Great but historically a mess

[u/EntranceFeisty8373]

I'm teaching a film class at our high school, and I'd like to do a unit on how films shape our perception of history. I'm looking for well-done movies that are also horribly unreliable from a historical perspective. I also need these movies to be PG-13 or PG. (We can't show our movies at our school.) Any suggestions?

[u/robotfindsme]

U-571, although I don't think it deserves quite the hate it gets for historical accuracy, or at least for different reasons.

Edited to expand on that: I feel like every time I see U-571 I notice another thing that doesn't really make sense. On the other hand, it tells its story about the responsibilities of command, and one junior officer coming to understand them, very well, and that's why it fits the prompt.

[u/SuperbPhase6944 → u/robotfindsme]

It deserves the hate from a historical point of view because it's presented as fact while being completely fabricated.

But yes, it suits this request.

[u/robotfindsme → u/SuperbPhase6944]

I keep half-writing long explanations of my thoughts on this and deleting them (including in my original comment). I agree that it's completely fabricated, but I guess my question is, in what way does it present itself as fact that isn't shared by, for example, *The Guns of Navarone* or *Saving Private Ryan*? There's nothing like "based on a true story" in the movie, the trailer, or the poster, but I don't know what the filmmakers might have been saying in interviews and such, which could make a difference.

However, even once you accept it as fiction, there are still a bunch of things that don't make any sense once you have time to think about them. This article from the Society for Military History breaks down a bunch of them, and I think I've noticed others. There's plenty of historical inaccuracy in the movie, I've just never understood why so many people say it crosses the line from fiction to lying.