The second part of #stayhome motivation is here. Series could be better than movies in showing long term effects of a disease outbreak; from patient zero to social and economical effects. Big BUT is that there are no series devoted to a real pandemic, only few that use disease to make more drama or support main plot. As in movies, and as mentioned in TOP 5 DISEASES OUTBREAK MOVIES, we are overwhelmed with mindless horror zombie action rather than real stuff. Perhaps, the reality is scarier and less interesting than flesh-eating zombies.
Here are 5 BEST DISEASES OUTBREAK SERIES:
Pandemic: How To Prevent An Outbreak
Netflix docuseries shows people who work on the front lines to battle influenza and stop the next global outbreak. Episodes feature people like doctors in the U.S. and Asia, health care workers in the Congo fighting outbreaks of Ebola, scientists conducting testing on animals, and more. The series also discusses controversial topics like vaccines and anti-vaxxers, religion, prayer, faith, and viral outbreaks around the world.
The Plague (2018) / La peste (original title)
Spanish historical drama television is set in the 16th century Seville during an outbreak of the bubonic plague. If plague and falling of the old world are not enough, there is also and the inquisition.
World Without End (2012)
This eight-episode 2012 television miniseries is based on the novel of the same name by Ken Follett. Beside Black Death, you can see chronicles of the English town of Kingsbridge during the start of the Hundred Years’ War.
Medici (2016- )
One episode of excellent TV series Medici has Plague, aka Black Death shown. The third episode of the first season called Pestilence depict the political influence of Plague on the might of Medici family. It s not whole season devoted to disease pandemic, only this episode, but it is somethin.
Utopia (2013 -2014)
OK, it is not a historical story but it can send you shivers down the spine. Writers took most frightening theories about diseases outbreak and connected it with modern reality. The result shows that will make you doubt all news that you hear and true intentions of people in power. Must watch for conspiracy theories lowers.
If you are looking for something to watch during Coronavirus quarantine, these movies are not smart choices. If you’re looking for inspiration for the #stayhome campaign, you are at the right place.
We have all seen pandemic movies and series but few of us guessed that we will live in such a time. Diseases outbreak played a large part in history. Most known pandemics took hundreds of millions of souls and smaller outbreaks wiped out cities and civilizations before spreading out.
Despite a huge impact on our history, way of life and civilization, there are more mindless horror zombie movies than actual history movies about the historical disease outbreak. Spead of diseases is more used as a foundation of horror movies than an actual representation of real events. Perhaps if we had more movies about cholera, viruses, plague, etc., there wouldn’t be so many instructions on washing hands and to maintain personal hygiene.
Here are TOP 5 DISEASES OUTBREAK MOVIES:
Black Death (2010)
Sean Bean with sword and a group of knights search for a heretic during the 14th-century plague; can’t be bad. Eddie Redmayne plays a monk who is driven by the faith while they search marshland village which renounced Good because of the horror of black death. The plot is set in England in the year 1348, and if anything, it shows hysteria and panic around the plague in time when they did not know what they are dealing with.
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece contains fantastic elements but shows desperation around the plague. The main character, played by late Max von Sydow, is a knight who encounters the angel of death and he plays a game of chess for his soul. The Movie also depicts Danse Macabre, Dance of Death, the medieval motive of death leading typically a pope, emperor, king, child, and laborer with a message; no one is safe. It is a medieval equivalent of roman memento mori.
No one was spared; Knight in medieval time, sportsmen today
And the Band Played On (1993)
Emmy-winning movie about the AIDS crisis based on the 1987 book of the same name by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts. Actor Matthew Modine plays Francis, an American epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s and was one of the first scientists to suggest that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent.
Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (2009)
One of rare movie that deals with Spanish Flu. The point of perspective is from Doctor Niven, the Medical Officer of Health in Manchester, on how he carried out this sickness.
Variola vera (1982)
A Yugoslavian movie about the 1972 outbreak of smallpox contains elements of horror, but it is most similar to the current coronavirus outbreak. Outbreak paralyzed Yugoslavia; people were in quarantine and no one could travel without proof that they have received a vaccine. The two biggest differences between smallpox and coronavirus outbreak are that people immediately took smallpox seriously and that they had the vaccine for it. Absolute recommendation for personal #stayhome motivation. It has pre-Hollywood Rade Šerbedžija and few people found similarities with HBO’s Chernobyl.
