The majority of the people do not directly take part in the wars going around the world. Therefore, it is very significant that the people know the facts about wars and history since it shapes our perception of a particular country, people, and events.
Although most of the times, historians and academics pay a lot of attention to research and try to make sure that every detail that goes down the history books stays surgically close to the fact, whereas on the cinema screen it’s not always possible. Filmmakers and Producers pay attention to other aspects of the story and don’t seem to care if their facts don’t match.
Following is the list of ten horribly inaccurate war movies littered with false stories and wrong depictions of facts.
10. ENEMY AT THE GATES (2001)
The fact is that Eastern front of the Second World War has been criminally neglected for a variety of reasons by the European Media in particular and by the West in general. The reasons are very simple, the cold war and all that followed it. However, Enemy at the Gates is no less than a cinematic representation of Soviet propaganda and ‘uber-exaggeration’ of the facts that took place on the western front.
The movie is based on the exploits of the famous Russian Sniper Vasily Zaytsev, who is portrayed as a larger than life character, something more along the lines of a superhero. War movies are expected to be closer to the facts than to the fictitious bravery tales and legends.
On top of that, the Red Army is shown as a Super-Army that took the Nazis adequately armed troops with a very short supply of weaponry something like one old rifle for two men.
9. Jarhead
The movie was aimed to portray the psychological trauma US marines had to endure during the first Gulf War. Despite some very good performances, Jarhead failed to acquire the acceptance from some war historians and ex-marines who fought in the war.
Nathaniel Fick, who is an ex-marine, describes the portrayal of US marines in the movie as preposterous and completely missing the context on many places.
He maintains that there is no doubt that soldiers are trained to be tough and rough, but the amount of psychological horrors Jarhead presents is extremely rare and highly unlikely. Fick also criticizes some of the ‘crazy’ actions that Marines are shown to be committing, citing that Marine Corps are very disciplined and train their soldiers to be disciplined all the time.
Overall critics suggest that Jarhead gave a negative impression of the Gulf War in general and the US Marines in particular.
8. U-571 (2000)
Nowhere could one find such a fact-shift in a war movie then in U-571, a perfect example of how U.S Army tries to downplay the role of its Allies all through the twentieth century.
In the movie, the U.S Navy is presented as the sole contributors towards the capture of infamous German code-making machine ‘Enigma’. Enigma played a critical role in the early Nazi success due to the information was so effectively coded that no one was able to crack it.
In reality, British Navy had captured the first Enigma machine onboard a German warship in the early stages of the war in 1941, almost seven months before US claims of its capture. Or the fact that it completely disregards the Polish contribution to breaking the Enigma codes and sharing that with the British.
In fact, the only Enigma machine that US Navy could manage to get their hands on was captured in 1944 when Nazi empire was crumbling, mostly due to Russians bear.
Upon the release of the movie, British Prime Minister at the time Tony Blair came out and called the distortion of the facts presented in the film as ‘an affront’ to the Bravery and contribution of British Sailors in the World War.
7. The Battle of The Bulge (1965)
This portrayal of an actual Battle that took place in the last months of the Second World War is inaccurate and far from facts, on so many levels.
First and the foremost discrepancy is the use of War machinery in the film. Most of the tanks and aircraft that are shown are totally out of the place. The US built tanks are shown as German ‘Tiger Tanks’ while most of the jeeps and other vehicles were the models designed and built after the Second World War.
Apart from the obvious technical errors; The Battle of Bulge failed to depict the reality of the actual battle on more than one places. History books and footages are filled with the fact that bad weather and snowy conditions made things very difficult for the Allied air support and helped Germans gaining an initial crucial edge.
Whereas in the movie almost all of the fight is shown on a rather flat area with reasonably good weather conditions.
One could conclusively make a case that this 1965 attempt by Warner Bros to inform public about the Battle of Bulge utterly failed to do so on a factual and historically accurate level.
6. Red Tails (2012)
Red Tails was an average attempt to make a war movie against discrimination that ended up looking awkward and somewhat patronizing towards African Americans.
The movie was about the legacy of United States’ First all African American Fighting Squadron known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The writers and directors were so much focused on the subject matter, that no one seemed to have bothered to make sure the events shown matched the facts or not.
According to Red Tail, the squadron had the best bomber score, whereas the records quietly suggest otherwise. It also shows that the Tuskegee Airmen suffered no bomber losses during their whole campaign while archives tell a different story; more than 25 bombers belonging to the Tuskegee Airmen were shot down by the enemy.
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