Americans rewriting history

[eroticartist]

Warren,
Do you think that the majority of the public who watched Schindler"s List thought that it represented the actual truth or not?
Mike.

[andy at handiwork]

It represented a truth. There is no disputing that what is presented in that film happened in one form or another. Oscar Schindler was a nazi party member who for his own reasons fostered relations with nazi party functionaries whilst protecting Jewish prisoners working in his factory. Whilst doing that, mass executions of Jews took place locally. What dont you understand about that? The film was a representation of events that are well documented. Dont go down that denial route.

[Sam Slater]

Mike isn't denying the holocaust andy.

He was asking if the public believed the films version of history, in which he wants the answer of 'yes' so that he can say people will also believe the historical version of events the PATRIOT film gave, which is wrong, and the whole point of the thread.

[andy at handiwork]

I await his denial of that. A lot of 'Hollywood' movies such as 'The Patriot' are entertainment first and foremost, though I do not include serious attempts at recent history such as Schindlers List for all its 'faults' in that list. Lower key versions of history are a good pointer to what happened in the past. Take a look at 'Culloden' by Peter Watkins for an unvarnished look at how things were.

[Pervert]

I dare say British troops were responsible for the odd atrocity here and there in history. Have a read of Henry V and what the titular character threatens to do to the citizens of Harfleur if they do not surrender.

The film Schindler's List is a fairly accurate adaptation of Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark. If it is lacking in anything, it is clear understanding of the motives of the main character, who seems to be one of those people war throws up, who do what needs to be done, then vanishes into obscurity when the crisis is over. Spielberg's worst crime was the OTT bit towards the end, when Schindler breaks down and wonders how many more lives he could have saved. As far as I can recall from the book, that didn't happen.

If The Patriot is inaccurate (wouldn't know, haven't seen it), why would anyone be surprised. The man who made it had mankind saved by a computer virus in the dreadful Independence Day. I'm less happy with the Yanks taking credit for capturing an Enigma machine in Uwhatever number it was. Or the Americans doing all the fighting and dying in Saving Private Ryan while badmouthing their British allies.

[andy at handiwork]

It goes a lot further back. The Errol Flynn movie 'Objective Burma', in 1945 suggested that the Yanks drove the Japs out of Burma single handed. I think a few members of the British 14th ('Forgotten') Army had a few things to say about that. The film was not released for many years in the UK.

[andy at handiwork]

I've just remembered, 'History is bunk'

[eroticartist]

Warren,
You admit that the majority of the public who watched Schindlers List accepted it as the truth. The same public who watched The Patriot obviously accepted it as the truth too because it is an analogous situation.
Both featured historical wars in which war crimes were depicted as realism.
Mike.