HOW MUCH OF THAT IS REAL?
Movies/ Streaming Shows are exciting, romantic, thrilling, but are they accurate? This page is dedicated to those of you who want to know the history behind movies, know what is true and what has been exaggerated, or want to know the rest of the story.
BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015) WEEK JULY 17 - JULY 22
Director: Stephen Spielberg
Rating: PG-13 Streaming Link: https://youtu.be/CBQ8ELuwLLs It is also available on Amazon Prime, Showtime, and Hulu for those of you who have a subscription. Summary: In 1957, during the Cold War, the insurance lawyer James B. Donovan is assigned by the Bar association to defend in court the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who was captured by the FBI. Donovan is successful and Rudolf is sentenced to life imprisonment instead of death penalty. Meanwhile the American pilot and spy Francis Gary Powers is arrested by the Soviet government while taking photos from a spy plane that crashed. The CIA summons Donovan to help in the negotiation to exchange the two spies. When Donovan learns that the American student Frederic Pryor was arrested in the border of East Berlin while trying to bring his German girlfriend to the West Berlin, he decides to include the student in the negotiation. However his proposal is not supported by the CIA that is interested in Powers only. Further, Powers is prisoner of the soviet government and Pryor is prisoner of the GDR (German Democratic Republic). Will Donovan succeed in his intent? |
Stephen Spielberg makes wonderful historical dramas. He's well known for staying historically accurate, and this movie is no exception. This movie is based off of a book by James Donovan called "Strangers on a Bridge." Except for a few Hollywood enhancements to ramp up tension it stays pretty accurate to the actual history. It is based on the true story of how James Donovan helped mediate an exchange of spies in a time when the United States was on high alert, and Germany was being divided by the building of the Berlin Wall.
Want the Real Story?
Historical Link: https://www.biography.com/movies-tv/bridge-of-spies-true-story
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Right and Wrong
What led to the capture of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel?
The Bridge of Spies true story reveals that it was Abel's assistant, Reino Häyhänen, who alerted U.S. authorities to Abel's espionage. After working as a spy in America for approximately ten years, Abel had become unhappy with his assistant over his drinking, arguing with his wife, and hiring of prostitutes. Abel complained to Moscow and Häyhänen was asked to return. Fearing that he would be punished or at worst executed, Häyhänen fled to the U.S. Embassy in Paris where he revealed his identity as a KGB agent and alerted U.S. officials to the whereabouts of Rudolf Abel, which eventually led to Abel's capture by the FBI on June 21, 1957.
Donovan's Reluctance:
The Federal Court did decide that the Brooklyn Bar Association would decide who would represent Abel. They chose Brooklyn insurance lawyer James Donovan. Much like Hanks' character in the film, the real James Donovan did believe that everyone deserves a defense. "Our principles are engraved in the history and the law of this land," Donovan said in 1962. "If the free world is not faithful to its own moral code, there remains no society for which others may hunger" (The Milwaukee Journal). Donovan asked Abel for a fee of ten thousand dollars for the defense. He donated the entire sum to three universities.
Talking to the Judge:
Donovan really did convince the judge to rule against the death penalty because they could use Abel as a trade in the future. But unlike the movie he did so in open court.
On November 15, 1957, attorney James B. Donovan, who represented Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, urged Judge Mortimer W. Byers not to consider the death penalty for his client. In open court, Donovan told the judge, "It is possible that in the foreseeable future an American of equivalent rank will be captured by Soviet Russia or an ally; at such time an exchange of prisoners through diplomatic channels could be considered to be in the best national interests of the United States."
4th Amendment rights:
Donovan had also argued that the government had violated Abel's Fourth Amendment rights by searching his home and seizing both Abel and all his property without a public search warrant or a criminal warrant of arrest.
Drive-by Shooting:
This was Hollywood fiction. While Donovan did get threatening letters and phone calls, he did not have anyone attack his home. He did have to change his phone number and make his number unlisted until after the trial.
Timeline Issues:
In the movie it gives the impression that the trial of Able and the shooting down of the spy plane happened within the same year. In reality- Able was sentenced in 1957 and Powers wasn't shot down until 1960. During that period between Donovan wasn't troubled by the public. It was only once the spy exchange was revealed that his name came up again in the public. Powers was held captive from 1960 to Feb 10, 1962- when the exchange took place.
Berlin Wall Shootings:
This was fiction. In his book Donovan does talk about the escaping East Germans being shot, but he doesn't state that he ever witnessed one of those shootings in person.
Timeline Troubles:
In the movie the negotiations for the exchange seems to happen within a week. In actuality it took several months of negotiation before Donovan went to Germany.
All On His Own:
In the movie it seems as if Donovan is completely on his own in figuring out the negotiations. In reality the Department of Justice did a lot of the work before he went to Germany. Though it was all up to him when he met with the Soviet Embassy.
Secrets:
It is true that his wife had no idea what he was doing. He traveled to London and then sent her a telegram saying he was going to Scotland. He then stayed in Berlin for 10 days.
Crossing the Wall:
Originally Donovan was supposed to have a German/Russian interpreter with him, but the US Government was afraid that if something went wrong it would be embarrassing. Thus, they pulled the translator at the last minute and Donovan went alone.
Coat Theft:
Pure fiction. While he does mention in the book feeling threatened by a group of seemingly homeless youth, they did not give him trouble or steal his coat.
The Cold:
In the movie it gives the impression that either Donovan caught a cold from Able or caught it from not having a coat. While he did develop a cold it was more because his apartment in Berlin was drafty and cold than anything else.
The Exchange:
Like in the movie, the Americans and Soviets exchanged prisoners at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge and Checkpoint Charlie on the morning of February 10, 1962. First, college student Frederic L. Pryor was released to his parents at Checkpoint Charlie, the most well-known Cold War crossing point through the Berlin Wall that divided West Berlin and East Berlin. Soviet spy Rudolf Abel was then swapped at Glienicke Bridge for downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. The bridge links Berlin with Potsdam and was unique in that it was a place where the Soviet Union and the United States stood directly opposite one another. This made it an ideal place for prisoner exchanges.
The poisoned silver dollar:
This was a thing. It was called "Spending the Dollar." Powers did have it on him but he did not use it. The CIA inquiry found that Powers had handled himself appropriately. He received the Intelligence Star for bravery.
Want the Real Story?
Historical Link: https://www.biography.com/movies-tv/bridge-of-spies-true-story
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Right and Wrong
What led to the capture of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel?
The Bridge of Spies true story reveals that it was Abel's assistant, Reino Häyhänen, who alerted U.S. authorities to Abel's espionage. After working as a spy in America for approximately ten years, Abel had become unhappy with his assistant over his drinking, arguing with his wife, and hiring of prostitutes. Abel complained to Moscow and Häyhänen was asked to return. Fearing that he would be punished or at worst executed, Häyhänen fled to the U.S. Embassy in Paris where he revealed his identity as a KGB agent and alerted U.S. officials to the whereabouts of Rudolf Abel, which eventually led to Abel's capture by the FBI on June 21, 1957.
Donovan's Reluctance:
The Federal Court did decide that the Brooklyn Bar Association would decide who would represent Abel. They chose Brooklyn insurance lawyer James Donovan. Much like Hanks' character in the film, the real James Donovan did believe that everyone deserves a defense. "Our principles are engraved in the history and the law of this land," Donovan said in 1962. "If the free world is not faithful to its own moral code, there remains no society for which others may hunger" (The Milwaukee Journal). Donovan asked Abel for a fee of ten thousand dollars for the defense. He donated the entire sum to three universities.
Talking to the Judge:
Donovan really did convince the judge to rule against the death penalty because they could use Abel as a trade in the future. But unlike the movie he did so in open court.
On November 15, 1957, attorney James B. Donovan, who represented Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, urged Judge Mortimer W. Byers not to consider the death penalty for his client. In open court, Donovan told the judge, "It is possible that in the foreseeable future an American of equivalent rank will be captured by Soviet Russia or an ally; at such time an exchange of prisoners through diplomatic channels could be considered to be in the best national interests of the United States."
4th Amendment rights:
Donovan had also argued that the government had violated Abel's Fourth Amendment rights by searching his home and seizing both Abel and all his property without a public search warrant or a criminal warrant of arrest.
Drive-by Shooting:
This was Hollywood fiction. While Donovan did get threatening letters and phone calls, he did not have anyone attack his home. He did have to change his phone number and make his number unlisted until after the trial.
Timeline Issues:
In the movie it gives the impression that the trial of Able and the shooting down of the spy plane happened within the same year. In reality- Able was sentenced in 1957 and Powers wasn't shot down until 1960. During that period between Donovan wasn't troubled by the public. It was only once the spy exchange was revealed that his name came up again in the public. Powers was held captive from 1960 to Feb 10, 1962- when the exchange took place.
Berlin Wall Shootings:
This was fiction. In his book Donovan does talk about the escaping East Germans being shot, but he doesn't state that he ever witnessed one of those shootings in person.
Timeline Troubles:
In the movie the negotiations for the exchange seems to happen within a week. In actuality it took several months of negotiation before Donovan went to Germany.
All On His Own:
In the movie it seems as if Donovan is completely on his own in figuring out the negotiations. In reality the Department of Justice did a lot of the work before he went to Germany. Though it was all up to him when he met with the Soviet Embassy.
