Historical Accuracy In Saving Private Ryan

As it is commonly known, Hollywood tends to dramatize historical occurrences when it depicts events of the past. However, this does not mean that the movies they create are always historically inaccurate. Most of the time, the important details are kept and easy to relate to the events that actually took place.

One of the movies that stayed mostly true to its roots was “Hacksaw Ridge.” As it appears, details such as Desmond Doss bringing down injured soldiers through a rope off the ride as well as him kicking a grenade out of the way and being severely injured all were true, which is hard to swallow, but also a great form to show the brutality of war. Similarly, “Saving Private Ryan” also shows truth during its scenes, which include events such as having soldiers sinking in the ocean because

of the heaviness of the gear they carried.

In addition, “Alone in Berlin” gives off a chilling vibe when it reveals the events that brought the Hampel couple to send the postcards against Hitler. Personally, I highly appreciate knowing that there are several movies that portray the historical details as they are. Additionally, I understand that there are details added into the films in order to bring up the intensity of war, but sometimes these are taken a bit too far and drift from the initial point that was supposed to be shown due to the real story. For example, even though the movie “Red Tails” failed to show how Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard were the ones the movie should’ve been about, but the directors made them play a secondary role in what should have been their story. Also, they failed to show how racism actually was quite prominent in this era. In reality, the Tuskegee Airmen were subjected to extremely cruel treatment, but the movie failed to capture the bigotry that darkened their time in history. “Pearl Harbor” made mistakes as well, for it focuses mostly in the artistic retelling instead

of the actual events that took place in Pearl Harbor. There were mistakes such as incorrectly timed events and inaccurate attacks throughout the movie, but that didn’t stop the movie from bringing people to the edge of their seats as they noticed the barbarity that was certainly a part of being involved in the war.
All in all, movies aren’t merely created to show the true events. Instead, they are made to give the public an idea of what things were like during this time. However, some of these films do a pretty good job, and it’s impressive how much awareness they can bring to the public about events from the past.