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What are the best historical movies or TV shows? By "best" I mean a combination of "historical accuracy", productions quality, and entertainment value (i.e., good story-telling). For example, my wife and I recently watched the HBO TV miniseries "John Adams" based on the biography by David McCullough and I would rate this as excellent in all three categories. I'm not a scholar on the life of John Adams, so I can't really speak to the historical accuracy of the miniseries, but my impression is that the historical aspects were, overall, accurate (perhaps someone here who has more insight into the history can point out some flaws?).
My wife is not a fan of history and knows very little about history, but she loves dramatizations based on true stories and she really enjoyed the John Adams miniseries because the production quality and basic story-telling aspects were so well done. So I'm thinking I can ease her into greater knowledge and appreciation of history by finding more examples like the John Adams miniseries.
I'm not trying to focus on any particular period of history - any period is fine, including biography or true-story-based productions of modern events (e.g., "Sully" and "The Theory of Everything" were good). I will be happy to hear recommendations for good documentaries as well.
I'm basically trying to draw on your collective first-hand experiences with movies and TV shows to learn about the best productions that I might otherwise overlook. (And if you happen to know of significant historical flaws or "poetic liberties" in some otherwise good productions, this might be a good place to point them out. E.g., Davinci's Demons didn't even try to be historically accurate - in fact it went off into such blatant absurdity that we quickly lost interest in the series.)
BTW: I know that all portrayals of history are based on some degree of bias/perspective, so "historical accuracy" is almost always a somewhat controversial subject. I'm not expecting perfection or complete consensus on the accuracy score - I just want it to be relatively well-supported by historical documentation and not so fanciful or one-sided so as to be implausible.
Last edited by Gaylenwoof; 03-15-2018 at 08:48 AM..
What are the best historical movies or TV shows? By "best" I mean a combination of historical accuracy, productions quality, and entertainment value (i.e., good story-telling). For example, my wife and I recently watched the HBO TV miniseries "John Adams" based on the biography by David McCullough and I would rate this as excellent in all three categories. I'm not a scholar on the life of John Adams, so I can't really speak to the historical accuracy of the miniseries, but my impression is that the historical aspects were, overall, accurate (perhaps someone here who has more insight into the history can point out some flaws?).
My wife is not a fan of history and knows very little about history, but she loves dramatizations based on true stories and she really enjoyed the John Adams miniseries because the production quality and basic story-telling aspects were so well done. So I'm thinking I can ease her into greater knowledge and appreciation of history by finding more examples like the John Adams miniseries.
I'm not trying to focus on any particular period of history - any period is fine, including biography or true-story-based productions of modern events (e.g., "Sully" and "The Theory of Everything" were good). I will be happy to hear recommendations for good documentaries as well.
I'm basically trying to draw on your collective first-hand experiences with movies and TV shows to learn about the best productions that I might otherwise overlook. (And if you happen to know of significant historical flaws or "poetic liberties" in some otherwise good productions, this might be a good place to point them out. E.g., Davinci's Demons didn't even try to be historically accurate - in fact it went off into such blatant absurdity that we quickly lost interest in the series.)
BTW: I know that all portrayals of history are based on some degree of bias/perspective, so "historical accuracy" is almost always a somewhat controversial subject. I'm not expecting perfection or complete consensus on the accuracy score - I just want it to be relatively well-supported by historical documentation and not so fanciful or one-sided so as to be implausible.
The problem here is that dramatization - as all historical films and shows do - is necessarily fictionalization. Dialogue is invented. A great deal is left out due to time constraints. Multiple figures are composited into one.
This isn't a bad thing because the purpose of these things are to entertain, not to educate.
For example, The Lion in Winter is a towering achievement of historical cinema. It portrays many historically incorrect things, not out of error or an intention to deceive but because filmmakers subordinated history to entertainment through dramatic depiction.
As it should be!
History is for documentaries. And I like documentaries. But I don't want dramas to try and be them. And no one should ever try to learn history from a dramatic film or show. Take the entertainment for what it is and enjoy it. Crack open a history book if you want to learn history.
Great thread, and one I will be reading with interest!
I enjoyed Ken Burns' The Civil War, and The National Parks series (lots of history in that, too) and The Roosevelts, "Schindler's List" was excellent. I also liked Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford. Also, if you will Google The American Experience, many of those episodes are available for viewing and sometimes purchase. (My favorites are The Johnstown Flood and the one about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.)
There are probably many more I have seen that I thought were good, and I will add to this thread as I think of them.
Last edited by katharsis; 03-15-2018 at 09:04 AM..
The Crown--can hardly wait for the next season & I'm enjoying repeat viewings of past episodes. Who knew Queen Elizabeth II was so interesting?
