World War Two was the largest war in modern history, over 60 million lives were lost and involved the entire world. After the war, many movies and films have been created to represent the war and its combat. The movies "Patton", "The Longest Day", and the new movie "Fury" attempt to showcase the war while providing viewers with an interesting story.
The Longest Day is a movie based on the invasion of France, D-Day. Created shortly after the end of the war, the historical accuracy is not 100%, but nice in comparison to other war films. All the soldiers are using realistic weapons, although some acted deaths are so bad they could make some laugh. The movie shows what the French Resistance Forces did, the horrible fight on Omaha Beach, and the actions of the German Soldiers on the "Impregnable Wall". In my opinion, this is one of the best war films ever created. Both historically and plot wise. The only issues with the film are the amount of deaths on Omaha Beach and the landing craft used, using landing craft made in the 60's. Overall this film uses everything possible to describe the actions of D-Day and the battle in France.
The movie Patton is a historical documentary attempting to show the life of American General George S. Patton. General Patton was a military genius of the time and specialized in tanks and armor. However, the film also falls into the Hollywood trap that is the need for action and explosions. Some scenes of the movie display tanks used after World War Two, and others that come to early in the war. Excessive explosions and battle scenes give this movie its high rating, but at the cost of accuracy. For a World War Two movie, it still shows that Hollywood and Director Franklin Shaffner don't completely forget the logic of war and Patton's historical background.
"Fury" is a new movie preparing to come out on the 17th of October, however from the trailers of this new movie even a new historian can see that this movie is one of the most inaccurate movies created. Most won't notice, but the tank used in this film is a M4A3E8 Sherman, created in August 1944, it matches with the time era of the movie, however the tankers mention they used the tank in North Africa, 1941. Another issue is the interior of a tank. Tanks are weapons of war, and not designed to be comfortable or open. Every part of the tank is used to preserve armor and gasoline. In this movie, they manage to show the inside of the tank like it's a penthouse. And last, but not least is the combat scene in the trailer. During the war, German solders nicknamed the American Sherman tanks as "Tommy cookers" as they were know to catch fire instantly after being hit. Germany had the best tank ever created at the time, the Tiger. From a mere 50 meters away it shoots at the Sherman, the Shell bounces off.
Overall, from the films I studied, it seems as though historical accuracy slowly degrades over time to add the more cinematic elements to a film. I believe that accuracy also degrades due to the ability to find and reproduce old military relics. Every year, World War artifacts get more expensive to find and recreate. What surprised me most was how films mainly decreased in accuracy mainly through clothing, weaponry and persons.However, with the improvement of digital effects and make-up, military action films have gotten more accurate in their portrayal of war. Saving Private Ryan is a great example of this. The beginning scene shows the invasion in its entirety,
invoking many veterans to recall events that happened during the invasion. The movie industry needs to remember to keep to historical realism, not just for the sake of realism in the movie, but to show to the viewer, the horrors and weapons of history.
I saw Fury on this opening night, and am very happy I did. The movie starts out showing what it was like to be a tanker in World War Two. My great uncle was a priest in the 4th armored division and would go into burnt out tanks, the movie almost exactly matches the stories he would tell us. During World War Two, shermans were outgunned and out-armored by the Germans. The beginning of this movie has the viewer see that, and there are some very gruesome scenes. The audio is really good in displaying the sound of shells.The movie is like a real war for everyone except Fury's crew. For example, everything that comes at their tank is either a bounce or a miss. When in reality it would go right through. Also the ending turns into a fourth Terminator movie, with the tank shooting one of the best German divisions like brainless drones. Overall this movie does a great job of displaying the death and reality of war, but is poisoned by the need to have unrealistic action scenes.