Rade without beard
Maby after Coronavirus is radicated we will have more movies about historical disease outbreaks than musical bio-pictures.
A new Martin Scorsese’s movie The Irishman developed controversies; to some, it is a new Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, and to some, it is just too long and too familiar. Scorsese finally put in one movie three most famous Italian descent known for their mafia movies; Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.
Making
Making of The Irishman was long and it had stocked in development hell. As soon as the book about a late mob hitman Frank Sheeran came out (I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brand) Scorsese wanted to make a movie out of it. Why not, it has all things Sorsesse like in his movies; the Italian mafia in the USA. I Heard You Paint Houses is a code for I Heard You kill people; thing Jimy Hofa asked Frank Sheeran in their first conversation.
The Irishman few times broke the budget; from first 100 million dollars to final 159 million. Most of the money went for visual effects needed to make De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci appear younger at various points throughout the film.
History
The Irishman historical value of this movie and its story is relative. There are few facts that are true; there was Jimmy Hoffa and Frank Sheeran. But as we do not know who killed Jimmy Hoffa, we can only assume that testifies from Sheeran are true.
Soon there will be a historical review of The Irishman and you will find out is the movie real historical deal or another drama with to much liberties in storytelling.
Actually, it has not returned; the movie was never really released in cinema. Current War (2017) was made in 2017. while Weinstein affair was at its peak and the first screen showing at Toronto film festival did not pass well. Probably, the delay had something with also the quality of the movie.
The movie depicts a competition between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) over which electric power delivery system would be used in the United States.
While the movie was in two-year abyss 101 Studios had bought rights for it and scheduled for release. That allowed director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon to activate a clause in his contract to bring in Scorsese to help with the final cut. They changed a few things but they couldn’t make a miracle.
Two years of waiting finally came to an end when The Current War was released October 25, 2019. Reviews are not great and Box office success is not for bragging. The movie grossed around 11 million dollars worldwide with a production cost of around 30 million dollars.
That’s an awful Box office result for a movie that pretty big stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Shannon and Katherine Waterston.
The movie is a financial disaster regard what was potential in A-list stars of Hollywood and its story; a neverending argument who was better inventor and contributor to science and humanity: Nikola Tesla od Edison. We all know who was the real genius but the movie’s quality and historical accuracy will be determined in a review.
Rami Malek got Academy Award for portraying Freddie Mercury so we know acting is good. Bohemian Rhapsody received also Acadamy Awards for Best sound editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing, so we know that the movie has good music and editing. But, what is the status of historical accuracy in Bohemian Rhapsody? Below are TOP 5 Bohemian Rhapsody Historical Mistakes.
Drama is fictional
The peak of movie drama is the Live Aid concert 1985. All bad things intended to demolish Freddie and the Queen but with the huge effort, they save the day and their careers to become immortal legends. Bad things are: struggling with AIDS and former partner who betrayed him and Queen is struggling how to not fall apart after a long time of not playing together while Mercury is forcing his solo career.
AIDS recognition probably did not happen before Live Aid concert, betrayal of personal manager Prenter happened year after the concert and the band paused tour just to perform on Live Aid concert.
The Peak of drama and fictional facts (c) 20th Century Fox
Meetings are fictional
The movie shows that Freddie Mercury meets Roger Taylor (band drummer played by Ben Hardy) and Brian May (Gwilym Lee) in a single night after their lead singer left their band called Smile. The same night he had become the lead singer and meets his future love Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) while complimenting her on her coat.
That is pretty wrap up but completely wrong and misleading. Mercury has shown interest on several occasions in becoming a member of the band and he met Mary Austin when he was already the lead singer of the band. Before that Austin briefly dated Brian May.
The untold real status of the band
The Bohemian Rhapsody shows that after their breakthrough single Killer Queen everything went smoothly for them. They got plenty of resources for an album A Night at the Opera and soon went on a tour in US and were participants on South America tour Rock in Rio.