Good Night and Good Luck--focuses on the showdown between the press, their corporate owners and politicians as broadcaster Edward R. Murrow stands up to Senator Joe McCarthy.
All The President's Men--when journalists were journalists and concerned about accuracy, developing sources, and reporting facts. Watergate--the mother of all modern political scandals.
If you like sports, Moneyball also is excellent as it demonstrates how, on a limited budget, Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane used outside-the-box analytics to put together a team that won its division.
The Madoff mini-series on ABC (the one starring Richard Dryfuss--not the one with Robert Di Niro, which I felt was inferior), is excellent, showing Madoff's rise and fall and how he was under the radar for so long.
The problem here is that dramatization - as all historical films and shows do - is necessarily fictionalization. Dialogue is invented. A great deal is left out due to time constraints. Multiple figures are composited into one.
Good point. I've put "historical accuracy" in scare quotes because I don't really expect every bit of dialogue, etc. to be actual quotes found in historical documents. There has to be some compromise between the "historical accuracy" and entertainment/story-telling aspects. But, overall, I want the incidents portrayed in the story to be essentially real events. Some blending of characters who are not the primary focus is acceptable, but I'd prefer if there are no completely fictional characters thrown into the story.
Taking John Adams as an example, I'm assuming (perhaps naively) that he really did have a daughter who had a breast removed with little or no anesthesia. Although it was a background event in the context of the larger story, it would seem like a pretty major event to just totally make up for the sake of drama.
What I really wish is that DVD versions of "true stories" would always include a special feature "mini-documentary" that contrasts the drama with the historically documented facts and points out the major discrepancies that were thrown in for the sake of artistic license and entertainment. If anyone knows of something like that, I'd be very interested.
Didn't we have a thread on this a few months back? Current or recent TV shows only. If I went through all the movies and past TV shows this thread would exceed the bandwidth limitations of citydata:
The Vikings - History Channel I think, on it's 6th or 7th season. I enjoy this one a lot. Turn, Washington Spies - Ran it's course after 3 seasons. Good, not perfect, but really good show set in American Revolutionary period. I also read the novel and it took a lot of liberties in making it a dramatic series, still it was enjoyable. Mercy Street - Not bad civil war hospital drama on PBS, got cancelled unfortunetly after 2 seasons. I think me and like only a dozen others in the US watched it. Peaky Blinders - Netflix 1920's British Gangster drama, now on its 5th or 6th season. Replace tommy guns with WW1 era british Lewis maching guns. Excellent award winning show, and just hip. "WE ARE THE F*CKING PEAKY BLINDERS!" The characters have to yell that at least once per episode, I think it's in there contract. The Last Kingdom - Also on Netflix, based on the Bernard Cornwell series of books, set in 8th or 9th century England. Pretty good but sometimes I get it confused with The Vikings. They actually have the same characters (King Alfred and all that).
Didn't we have a thread on this a few months back? Current or recent TV shows only. If I went through all the movies and past TV shows this thread would exceed the bandwidth limitations of citydata:
The Vikings - History Channel I think, on it's 6th or 7th season. I enjoy this one a lot. Turn, Washington Spies - Ran it's course after 3 seasons. Good, not perfect, but really good show set in American Revolutionary period. I also read the novel and it took a lot of liberties in making it a dramatic series, still it was enjoyable. Mercy Street - Not bad civil war hospital drama on PBS, got cancelled unfortunetly after 2 seasons. I think me and like only a dozen others in the US watched it. Peaky Blinders - Netflix 1920's British Gangster drama, now on its 5th or 6th season. Excellent award winning show, and just hip. "WE ARE THE F*CKING PEAKY BLINDERS!" The characters have to yell that at least once per episode, I think it's in there contract. The Last Kingdom - Also on Netflix, based on the Bernard Cornwell series of books, set in 8th or 9th century England. Pretty good but sometimes I get it confused with The Vikings. They actually have the same characters (King Alfred and all that).
I watched Mercy Street....sorry it was canceled. Peaky B is just incredible.
The Last Kingdom comes to mind. Although it has many historical inaccuracies, it is very well done and has some accuracy.
Goodfellows is purportedly fairly accurate based on a true story. Not sure if you can count that as history.
I too enjoyed Peaky Blinders, but I did not know it was supposed to be historically accurate - other than the fact they existed.
Here is a fairly extensive list. The ones that are not very accurate are described as "Highly Fictionalized."
We do not need to get into a theological debate about the Biblical movies. Either they are historically accurate as far as garb, housing, lifestyle, or they are not. Arguing over content is pointless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...lms_and_series
I liked the first TV John Adams miniseries and Lillie Langtry. Also thought that Good Night and Good Luck was pretty accurate.
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