Movies and television shows are very often based on true stories. Sometimes they may be fairly accurate, but they understandably play fast and loose with facts in order to maximize entertainment. That said, biopics, contemporary takes on legends and myths, and untold stories do have nuggets of truth - little bits of information that make watching them pretty darn informative.
There were a lot of historical dramas and comedies released in 2024 that graced big and small screens alike. These shows and movies actually taught us a thing or two. What about you?
Directed by Guy Richie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare takes a lot of liberties in retelling the story of Operation Postmaster, but it does make it clear that Ian Fleming was involved in the planning of the top-secret operation.
Operation Postmaster was sanctioned by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and tasked “small groups of highly trained soldiers who operate behind enemy lines, sabotaging and disrupting Axis operations without the need for a head on assault.” These commandos were, in the words of writer Arash Amel,
the forerunners of James Bond, but it was a coming together of this multicultural coalition of the misfits.
Masters of the Air aired on Apple TV+ as a miniseries based on the book of the same name. Focusing on the actions of the 100th Bombardment Group, the “Bloody Hundredth,” during World War Two, Masters of the Air highlights the danger associated with bombing campaigns. It also includes details about the confinement of thousands of airmen in camps.
The attrition rate of American (and British) bombers during WWII was made horrifyingly clear in Masters of the Air. The show had its share of critics about accuracy, but it did deliver an immersive experience that drove home just how vulnerable the planes and their crews were. As pilot Emma Quedzuweit put it in her review of the show,
Human details that are sometimes overlooked in war media have a lynchpin place here, the camera lingering on each wounded crewmember getting extracted and carried off, and others vomiting (often), inside the airplane and out.
Set in the early 17th century, Shōgun is a retelling of the personal and political contest for power in Japan in the time leading up to the Tokugawa Shogunate. Both Yoshi Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his prisoner, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) are based on real people, Tokugawa Ieyasu and William Adams, respectively.
Ieyasu was the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. He's considered one of the great unifiers of Japan and is known for triumphing in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Shogun depicts the days leading up to this battle.
Adams was a Protestant English ship captain who arrived in Japan in 1600, was taken captive, and later helped Japanese sailors build ships based on Western designs. Adams was also a trade and diplomatic advisor to Ieyasu, essentially becoming essential to the man who later became shogun.
The use of the term anjin (also the name of the first episode) in Shōgun translates to “pilot” and adding, -san was a sign of respect. When Adams was made a samurai, he was given a new name, Miura Anjin. “Miura” was a reference to the land Adams acquired alongside the the title.
Blitz opens up the plight of parents trying to save their children during the bombings of London during World War Two. When George (Elliott Heffernan), a young boy sent away by his mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), runs away and goes back to be with her, he meets Ife (Benjamin Clementine), an air raid warden in a bomb shelter.
Ife was based on Ita Ekpenyon, a Nigerian-born man who really served as an air raid warden in London. Ekpenyon volunteered to serve in civilian defenses because he was too old for active military service. While overseeing one underground shelter, Ekpenyon was met by Londoners trying to force out non-British individuals. He stood up to the former and told them that no discrimination in the shelter would be tolerated.
Ekpenyon later described what happened:
Some of the shelters told others to go back to their own countries, and some tried to practice segregation. So I told the people that though I am an air raid warden in London I am still an African. I said I would like to see a spirit of friendliness, co-operation and comradeship prevail at this very trying time in the history of the Empire. I further warned my audience that if what I had said was not going to be practised, I would advise those who did not agree to seek shelter somewhere else
Netflix's The Six Triple Eight tells the story of the lone Women's Army Corps (WAC), an entirely black group during World War Two. Their existence is little known, as is their essential mission: to clear up an enormous of backlogged mail amid the destruction and despair of war. Mail was part of their task, but the influence this would have on troop morale was essential to the war's end.