Secrets:
It is true that his wife had no idea what he was doing. He traveled to London and then sent her a telegram saying he was going to Scotland. He then stayed in Berlin for 10 days.
Crossing the Wall:
Originally Donovan was supposed to have a German/Russian interpreter with him, but the US Government was afraid that if something went wrong it would be embarrassing. Thus, they pulled the translator at the last minute and Donovan went alone.
Coat Theft:
Pure fiction. While he does mention in the book feeling threatened by a group of seemingly homeless youth, they did not give him trouble or steal his coat.
The Cold:
In the movie it gives the impression that either Donovan caught a cold from Able or caught it from not having a coat. While he did develop a cold it was more because his apartment in Berlin was drafty and cold than anything else.
The Exchange:
Like in the movie, the Americans and Soviets exchanged prisoners at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge and Checkpoint Charlie on the morning of February 10, 1962. First, college student Frederic L. Pryor was released to his parents at Checkpoint Charlie, the most well-known Cold War crossing point through the Berlin Wall that divided West Berlin and East Berlin. Soviet spy Rudolf Abel was then swapped at Glienicke Bridge for downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. The bridge links Berlin with Potsdam and was unique in that it was a place where the Soviet Union and the United States stood directly opposite one another. This made it an ideal place for prisoner exchanges.
The poisoned silver dollar:
This was a thing. It was called "Spending the Dollar." Powers did have it on him but he did not use it. The CIA inquiry found that Powers had handled himself appropriately. He received the Intelligence Star for bravery.
DELVE DEEPER: TTHE WORLD OF ESPIONAGE HAS ALWAYS BEEN EXCITING AND WHETHER YOU'RE WATCHING JAMES BOND OR LEARNING ABOUT A REAL LIFE ADVENTURE THE TOOLS WERE REAL.
fIND OUT MORE: https://www.history.com/news/pigeon-cameras-and-other-cia-cold-war-spy-gear
THE MONUMENTS MEN (2014) WEEK: JULY 10 - JULY 15
Director: George Clooney
Rating: PG-13 Streaming Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.9aa9f75a-087f-25d9-80b2-8e9ed0f5e433?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb It is also available on Hulu and YouTube for those of you who have a subscription. For those students who have had me previously, you know that I have a fondness for art. Specifically Renaissance and Northern Renaissance Art. I also love Impressionists, Cubists, the list goes on and on.
I remember when this movie came into the theaters. I was excited to see it. First it has a very funny cast. Second, George Clooney had been on a history streak when he came up with this movie. While he wasn't in Argo- he was supposed to be and he was also supposed to direct it. Things got changed, and well... I can't complain. It is an outstanding movie. Monuments men is part of that series along with "Men who Stare at Goats" which is also a movie based on a Military Department. It is strange and odd and very Clooney. This movie is somewhere between Clooney's work. Funny, Historical, and totally about obscure military organizations. |
Critics didn't like this movie- because they expected Ocean's 11. This movie is not Ocean's 11. While it is funny- it also covers a very important group of people in the military- that still to this day protect art and historic sites from destruction even in times of war. To paraphrase the movie- to ensure that there's something left when we stop making a mess of things.
It is silly at times- frankly I don't think you can have a movie with this cast- without some general comedy moments, but it also has some real poignant moments about war, the cost, and there are things that get lost and it's tragic when that happens.
Want the Real Story?
Historical Link: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2014/02/06/the-real-monuments-men/
And: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is our third movie in a row that is based on a book that was based on real events. Which means that creative licenses have happened twice. Again this is one of those instances, where a good portion of the history remains intact.
Right and Wrong
There were only seven men.
Wrong: Actually there were over 350 men and women from thirteen different nations. They were known as the MFAA (Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives) program. The group contained art historians, curators, museum directors, artists, architects, and educators. Obviously a group that size would have been difficult to make an audience connection, so they narrowed it down to seven that represented all of those facets.
Two Presidents not just one.
The movie puts FDR front and center, but he wasn't the only US President involved. Future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, supported the MFAA operations.
More than Art:
In the movie the group pretty much focuses on fine art, but the MFAA also protected museums, churches, and basically worked diplomatically to try and preserve the world's ancient history. They had to convince military units and officials to not bomb areas of cultural significance.
Not Quite the Man Who Did It All:
George Clooney plays George Stout. In the movie he pretty much comes up with and runs the entire operation. He wasn't quite that front and center. It was his brain child, but the creation of the operation has more to do with American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas. Today they are known as the Roberts Commission. George Stout- was one of the first recruits, went ashore at Normandy, and was later appointed Lieutenant Commander of the MFAA. In the second half of 1945, Stout headed for Japan where he served as the Chief of the Arts and Monuments Division, headquartered in Tokyo. There, he carried on his role as a Monuments Man.
Basic Training Antics:
The Monuments Men Did have to go through basic training. Many of them were already reservists, but others, who had no military experience, did go through Basic Training. That training often took place in England prior to entering the field.
Group Work:
In the movie, the seven major figures are often seen working together as a single group. This is movie elaboration. They did not work together as a group. There was far too much work to do. They would have been severely limited in what they could protect if they acted as they did in the movie.
Was Rose Valland Real and was she really afraid to say what happened to the art?
Yes, like in the movie, it took the real Claire Simone, whose name is actually Rose Valland, some time to confide the details of the Nazi looting to Lt. James Rorimer, the real-life James Granger (Matt Damon in the movie). She was weary about who to trust and feared that the pieces would be stolen by whoever she told. Her knowledge pertained specifically to the locations that the looted objects were being shipped to. Valland, an employee of the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, had secretly recorded the movements of the stolen objects that the Nazis had plundered in France. The Nazis were using the museum where she worked as the headquarters for the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg), a special Nazi task force that engaged in the plunder of cultural valuables in occupied countries. The Nazis had allowed Rose to continue her work at the museum. Unbeknownst to the Nazis, she understood German and had listened in on their conversations.
Dental Confidential:
The part about the dentist is absolutely true. In the movie- by the end of March 1949, Robert Posey (Bill Murray in the movie) had developed a severe toothache. With the nearest army dentist being a hundred miles away in France, he and Lincoln Kirstein (portrayed by Bob Balaban) tracked down a German dentist. The talkative dentist ended up telling them about his son-in-law, an art scholar who knew France well and was there during the occupation. He then took the men to meet his son-in-law, who to their surprise ended up being a former SS officer who knew Hermann Göring, in addition to the locations of a significant amount of stolen art (including the location of Göring's collection). He also knew which of the treasures had been distributed to German museums and which art dealers in Berlin were actively trading the looted works.
But...
The dentist's son-in-law did not have stolen art hanging in his home. The Monuments Men book states that "the walls were lined with photographs of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, and other famous Parisian landmarks."
But...Was he really a German War Criminal?
Yes he was. Despite trying to tell the men that he viewed the Nazis as "complete frauds" and only carried out his duties as an SS officer for the sake of protecting the art, Robert Posey and Lincoln Kirstein later discovered that, like in the movie, they had been speaking to Hermann Göring's corrupt Kunstschutz official who had been one of the key figures in the infamous looting operation at the Jeu de Paume, the museum in Paris where Rose Valland worked.
Nazi leaders stealing art for themselves:
This did happen. Many of the Nazi Party leaders, including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, had planned to keep much of the stolen art for themselves. At the time of Göring's arrest, he had more art in his personal collection than what is in the current European Paintings Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He is quoted saying, "It used to be called plundering. But today things have become more humane. In spite of that, I intend to plunder, and do it thoroughly."
Destruction Order:
This is absolutely true. Through the issuance of the 1945 Nero Decree, officially titled the "Demolitions on Reich Territory Decree," Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered that if he died or Germany was about to lose the war, then the nearly 5 million pieces of stolen art were to be destroyed, along with factories, supply depots, transportation and communication facilities - basically anything of value that the Allies could utilize. If he lived and Germany won the war, he planned to showcase much of the art in the unbuilt Führermuseum that he envisioned for his hometown of Linz, Austria (in the movie Hitler stares at a model of this monument to himself). The Nero Decree was named after Emperor Nero, who was blamed for the fire that destroyed most of Rome in the year 64 AD.
But...
Despite the two criteria Hitler set in the Nero Decree having been met (his death and Germany on the verge of losing the war), the decree was never actually implemented. Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister of Armaments, was given the order, but he had become disillusioned with Hitler toward the end of the war and persuaded Nazi generals to ignore the directive, a secret that he kept from Hitler. In the face of defeat, Speer believed that if things such as factories, bridges and communication lines were still in place, it would be much easier for Germany to rebuild after the war. Hitler on the other hand believed that Allied forces would plunder Germany.
Deaths in the Movie:
Monuments Men did die during this operation, but Hollywood decided to beef their deaths up a little. Two Monuments Men did perish in the war. Ronald Balfour, 41, died from a shell burst while trying to move parts of an historic church's medieval altarpiece to safety (not while protecting the Madonna). The other was an American architect named Walter Huchthausen, who was shot in April 1945 near Aachen, Germany. I would assume that since they were already tracking the Ghent Altarpiece they didn't want to add a second and confuse the audience.
