7. Inglourious Basterds
Probably the most famous fudging of popular history on this list, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is the banner example of taking an unforgettable part of human history and completely turning it on its head in a deeply ironic, hilarious and even quite cathartic way. We all know that Adolf Hitler in fact took his own life when the chips were down at the end of World War 2, but in Basterds, Tarantino essentially gives us the end to WW2 that we all probably wish had happened. At the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film, the team of "Basterds" corner Hitler and his closest confidantes, promptly gunning them down in a hail of enormously satisfying gunfire, with Hitler's face being ripped to shreds in the process. Though some might see it as trivialising the reality of what happened, are we really not above that by now? Tarantino stands as one of our most intelligent filmmakers, and delivered a suitably smart subversion of the truth for our enjoyment.