I have a brother who will retire out of the screen actors guild in a year
and have paying attention to how movies are made for a very long time.
Anyone who knows any portion of history will note that the information in
any historical or "period piece" as hey are called in Hollyweird can be
easily picked apart.  My favorite example is the movie about Sergeant York
in WWI.  They have him using as Model 1903 Springfield rife and a German
Luger in the famous capture scene.  He actually used a Model 1917 rifle
which the British refer to as a P-17 (the American version of the British
Rifle #3 or P-14).  The reason the movie makers used a 1903 Springfield -
they did not know that MOST Doughboys used the Model 1917 rifle.  They
reason they used a captured Luger - the blanks for the .45 Colt would not
cycle the action and the blanks for the 9mm Lugers on the set would.  The
majority of westerns made use firearms that actually came out AFTER the
period of the movie.  Why not, the vast majority of the audience neither
knows nor cares.  This applies to pretty much all artifact categories,
relationships between the main characters, and any other historical
category you may care to name.  The number of historical "experts" that
have walked off movie making sets in disgust is legion.

Hollyweird makes movies for a single purpose - to make money.  The great
majority of movie goes attend for a single reason - entertainment.  As long
as we take it for what it is, we can enjoy it.  Since there is the
proverbial "Snowball's Chance" that we can change it,  I believe that the
best we can do make our appreciation known to the producers when a few
movie makers do try to attempt a degree of historical accuracy.

Next item of discussion should be the historical accuracy of "Star Wars"
in a galaxy long ago and far away.  :-)

Smoke.


Smoke (Michael A.) Pfeiffer, RPA
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests
605 West Main Street
Russellville, Arkansas 72801
(479) 968-2354  Ext. 233
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.