The Six Triple Eight - the 6888th Central Postal Battalion - was the only all-black, all-female group to serve overseas during WWII. In the movie, Oprah Winfrey plays Mary McLeod Bethune, the woman who made it possible for black women to join the WAC at all.
The movie highlights that there were warehouses full of mail that needed to get to US troops even though the war had officially ended. They had six months to sort, package, and direct millions of parcels and accomplished their work in just three months.
Conclave is set at the Vatican during the election of a new pope. As the College of Cardinals gathers to choose the new head of the Catholic Church under the leadership of Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), a mystery unravels about the deeds and death of the previous pontiff.
Conclave opens up the mysterious process by which popes are elected and, while it's not entirely accurate in some details, it does show the complicated process. The conclave meets within days of the death of the pope, it includes all cardinals under the age of 80, and all of the members are candidates.
Infighting, back-door deals, and extensive conversation are all very true to form just like Conclave depicts, as is the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel when successful ballots are burned (unsuccessful ballots are also burned but the smoke is black). The movie clarifies how and what goes into the collection and burning of those ballots. Conclave was accurate down to the language used on the ballots themselves: Eligo in Summum Pontificem - Latin for "I elect as supreme pontiff." That said, Conclave was wrong in that none of the Cardinals can not vote for themselves.
Dietrick Bonhoeffer was a pastor, theologian, and pacifist who defied the regime of the Third Reich during World War II. Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin tells his story and how his position ultimately led to the churchman's death.
Bonhoeffer stars Jonas Dassler in the lead role and delivers a lot of information about the titular character's path to becoming a double agent. One relatively unknown aspect of Bonhoeffer's deeds is the role his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi (played by Flula Borg) played in the assassination plot against Adolf Hitler to which Bonhoeffer was linked.
Both Bonhoeffer and Dohnanyi were killed for involvement in the conspiracy. Bonhoeffer's sister and Dohnany's wife, Christine, was also taken into custody but was later released.
Hulu's Say Nothing is based on Patrick Radden Keefe's book and highlights the intensity of The Troubles. As a 30-year conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, the show provides a look at the conflict through the disappearance of one woman, Jean McConville.
Say Nothing opens the doors to the factions competing for control in Northern Ireland as well as how many people essentially lived double lives to survive. McConville, a widow with 10 children, is believed to be an informer by the Irish Republican Army and killed for it. Again, this drives home how vulnerable, fearful, and tense life was at the time.
One of the most intriguing details in Say Nothing revolves around the role Gerry Adams played in the conflict. A disclaimer during the series explained that Adams has “always denied being a member of the IRA or participating in any IRA-related violence.”
This does not negate accusations made against him by numerous individuals portrayed in the show like Dolorous Price and Brendan Hughes that he was, in fact, involved with the IRA.
- 9
'September 5' Was One Of The First Major International Live Broadcasts Of A Major Crisis
Starring Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge, the ABC executive who oversaw coverage of the 1972 Olympic Games, alongside Ben Chaplin, Benjamin Walker, and others, September 5 is about the hostage crisis that unfolded on live television. September 5 is different than other movies about the crisis-turned-tragedy in that it's told from the perspective of the media covering the Games.
Sarsgaard told The Guardian that the movie is essentially about a turning point in media. While it was the first time some 900 million people collectively watched for 17 hours to see what happened to the Israeli hostages and Palestinian captors, the type of coverage that was initiated is now the status quo. According to Sarsgaard:
We’re so used to it… Why are we pointing a live camera at this? What is it satisfying? Our need to know, as citizens, to make decisions about the way we live together? Or some other darker human predilection or craving?
The man behind this shift was Arledge. Arledge made a conscious decision to stay with any live story that came his way because, “the cardinal error is to be there with the only live camera and then miss whatever might happen.”
Kate Winslet's portrayal of photojournalist Lee Miller in Lee is gritty and gripping. The biopic highlights how the former model transitioned to become an influential photographer and artist and, in the process, recreated one of Miller's most jaw-dropping photos. It featured a nude Miller bathing in what had been Adolph Hitler's personal bathtub.
