Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks

10,000 BC, Gladiator, and 300 top Yahoo's list of historical misfires
By Kate Rockwood,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 1, 2008 1:10 PM CDT
Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" may have fudged a few facts.   (Getty Images)

Most historical films forgo a few facts for dramatic flair, but these flicks leave truth to the cutting room floor. Yahoo lists the most inaccurate movies ever:

  1. 10,000 BC: Woolly mammoths weren't around to help build the pyramids.
  2. Gladiator: Emperor Commodus didn't kill his dad... chickenpox did.
  3. 300: Spartan warriors wore bronze armor, not leather Speedos.
  4. The Last Samurai: 19th-century Japan did have war advisers, but they weren't American.
  5. Apocalypto: Mel's Mayan saviors actually killed off 90% of the indigenous people.

  1. Memoirs of a Geisha: It's more Studio 54 light show than Kyoto history.
  2. Braveheart: The costumes are 300 years too early, and lineage a muddled mess.
  3. Elizabeth: The Golden Age: The real queen rode sidesaddle and preferred a baton to a sword.
  4. The Patriot: Mel's hero was more incestuous slave owner than trailblazing family man.
  5. 2001: A Space Odyssey: Alas, humans weren't flying to Jupiter or dueling sentient machines.
To learn more about these historical misfires, click on the link below. (More film stories.)

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