Movie Fiction:
Matt Damon's character steps on a landmine in the movie. This did not happen. While there was concern about land mines, there was no incident where James Rorimer(Matt Damon's character) stepped on a mine.
Gold Fillings:
In the movie there is a barrel of gold fillings found. This really did happen. General Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley were shown a sack of gold dental fillings. There are also several reports of chests filled with gold fillings. The barrel might be a slight exaggeration, but still...
What about the other gold?
Yup it was found in the mines- and the press during WW2 focused more on that find than the art.
How much art?
Some estimates are as high as 20 million, but generally speaking they place the number around five to six million pieces of art. The MFAA managed to recover and return about five million pieces of art. Some went back to their owners, but many went to their countries of origin, because their owners had been murdered in the Holocaust.
Is some stolen art still missing?
Yes. Unfortunately to this day, not all of the stolen art has been recovered. Despite the discoveries of thousands of art repositories that were used to conceal the Nazi's looted treasures, priceless masterpieces like Bernardo Bellotto's "View of the Grand Canal in Venice" and Sandro Botticelli's "Portrait of a Man" have never been found (both are pictured on the left). They join a number of other celebrated paintings that remain missing, including Van Gogh's "Vincent on his way to work" and Claude Monet's "Manet painting in Monet's Garden." These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of cultural treasures that are still missing.
It is silly at times- frankly I don't think you can have a movie with this cast- without some general comedy moments, but it also has some real poignant moments about war, the cost, and there are things that get lost and it's tragic when that happens.
Want the Real Story?
Historical Link: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2014/02/06/the-real-monuments-men/
And: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is our third movie in a row that is based on a book that was based on real events. Which means that creative licenses have happened twice. Again this is one of those instances, where a good portion of the history remains intact.
Right and Wrong
There were only seven men.
Wrong: Actually there were over 350 men and women from thirteen different nations. They were known as the MFAA (Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives) program. The group contained art historians, curators, museum directors, artists, architects, and educators. Obviously a group that size would have been difficult to make an audience connection, so they narrowed it down to seven that represented all of those facets.
Two Presidents not just one.
The movie puts FDR front and center, but he wasn't the only US President involved. Future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, supported the MFAA operations.
More than Art:
In the movie the group pretty much focuses on fine art, but the MFAA also protected museums, churches, and basically worked diplomatically to try and preserve the world's ancient history. They had to convince military units and officials to not bomb areas of cultural significance.
Not Quite the Man Who Did It All:
George Clooney plays George Stout. In the movie he pretty much comes up with and runs the entire operation. He wasn't quite that front and center. It was his brain child, but the creation of the operation has more to do with American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas. Today they are known as the Roberts Commission. George Stout- was one of the first recruits, went ashore at Normandy, and was later appointed Lieutenant Commander of the MFAA. In the second half of 1945, Stout headed for Japan where he served as the Chief of the Arts and Monuments Division, headquartered in Tokyo. There, he carried on his role as a Monuments Man.
Basic Training Antics:
The Monuments Men Did have to go through basic training. Many of them were already reservists, but others, who had no military experience, did go through Basic Training. That training often took place in England prior to entering the field.
Group Work:
In the movie, the seven major figures are often seen working together as a single group. This is movie elaboration. They did not work together as a group. There was far too much work to do. They would have been severely limited in what they could protect if they acted as they did in the movie.
Was Rose Valland Real and was she really afraid to say what happened to the art?
Yes, like in the movie, it took the real Claire Simone, whose name is actually Rose Valland, some time to confide the details of the Nazi looting to Lt. James Rorimer, the real-life James Granger (Matt Damon in the movie). She was weary about who to trust and feared that the pieces would be stolen by whoever she told. Her knowledge pertained specifically to the locations that the looted objects were being shipped to. Valland, an employee of the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, had secretly recorded the movements of the stolen objects that the Nazis had plundered in France. The Nazis were using the museum where she worked as the headquarters for the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg), a special Nazi task force that engaged in the plunder of cultural valuables in occupied countries. The Nazis had allowed Rose to continue her work at the museum. Unbeknownst to the Nazis, she understood German and had listened in on their conversations.
Dental Confidential:
The part about the dentist is absolutely true. In the movie- by the end of March 1949, Robert Posey (Bill Murray in the movie) had developed a severe toothache. With the nearest army dentist being a hundred miles away in France, he and Lincoln Kirstein (portrayed by Bob Balaban) tracked down a German dentist. The talkative dentist ended up telling them about his son-in-law, an art scholar who knew France well and was there during the occupation. He then took the men to meet his son-in-law, who to their surprise ended up being a former SS officer who knew Hermann Göring, in addition to the locations of a significant amount of stolen art (including the location of Göring's collection). He also knew which of the treasures had been distributed to German museums and which art dealers in Berlin were actively trading the looted works.
But...
The dentist's son-in-law did not have stolen art hanging in his home. The Monuments Men book states that "the walls were lined with photographs of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, and other famous Parisian landmarks."
But...Was he really a German War Criminal?
Yes he was. Despite trying to tell the men that he viewed the Nazis as "complete frauds" and only carried out his duties as an SS officer for the sake of protecting the art, Robert Posey and Lincoln Kirstein later discovered that, like in the movie, they had been speaking to Hermann Göring's corrupt Kunstschutz official who had been one of the key figures in the infamous looting operation at the Jeu de Paume, the museum in Paris where Rose Valland worked.
Nazi leaders stealing art for themselves:
This did happen. Many of the Nazi Party leaders, including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, had planned to keep much of the stolen art for themselves. At the time of Göring's arrest, he had more art in his personal collection than what is in the current European Paintings Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He is quoted saying, "It used to be called plundering. But today things have become more humane. In spite of that, I intend to plunder, and do it thoroughly."
Destruction Order:
This is absolutely true. Through the issuance of the 1945 Nero Decree, officially titled the "Demolitions on Reich Territory Decree," Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered that if he died or Germany was about to lose the war, then the nearly 5 million pieces of stolen art were to be destroyed, along with factories, supply depots, transportation and communication facilities - basically anything of value that the Allies could utilize. If he lived and Germany won the war, he planned to showcase much of the art in the unbuilt Führermuseum that he envisioned for his hometown of Linz, Austria (in the movie Hitler stares at a model of this monument to himself). The Nero Decree was named after Emperor Nero, who was blamed for the fire that destroyed most of Rome in the year 64 AD.
But...
Despite the two criteria Hitler set in the Nero Decree having been met (his death and Germany on the verge of losing the war), the decree was never actually implemented. Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister of Armaments, was given the order, but he had become disillusioned with Hitler toward the end of the war and persuaded Nazi generals to ignore the directive, a secret that he kept from Hitler. In the face of defeat, Speer believed that if things such as factories, bridges and communication lines were still in place, it would be much easier for Germany to rebuild after the war. Hitler on the other hand believed that Allied forces would plunder Germany.
Deaths in the Movie:
Monuments Men did die during this operation, but Hollywood decided to beef their deaths up a little. Two Monuments Men did perish in the war. Ronald Balfour, 41, died from a shell burst while trying to move parts of an historic church's medieval altarpiece to safety (not while protecting the Madonna). The other was an American architect named Walter Huchthausen, who was shot in April 1945 near Aachen, Germany. I would assume that since they were already tracking the Ghent Altarpiece they didn't want to add a second and confuse the audience.
Movie Fiction:
Matt Damon's character steps on a landmine in the movie. This did not happen. While there was concern about land mines, there was no incident where James Rorimer(Matt Damon's character) stepped on a mine.
Gold Fillings:
In the movie there is a barrel of gold fillings found. This really did happen. General Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley were shown a sack of gold dental fillings. There are also several reports of chests filled with gold fillings. The barrel might be a slight exaggeration, but still...
What about the other gold?
Yup it was found in the mines- and the press during WW2 focused more on that find than the art.
How much art?
Some estimates are as high as 20 million, but generally speaking they place the number around five to six million pieces of art. The MFAA managed to recover and return about five million pieces of art. Some went back to their owners, but many went to their countries of origin, because their owners had been murdered in the Holocaust.
Is some stolen art still missing?
Yes. Unfortunately to this day, not all of the stolen art has been recovered. Despite the discoveries of thousands of art repositories that were used to conceal the Nazi's looted treasures, priceless masterpieces like Bernardo Bellotto's "View of the Grand Canal in Venice" and Sandro Botticelli's "Portrait of a Man" have never been found (both are pictured on the left). They join a number of other celebrated paintings that remain missing, including Van Gogh's "Vincent on his way to work" and Claude Monet's "Manet painting in Monet's Garden." These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of cultural treasures that are still missing.
DELVE DEEPER:
TTHERE ARE MODERN DAY MONUMENTS MEN AND WOMEN STILL PROTECTING ART. THEY ARE WORKING IN WAR TORN AREAS STILL TRYING TO PROTECT THE WORLD'S CULTURAL HERITAGE.
LEARN MORE AT: https://www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org/21st-century-monuments-men-and-women
ART THAT IS STILL MISSING: https://www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org/wwii-most-wanted
HIDDEN FIGURES (2016) WEEK: JULY 3 - JULY 8
Director: Theodore Melfi
Rating: PG Streaming Link: https://archive.org/details/HiddenFigures2016.u It is also available on Disney+ for those of you who have a subscription. Summary: As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes. |
Hidden figures was one of the break out hits of 2016. I loved this movie when I watched it. I love that it is inspiring and shows the science and math behind the space program. I still maintain that Octavia Spencer should have got the Academy Award for her performance in this movie. It is a brilliant telling of a moment in history.
