Are Filmmakers obligated to tell the "historical truth"?

Question

If so, to what extent?

I'm researching this question for a college paper, and was wondering what some "real" people think about this, to get some fresh ideas. I originally thought the essay would be, pick a movie and dissect what is true and false about it, but the prompt actually has us pick a movie and argue whether the director/writer are obligated to tell the historical truth about it and why. I chose Scorsese's 2004 film The Aviator on Howard Hughes life. Does anyone have any opinions on this in regards to The Aviator, or just in general what responsibility filmmakers have to tell the truth to the public regarding an event or a life?

If you can refer me to any articles or sites for reference, that would be great too!

Answer 1

For obvious reasons, we do not know all the facts of any person's life, especially private conversations with people. Even if one person writes down everything said, we only have their version of the story. We are sometimes left wondering if the conversation actually took place.

For the most part, celebrities like Hughes have enough of their lives recorded to give us a good idea of the person. However, sometimes Hollywood does not have enough time to tell the story completely. Think about how much of Howard Hughes' testimony before the Senate was cut from the film. Do you really think the lunch with Alan Alda's character, the Senator, was completely true?

Yes, for the most part, Hollywood wants to tell the truth when doing bio-pics. However, some things are shrouded in mystery and sometimes the truth is too ugly for Hollywood. So they skip parts of the story and do their best to make up a reasonable account of the person's life.

Answer 2

A filmmaer's first responsibility, as with any entrepeneur in a capitalist society, is to make a profit with his product. If this means the film plays fast and loose with historical accuracy, the public is undoubtedly the worse off for it, but filmmakers are not responsible for educating the public. It is an unfortunate fact that the public tends to believe everything it sees in a biopic such as The Aviator, even though huge amounts of a person's life must be left out of a two hour film, and other parts simplified.

Answer 3

No. That would be up to the writers. The writers alter truth to make a biased opinion. Some change the truth just to make more money, while others change it to fit the story. Gothic, the Kevin Richardson film, for instance changes the truth of the events leading up Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein to give you more scares, while sometimes like in Walk The Line, they altered most notably the Folsom Prison show so that they wouldn't have a rehash of the song, and to vaugley spice up the scene.

Answer 4

FilmMakers are not obligated to tell the historical truth. They are obligated to tell whatever version of the truth makes money. The only times when they are obligated to tell the historical truth is when they call a film a documentary. If it says 'based on a true story,' most of the time, it's historical hogwash. And no.. I don't think you'll find any references about whether fimmakers have an obligation to tell the truth. They're less obligated to tell the truth than politicians. And that's saying an AWFUL lot.

Answer 5

Nope they can exclude details or change facts if they think the public will be more interested in that than real history.

Look at Braveheart the only true stuff in that was William Wallace and Edward I fought, William's wife was killed by an English soldier, he was knighted and he won the battle of sterling bridge and lost at Falkirk and was executed horribly after a bogus trial. Pretty much everything else was crap.

Answer 6

John Ford used to say that Wyatt Earp himself told him the version of the gunfight at the OK Corrall that he used in My Darling Clementine. Obviously, this is a lie since Earp would never have included guys who weren't there (Old man Clanton) and guys killed who weren't killed (Doc Holliday). Such blatant mistakes depicting an actual historical event should not be tolerated by anyone in the name of "art."

Answer 7

College Professors aren't obligated to the truth, what makes you think Film Makers would be.

Answer 8

No, not all the time. Some people think they'll earn more money if they make it sound more interesting so they convienietly add fake details about how they died or how they killed that person or how they revived that person when they were literally on their deathbed.....

Answer 9

"history is made by the men who write it"
use that quote in your paper

morally i would say yes they are obligated to but in reality they are not.
and who ever chooses to question them also is not obligated to.