The HMA GUY Journal

Excerpt of article published in Suite 101 – Military Movies on January 18, 1999

Is It Hollywood or Is It History?

That is the question that is most often asked by Sander Vanocur in MOVIES IN HISTORY on The History Channel. This last week or so, he has been showing excerpts from THE THIN RED LINE along with interviews from actual participants of the Battle of Guadalcanal. The two interviewees, Ken Hoser, USA, and William Schumacher, USMC, both came to the conclusion that THE THIN RED LINE was 60% history and 40% Hollywood.

As a rule, I watch war films with a jaundiced eye. I have been the recipient of attempts on my person by belligerent forces and have a sense of what goes on in combat. At least, I think I do. I don't think any person who has experienced combat can accurately describe their experience. I am also not particularly involved in nit - picking esoterica out of movies. That is, I really don't look for the wrist watches in SPARTACUS. However, if I see things in the movie or TV show as egregious as a soldier in WWII wearing Vietnam era web gear, ranks turned upside down, or a soldier of WWII wearing a VN service ribbon I get a little upset.

To return to Hollywood and history, Hollywood is in the business of purveying fantasy to a buying public. If you want to see what war was really like, watch a documentary such as THE WORLD AT WAR. However, I am saying that whatever you see of war movies is going to be, by movie making's very nature, historically inaccurate. It is incumbent on the producers, directors, costume designers, art directors, whatever, to lessen those historical inaccuracies to least degree possible.