Some will argue that; “relax, it is just a movie, who cares if they get some historical stuff wrong?” Well, I do. I can accept that film, as a medium, is designed to entertain first, and that everything else is an merely an afterthought. However, with television and film rapidly taking the place of books as a reference point for people’s historical understanding, it seems that the line is being blurred, between entertainment and history.
This is a worrying trend indeed.
While period dramas, like those done by HBO or the BBC, can be great – Rome or I Claudius, can be used to illustrate elements of real Roman history – the vast majority of the material produced, like Spartacus: Blood and Sand and the massive list of “sword and sandal” films, are little more than wildly inaccurate junk.
According to the thesis of this article from The Washington Post,this has resulted in people’s learning ability being damaged by these poorly researched films and TV shows.
I will now look at the 5 most common and disturbing historical inaccuracies within movie about Roman and Greek Civilization.
5. Greece… Rome… They’re All The Same, Right?
Well no, they are not. There are some 300 years in between Classical Greece (5th Century BC) and the fall of the Greeks to the Romans in 146 BC, and then nearly another 100 years until the “city of marble” was begun by the Emperor Augustus, 27 BC – 14 AD. So why do films often combine the two?
The latest Twilight film, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 will serve nicely here: the Volturi (the guys in the black cloaks trying to murder the Cullens) live in Tuscany, and in their lair there’s a series of statues in the background, which are meant to establish that the Volturi are an ancient coven.
Herein lies the first issue: the film’s set designers just assume that Greece and Rome are the same, or that they existed around the same time. This just isn’t true! Movies often depict these civilizations at their peak, citing the look of Classical Athens in 5th Century BC and the Roman Empire of late 1st/early 2nd century AD. When they mix the two, it results is an intelligent insulting culture killing nightmare.
One of the statues that the Volturi have in their lair is the Charioteer(pictured above). The Volturi are old, and this stuff would be to their taste, right? True, and this is some subtle character development for them, but the problem is that the Charioteer is an Ancient Greek piece, and in fact is still in Greece, not Tuscany. It is in Delphi museum, and it has never left Greece. Ever.
And then there’s the Labyrinth scene in the abomination known as The Immortals – a film which offended me so much I left the theatre for five minutes to gather myself - which does the same thing. The setting is the mythical era of history (at least the 14th Century BC) and yet within the labyrinth’s wall niches there are Greek red figure pottery(4th Century BC), black figure pottery (5th Century BC), and busts of Roman copies of Greek statues (2nd Century AD).
This is literally impossible, historically insulting and plainly needs to be stopped.
13 Comments
There is so much more you could have said about 300. Frist of all it does not even mention of any of the alliances of the rest of the different Greece Cities. Why the Spartans needed to hold the pass and the navy battle that was going on the same time and its important in stopping the Persian from out flaking the Spartans and the rest of the Greeks holding the pass earlier.
Before commenting on inaccuracies, you may wish to make sure your observations are correct. Claudius reigned from 41-54 AD, with Nero on the throne from 54-68.
Jon. Terribly sorry, you are of course correct. This was a major oversight on my part. Nero died in 69 AD, starting the year of the four Emperors. Nero rarely spend any time on the Throne, as he was in Greece singing a lot. I do apologize again. The point remains; why is it in a film about the time of Christ? John C. I agree, however I give 300 somewhat of a pas because it is a retelling campfire story of a Spartan’s view on the battle. It doesn’t claim to be fact.
Really liked the article, a lot of details that I would not have even noticed, my only disagreement is your criticism of the disney movie Hercules, although very inaccurate (particularly the name) it was a film aimed for children to get them interested, I can recall my interest in classics from watching that movie. While very inaccurate it would have made children very interested in classical myth, look at those Percy Jackson books, very inaccurate but now loads of children are fascinated with myth and want to learn more. The other films however are arguably aimed at a slightly older audience and should be a little more accurate, good article overall though :)
Good points, awesome read. I would also pour some blame on the Gladiator for it’s horrendous depiction of gladiators, the movie being pretty much about gladiators…
A little besides the point, it bothers me a great deal that everyone raves about the 300 (the movie AND the book) but people miss the fact that there is an old move The 300 Spartans that most definitely gave the comic it’s structure (my guess but see the movie and you know what I mean) and thus 300 is just a remake, even if unconscious about it.
And yes, I know the whole battle at the Hot Gates is a real event and there are tons of stories about it. But The 300 Spartans was made into a movie based on those stories and the more recent 300 copied the story to the tee. Check that movie out and be surprised.
While i see your point on these articles Darragh, you’ve missed the most annoying fact of 300; the fact that Ephialtes (the ‘traitor’) was in fact a sheperd, a regular guy- but no doubt the director may have wanted a more literal look for Ephialtes (translates into nightmare).