Actually, during US tour they were opening band for a Band called Mott the Hoople and they never visited Cleveland, Houston, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh, as shown in the movie. There is no obvious information in the movie that Queen was opening band on tour, only a brief glimpse on another bus during their travel through the US.
Also, Rock in Rio was in 1985, not in 1977 as shown, and Queen performed with 30 other bands. Whole possible break up because of Freddie solo career is fictional, and it is failed to mention that was subsequently blacklisted by the British Musicians’ Union because of 84′ shows in apartheid South Africa.
Mott the Hoople – the real stars of 1974 US tour
Ray Foster – the guy who lost Queen
One of the biggest “Why’s” is why they put the character of Ray Foster in the movie, a completely fictional character. He is played by Mike Myers and he is chief of EMI Records. After the making of Bohemian Rhapsody song, he confronts band members because he knows no one would listen to the song. Freddie Mercury makes a dramatic show, tells Foster that he will be remembered as “The guy who lost Queen” and smasher Foster’s window.
All that is just fictional. In reality, chief of EMI Records was Roy Featherstone who had doubts about the length of Bohemian Rhapsody song but otherwise was generally supportive of the band. They did not break up with EMI Records because of Bohemian Rhapsody song.
Ray Foster – a man that doesn’t exist outside the movie (c) 20th Century Fox
Anachronisms
There is to many anachronisms that get away. The crew did a tremendous job with costumes and wigs. Each actor playing a band member had multiple wigs for his character and Rami Malek wears a wig in every single scene.
Some of the anachronisms are: – Fat Bottomed Girls is being performed on an American tour set prior to 1975. This song was not released until 1978. – The band is shown recording/releasing We Will Rock You in a scene set in 1980. This song was recorded/released on the News of the World LP in 1977. – During the U.S. tour montage scenes, the tour bus uses the 1990s Queen logo. – The shot of Munich’s skyline shows buildings build 2002. – a fair share of musical instruments before they were invented etc.
Guess, they did not put the effort into details so they can focus on telling a truthful story.
Full Bohemian Rhapsody history review is available at the link.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018): Directed By Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher / Countries: United Kingdom, United States / Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, Mike Myers.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)had a huge responsibility; show us a beginning of Queen band, their work through years, a life of Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara) and to satisfied millions of bloodthirsty Queen fans. Queen Fans probably have better knowledge about big and small details in Queen’s history than actual band members. Preparations for the movie ware long, few actors ware replaced, band members did their part in helping the crew and even director was replaced; so the question is how much Bohemian Rhapsody is historically correct.
Preparations
Bohemian Rhapsody was announced in 2010 and a first choice to play Freddie Mercury was Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Ali G., aka Borat. Plans did not go well; Cohen and director left the project and band members didn’t like the first script. Apparently, Brian May (bang guitarist) wanted to focus on other members and aftermath of Mercury’s death and Cohen wanted to show Mercury’s extravagant life in his fullness. Maybe, is better this way; who can take Cohen seriously.
Cohen said for the firsts script that it is historically accurate, an outrageous portrayal of Mercury that does not shy away from Mercury’s rough edges, including his well-documented homosexual encounters and promiscuity. Shame that we didn’t see that script in the movie. Cohen left project 2013. witch stalled until 2016. Rami Malek was cast.
Scene in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) about making of Bohemian Rhapsody song (c) 20th Century Fox
Gathering
True Queen fans were known from the start that movie is simplifying things. Ok, sometimes real history is too boring, but you don’t need to show a meeting of characters like a meeting of two main characters in a poorly written buddy action movie.
The movie shows that Freddie Mercury meets Roger Taylor (band drummer played by Ben Hardy) and Brian May (Gwilym Lee) in a single night after their lead singer left their band called Smile. The same night movie Freddie Mercury meets his future love Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) while complimenting her on her coat.
