For as long as cinema has existed, there have been war movies getting the facts wrong about real historical conflicts. When depicting 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 of portrayals 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 movie based on true events needs 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 them as 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.

9

Braveheart (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 pᴀssionately shouting, “Freedom!” However, although Braveheart may have been a compelling war drama, its depiction of the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England was marred by inaccuracies. Described by The Sunday Times as one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever made, Braveheart traded pretty much the entire true historical account in favor of an epic adventure.

Braveheart got 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 of Braveheart and read a book instead.

8

The 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 Berets was 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 Berets was 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 Berets totally ignored the colonial history of Vietnam and the motivations of the Viet Cong.

7

Windtalkers (2002)

Directed by John Woo

Nicolas Cage reunited with the Face/Off director John Woo for a story based on code talkers from the Navajo Nation during World War II called Windtalkers. 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 to Windtalkers (via Vulture) 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 seems Windtalkers was 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.

6

Battle 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-ᴅᴇᴀᴅliest campaign in American history. While Ken Annakin’s epic war movie Battle of the Bulge was 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.

As a major battle that stretched across parts of Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg and lasted nearly a month, Battle of the Bulge attempted 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.

5

Enemy At The Gates (2001)

Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud

Enemy at the Gates was 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, while Enemy at the Gates offered 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 Gates also 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 about Enemy at the Gates, it’s pretty astounding that a mainstream movie was able to make it to theaters with this many glaring mistakes.

4

Red Tails (2012)

Directed by Anthony Hemingway

As the final Lucasfilm production before it was acquired by Disney, Red Tails was 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 Tails told 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 тιтled “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 that Red Tails was not an accurate portrayal and got many important details wrong. While those involved in Red Tails had good intentions to depict the underappreciated endeavors of Black soldiers in WWII, it did so at the expense of the real historical record.

3

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Directed by Michael Bay

While Michael Bay’s war drama Pearl Harbor was 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 of тιтanic than 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 Harbor was 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 ficтιтious.

2

U-571 (2000)

Directed by Jonathan Mostow

The inaccuracies of U-571 were so egregious that the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair actually spoke out against it (via BBC), 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-571 told 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-571 effectively 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-571 shamelessly swapped out nationalities and took credit for something it had no right to.

1

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker was an astounding surprise success that earned six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. As the story of an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team and 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 (via HuffPost), 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’s screenwriter 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 this war movie as absurd and said that the soldiers’ actions did not align with operations in Iraq.

Sources: The Sunday Times, Vulture, Tuskegee Airman Webinars – ‘Was the Movie Accurate’?, BBC, HuffPost