Grumpy Old Man...

 Factual errors in movies drive me crazy. Why? It's some kind of mental defect on my part-- or at least a personality flaw. But it's not just movies; how about the fact that this Blogger interface doesn't auto recognize the em dash after "on my part--" and just inserts two dashes? Bastard lazy software writers.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Movies about sports are the worst. No film about sports should ever be directed by a clown that neither has played or has interest in the sport of topic. The lack of knowledge on the game would be cause for parading such a director around a field of play on a bed of nails until he she or it yells, "Time Off".

Historical context and factuality often get lost in Hollywood; the epic 1963 "The Battle Of The Bulge" comes to mind. The film got some things right-- like the U.S. was fighting the Germans in World War II, after that, the screen play kinda veers from fact enough that Dwight D. Eisenhower condemned Warner Brothers for producing such fantasy. But that's a different kind of factual error.

Now,  "theatrical" directors obviously got to where they are by having produced a work that has merit in some field, but really producers shouldn't be as clueless to appoint a thespian who refers to any activity that involves a ball and a playfield as "Sportsball".

It is obvious in so many movies with football as the primary plot core, that directors are fascinated with the violence that happens in the game. A well accomplished fact-bender like Oliver Stone is a prime example of not allowing the rules of the game to get in the way of the story of the film. His movie "The Replacements" portrays the game of football as an un-regulated, un-officiated street brawl. Casual observers of a football game may get the impression that what they are watching is 22 men beat each other up for 60 minutes. Oliver Stone portrays every tackle as a brutal physical assault that is perfectly legal. While each hit is a perfect theatrical display worthy of a professional wrestling match, the film hardly depicts reality.

The problem with all of this is that people watch this drivel and believe that this is how the game is played. Kids that play the game for real watch junk like this and think the depicted acts are OK, are astonished that when they try to rip another player's arm off that they've been penalized 15 yards. Adults watch and then decide that their kid is never playing football. They have never played the game, nor have they ever endeavoured to understand it.

Bending reality to fit your narrative is never a good idea. Doing so creates a world in which half-truths become historical fact. History becomes revised years after the fact because nobody is around to dispute the revisionists. The point is: Tell the truth, depict things as they are, not as how you want people to see things-- leave that to advertising.