American Sniper & Selma – Does Inaccuracy Matter?

In [DEAD] What The Flick?! on YouTube, YouTube Posts by Hlarson4 Comments

 

American Sniper and Selma are two major acclaimed pictures that are being handled somewhat differently awards season, but by critics in general. Both films are based on events that actually happened, but display historical inaccuracy at the same time. Is this a fine movie convention, or is it important not to muddle artistic license with facts? A frank discussion is held by Ben Mankiewicz (host of Turner Classic Movies), Matt Atchity (Editor-in-chief Rottentomatoes.com), and Christy Lemire (www.ChristyLemire.com).

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Comments

  1. It is not an issue to manipulate the details of history to tell a story as long as in doing so the intent is to find the truth of a character or situation. In the case of American Sniper the details were changed to wilfully manipulate the truth of the character. This movie is essentially well made propaganda which precludes it from having any deep artistic value, as has been the case for many beautifully made propaganda pieces in the past.

  2. Two examples off the top of my head- ninja and wild west cowboys. These two things, and many, many more, are more or less complete fictional fabrications, or huge exaggerations- that most people envision completely wrong, on a huge, macro scale, completely and totally because media has shaped their history into something more fun and movie-friendly.
    It matters because Americans don’t do the hard work themselves. Like Zero Dark Thirty and 24 absolving torture to a lot of people, many people are going to walk away with the idea that Iraq happening exactly like Eastwood made it.
    Yes, in a perfect, rational world, obviously it shouldn’t matter- it’s just a movie. But movies shape our national consensus- people will treat the next war we go to based off the movies they’ve seen.

  4. If they couldn’t provide a real baby for the actor to hold I can’t really consider this a serious film. They couldn’t find a real baby for that scene? What else is phony?

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