Movie Distress

[ancarett]

Historians really shouldn't watch historical movies. They always end badly as we rip up the unbelievable bits, the incredible ignorance or the anachronism piled on anachronism. If it isn't the costume (the English and Americans can't do costume dramas to save their lives), it's the timeline or the tactics or something

Comments

[morwen_peredhil]

I still haven't recovered from Braveheart.

[ancarett]

You don't want to know how many hours of my life have been devoted to refuting the idiocy that was Braveheart. . . .

[rhi_silverflame]

Ah yes, my classicist friend jdm314 is the same way with anything involving ancient Roman and Greek history. I know, 'cause he bitches to me. ;)

[ancarett]

It's just especially annoying when I have non-historian friends who get all dewy-eyed over one of these productions and I can't suspend my disbelief long enough to join in. I'm all "well, where's the bloody chainshot, then?" or "WTF: that dress is thirty years ahead of the era!" and then I spoil their fun. . . .

[ozreison]

I have an English/History split major. You wouldn't believe the angst I have over a huge number of movies... ;)

[ancarett]

I can believe it, although, oddly "Shakespeare in Love" didn't make me half so upset as all of these historical epics -- it's the lack of historical pretense in a romantic comedy such as that that makes all the difference.

[ozreison]

I have the nasty habit of expecting historical accuracy, a plot, characterisation, imagery.... and then people wonder why I hardly ever watch anything. ;)

In fact, I am not sure if I even saw Shakespeare in Love. I must have. But I don't remember. Bad enough I'm picky, but when I can't even remember what littke I've seen... gah!

[jinjre]

Iagoe had to keep telling me "It's just a movie!" while we watched the Sharpe's Rifles series of movies. I'd say things like "they didn't have shovels like that!" or "they only had cannon balls, they weren't incindiary!" or "you can't fire a black powder rifle accurately from your hip" or any other number of things which just totally make me cringe!

And don't even get me started on the societal wrongs shown in movies. Incorrect addresses, women in places they wouldn't be allowed. Oy vey!

[ancarett]

Mike and I snark together -- it's a bonding experience. I know what you mean about the repeated annoyances in everything from technical details to social mores: addressing a duchess as "Duchess" makes me positively ill.

[adafrog]

So how do you address a Duchess?

I don't have the problem with time periods, but sometimes I really hate watching scenes with medical stuff. That, and some horse stuff (like some of the new Zorro movie) makes me shiver.

[ancarett]

The traditional mode of address for a British duchess since at least the sixteenth century is "Your Grace"