Actually, that did not happen at all. They already have known each other. Mercury was longtime friends with Tim Staffell (the guy who left Smile) and was a fan of the Smile band. He also showed interest on several occasions in becoming a member, and other members didn’t relent until Staffell quit in 1970. Also, Freddie met Mary Austin when he was already the lead singer of the band. Before that Austin briefly dated Brian May. They didn’t get along so Freddie expressed to Brian he was interested in her. Even a movie meeting with Tim Hutton is a lie.
Forced and fictional drama
Along with simplifying thing, the movie is packed with fictional drama. The peak of drama is a Live Aid concert 1985. Prior to the concert, we see that Rami Malek is struggling with AIDS and former partner who betrayed him. Also, Queen is struggling how to not fall apart after a long time of not playing together while Mercury is forcing his solo career. Despite these obstacles, the band finds the strength to shine in one of the historical best live performance and we are all happy and then the movie ends.
Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) on piano during Live Aid scene (c) 20th Century Fox
That is absolutely not true. AIDS recognition probably did not happen before Live Aid concert and betrayal of manager Paul Prenter for sure did happen one year after the concert. Hi sold the story about Freddie Mercury’s personal life and his AIDS diagnosis to The Sun, Britain’s newspaper for £32,000. Hi did not sell the story while visiting TV show, as is depicted in the movie.
Queen did not split up, so Live Aid was not a reunion. The film depicts Mercury’s going solo as breaking up the band and shows his time in Munich as if he were isolated from the others. In fact, all band members were working on solo projects between 1982 and 1985, even as the band recorded and toured together. Roger Taylor was recording his solo album at the same Munich studio and at the same time Mercury was working on his solo album. Queen had last show of the tour eight weeks before Live Aid. They were well-rehearsed for the show and did not have to get back into shape as a band.
If all that drama is not true, what is the meaning of the movie?!
Personal revenge
One of not so obvious aspect of the movie is personal revenge of Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. They were key players in the production of this film so they gave crucial information about people around Queen band. Some people are glorified, like Freddie, but few people are roasted.
Ray Foster
Firstly, in the movie, we see Ray Foster (Mike Myers); a fiction manager who did not like Bohemian Rhapsody song so much that he lost Queen band. Even Freddie told him that he will be remembered as the guy who lost Queen and soon afterward smashed his window with a rock.
That is all made up. Ray Foster did not exist, nor did they fired their manager or label company. Character is loosely based on an EMI Records chief Roy Featherstone, who had doubts about the length of Bohemian Rhapsody song, but otherwise was generally supportive of the band. Filmmakers decided to show us all negative feedback from the label company and managers in one person instead of a bunch of them. The reaction of critics is shown in the movie through newspaper headlines.
Fictional brake up with EMI Records (c) 20th Century Fox
Paul Prenter
The second person from the revenge list is Paul Prenter, Freddie’s personal manager from 1977 to 1986. Prenter betrayed him by selling the singer’s personal information to UK newspapers (not for failing to tell Mercury about Live Aid). This information included their own on and other affairs, singer’s lifestyle and noting how Mercury’s former lovers were dying of AIDS as shown in the movie. The movie portrayed him as a freeloader and somebody who managed a split in the band by controlling Freddy’s life and career. In real life, Taylor did not like him and along with other people associated with the band viewed him as a self-serving parasite. Truth is probably close to the movie version, but as Pretner died of AIDS three months after Freddie we are left with one side story.
John Reid / Chrissie Mullen / Tim Staffel
Two more people got revenge; ex-manager John Reid (manager in years 1975 – 1978) and Chrissie Mullen, the first wife Brian May. John Reid (Aidan Gillen) was portrayed as a sleazy guy who wanted to break up the band by forcing Freddie’s solo career.
For that role, they choose Aidan Gillen, an actor known for playing super sleazy Littlefinger in Game of Thrones. John Reid was only 26 years old when he started managing Queen, but Aidan Gillen was actually 49 during filming. Interesting, in Rocketman Reid is played by another Game of Thrones star, Richard Madden. By Reid’s words, he departed from Queen in a friendly manner, not as violent shown in the movie. By showing Reid as a manipulator in Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, we can all agree who is having a lousy year.