Want the Real Story?
Historical Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-black-women-mathematicians-who-helped-win-wars-and-send-astronauts-space-180960393/
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The movie "Hidden Figures" similar to our movie last week, was based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly. Once again things had to be adapted in the name of entertainment. Even the author said: "For better or for worse, there is history, there is the book and then there's the movie. Timelines had to be conflated and [there were] composite characters. -Author Margot Lee Shetterly, December 2016, Space.com
Right and Wrong
Three in One:
The character played by Kevin Costner (Al Harrison) is based on three different directors of NASA- Langley. These three men were Katherine Johnson's administrators during her time at the research facility. The director wanted to make the movie about a very specific one of the three, but he couldn't get the rights to his persona. Instead, the director opted to create a composite character- putting in attributes and events from all three.
She did it!
Over the course of her three decades at NASA, Katherine Johnson's biography includes an impressive list of accomplishments. She calculated trajectories for Alan Shepard's groundbreaking 1961 spaceflight (America's first human in space), she verified the calculations for John Glenn's first American orbit of Earth, she computed the trajectory of Apollo 11's flight to the moon, and she worked on the plan that saved Apollo 13's crew and brought them safely back to Earth. For her accomplishments, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 24, 2015.
Education Migration:
Katherine Johnson's father really did move her family 120 miles each school year so she could pursue her education. Born in 1918, Katherine G. Johnson's impressive intellect was evident from the time she was a child. She was fascinated with numbers and became a high school freshman by age 10. In her hometown of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, school for African-Americans normally stopped at the eighth grade for those who could afford to attend. Katherine's father, Joshua, was determined to see his children reach their potential, so he drove the family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, where blacks could pursue an education past the eighth grade, through high school, and into college. He rented a house for the family to stay during the school year and journeyed back and forth to White Sulphur Springs for his job at a hotel. He did this for eight years, so that each of his four children could go to high school and college. Katherine proved to be so smart that she skipped several grades, graduating high school at age 14 and from West Virginia State College at 18.
Segregation at Langley:
"At the time the black women came to work at Langley [in 1943], this was a time of segregation," says Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly. "Even though they were just starting these brand new, very interesting jobs as professional mathematicians, they nonetheless had to abide by the state law, which was that there were segregated work rooms for them, there were segregated bathrooms, and there were segregated cafeterias. On their table in the cafeteria was a sign that said 'colored computers,' which sort of sounds like an iMac or something, right, today? But this referred to the black women who were doing this mathematical work." They were essentially human computers.
Katherine's Thoughts on segregation:
"I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research," says the real Katherine G. Johnson. "You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job...and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it." Even though much of the racism coming from Katherine's coworkers in the movie seems to be largely made up (in real life she claimed to be treated as a peer), the movie's depiction of state laws regarding the use of separate bathrooms, buses, etc. was very real. African-American computers had also been put in the segregated west section of the Langley campus and were dubbed the "West Computers." -WHROTV Interview
In Margot Lee Shetterly's book, Hidden Figures, she writes about a cardboard sign on one of the tables in the back of NASA Langley's cafeteria during the early 1940s that read, "COLORED COMPUTERS." This particularly struck a nerve with the women because it seemed especially ridiculous and demeaning in a place where research and intellectual ability was focused on much more than skin color. It was Miriam Mann, a member of the West Computers, who finally decided to remove the sign, and when an unknown hand would make a new sign a few days later, Miriam would shove that sign into her purse too. Eventually, the signs stopped reappearing at some point during the war.
Janitor duties:
This was fiction. When Katherine Johnson comes in to the room, she was not considered the janitor. This event doesn't appear in the book and was an element of fiction created by film makers.
NASA or Bust:
The Hidden Figures true story confirms that she was hired in 1953 at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia to work as part of a female team nicknamed "Computers Who Wear Skirts." She then began to assist the all-male flight research team, who eventually welcomed her on board. Like in the movie, she worked with airplanes in the Guidance and Navigation Department. In those days, NASA still went by the initials NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which in 1958 became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) thanks to the Space Act of 1958.
Was He Real?
Jim Parson's character was not a real figure. He was created to represent certain racist and sexist attitudes that existed during the 1950s. In the film, he thwarts every effort Katherine (Taraji P. Henson) makes to get ahead, including reducing her job qualifications to secretarial duty, omitting her byline on official reports, and telling her it's not appropriate for women to attend space program briefings. By the end of the movie, Stafford's fictional storyline includes the character having a change of heart, which is emphasized when he brings Katherine a cup of coffee.
Was She Real?
Kirsten Dunst was also a fictional character designed to represent unconscious bias and prejudice of the era. She is at best a composite of some of the supervisors who worked at NASA Langley.
Computers?
This was a real thing? Before the days of electronic computers that we're familiar with today, the women hired at NASA to calculate trajectories, the results of wind tunnel tests, etc. had the job title of "computer." In simple terms, these were mathematicians who performed computations. Even when electronic computers were first used at NASA, human computers like Katherine Johnson still often performed the calculations by hand to verify the results of their electronic counterparts. -NASA
Dorothy Vaughan's NACA's First Black Supervisor?
Dorothy Vaughan became NACA's first black supervisor in 1948, five years before Katherine Johnson started working there. Vaughan was also an advocate and voice for the women in the "West Computers" pool. The movie shows her leading the women down the hall to their next assignment, an obvious nod to the team of astronauts walking down the hall in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff. -PopularMechanics.com
Permission?
It turns out that yes, Katherine was told that women weren't included in the space program briefings. "I asked permission to go," says Katherine, "and they said, 'Well, the girls don't usually go,' and I said, 'Well, is there a law?' They said, 'No.' Then my boss said, 'Let her go.' And I began attending the briefings." In the movie, Jim Parsons' character, Paul Stafford, tells Katherine (Taraji P. Henson) that women don't go to the briefings. "There's no protocol for women attending," Stafford states. After she continues to question this unspoken rule, their boss, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), decides to let her attend the briefing.
Bathroom Run:
This did and did not happen. According to Shetterly's book this was actually an issue for Mary Jackson not Katherine Johnson. Mary went to work on a project on NASA Langley's East Side alongside several white computers. She was not familiar with those buildings and when she asked a group of white women where the bathroom was, they giggled at her and offered no help. The closest bathroom was for whites. Humiliated and angry, Mary set off on a time-consuming search for a colored bathroom. Unlike in the movie, there were colored bathrooms on the East Side but not in every building. The sprint across the campus in the movie might be somewhat of an exaggeration, but finding a bathroom was indeed a point of frustration.
As for Katherine Johnson herself, Shetterly writes that when Katherine started working there, she didn't even realize that the bathrooms at Langley were segregated. This is because the bathrooms for white employees were unmarked and there weren't many colored bathrooms to be seen. It took a couple years before she was confronted with her mistake, but she simply ignored the comment and continued to use the white restrooms. No one brought it up again and she refused to enter the colored bathrooms.
Double Check:
John Glenn did personally requested that Katherine recheck the electronic computer's calculations for his February 1962 flight aboard the Mercury-Atlas 6 capsule Friendship 7—the NASA mission that concluded with him becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. The scene in the movie unfolded in almost exactly the same way it does in real life, with Glenn's request for Katherine taken nearly verbatim from the transcripts. He even refers to her as "the girl." "Get the girl to check the numbers... If she says the numbers are good... I'm ready to go." -NASA
Fighting for College:
Mary Jackson, portrayed by Janelle Monáe in the movie, was hired to work at Langley in 1951. Like in the movie, she accepted an assignment assisting senior aeronautical research engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki (renamed Karl Zielinski in the movie), who encouraged her to pursue a degree in engineering, which required her to take after-work graduate courses. She petitioned the city of Hampton to be able to attend graduate classes alongside her white peers. She won, got her degree, and was promoted to engineer in 1958.
Want the Real Story?
Historical Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-black-women-mathematicians-who-helped-win-wars-and-send-astronauts-space-180960393/
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The movie "Hidden Figures" similar to our movie last week, was based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly. Once again things had to be adapted in the name of entertainment. Even the author said: "For better or for worse, there is history, there is the book and then there's the movie. Timelines had to be conflated and [there were] composite characters. -Author Margot Lee Shetterly, December 2016, Space.com
Right and Wrong
Three in One:
The character played by Kevin Costner (Al Harrison) is based on three different directors of NASA- Langley. These three men were Katherine Johnson's administrators during her time at the research facility. The director wanted to make the movie about a very specific one of the three, but he couldn't get the rights to his persona. Instead, the director opted to create a composite character- putting in attributes and events from all three.
She did it!
Over the course of her three decades at NASA, Katherine Johnson's biography includes an impressive list of accomplishments. She calculated trajectories for Alan Shepard's groundbreaking 1961 spaceflight (America's first human in space), she verified the calculations for John Glenn's first American orbit of Earth, she computed the trajectory of Apollo 11's flight to the moon, and she worked on the plan that saved Apollo 13's crew and brought them safely back to Earth. For her accomplishments, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 24, 2015.
