Based on a true story debate
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Filmmakers Manipulate History? So Did Shakespeare!
Robert B. Toplin!
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Robert Brent Toplin is a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina,
Wilmington, and teaches at the University of Virginia. His books include "Reel History: In
Defense of Hollywood" and "History by Hollywood."!
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September 3, 2013!
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When a movie excites debate because it deals with real people or historical events, critics often blast the filmmakers for manipulating evidence, leaving out important details, and inventing characters and situations. They complain that history from Hollywood is not “accurate.”!
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This is a silly argument based on inappropriate comparisons between standards of writing used by journalists and historians and the standards of presentation on stage and screen applied by dramatists and filmmakers. Because cinematic historians must communicate brief but entertaining and understandable stories, they usually exercise a good deal of artistic license.!
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Cinematic historians exercise a good deal of artistic license because they make stories entertaining and understandable. !
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Filmmakers compress time, collapse several figures into a few principal characters, and imagine dialogue when the historical record is inadequate. Kathryn Bigelow, director of "Zero Dark
Thirty," explained that her story had to represent 10 years of the intelligence work on Osama bin
Laden in just two and a half hours. The movie’s central character, Maya (played by Jessica
Chastain) is modeled on a specific female analyst, but Maya’s activities also symbolize the work of hundreds of intelligence professionals.!
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Obviously, cinematic historians manipulate their stories (as did Shakespeare in his dramas about English kings and James Michener in several history-oriented novels). In filmmaking these dramatic liberties are taken for storytelling effect, and they do not necessarily reduce the production’s value.!
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For
!
!
Filmmakers Manipulate History? So Did Shakespeare!
Robert B. Toplin!
!
Robert Brent Toplin is a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina,
Wilmington, and teaches at the University of Virginia. His books include "Reel History: In
Defense of Hollywood" and "History by Hollywood."!
!
September 3, 2013!
!
When a movie excites debate because it deals with real people or historical events, critics often blast the filmmakers for manipulating evidence, leaving out important details, and inventing characters and situations. They complain that history from Hollywood is not “accurate.”!
!
This is a silly argument based on inappropriate comparisons between standards of writing used by journalists and historians and the standards of presentation on stage and screen applied by dramatists and filmmakers. Because cinematic historians must communicate brief but entertaining and understandable stories, they usually exercise a good deal of artistic license.!
!
Cinematic historians exercise a good deal of artistic license because they make stories entertaining and understandable. !
!
Filmmakers compress time, collapse several figures into a few principal characters, and imagine dialogue when the historical record is inadequate. Kathryn Bigelow, director of "Zero Dark
Thirty," explained that her story had to represent 10 years of the intelligence work on Osama bin
Laden in just two and a half hours. The movie’s central character, Maya (played by Jessica
Chastain) is modeled on a specific female analyst, but Maya’s activities also symbolize the work of hundreds of intelligence professionals.!
!
Obviously, cinematic historians manipulate their stories (as did Shakespeare in his dramas about English kings and James Michener in several history-oriented novels). In filmmaking these dramatic liberties are taken for storytelling effect, and they do not necessarily reduce the production’s value.!
!
For