Littlefinger being Littlefinger; always sceaming (c) 20th Century Fox
Chrissie Mullen, the first wife of lead guitarist Brian May, was unhappy at how she was portrayed in the movie – prompting producers to cut her out altogether. She had protested to her ex-husband Brian
There is also a screen with Tim Staffel while he is leaving a Smile for a band called Humpy Bong with a statement: They’re gonna be big.
All in all, it seems that Taylor and May had crossed off all names from their revenge list.
Conclusion
We all had had great expectations for this movie and most of them are fulfilled; Freddie singing and acting parts are wonderful. The problem is in all other parts.
They tried to be a historical correct as they can be; wigs all the time, clothes, replica of May’s guitar Red Special, etc. Problem is that we expected more from Freddie’s colourful life and more truth in it. For example, prior to their Live Aid performance, Dire Stairs ware playing before Queen, not U2 like in the movie. Simple switcheroo to show younger generations how famous U2 ware playing before Queen.
Peak of the drama in the movie; Live Aid concert (c) 20th Century Fox
With fictional drama and events, this movie is less a biographical testimony of greatest band of all time, and more like Mama Mia; easy entertainment full of excellent songs and loosely story to give a meaning for playing these songs.
Bohemian Rhapsody historical truth cannot be lower despite actual members worked in making this movie. No props could replace fictional drama. This movie is like warm soup; anyone can digest it (except the countries where homosexual part ware cut out).
The biggest winner is Green Book with awards for Best Picture, Actor in Supporting Role (Mahershala Ali) and Writing (Original Screenplay). That is 3 Oscars from 5 nominations and we feel bad for Aragorn who did not receive the award for Actor in Leading Role.
More awards received Bohemian Rhapsody but only one in a big category and others are for technical stuff. Rami Malek received Oscar for Actor in Leading Role so our grief for Aragorn hurt less. Probably no one will surpass Malek’s portrait of Freddie Mercury for a long time.
BlacKkKlansman won an award for Writing (Original Screenplay). We need also mention First Man with an award for Visual Effects. Nobody gave many chances but they are going home with one statue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g
Losers
More interesting stories are who are the losers of this year Academy Awards.
The Favourite had 10 nominations, but only received one award; Olivia Colman for Actress in a Leading Role. Low score was expected for The Favourite but not low as this.
The Roma have passed better; it received 3 awards for Directing (Alfonso Cuarón), Cinematography and Foreign Language Film.
Out of 8 nominations Vice received award only for Makeup and Hairstyling despite jet another impressive Christian Bale’s effort from weight manipulation.
Razzies
True history movies went blow radar on this year Razzie awards. Most “awards” received Holmes & Watson, another depict of Sherlock Holmes with Will Farell as Holmes and John C. Reilly as Watson. They “won” awards for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. Hopely, we won’t see a similar prequel, remake, rip-off or sequel comedy in a while.
Another star was Donald Trump;Fahrenheit 11/9 and Death of a Nation are documentaries who received Razzies because Donald Trumps is in them. Donald Trumps even won Razzie for worst actor.
It is that time of the year; we got nominations for 2019 Acadamy Awards aka Oscars and is time to wrap up history movies in 2018. Once again history is the greatest base for the award aspirations. If you want to earn the award just make an inspirational historical movie that tells a story in a new way. Doing so, do not mind historical accuracy as long as you provide good drama, a little bit of humor and earn a lot of money. This year is no exception.
The Favourite
This year two movies share 10 Oscar nominations and one of them isThe Favourite. Last year we had Darkest Hour; depiction of all man struggle for power in Britain for a place of Prime minister.
The Favorite portrays three women and their struggle while in power in early 18. century. One of them is a Queen of Britain and the other two are court favourites. Of course, as stor is about women in history it contains gossips, lesbian love, and all other bad stereotypes.
Among nominations, we highlight the Best Picture, Costume Design and all three nominations for actresses; Olivia Colman in a leading role as Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in supporting role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g
Roma
The second movie with 10 nominations is Netflix first nominee for Best pictures; Roma. This is not a classical historical movie about a great battle, a great leader or a great moment in history. The movie is semi-autobiographical take on director Alfonso Cuarón childhood set in Mexico City during 1970 and 1971.
