Historical movies are, well, not always the most historical – and so the Daily Star has compiled some of Hollywood’s biggest oversights and bloopers that would have left historians throwing their popcorn
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” Of course, the classic quote from Scottish warrior William Wallace in the 1995 movie Braveheart was an invention.
But as the famous blockbuster, starring Mel Gibson as the real-life independence fighter, turns 30 this week, we can reveal that it was full of historical inaccuracies.
And its not the only film featuring a heroic figure from the past that’s played fast and loose with the facts, as James Moore reveals…
Sir William Wallace
Oscar winning Braveheart was based on genuine Scottish rebellions against English rule in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. But it’s littered with mistakes.
In the film Wallace starts off as a simple farmer, but was actually born into the nobility. There’s no evidence the English killed his wife either, as she’s not mentioned in the records.
Scottish warriors didn’t wear blue war paint at the time like Gibson does. And he wouldn’t have worn a tartan kilt either – they only became fashionable hundreds of years later.
There’s also no evidence that he romanced Edward II’s wife Isabella of France, who was only three at the time it’s depicted happening.
Even the nickname Braveheart wasn’t Wallace’s. It was actually given to Robert the Bruce, who became king of Scotland in 1306 after leading it to independence.
Sir Winston Churchill
Darkest Hour, which hit cinemas in 2017, was certainly a stirring account of how Churchill became wartime PM as Britain faced invasion by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
While the movie is generally accurate in its portrayal of the downfall of previous premier Neville Chamberlain and the crisis facing the nation, there’s one long scene in particular that raised eyebrows.
In it Churchill, played by Gary Oldman, is shown chatting to people on a London Underground train. Historians agree the episode never happened.
Contrary to the film, Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches” speech was not broadcast live from the House of Commons either.
Alan Turing
The Imitation Game, released in 2014, starred Benedict Cumberbatch as the brilliant World War Two boffin Alan Turing who helped decode Germany’s Enigma machine, helping secure an Allied victory.
After the war Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts and took his own life in 1954 aged 41.
But the movie caused controversy by wrongly suggesting that he was blackmailed over his sexuality by a Soviet spy, John Cairncross, who also worked at the top-secret Bletchley Park during the war.
While Cairncross really was a spy, he wasn’t in the same team. There’s no evidence they ever met or that Turing committed treason by concealing the traitor’s espionage.
While co-worker Joan Clarke, played by Keira Knightley, was real, she was already a top mathematician and wasn’t recruited by solving a crossword in a newspaper.
Mary Queen of Scots
Saoirse Ronan played the tragic 16th century Scottish monarch in 2018’s Mary Queen of Scots which starred Margot Robbie as her cousin, English queen Elizabeth I.
In the action the pair have a dramatic meeting where Mary pleads for help. While it’s true that Mary did flee to England after being forced from the Scottish throne, the pair never actually came face to face. In the end, fearing she was plotting against her, Queen Elizabeth ordered Mary’s execution.
Historians also say that as Mary grew up in France, she would have had a French, not a Scottish accent as she does in the flick.
Pocahontas
The animated 1995 Disney film of the same name was a box office smash.
It featured the tale of real-life Native American woman Pocahontas, the daughter of a chief of the Powhatan tribe and charted the relationship between her and 17th century English settler John Smith.
While Smith did exist and did meet Pocahontas, she would only have been about 11 years old at the time and there’s no evidence of a relationship between them.
She was captured by English colonialists but, in reality, would later marry another man entirely called John Rolfe.
Unlike the ending portrayed in the film, Pocahontas died from an illness while visiting England with him in 1617 aged 21.
Freddie Mercury
Queen’s lead singer had millions of fans and was the central figure of the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, named after the band’s No1 hit.
But the film has been criticised for messing with the timeline of events.
For instance, the band did not split up before Live Aid in 1985 and it wasn’t a reunion. Nor was Mercury diagnosed with HIV before that show, but two years afterwards. He would die in 1991, aged 45, from an AIDS-related illness.
The movie also shows Queen’s song Fat Bottomed Girls being performed in 1974 when it wasn’t released until 1978. The record executive, Ray Foster, that the band battle was made up.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
