A movie on the life of Ernest Hemingway, based  his memoir, may hit the production line soon.

The film company have told me this is only loosely based on my life but it’s my life all the same…They should have represented my story more accurately and fairly.

This was the response of an indignant former IRA mole, Martin McGartland, to a film based on his life – Fifty Dead Men Walking. The movie was based on his autobiography of the same name.

The issue, again, is accuracy, as was raised in the previous post about memoir. Does the film form, which requires ‘creativity’ to capture audience’, have more creative license to take more liberty with accuracy?

This Freakonomics post on historical inaccuracies in movies struck a chord.

Many a times, I have scratched my head, wondering if I had failed to pay attention in my history classes or if the movies really got it wrong.

A slew of historical movies on Asian history – some are dramatisation of history, others based loosely on historical contexts – has sprung up in the past few years: Princess of Mount Ledang, The Legend of Suriothai, An Empress and the Warriors …

What’s your nomination for 1) The Most Historically Inaccurate Movies and 2) The Best Attempt at Historical Accuracy in Movies?