Historical movies have never been required to behave like history textbooks, but some take that freedom to impressive extremes. A real person can become an entirely different character, major events can happen years apart, and fictional stories can be dropped into moments that barely resemble what actually happened. Sometimes filmmakers simplify complicated events for dramatic reasons, while other movies seem to treat historical accuracy as an optional extra. The result can be entertaining, memorable, and occasionally completely ridiculous. These fifteen films all borrowed real people, places, or events and then took some serious creative liberties with the facts. If you are watching them for history lessons, you may want to keep a textbook nearby.
Braveheart (1995)
William Wallace did not have a romance with Princess Isabella, who was only a child during his lifetime, and the famous blue face paint was not historically accurate either, making the movie’s version of medieval Scotland highly fictionalized.
The Patriot (2000)
Mel Gibson’s Benjamin Martin is fictional, but the movie also rearranges Revolutionary War events and combines characteristics from several real figures, creating a story that bears only a loose relationship to the historical conflict.
300 (2006)
The Battle of Thermopylae really happened, but the movie fills it with monstrous creatures, fantastical warriors, wildly exaggerated costumes, and supernatural imagery that turns ancient history into comic book mythology.