And despite The Illiad, the Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid all use the gods heavily, i believe most people wouldn’t understand the whole idea of the plot, and simplified it by removing them altogether- and making the movie Troy more human, and relate able.
furthermore on 300, yes the Spartans never broke rank and fought with other states, but when the Spartans fought, they fought by themselves, and would swap each day with the other Greek states, and not to mention all of the Spartan slaves (helots) that would have carried their extra gear and even fought at times on the flanks with slings.
My favorite part is where all 5 disturbingly common historical innaccuracies happen only in the Mediterranean region, apparently; the rest of the ancient world be damned.
I found it amusing how outraged you were by all the background inaccuracies or anachronisms in the various movies you mentioned. What I found surprising–and was something I chortled out in the movie theater–was when a scene in Gladiator had Russell Crowe riding off on his horse with his feet in STIRRUPS! Forget picayune details about this sculptured head being of someone not yet living (as far as I’m concerned, that’s simply window dressing…the type of thing the cinematographer thought should be in the scene), but if Ancient Rome had had STIRRUPS, we’d all be speaking Italian right now. That, to my mind, is a far more egregiousness anachronism.
Great points about both 300 and Gladiator. Gentlemen, I am aware of all of them. This was a mere overview of the common historical error trends that haunt this genre; either one of those films could have books written about how poor they are as a historical source.
Jacob, I understand your point. The gods were the linchpin of both the Greek and then Roman society. You must never remove them! It would be like removing “the Force” from Star Wars…the whole thing slowly falls apart. These tales survived over 2,000 as they were, people had no issue with them during this time. They influenced high art, music, poems etc. Why must now Hollywood brutally rape them?
Seolin L. I am a Classicist(Greco -Roman civilization) who specialises in Ancient Rome. Despite this I will try to understand why you are upset by looking at other locations: Ancient Babylon is still a scholarly grey area, Celtic and Pagan Irish settlements wrote nothing down that we can read (aside from stone Ogham), the Celtic and Norse myths come to us from later Christian authors. All other references to the Celts were made by, yes, Roman authors…like Julius Caesar (he wrote a book about it).
Now as for ancient Asia and other non-Babylonian middle Eastern cultures. These are not in my area. I only write and comment about what I know. The Romans would have seen everyone else, as simply “Barbarians”. In a Roman sense, the “rest of the ancient world be damned” indeed.
Jackie, these are all constant mistakes. They are damaging people’s understanding of this world. I worked as a tour leader in Rome, I have experienced it. People think that films are real, and that they portray Rome as it actually was.
If the Ancient Rome had had “STIRRUPS” we’d all be speaking Latin right now. Italian is a corruption of the language due to the Western Empire falling, and dawn of the Dark Ages. Surely the Empire would have never fell with technology such as Stirrups.
I’d love to hear your take on HBO’s Rome. As someone who studied Roman archaeology pretty extensively in undergrad, it looked like they put a lot more effort into avoiding these common ancient-world tropes and getting things right. It was still a fictionalized adaptation of Ancient Rome, but it seemed like they kept including little bits here and there to make classicists squeal with glee and win them over.
Kudos for mentioning the painted statue issue. Another one that bugs me is people riding horses or driving carts (or, gods forbid, chariots) within the City of Rome during daylight hours. Not allowed. And, I understand that it was very rare for people to read Latin silently (those who did were deemed extra clever – i.e., Julius Caesar). Roman libraries must have been quite noisy.
You have failed to mention the thing about Gladiator that STILL irritates the hell out of me. The head costume designer blithely decided that “nobody knows how the Romans dressed” and made up her own concepts based on “those gauzy thing” in Alma-Tadema paintings. The woman actually SAID this. If there is any people in the history of the world who let us know EXACTLY how they dressed, it was the Romans. In consequence, all the main characters were dressed like pre-Raphaelite day dream but all the extras were dressed (by some assistant) in accurate tunica, togas, stolas, whatever. And this is why I am so annoyed by the whole thing, Gladiator won the Academy Award in 2001 for the “Best Costume Design.” If you were wondering, there are MANY costume design books that set out patterns for every type of Roman costume you can imagine. You can even find suggestions on how to make lorica segmentata on a shoestring budget that will stand the scrutiny of the audience. Janty Yates ignored ALL of this… including thousands of statues and frescoes and mosaics to create her silly costumes… and won an Academy Award. I really hope that Breaking Dawn II gets an Academy Award for “most accurate presentation of Etruscan catacombs ever filmed.”
Joey, I loved Rome. It was a stellar telling of the formation of the Empire. Kudos for knowing about the painted statues in Rome, Rocketmare.
All issues that I have also. Maria, that is not exactly true. We have much evidence(statues,busts and descriptions) of showing how Roman’s dressed. There is much confusion around it; check out ‘The Myth of the Toga:Understanding the History of Roman Dress’ it should satisfy you.