Education Migration:
Katherine Johnson's father really did move her family 120 miles each school year so she could pursue her education. Born in 1918, Katherine G. Johnson's impressive intellect was evident from the time she was a child. She was fascinated with numbers and became a high school freshman by age 10. In her hometown of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, school for African-Americans normally stopped at the eighth grade for those who could afford to attend. Katherine's father, Joshua, was determined to see his children reach their potential, so he drove the family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, where blacks could pursue an education past the eighth grade, through high school, and into college. He rented a house for the family to stay during the school year and journeyed back and forth to White Sulphur Springs for his job at a hotel. He did this for eight years, so that each of his four children could go to high school and college. Katherine proved to be so smart that she skipped several grades, graduating high school at age 14 and from West Virginia State College at 18.
Segregation at Langley:
"At the time the black women came to work at Langley [in 1943], this was a time of segregation," says Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly. "Even though they were just starting these brand new, very interesting jobs as professional mathematicians, they nonetheless had to abide by the state law, which was that there were segregated work rooms for them, there were segregated bathrooms, and there were segregated cafeterias. On their table in the cafeteria was a sign that said 'colored computers,' which sort of sounds like an iMac or something, right, today? But this referred to the black women who were doing this mathematical work." They were essentially human computers.
Katherine's Thoughts on segregation:
"I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research," says the real Katherine G. Johnson. "You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job...and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it." Even though much of the racism coming from Katherine's coworkers in the movie seems to be largely made up (in real life she claimed to be treated as a peer), the movie's depiction of state laws regarding the use of separate bathrooms, buses, etc. was very real. African-American computers had also been put in the segregated west section of the Langley campus and were dubbed the "West Computers." -WHROTV Interview
In Margot Lee Shetterly's book, Hidden Figures, she writes about a cardboard sign on one of the tables in the back of NASA Langley's cafeteria during the early 1940s that read, "COLORED COMPUTERS." This particularly struck a nerve with the women because it seemed especially ridiculous and demeaning in a place where research and intellectual ability was focused on much more than skin color. It was Miriam Mann, a member of the West Computers, who finally decided to remove the sign, and when an unknown hand would make a new sign a few days later, Miriam would shove that sign into her purse too. Eventually, the signs stopped reappearing at some point during the war.
Janitor duties:
This was fiction. When Katherine Johnson comes in to the room, she was not considered the janitor. This event doesn't appear in the book and was an element of fiction created by film makers.
NASA or Bust:
The Hidden Figures true story confirms that she was hired in 1953 at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia to work as part of a female team nicknamed "Computers Who Wear Skirts." She then began to assist the all-male flight research team, who eventually welcomed her on board. Like in the movie, she worked with airplanes in the Guidance and Navigation Department. In those days, NASA still went by the initials NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which in 1958 became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) thanks to the Space Act of 1958.
Was He Real?
Jim Parson's character was not a real figure. He was created to represent certain racist and sexist attitudes that existed during the 1950s. In the film, he thwarts every effort Katherine (Taraji P. Henson) makes to get ahead, including reducing her job qualifications to secretarial duty, omitting her byline on official reports, and telling her it's not appropriate for women to attend space program briefings. By the end of the movie, Stafford's fictional storyline includes the character having a change of heart, which is emphasized when he brings Katherine a cup of coffee.
Was She Real?
Kirsten Dunst was also a fictional character designed to represent unconscious bias and prejudice of the era. She is at best a composite of some of the supervisors who worked at NASA Langley.
Computers?
This was a real thing? Before the days of electronic computers that we're familiar with today, the women hired at NASA to calculate trajectories, the results of wind tunnel tests, etc. had the job title of "computer." In simple terms, these were mathematicians who performed computations. Even when electronic computers were first used at NASA, human computers like Katherine Johnson still often performed the calculations by hand to verify the results of their electronic counterparts. -NASA
Dorothy Vaughan's NACA's First Black Supervisor?
Dorothy Vaughan became NACA's first black supervisor in 1948, five years before Katherine Johnson started working there. Vaughan was also an advocate and voice for the women in the "West Computers" pool. The movie shows her leading the women down the hall to their next assignment, an obvious nod to the team of astronauts walking down the hall in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff. -PopularMechanics.com
Permission?
It turns out that yes, Katherine was told that women weren't included in the space program briefings. "I asked permission to go," says Katherine, "and they said, 'Well, the girls don't usually go,' and I said, 'Well, is there a law?' They said, 'No.' Then my boss said, 'Let her go.' And I began attending the briefings." In the movie, Jim Parsons' character, Paul Stafford, tells Katherine (Taraji P. Henson) that women don't go to the briefings. "There's no protocol for women attending," Stafford states. After she continues to question this unspoken rule, their boss, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), decides to let her attend the briefing.
Bathroom Run:
This did and did not happen. According to Shetterly's book this was actually an issue for Mary Jackson not Katherine Johnson. Mary went to work on a project on NASA Langley's East Side alongside several white computers. She was not familiar with those buildings and when she asked a group of white women where the bathroom was, they giggled at her and offered no help. The closest bathroom was for whites. Humiliated and angry, Mary set off on a time-consuming search for a colored bathroom. Unlike in the movie, there were colored bathrooms on the East Side but not in every building. The sprint across the campus in the movie might be somewhat of an exaggeration, but finding a bathroom was indeed a point of frustration.
As for Katherine Johnson herself, Shetterly writes that when Katherine started working there, she didn't even realize that the bathrooms at Langley were segregated. This is because the bathrooms for white employees were unmarked and there weren't many colored bathrooms to be seen. It took a couple years before she was confronted with her mistake, but she simply ignored the comment and continued to use the white restrooms. No one brought it up again and she refused to enter the colored bathrooms.
Double Check:
John Glenn did personally requested that Katherine recheck the electronic computer's calculations for his February 1962 flight aboard the Mercury-Atlas 6 capsule Friendship 7—the NASA mission that concluded with him becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. The scene in the movie unfolded in almost exactly the same way it does in real life, with Glenn's request for Katherine taken nearly verbatim from the transcripts. He even refers to her as "the girl." "Get the girl to check the numbers... If she says the numbers are good... I'm ready to go." -NASA
Fighting for College:
Mary Jackson, portrayed by Janelle Monáe in the movie, was hired to work at Langley in 1951. Like in the movie, she accepted an assignment assisting senior aeronautical research engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki (renamed Karl Zielinski in the movie), who encouraged her to pursue a degree in engineering, which required her to take after-work graduate courses. She petitioned the city of Hampton to be able to attend graduate classes alongside her white peers. She won, got her degree, and was promoted to engineer in 1958.
DELVE DEEPER:
THERE WEREN'T JUST THREE WOMEN WHO HELPED TO MAKE NASA A SUCCESS. TAKE A LOOK AT MORE OF THE STORIES BEHIND THE HUMAN COMPUTERS AT NASA: www.history.com/news/human-computers-women-at-nasa
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) Week: June 26- June 1
Director: John Sturges Rating: PG Streaming Link: https://archive.org/details/the-great-escape-historical-war-epic-1963 It is also available on MAX (HBO) for those of you who have a subscription. This time we’ll be heading into World War 2 with John Sturges’ “The Great Escape.” This movie is by far one of the most fun war movies that have been made. It had likable characters, a good sense of humor, and one glaring lie. In the first five minutes of the film a large red text block appears stating that the events in this movie all really happened – LIES! 😊 Okay some of them happened and a great many are Hollywood making the story more exciting. But did the events of this movie actually happen- YES! There really was a mass breakout of a heavily fortified military officer camp during World War 2. It really did cause the Germans severe damage in regard to man power- and fifty of the escapees really were killed as a consequence. |
Summary: Nazi Germany, 1942. With the Germans forced to spend time and resources hunting down escaping Allied officers, the Third Reich opened Stalag Luft III: a maximum-security, Luftwaffe-run POW camp. And designed to discourage even the craftiest prisoners, the Nazis moved truckloads of downed fighter pilots to the newly established prison camp. However, they have unwittingly assembled a dream team of escape artists. As the indomitable human spirit meets the dogged determination to be free, the hand-picked inmates waste no time sniffing out weaknesses and minute opportunities for escape--after all, it is the sworn duty of all officers to give the enemy hell and try to escape. Are the mighty oppressors prepared for the great escape?
Want the real story?
Historical Link: https://www.history.com/news/great-escape-wwii-nazi-stalag-luft-iii
And a bit more about the real men who got away: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/greatescape/three.html
And this is an amazing video which shows the location of the event and gives you a true accounting of what happened before, after and during. https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/the-great-escape-youve-seen-the-film-now-hear-the-truth/
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For a movie that was billed for its historical accuracy- it has a lot of creative license. Creative license is a catch phrase in Hollywood that says they are adjusting the movie to make it more exciting rather than it being truly historically accurate. In this case- they combined a few characters, they also moved the timeline around. The movie is based on a book published in 1950 by Paul Brickhill. The book is very good and I recommend it.
Right and Wrong:
Myth 1- Duty to Escape:
One of the most enduring myths about the Great Escape is that the POWs had a duty to escape. Indeed, the myth is so persistent that even some former prisoners maintain they had an obligation to break out of their camps. The short answer is that there was none.
