1
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As a historian, how important do you think it is that historical films should be accurate?

2
00:00:11,939 --> 00:00:19,640
I'm not sure quite how keen I am on accuracy above everything else.

3
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:25,699
The most important thing, if I was going to make a historical movie, I'd really want to get people interested.

4
00:00:25,699 --> 00:00:31,059
And I think that film and television programme makers

5
00:00:31,059 --> 00:00:35,820
can be a bit sort of nerdish about accuracy.

6
00:00:36,299 --> 00:00:38,219
I remember a friend of mine once told me

7
00:00:38,219 --> 00:00:41,600
that he'd acted as an advisor for some Roman film

8
00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,759
and the crew were always ringing up when they were on location

9
00:00:45,759 --> 00:00:47,679
saying things like,

10
00:00:48,020 --> 00:00:50,060
now, what kind of dog should we have?

11
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:52,240
If we're going to have a dog in the film,

12
00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,020
should it be an Alsatian or a Dachshund or whatever?

13
00:00:55,700 --> 00:01:00,460
And to start with, he said he'd go to the library and he'd kind of look up and he'd find a breed.

14
00:01:00,460 --> 00:01:09,760
And eventually, after question after question, he'd think, look, these guys are getting the whole of Roman history in the big picture utterly wrong.

15
00:01:10,079 --> 00:01:13,560
And yet there they are worrying about the damn dogs.

16
00:01:14,540 --> 00:01:18,040
Can you think of any historical films that you've really enjoyed?

17
00:01:19,620 --> 00:01:22,180
I absolutely loved Gladiator.

18
00:01:22,180 --> 00:01:27,480
Never mind its horribly schmaltzy plot

19
00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:30,719
I thought in all kinds of ways

20
00:01:30,719 --> 00:01:36,640
It was just a wonderful, brilliant

21
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:38,379
And I don't know if it was accurate

22
00:01:38,379 --> 00:01:42,840
But a justifiable recreation of ancient Rome

23
00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,400
The beginning scenes of Gladiator

24
00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:48,840
Which show Roman combat

25
00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:56,519
just, in a sense, punctured the kind of slightly sanitised version

26
00:01:56,519 --> 00:02:03,180
of legionaries standing with all their shields facing the enemy,

27
00:02:04,099 --> 00:02:06,280
all looking ever so kind of neat and tidy.

28
00:02:06,599 --> 00:02:09,319
I mean, it was messy and it was bloody and it was horrible

29
00:02:09,319 --> 00:02:15,020
and it was such a different kind of image of Roman combat

30
00:02:15,020 --> 00:02:17,919
that I remember we set it in Cambridge as an exam question.

31
00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:23,979
You know, how would how would students judge that kind of representation of Roman warfare?

32
00:02:24,740 --> 00:02:31,240
It's very interesting that there seem to be more and more historical films recently and many have won Oscars.

33
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:34,520
Is that because history has all the best stories?

34
00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:38,759
Yes, there's no such good story as a true story.

35
00:02:38,860 --> 00:02:41,400
And that's what history's got going for it.

36
00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:46,259
you know, actually, you know, non-fiction in a kind of way

37
00:02:46,259 --> 00:02:49,300
is always a better yarn than fiction is.

38
00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,400
And I think it's, you know, I feel very pleased because,

39
00:02:54,219 --> 00:02:59,139
and I think, you know, for one thing, it gets some of the best stories

40
00:02:59,139 --> 00:03:05,219
from history into the popular, into popular attention,

41
00:03:05,460 --> 00:03:06,379
popular consciousness.

42
00:03:06,379 --> 00:03:14,060
But I think also, I mean, it shows that you don't always have to be deadly serious about history.

43
00:03:14,159 --> 00:03:23,539
I mean, history, like classics, is often treated as something which is good for you, but isn't actually going to be much fun.

44
00:03:23,719 --> 00:03:30,520
You know, you'll be improved by knowing about it, but it probably will be a bit tedious in the process.

45
00:03:31,060 --> 00:03:34,439
And I think that showing that history can be larky,

46
00:03:34,539 --> 00:03:36,819
it can be funny, it can be surprising,

47
00:03:37,460 --> 00:03:40,039
it can be something that you can sit down

48
00:03:40,039 --> 00:03:42,960
and have a good two and a half hours at the cinema enjoying

49
00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:45,240
is really all to the good.

50
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