The image of Miller wasn't sexual but rather captured the reality of war. Taken by David E. Scherman, the photo also reflected Miller's bold nature:
Lee took a leisurely, overdue bath in Hitler’s tub while an angry lieutenant of the 45th, soap in hand, beat on the locked door outside.
Miller's son, Antony Penrose, described the picture this way:
I think she was sticking two fingers up at Hitler. On the floor are her boots, covered with the filth of Dachau, which she has trodden all over Hitler’s bathroom floor. She is saying she is the victor.
The Decameron, an 8-episode Netflix limited series, didn't stick to Giovanni Boccaccio's work of the same name closely, but it did highlight how people attempted to run away from the bubonic plague.
The characters on the show flee to the countryside, something many city-dwellers did during the 14th century. As Bococcaio described the exodus from Florence:
Others with less humanity, but perchance, as they supposed, with more security from danger, decided that the only remedy for the pestilence was to avoid it: persuaded, therefore, of this, and taking care for themselves only, men and women in great numbers left the city, their houses, relations, and effects, and fled into the country: as if the wrath of God had been restrained to visit those only within the walls of the city; or else concluding, that none ought to stay in a place thus doomed to destruction.
Gladiator II gets a lot of history wrong, something director Ridley Scott has been criticized for in previous movies as well. One thing that Gladiator II does present with a reasonable amount of accuracy is the naval combat that took place in the Colosseum.
Called naumachia, mock sea battles used smaller ships than actual naval vessels but did require the Colosseum to be flooded with water. The spectacle of a naumachia was the result of water channeling in via a system of aqueducts, tunnels, and shafts. While no sharks were ever included in naumachia, despite what's included in Gladiator II, the events were impressive to see:
Whoever you are, late spectator, arrived from a distant shore, for whom this day of the Sacred Show is your first, I hope that this naval battle with its ships, and the waters that represent seas, do not mislead you. Let me point out that 'here just now was land'. You do not believe me? Look on while the seas weary the God of War. Wait one moment and you will say, 'Here just now was the sea.'
Kaos and its contemporary take on Greek mythology integrated a fair amount of real history and myth into its eight episodes. The show introduced audiences to Prometheus, a TItan, enduring a perpetual punishment handed down by Zeus (Jeff Goldblum).
In Greek myth, the punishment was the same:
Put in chains, and fastened to a pillar, where an eagle sent by Zeus consumed in the daytime his liver, which, in every succeeding night, was restored again. Prometheus was thus exposed to perpetual torture.
In Kaos, however, Prometheus was punished because he had dirt on Zeus but, in Greek myth, Prometheus had given the gift of fire to humans against Zeus's wishes.
In Saturday Night, comedy legend Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) exposes himself to members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew. While director Jason Reitman said he'd heard many stories of Berle taking out his private part and showing it to people, the story was also told by former SNL writer Alan Zweibel in Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests:
[Berle] parts his bathrobe and just takes out his - this anaconda. He lays it on the table and I'm looking at this thing, right? I'm looking at the head of Milton Berle's d*ck. It was enormous. It was like a pepperoni.
Thor crashes a wedding in Twilight of the Gods and, just like in the Netflix animated series, this happened in Norse mythology. When Sigrid, half-mortal and half-giant, was supposed to marry the mortal King Leif, Thor shows up and kills her family. The Gods had frowned on the union because it would not result in any children.
The reason for the foiled nuptials in the Thymskvida doesn't have to do with children but rather involves Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Thrym stole the hammer from Thor and would only give it back if the Norse god arranged for the goddess Freya to marry him.
Thor, Freya, and Loki set up a plan to trick Thrym into thinking they were married, only to have Thor wear the dress instead. When Thrym unveiled Mjolnir to bless Freya, Thor and his companions killed Thrym and stole back the hammer.