Roma probablybrings more historical accuracy than other nominees together, but it is a personal story and we must trust the director in his version. This is actually refreshing because the director wanted to capture a moment in Mexico history and its impact on persons what is often forgotten in other anachronical historical movies like The Favourite. Nevertheless, scenes with a paramilitary group training and killing of students in the Corpus Christi massacre will make you hungry for more information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BS27ngZtxg
Bohemian Rhapsody
Long expected ecranisation of Freddie Mercury life and history of Queen band did not disappoint and make us love Freddie and song I love my car even more. They got 5 nominees including Best Picture and Actor in Leading Role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0VHJYFOAU
Vice
Biographical comedy-drama Vice. written and directed by Adam McKay. about former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney got 8 nominations. The movie received all important nominations including; Best Picture, Directing, Actor in a Leading Role (Christian Bale as Dick Cheney) and Actor in a Supporting Role (Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush).
Critical response in not great and Vice could be a greatest loser of this year Academy Awards.
Others
Green Book is another biographical comedy-drama but this has a better critical response and is our favorite this year. Set in 1962 the movie tells a story about classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer who served as Shirley’s driver and bodyguard.
Green Book received nominations for Best Picture, Writing, Actor in a Leading Role (Viggo Mortensen) and Supporting Role and Film editing. Go Aragorn!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC-_Gon2p9M
BlacKkKlansmanreceived 6 nominations including Best Picture, Directing, and Actor in Supporting Role. The story resolves around African American police officer from Colorado Springs who successfully manages to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan branch.
First Man, with Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, did not do well; they received 5 nomination but most of them for technical stuff and one for Writing.
Willem Dafoe received nomination for Actor in Leading Role for playing Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate.
Razzies
6 of 8 nominees for Best Picture are history movies in 2018. and you would guess that there can be no mistake with history movies, but there is.
John Travolta can’t catch a break; he did not do anything good in years and acted in Gotti, a movie nominated for 6 Razzies including Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actress (Kelly Preston), Worst Picture etc. Perhaps, he should get back to dancing and singing and leave mafia and fantasy movies to others. Gotti is a story of crime boss John Gotti and his son.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdmYXoXL3Wc
Among Razzie nominees there is also Jamie Foxx for his part as supporting actor in awful new Robin Hood. Other two nominations are for: Worst Picture and Worst Remake, Ripoff and Sequel. I am glad that last category exist due to expanding number of prequels, sequels, remakes and reboots.
Holmes & Watson, another attempt of Will Ferrell to be funny, deservedly received 6 nominations.
Christoper Nolan did a tremendous effort to bring us a real feel of the bare survival story in WW2. Dunkirk tells a story of almost all United Kingdom’s professional army survival while is pushed into the corner in a few spring days of 1940. Lost of professional army surely would change the fate of entire WW2. Dunkirk movie received positive reviews and earned 527 million dollars worldwide. Filmmakers tried to make a realistic look and feel so they did not use CGI. They used cardboard cut-out props of soldiers and military vehicles, real or scale model fighter aircraft, and real warships and private boats, but they did not succeed in everything.
Below are TOP 5 Dunkirk Historical Mistakes.
1. All The Characters Are Fictional
History VS Movies: Commander Bolton and the Real Deal – James Campbell Clouston
Although Dunkirk is one of best effort to bring history closer to the audience all characters in the movie are fictional. Perhaps, that it is a better way because no one could say; that is not a way it happened to me/my father/etc. The perfect example is Commander Bolton, played by Kenneth Branagh, which role in Operation Dynamo is most similar to unsung Canadian hero James Campbell Clouston. Relatives of Campbell Clouston wrote a letter to producers to use the real name of the hero in the movie. Emma Thomas, one of the producers of Dunkirk and wife of director Nolan, responded that they did not use historical names because the film is a fictionalized version, and Branagh’s character was inspired by the stories of several different men.
2. Planes
Messerschmitt with nose in yellow
One of the intentional historical errors in the movie is to paint noses of German planes in yellow. German Messerschmitt Bf 109 planes featured in dogfights with British Spitfire planes. In the movie, the German planes have yellow noses for better telling which are German and which are British during the fast-paced aerial scenes. In reality, the planes were not painted yellow until about a month after Dunkirk.
