Historical Movies That Are So Wrong, It Drives Experts Crazy
Most people know you can't believe everything you see in movies, but when it comes to history, even the biggest film buffs might be surprised how badly Hollywood gets it wrong. From exaggerating characters to completely inventing plot lines, these projects stretched the truth to incredible lengths. If you handed in any of these scripts as a history report, you would get a big, fat F.
1. Braveheart
William Wallace fought and died fighting for the freedom of his fellow Scots, though he wasn't quite the simple farmer that Mel Gibson portrayed. He was a noble, albeit a lesser one, who turned against the English crown.
2. Bonnie and Clyde
Both the classic film and 1930s newspapers hyped up the scale of the criminal couple's exploits. Rather than robbing banks and making a fortune, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow mostly held up small shops.
3. Gladiator
Joaquin Phoenix sizzles as the villain in this Best Picture winner, but his portrayal is a bit unfair to the actual Commodus. Although he took pleasure in inflicting pain on humans and animals alike, the emperor didn't murder his own father to gain power.
4. Cool Runnings
This tale of Jamaican bobsledders is more fiction than fact. For one thing, there were other Caribbean bobsled teams at the 1988 Olympics. On top of that, most of the characters were made-up, and none of the real athletes were failed sprinters.
