332d Fighter Group and the racism and discrimination they faced. While many believed the film to be historically accurate, surviving Tuskegee Airmen members Colonel Charles McGee and Colonel Harold Brown hosted webinars exploring the movie’s interpretation.
Through a series of online events titled “Tuskegee Airman Webinars – ‘Was the Movie Accurate’?,” McGee and Brown explored inaccuracies relating to the number of losses suffered by bomber crews under escort, the encounters with Luftwaffe jet fighters, and the overall record established by the Tuskegee Airmen. With many conflicting accounts, it was clear thatRed Tailswas not an accurate portrayal and got many important details wrong. While those involved inRed Tailshad good intentions to depict the underappreciated endeavors of Black soldiersin WWII, it did so at the expense of the real historical record.
3Pearl Harbor (2001)
Directed by Michael Bay
While Michael Bay’s war dramaPearl Harborwas a major box office success, it also presented a heavily fictionalized version of the real attack on Pearl Harbor and appeared more interested in mimicking the romantic disaster appeal ofTitanicthan in telling a historical story. With major historical license being taken, plenty of real World War II survivors dismissed the movie as grossly inaccurate and as Hollywood shamelessly mining wartime tragedy for financial gain.
Pearl Harborwas notable for getting basic facts about WWII wrong, as it depicted the Battle of Britain as still happening in 1941 despite it ending the year before, it switched out the real Air Force pilots for fictional soldiers played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, and almost everything shown about the Doolittle Raid was inaccurate. Even the actions of President Roosevelt in the aftermath of the attack did not match the real historical account, making almost every aspect of this war movie entirely fictitious.
2U-571 (2000)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
The inaccuracies ofU-571were so egregious that the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair actually spoke out against it (viaBBC), calling it an “affront" to the British sailors who were killed during the Battle of the Atlantic. As a World War II submarine movie,U-571told a fictional story about Americans boarding a German submarine to capture an Enigma cipher machine in a depiction that many felt erased the genuine heroic actions of British Navy officers.
By swapping out the actions of real British soldiers for Americans,U-571effectively made it appear as though the United States was responsible for one of the most significant wartime events to occur at sea, while ignoring the British-planned and executed action. Instead,U-571shamelessly swapped out nationalities and took credit for something it had no right to.
1The Hurt Locker (2008)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow’sThe Hurt Lockerwas an astounding surprise success that earned six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Asthe story of an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal teamand their highly stressful work environment, while the film was an anxiety-inducing depiction of pure tension, it also received plenty of criticism from experts and veterans for its inaccurate portrayal of wartime conditions. With incorrect uniforms, a lack of radio communication, or the misbehavior of the soldiers (viaHuffPost), there was a lot that the movie just got plain wrong.
As a nail-biting thriller that tapped into America’s post-9/11 fears in the wake of major conflicts in the Middle East,The Hurt Locker’sscreenwriter Mark Boal based the script on his own experiences as a journalist embedded with troops and bomb squads in Iraq. Despite Boal’s credentials, veterans described aspects of thiswar movieas absurd and said that the soldiers' actions did not align with operations in Iraq.