When they were shot down, Allied Airmen were indeed expected to avoid being captured, but once they were in the hands of the enemy, there was no formal expectation that they should try to escape. Instead, as one former POW has said: “There was a kind of corporate policy of intent that it was part of our duty to play a part in escape arrangements.”
In other words, the duty to escape was an expectation of how Airmen should behave – rather like the expectation that they should be brave – and there was nothing in the King’s Regulations that stipulated that the men had to escape.
Myth 2- Seasons Change:
In the movie, the action is played out in glorious spring sunshine that really shows off the use of colored film stock. However, in reality, the escape took place in unseasonably bad conditions, with the temperature hovering around zero, and a thick layer of snow on the ground. According to one POW, it was the coldest winter that that part of Poland had suffered for 30 years, and it was these conditions that did more to hamper the efforts of the escapees than anything else.
Many were equipped with totally unsuitable clothes, such as lightweight trousers that would normally only be issued in the desert, and boots quickly became waterlogged as the escapees tramped through woods and streams. Many came close to suffering from frostbite and were forced to sleep in obvious shelters such as barns, which only increased the likelihood of them being captured.
Myth 3- The Great Escape was Unique:
It wasn’t. Throughout the war, there were plenty of mass escapes organized by Allied POWs. There were some 11 ‘great escapes’ carried out by British prisoners alone before March 1944.
One example is the March 1943 escape from the POW camp at Szubin, Poland, in which 43 Allied Airmen tunneled out. All the men were recaptured, apart from one, who sadly drowned.
The Germans ridiculed mass breakouts, dismissing them as futile acts of bravado – and the resulting increase in security made mass escapes less likely to succeed. In fact, in Stalag Luft III, one German advised POWs to escape in twos and threes to improve their chances of getting home!
Myth 4- The Infamous Motorcycle:
Of all the scenes in The Great Escape, that of Virgil Hilts, played by Steve McQueen, trying to jump over the border wire on his motorbike while being chased by hundreds of Schmeisser-toting Germans is the most memorable. It’s certainly a thrilling sequence, but it has no basis in truth.
None of those who escaped from Stalag Luft III even used so much as a bicycle to get away. The motorbike scene is so gross a misrepresentation of the true escape that former POWs booed it when they were shown the movie!
Hilts’s nationality also flags up another myth about the escape – that Americans were part of the breakout. Although US Airmen watched out for patrolling Germans during the tunnel’s construction, the commandant moved them to a different compound a few months before the escape.
So why the bike?
McQueen who played Virgil Hilts was a huge Motorcycle fan, and much like Tom Cruise today, liked to do his own stunts. McQueen added in the motorcycle as part of his contract for doing the movie. He wanted to do stunts and the director agreed... also there was no Virgil Hilts- which is probably why the studio allowed it.
Location, Location, Location:
Right- Stalag Luft III, the POW camp of Sagan, Silesia, then in Germany, was re-created with good depictions of the camp grounds, fences, towers, and guards.
Participants as advisors:
Right: Several of the actual prisoners from Stalag Luft III were consulted as technical advisers for the film. They asked the producers not to include any details of the help they received hidden in gift packages from their home countries, in order to not compromise escape attempts from any possible future POW situations.
The Tunnel King:
Former Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot, mining engineer, and Stalag Luft III prisoner Wally Floody was both the inspiration for Danny Valinski, the “tunnel king” played by Charles Bronson, and a technical adviser to the film. Thus, many of the details of tunnel construction by the prisoners were very well done, including a hand-operated air pump for the tight spaces that ran over 100 meters when completed.
Historical Flexible Timeline:
Wrong: The most glaring revision of nationalities in the film was the amending of the fact that all the U.S. officers were transferred to a different camp many months before the escape took place,
X and the Scar:
Right: There was a “Big X,” but his real name was Roger Bushell. He had escaped German custody twice since being captured in 1940 and even made it to within a few hundred yards of the Swiss border before being captured. When he was transferred to Stalag Luft III, he headed the group digging the tunnels as depicted in the film.
But…
Oops-
Bushell even had scarring around his left eye featured in Attenborough’s makeup for the film, though in the film it is seen on the wrong side of his face.
The Winners are… not quite the same-
Wrong: The three successful men are , Polish, and Australian in the film, but were Norwegian and Dutch in real life.
Tragic End:
Right (sort of) Like the actual, tragic reality, 50 of the recaptured prisoners are shot, though in very different circumstances
DELVE DEEPER:
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY WARS THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND SOME OF THE STORIES ARE THRILLING. TAKE A LOOK AT SOME ESCAPE STORIES THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN WW2 AND OTHER WARS:
World war 2: https://www.historynet.com/10-great-pow-escapes/
World War 1: PODCAST- https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-prisoners-of-war
CIVIL WAR: http://www.crossroadsofwar.org/discover-the-story/african-americans-the-struggle-for-freedom/african-americans-the-struggle-for-freedom/
And... My favorite: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thrilling-tale-how-robert-smalls-heroically-sailed-stolen-confederate-ship-freedom-180963689/
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935) WEEK 3: JUNE 19- JUNE 24
Director: Frank Lloyd
Rating: G Streaming Link: https://archive.org/details/mutiny-on-the-bounty-1935 This time we're going to go old school Hollywood. There are reasons for this- first this is by far the most charismatic cast of the three versions of the movie. The 1935 version stars Clark Gable and he does an amazing job at bringing the audience into the story. It is also the most dynamic version of Captain Bligh. Charles Laughton with very little effort manages to make you truly hate him. Is it the most historically accurate? No. The movie "The Bounty" filmed in 1984 is considered the most historically accurate. So why are we watching the 1935 version? First- it is the most parentally appropriate. The 1984 version has significant nudity that I couldn't find acceptable recommending to students. Granted it is accurate for the natives of Tahiti, but still not something I can recommend. Mostly we're choosing this version because it is the most engaging version of the movie. Some will argue that Brando's version made in the 1960s was better, but I find this movie has more appeal. It also won the Academy Award for best picture in 1935. Last, this movie is accessible. Not everyone has access to streaming services and I wanted to offer everyone the opportunity to watch. |
Summary: The Bounty sails from Britain for Tahiti to obtain a cargo of breadfruit plants. Captain Bligh is in charge and he over-zealously enforces discipline by various methods, his favorite being flogging. Bligh cuts rations and works his men so hard that even first mate Fletcher Christian finds him hard to comprehend. In Tahiti, Christian and good friend midshipman Byam become involved with native women Maimiti and Tehanni. Tahiti is paradise compared to life on the Bounty under Bligh. When the Bounty is loaded and sets sail to return, the harsh treatment by their Captain is too much for the crew and Christian leads a mutiny. They set Bligh and his supporters adrift on a boat and return the Bounty to Tahiti. What they did not count on is the Captain's return.
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
Right and Wrong:
As I said there are several Historical Inaccuracies, but it is the best of the three films. The important thing to note is that it is a historical event. This is by far one of the most famous mutiny's in world history. It was made famous through three books- Mutiny on the Bounty, Pitcairn Island, and Men Against the Sea. I would highly recommend reading all of them. They are favorites of mine.
On to the problems:
Pandora Problems:
Bligh was never on board the HMS Pandora no was he present at the trial of the mutineers who stayed on Tahiti. When the trial was taking place, bligh was half way around the world on a second voyage for breadfruit plants.
Father at the Trial:
In the movie you see Fletcher Christian's father at the trial. His father actually had died several years before he signed aboard the Bounty in the first place.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment:
In the movie both excessive flogging and Keelhauling are used. Keelhauling was used rarely if at all in the British Navy and the practice had been abandoned before Bligh's time. Also the log of the Bounty shows that flogging aboard the Bounty was less than the average British ship.
Bligh (who while captain of the ship, actually held the official rank of Commanding Lieutenant) was no tyrant at all. The testimony of his own men tells the story of a captain who was extremely lenient for his day. Even the Bounty’s ship’s log shows that Bligh issued verbal rebukes for offenses for which other captains would have ordered lashings and that Bligh ordered only the lash for crimes that would, under maritime law, normally mean a sentence of death. One example of this is when, after three crewmen who deserted to remain in Tahiti were captured, Bligh had them flogged rather than imposing the typical penalty for desertion, which was hanging.
Deaths:
Prior to the Mutiny- the Bounty only recorded two deaths in the log. James Valentine died of a respiratory illness- "Seized with violent hollow cough and spit much," and Thomas Huggan (the Ship's Surgeon.) He died of complications due to chronic alcoholism. (Both of these deaths are attributed to Bligh in the movie.) In reality, Bligh had threated to seize and impound Huggan's alcohol supply. Bligh after Huggan's death took over duties as ship's surgeon and according to accounts by sailors was excellent at it.
More Deaths:
In the movie it shows the mutineers taking over the ship only after they kill several loyal crewmen. In reality no men died in the mutiny.
PURE FICTION:
In the movie Christian is inspired to take over the ship when several members of the crew are put in irons. This did not happen according to the ship's logs.
Freedom for All?
The movie ends with a very rousing very 1935 style speech about how they are going to create a perfect society of free men on Pitcairn away from Bligh an the navy. It is noted that the mutineers did end up enslaving Tahitian men during their time in the settlement.
