In the past decade, there have been some mythical and highly fictional movies that have been released, the criticism and controversies notwithstanding. While one or two will be mentioned later on through this read. It will perhaps be too banal if this article were relentlessly carp about how Hollywood and other production 'zones' have stretched our imaginations to extreme levels with overly exaggerated films. In my opinion, some movies are just 'out of it', so to speak. I mean, some go as far 'insulting our intelligence', as one of the critics would put it. The source of the myths that are now key themes in many such 'successful' films comprises old traditional tales and sometimes ridiculous ideas that are common and generally accepted. Lets call it fiction.
Films based on true stories or events seem to be more culpable when it comes to propagation of misconceptions or myths (and legends as some may prefer to call them). This is especially true if the theme or the subject of the movie relates to widely held view or a hugely popular and public occurrence. Mel Gibson's 2004 film, 'The Passion of The Christ' is one such movie. The movie was based on the true events that happened to Jesus Christ during his time on earth. Many have ranted about the accuracy of the depictions and the exact events as presented in the movie. Of course, some don't even believe that He [Jesus] existed. Mel Gibson pocketed a clean $370 million from those rants - and the curiosity.
Pearl Harbor, produced by Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Randy Wallace back in 2001 suffered a lot of castigation - and rightly so perhaps. Pearl Harbor was essentially a remaking of true events, notably the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in the 1920's. It took a lashing from one of the survivors, Lawrence Suid as having missed some key elements in the real history. He seemed to think (like many other survivors) that the producers of the movie were focused on the cinematic elements. It featured a lot of factual misrepresentations apart from missing a few critical details. According to Lawrence, the movie was also not short of exaggeration where actual scenes we deliberately altered to make the movie more dramatic. In a nutshell, controversy sells.
Producers of these movies are all too aware of the raging appetites for such myths and controversial material. Judging from the box office sales figures, movie producers know that it is about tact and not fact.
Warning: Don't just take in everything that comes down the pipe.
John Nasaye is a researcher and creative content writer.
nasaye@gmail.com
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