There's an interesting philosophical question when it comes to the fictional
portrayal of history.  I personally am willing to accept the cost of having
historical inaccuracies for the benefit of getting more people interested in
a particular period.  My feeling is that those who are seriously interested
will come to discover what the inaccuracies are--which itself is a pretty
good exercise.

Of course the best solution would be for it to be historically accurate AND
interesting, but I think it's pretty safe to say that most filmmakers aren't
interested in taking the time to make sure every aspect is accurate and
would rather be able to bend reality in service to telling the story they
want to tell.  And for the reasons above, I'm generally pretty okay with
that.

After all, without the romanticism of "semi-historical" film and books, seen
and read as I was growing up, my interest probably wouldn't have been piqued
in my young life and I probably wouldn't be a historian today.

Cheers,

--Eric


Eric D. M. Johnson
Proprietor
The Village Factsmith Historical Research & Consulting
http://www.factsmith.com/
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