Another thing is their planes number. Due to the lack of CGI and using real vehicles lead to a smaller number of main vehicles than in real events. In the whole movie, we saw three British Spitfires guarding Allied soldiers contrary to usual much larger formations. The Brits ware saving planes for the Battle of Britain, but three planes for Operation Dynamo is just craziness. It should be pointed out that Spitfires only had 14 seconds of ammo and couldn’t land on beaches.
3. Part of Small Boats
Small boats with one of two movie destroyer in background
Like a The Darkest Hour, who showed us the political side of Operation Dynamo, Dunkirk put too much on the role of small boats. Ok, it is a warm human story showing that common people saved a big part of the army, but it is estimated that small ships saved about 5% of all soldiers. We only see two destroyers in movie contrary to 41 of them that was operating at Dunkirk at service of Royal Navy, along with legions of minesweepers and trawlers and lighters.
4. City of Dunkirk and Beach
Opening shots bring us town behind an evacuation beach, a town of Dunkirk. Real town of Dunkirk was severely damaged during WW2 so the scenes were shot in the nearby town of Malo-les-Bains. By the time that movie depicts, the town was already in ruins, although in the movie is still in pretty good shape. Contrary to town scenes, beach scenes were shot in the same place of evacuation.
Town of Dunkirk in the movie – too clean to be the truth
5. Other nations
Part of other nations is highly neglect and overlook. French soldiers are shown as little possible and not in a good manner although they had a big role in defending the town of Dunkirk so British soldiers could evacuate. At the end of evacuation, 100,000 French soldiers did cross the channel and came to the United Kingdom.
The diversity of nations in Dunkirk movie
The vast majority of the French who’d been evacuated returned to France after it came to terms with Germany. This isn’t because most were particularly fond of their conquerors or Nazism but because their country was no longer at war and their officers and government told them to come home.
Except for a few black French soldiers, there are only white characters in Dunkirk although in Commonwealth troops ware soldiers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The movie also forgets to mention other nations that had a huge impact on evacuation; the presence of Belgian soldiers is heavily downplayed and Canadians aren’t mentioned once.
Due to Harvey Weinstein affair, many things are changing in today’s Hollywood. The Current War, a historical period drama about the rivalry between electricity innovators Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, had an original release date of last year Black Friday; Nov. 24. 2017. The movie is postponed because of toxicity of sexual assault allegations against the disgraced producer. Weinstein acted as producer on the project.
However, it should be taken into account that the movie already premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, with criticism over its length and pacing. Since then, Gomez-Rejon and editor David Trachtenberg have shaved 12 minutes off the movie.
Considering that the movie has one of a most popular star, Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, surely they are wanting to release the movie as soon as possible. Perhaps if the movie is worth of watching, it would have been released earlier despite Weinstein affair. Cumberbatch even said to The Hollywood Reporter: If it takes us not releasing our film for a couple of years just to be rid of that toxicity, I’m fine with that.
Hollywood after Weinstein
In the future, Hollywood will be most likely be divided into two periods; before and after Weinstein affair.
While Hollywood struggles to find original stories, one story is born in their yard. The story of New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey and their roles in taking down movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is getting the Hollywood treatment. They received the Pulitzer Prize for public service for their stories on the mogul’s alleged abuses and they helped spark the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
There is love between movies about research journalism and getting an Oscars. Spotlight (2015)received two and All the President’s Men (1973) received four Academy Awards. It will be interesting to see if Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be also generous to a movie about their former member.
While we wait for the feature film about Weinstein we can shorten the time by watching documentaries about fallen mogul. One documentary, Barry Avrich’s The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret, is already finished and the other, Citizen Harvey, will be soon available. Both documentaries will be showing Weinstein scandal, #MeToo and Time’s Up movements and its far-reaching global impact.
An interesting fact is that director Barry Avrich already made a documentary about fallen mogul, 2011 documentary Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project. This documentary was made when its subject was at the height of his power and there is no mention of his predatory behaviour.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
