Although it may have handsome leading men and a lot of explosions, Michael Bay’s film, “Pearl Harbor,” is not exactly ripped from the history books. The film “Tora! Tora! Tora!,” is actually the closest to telling the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor as it happened.
To make things look even more real, parts of the film were shot on Yorktown, an actual aircraft carrier, which was provided by the Navy before being decommissioned.
The Last Emperor
The story of the life of China’s last emperor is a source of constant debate by historians because not that much is known about the period. Even today, scholars are still trying to put together an accurate picture of events and when they took place.
Therefore, the film The Last Emperor, cannot claim to be entirely accurate, but director Bernardo Bertolucci and writer Mark Peploe went to tremendous lengths to depict what is known. Details of the emperor’s life may be vague, but the depiction of the royal family’s opulent lifestyle and the shocking politics of the time are considered by many to be spot on.
Suffragette
Suffragette, which depicts British women’s struggle to win the vote in the 1910s, is different from other films on this subject because it focuses on working-class women. Laura Schwartz, an Assistant Professor of Modern British History has praised the way the focus was on life-like characters who worked in a laundromat.
The fictional East End laundry workers Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) and Violet Miller (Anne-Marie Duff), gave a voice to the experiences of real-life suffragettes of the time.
Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad, which took place in World War II, was one of the largest and most gruesome battles in history. Many directors have tried to use the battle as a backdrop for other stories, but the 1993 film "Stalingrad" was determined to show the battle as it was.
Director Joseph Vilsmaier focused on a small band of soldiers who face actual atrocities that take place at the time. The film’s accuracy stems from its insistence on showing the actual violence and horror of war.
The King’s Speech
Director Tom Hooper’s heartwarming film about King George VI took the world by storm and even won four Oscars. Although some aspects of the story were exaggerated, the film was for the most part historically accurate.
Additionally, although historian Andrew Roberts has some specific criticisms of the film, especially regarding the pivotal final scene, he does praise it overall.