Maybe not Friends... but...
Bligh and Christian were not antagonist toward each other, at least not at first. Bligh had recommended to the British Admiralty that Christian be appointed Master’s mate on the Bounty, and later promoted him to acting Lieutenant. They may not have been close friends, but they had a cordial professional relationship.
What they got right:
Last note: Bligh has gone down as the ultimate tyrant, and this is mostly due to the book and the films- but he did do something pretty amazing. Placed in the Bounty’s longboat in the open sea with only a few supplies, almost no instruments, and no charts at all, Bligh and those loyal to him had virtually no hope of survival. Yet Bligh navigated the longboat 3600 miles across the Pacific to Timor, using only a sextant, the stars, and his pocket watch. The 47-day voyage is acknowledged by most historians as the greatest feat of navigation in maritime history.
I promise this will be my only black and white entry to the Summer line-up, but it is a great story and gives you a feel for what being a sailor was like during the time of The American Revolution and The War of 1812.
As I said there are several Historical Inaccuracies, but it is the best of the three films. The important thing to note is that it is a historical event. This is by far one of the most famous mutiny's in world history. It was made famous through three books- Mutiny on the Bounty, Pitcairn Island, and Men Against the Sea. I would highly recommend reading all of them. They are favorites of mine.
On to the problems:
Pandora Problems:
Bligh was never on board the HMS Pandora no was he present at the trial of the mutineers who stayed on Tahiti. When the trial was taking place, bligh was half way around the world on a second voyage for breadfruit plants.
Father at the Trial:
In the movie you see Fletcher Christian's father at the trial. His father actually had died several years before he signed aboard the Bounty in the first place.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment:
In the movie both excessive flogging and Keelhauling are used. Keelhauling was used rarely if at all in the British Navy and the practice had been abandoned before Bligh's time. Also the log of the Bounty shows that flogging aboard the Bounty was less than the average British ship.
Bligh (who while captain of the ship, actually held the official rank of Commanding Lieutenant) was no tyrant at all. The testimony of his own men tells the story of a captain who was extremely lenient for his day. Even the Bounty’s ship’s log shows that Bligh issued verbal rebukes for offenses for which other captains would have ordered lashings and that Bligh ordered only the lash for crimes that would, under maritime law, normally mean a sentence of death. One example of this is when, after three crewmen who deserted to remain in Tahiti were captured, Bligh had them flogged rather than imposing the typical penalty for desertion, which was hanging.
Deaths:
Prior to the Mutiny- the Bounty only recorded two deaths in the log. James Valentine died of a respiratory illness- "Seized with violent hollow cough and spit much," and Thomas Huggan (the Ship's Surgeon.) He died of complications due to chronic alcoholism. (Both of these deaths are attributed to Bligh in the movie.) In reality, Bligh had threated to seize and impound Huggan's alcohol supply. Bligh after Huggan's death took over duties as ship's surgeon and according to accounts by sailors was excellent at it.
More Deaths:
In the movie it shows the mutineers taking over the ship only after they kill several loyal crewmen. In reality no men died in the mutiny.
PURE FICTION:
In the movie Christian is inspired to take over the ship when several members of the crew are put in irons. This did not happen according to the ship's logs.
Freedom for All?
The movie ends with a very rousing very 1935 style speech about how they are going to create a perfect society of free men on Pitcairn away from Bligh an the navy. It is noted that the mutineers did end up enslaving Tahitian men during their time in the settlement.
Maybe not Friends... but...
Bligh and Christian were not antagonist toward each other, at least not at first. Bligh had recommended to the British Admiralty that Christian be appointed Master’s mate on the Bounty, and later promoted him to acting Lieutenant. They may not have been close friends, but they had a cordial professional relationship.
What they got right:
- Clark Gable shaved off his trademark mustache in order to be accurate- Sailors in the Royal Navy in the 18th Century were required to be clean shaven.
- Midshipman Byam (who was not in the novel) was added and was based on a real man called Midshipman Peter Heywood. Byam in the movie is pardoned- Heywood in real life was pardoned.
- The filming of the movie used actual replica ships that matched what would have been used during the time of the Bounty.
- Filming also was done on location in Tahiti.
Last note: Bligh has gone down as the ultimate tyrant, and this is mostly due to the book and the films- but he did do something pretty amazing. Placed in the Bounty’s longboat in the open sea with only a few supplies, almost no instruments, and no charts at all, Bligh and those loyal to him had virtually no hope of survival. Yet Bligh navigated the longboat 3600 miles across the Pacific to Timor, using only a sextant, the stars, and his pocket watch. The 47-day voyage is acknowledged by most historians as the greatest feat of navigation in maritime history.
I promise this will be my only black and white entry to the Summer line-up, but it is a great story and gives you a feel for what being a sailor was like during the time of The American Revolution and The War of 1812.
DELVE DEEPER:
THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY TOOK PLACE IN 1789 WHEN THE UNITED STATES WAS FINALLY RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION. THIS MOVIE IN A VERY HOLLYWOOD WAY PORTRAYS THE UNREST THAT HAPPENED IN THE BRITISH SYSTEM. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SET OFF A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT HAD LONG LASTING CONSEQUENCES NOT ONLY FOR THE COLONIES STILL UNDER BRITISH CONTROL THROUGOUT THE WORLD, BUT ALSO IN THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLAND ITSELF.
LEARN MORE: https://www.history.com/news/american-revolution-independence-movements
THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY TOOK PLACE IN 1789 WHEN THE UNITED STATES WAS FINALLY RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION. THIS MOVIE IN A VERY HOLLYWOOD WAY PORTRAYS THE UNREST THAT HAPPENED IN THE BRITISH SYSTEM. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SET OFF A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT HAD LONG LASTING CONSEQUENCES NOT ONLY FOR THE COLONIES STILL UNDER BRITISH CONTROL THROUGOUT THE WORLD, BUT ALSO IN THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLAND ITSELF.
LEARN MORE: https://www.history.com/news/american-revolution-independence-movements
MIRACLE (2004) WEEK 2: JUNE 12 - JUNE 17
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Rating: PG Streaming Link: https://tubitv.com/movies/100001843/miracle?start=true&tracking=google-feed&utm_source=google-feed This is also available on Disney+ if you have a subscription and you do not want ads. This movie has a special place for me. I watched it with my dad back when it came out in theaters and he got so excited. He kept telling me how he had listened to the final game on the radio while he was heading out to get ice. He sat in the car and listened- not being able to believe what was happening. I suppose watching this movie made me aware that History has a real life component and that if a movie taps into that- it creates magic with the viewing audience. Kurt Russel who plays Herb Brooks was known for being lovable in his movies, so this role was a departure for him. Many fans didn't like this personality on the guy they'd come to love from movies like Overboard and a wide variety of Disney films made in the 1970s. It is the story of the 1980 Winter Olympic Hockey Team that dared to go up against the might of the Soviet Union (who was our mortal enemy during the Cold War) The Swedes, the Fins, and the Canadians who had a lock on Olympic Hockey. The United States just simply couldn't compete... until they did. |
This is the story of how the United States Olympic Hockey Team beat them all restoring in many ways the United States public pride. The 1970s was a hard time for the United States and this event was a contributing factor in making Americans believe in themselves again. I have to say it has one of my favorite tag lines on a movie poster- "What America needed was a miracle. What it got was a hockey game."
Historical Link: https://www.history.com/news/miracle-on-ice-hockey-olympic-game
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
Historical Link: https://www.history.com/news/miracle-on-ice-hockey-olympic-game
Again, if you haven't seen this movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming.
RIGHT AND WRONG:
In general Miracle is quite accurate to the events of the 1980's Olympic games. It is considered one of the most accurate depictions of true events including dialogue.
Here is the full game if you are interested in watching it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlfUdKgHwR8
In some cases this movie does almost perfect shots of actual moments in the movie...
but... there are some changes, mistakes, and random facts that are inaccurate in the movie:
FOUL:
In the game vs the USSR Jim Craig was shaken, but it didn't happen when the Soviets scored a goal. The event portrayed in the movie would have actually received a two- minute penalty for "Goaltender interference"
ACTOR VS AUTHENTICITY:
Ken Morrow was actually a right handed shooter. The movie portrays him as left handed. In deciding whether to have an actor who can play vs an actor who physically was the same- the studio chose the one who could play hockey.
CHANGE OUT:
Jim Craig wasn't the goaltender during the Norway exhibition game- it was Steve Janaszak. The change was made to make Craig the central focus.
COSTUMING ERROR:
The Italian team that's walking through the Olympic Village has Italy written on the back of their jackets. Italy always goes by "Italia" on their uniforms.
SHAVING POINTS:
In the third period- the movie shows that the Soviet Union has 9 shots on goal. Historically, they had 19 shots, but film makers wanted to speed up the climax of the movie. So they shortened the distance to take the lead.
COSTUMING ERROR:
The Finland Team's uniforms were not gray- they were white with blue trim.
Ooops!
When Craig Patrick is reading off the names of the 26 players- he only reads 24. He missed Mark Wells and Neal Broten. The script has the names, so we can only assume it is an acting mistake.
Costuming Error? (Equipment Change)
All the hockey gear that the players use is accurate except the hockey helmets. There was concern that children watching the movie would not want to watch the safer modern helmets. In the movie the players wear the 1990's models rather than the helmets worn in 1979/80.
DID THIS HAPPEN?
Did the Coach really force them to run drills after the tie with Norway? Yes! However in the movie two players- Buzz Schneider and Jim Craig weren't on the ice. Craig didn't play, and Schneider was ejected earlier and had already dressed in his street clothes.
PURE FICTION:
Rob McClanahan never cheap-shotted Jack O'Callahan costing him the 1976 NCAA championship. This was a made up element created to explain the animosity between the players. While they did not get along- this was not the reason. McClanahan was a senior in high school in 1976 and could not have played in the NCAA championships.
SETTING ISSUES:
In the movie all of the rinks are NHL sized. these are quite a bit smaller than the European sized rinks.
MUSIC BLUNDERS:
The Olympic fanfare placed after Baker scores the last minute tying goal against Sweden was not written until 4 years later in the 1984 Olympics. It was written by John Williams, but not for the 1980 Olympics. Why the change? Because it is the recognizable Olympic anthem. Odds are they never checked to see when it was written.
TIMELINE ISSUES:
Jack O'Callahan's first game on the ice after his injury was against West Germany in the preliminary game, nota against the Soviet Union. This was changed to add drama to the situation.
GOT IT RIGHT!!!!
In general Miracle is quite accurate to the events of the 1980's Olympic games. It is considered one of the most accurate depictions of true events including dialogue.
Here is the full game if you are interested in watching it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlfUdKgHwR8
In some cases this movie does almost perfect shots of actual moments in the movie...
but... there are some changes, mistakes, and random facts that are inaccurate in the movie:
FOUL:
In the game vs the USSR Jim Craig was shaken, but it didn't happen when the Soviets scored a goal. The event portrayed in the movie would have actually received a two- minute penalty for "Goaltender interference"
ACTOR VS AUTHENTICITY:
Ken Morrow was actually a right handed shooter. The movie portrays him as left handed. In deciding whether to have an actor who can play vs an actor who physically was the same- the studio chose the one who could play hockey.
CHANGE OUT:
Jim Craig wasn't the goaltender during the Norway exhibition game- it was Steve Janaszak. The change was made to make Craig the central focus.
COSTUMING ERROR:
The Italian team that's walking through the Olympic Village has Italy written on the back of their jackets. Italy always goes by "Italia" on their uniforms.
SHAVING POINTS:
In the third period- the movie shows that the Soviet Union has 9 shots on goal. Historically, they had 19 shots, but film makers wanted to speed up the climax of the movie. So they shortened the distance to take the lead.
COSTUMING ERROR:
The Finland Team's uniforms were not gray- they were white with blue trim.
Ooops!
When Craig Patrick is reading off the names of the 26 players- he only reads 24. He missed Mark Wells and Neal Broten. The script has the names, so we can only assume it is an acting mistake.
Costuming Error? (Equipment Change)
All the hockey gear that the players use is accurate except the hockey helmets. There was concern that children watching the movie would not want to watch the safer modern helmets. In the movie the players wear the 1990's models rather than the helmets worn in 1979/80.
DID THIS HAPPEN?
Did the Coach really force them to run drills after the tie with Norway? Yes! However in the movie two players- Buzz Schneider and Jim Craig weren't on the ice. Craig didn't play, and Schneider was ejected earlier and had already dressed in his street clothes.
PURE FICTION:
Rob McClanahan never cheap-shotted Jack O'Callahan costing him the 1976 NCAA championship. This was a made up element created to explain the animosity between the players. While they did not get along- this was not the reason. McClanahan was a senior in high school in 1976 and could not have played in the NCAA championships.
SETTING ISSUES:
In the movie all of the rinks are NHL sized. these are quite a bit smaller than the European sized rinks.
MUSIC BLUNDERS:
The Olympic fanfare placed after Baker scores the last minute tying goal against Sweden was not written until 4 years later in the 1984 Olympics. It was written by John Williams, but not for the 1980 Olympics. Why the change? Because it is the recognizable Olympic anthem. Odds are they never checked to see when it was written.
TIMELINE ISSUES:
Jack O'Callahan's first game on the ice after his injury was against West Germany in the preliminary game, nota against the Soviet Union. This was changed to add drama to the situation.
GOT IT RIGHT!!!!
- I don't know if this is a got it right- but Buzz Schneider's role was played by his son- Billy Schneider. (The casting directors didn't know he was his son until after they had given him the part.)
- Herb Brooks really did miss his chance to play in the 1960 Winter Olympics. He was the last person to be cut.
- But...
- He did play in the 1964 Olympics and was the captain of the team in 1968.
- Shots of the NHL-Soviet game on Herb's television is real footage from that game.
- Former players of the 1980 U.S. team said they were pleased with the film and thought for the most part it was accurate, but the one complaint they had was how Herb Brooks was shown to be friendly with the players. "Herb wasn't going to holiday parties with players and he wasn't coming up with cute nicknames for them," said one former player. "We respected him, but I wouldn't say that we liked him," said another former player about Brooks.
- Kurt Russell is right handed, but used his left hand in the movie because Herb Brooks is a lefty.
Delve Deeper: Over the years the Olympics have had some pretty strange and facinating competitions.
Learn more: https://www.thecoolist.com/strange-olympics-sports/
APOLLO 13 (1995) WEEK 1: JUNE 5 - JUNE 10
Director: Ron Howard
Rating: PG Streaming Link: https://archive.org/details/Apollo_13 Let's start with an outstanding Historical Movie. Apollo 13 not only has an all star cast, but also features some of the best historical storytelling in Hollywood. The director did his best to stay as close to the historical truth as possible. Most historians and people who experienced the events that took place agree that what happens in the movie is very close to the actual events. Ron Howard, the director, took great care in making sure that the costuming, sets, props, and special effects gave the best depiction of the 1970s catastrophe turned victory. Summary: A movie based on what was to be the third lunar-landing mission. This film shows the trials and tribulations of the Apollo 13 crew, mission control, and families after a near-fatal accident cripples the space vehicle. A mission that couldn't get TV airtime because space flights had become routine to the American public suddenly grabbed the national spotlight. This is a tale of averted tragedy, heroism and shows a testament to the creativity of the scientists who ran the early space missions. Historical Link: https://www.space.com/17250-apollo-13-facts.html If you haven't seen the movie- I suggest you stop here- watch it, and then return to see what they got right and wrong. The information below contains SPOILERS and the movie really is best when you don't know what is coming. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
RIGHT AND WRONG:
Take off
- The Saturn V engine shut down early and they had to run the other engines longer to make up for it.
- The panel shown has a blinking light. That wouldn't have happened in real life. The light was made to blink to get the audience members attention.
- They skipped that the third stage rocket was burned longer- cut for time.
Famous Words:
- "Houston, we have a problem" Incorrect words- the actual phrase was "Houston, We've had a problem." They realized that it was misspoken in the movie, but kept it because it was more dramatic.
Swigert: "Okay, Houston..."
Lovell: "Houston"
Swigert: "I believe we've had a problem here."
CAPCOM Jack Lousma: :This is Houston. Say again, please."
Lovell: "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a Main B Bus Undervolt."
---
Turning the lunar module into a lifeboat:
- In the movie we are given the impression that this was an on the spot decision. According to Ken Mattingly- this was a practiced measure. The movie changed history to make it seem as if it was a radical idea to increase the tension- when in actuality it was a standard procedure.
- "Failure is not an option" was never spoken by Gene Kranz. It was a dramatic phrase created by writers to last in the minds of audience members. The real speech was just as amazing
- “I have never lost an American in space, sure as hell aren’t going to lose one now. This crew is coming home. You got to believe it. Your team must believe it. And we must make it happen.”
- In the movie one of the major plot points is that NASA had never considered the need to retrofit the scrubbers for the command module for the lander. In actuality due to Apollo 8 simulations where they had to figure out how to fix a broken fan, they already had several ideas to work with. In real life the solution was found in about two hours.
- In the movie John Aaron is in the simulator working through the problem of how to start up the command module. In real life this would waste a great deal of time. While they did use it to check their work- the solution was figured out at a table. Again, this was made into something slightly more dramatic, so the audience could gasp the work that went into the solution. No one wanted to watch seven minutes of guys sitting around a table doing math.
- In the movie the communication blackout lasts longer than expected, and that did happen. Four minutes pass before they are able to see the parachutes and they know that the crew survived reentry. But... In real life it took six minutes. That was 1:27 longer than they expected.
- The reason for the blackout is suspected to be because of the shallow entry angle, but no one really knows.
- On the other side of the blackout we hear Lovell saying: ""Houston, this is Odyssey, It's good to see you again."
- In reality the words were: "Okay, Joe," and were said by Kerwin not Lovell.
GOT IT RIGHT!
- Lovell almost did say: "Let's work the problem, people. Let's not make things worse by guessing." His actual words were: "Let's solve the problem but let's not make it any worse by guessing."
- Lovell did really ask Mission Control to check his math. (The figures spoken by Hanks in the movie are the actual numbers given)
- NASA really was worried about the lack of Moon Rocks on board.