"Why the dramatic license in ‘Sons of Liberty’ is a problem" Topic

"Most people realize, when they're watching a dramatic work based on some historical event, that they're not getting a history lesson. And by this point, I think it's dawned on most viewers of The History Channel that their chances of seeing historically edifying programming on that network are comparable to their chances of seeing a beluga whale while vacationing in Montana. Why, then, is the total disregard for accuracy in Sons of Liberty such a big deal?

It's a big deal because a heck of a lot of people who watched Sons of Liberty while under the impression that they were having an educational experience. This is not my assumption. This is a fact. I know this is the case because I was scrolling along on Twitter while I watched the miniseries, looking at tweets with the #SonsOfLiberty hashtag. I saw a lot of tweets decrying the show's misrepresentations, but I saw as many if not more tweets from people who were totally psyched about how much they were "learning," about how they wished schools would screen the whole thing for students, about how they were getting more information out of the miniseries than they ever did in their history classes, and so on…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Wrong board Armand.

I haven't see this show but the trailer looks ridiculous.

At least it is an honest trailer then! I watched the first episode and part of the second before I could not stand any more. I need to watch John Adams again to get a semblence of reality back.

Dynaman8789..

I had a similar experience. Could not longer stand the fractured fairy tale. Sad

Great show for the historian!

You get a chance to find small & large travesties in nearly every sequence.

The movie 'Braveheart' filled the same purpose for those of us who take history seriously.

I imagine that for high school History teachers it reminds them of essays they get about the American Revolution from their students.

I'm hopeful that some of those people who said that they "learned a lot" were interested enough to seek out additional resources and learn some of the actual history.

They would probably dismiss the "other sources" as being wrong (i.e. not what was shown on TV).

Yes I have told repeatedly that Tv cannot be wrong as they have too much responsibility.

Did not bother referring to newspapers/ radio from 1936+ .

I remember playing with a bunch of gamers who thought cannon balls exploded " like in films" not understanding my sarcasm on watching it and asking where are the 75s shooting?

The same thing happened on the Science Channel when they aired the mermen crud. We just don't teach critical thinking any more.

Ah yes, those exploding cannonballs and handy trampolines.

I happened to be flipping past when I saw the "Paul Revere as Sly Stallone" moment, that did it for me. But never say never, I happened to click on it and there was a scene with Ben Franklin referring to something s being "bat crazy", a term I don't think was used in Colonial Days. Or if it was I have yet to run across it.

Look, I get it, the "History" Channel is entertainment, not education. But still they could at least get close. Of course the reality is that you could fill volumes with mistakes on THC. From Pz IIs being used to illustrate Tigers to that film of HMS Barham exploding illustrating just about any WW2 ship sinking, I guess that it's just pure that keeps me from programming the channel out o my TV.

Perhaps should put a bit in the titles saying "Based on a true story". If on a channel called History is reasonable to expect some history to be correct.

What difference does it REALLY make if an entertainment series gets a lot, err most, ummm EVERYTHING wrong, and people believe it? IT's not as if their immortal souls are in peril if they believe that Paul Revere was a bouncer at a gay strip club. Those of us who care will know better. I don't really care what the Ignoranti believe. It's not like we are the Taliban or ISIS or something like that.

They do it the way they do it, for many reasons.

One is that history to them is nothing but a story they can develop a script from, with little need to pay an author for "the rights". (See Alan Alda's character in Sweet Liberty.)* history is NOT sacred. There is nobody like the author of "Fifty shades of Grey" holding a grim watch on the "integrity" of her story.

secundus. It's cheaper to do it that way. This is why the continual whining about "wrong tanks" is so annoying. Why pay for a "real" tiger when putting plywood turrets on an M48 is so much cheaper. And who will object? A few unimportant cranks.

Tertius. Who goes to movies? Young men wishing to get lucky that night with their dates. Do they care?
* Why, yes! I DID get lucky when we went to see Sweet Liberty!

So, I am not watching any of the so-called AWI miniseries, because muskets and tricornes and a Rolling Stones soundtrack in the trailer does not do it for me. All they are good for is to provide humor for snarky comments here.

I disagree with those who contend that it isn't important for people to know what really happened. These days here in the USA we hear people say (on both sides for their political gain) that the Founding Fathers said this or that. Some even seem to feel that when we speak of the "Founding Fathers" it should be in quiet tones as though we were discussing the Prophets of some Religion. If you know what really happened then you are less likely to fall for this sort of thing and to be able to think and find out for yourself. It is important also because, as they say, how can you know where you are going if you don't know where you've been?

It was awful.. It was one thing to make a show and change some things to make it more interesting. They changed it and made it less interesting. So it is awful history and awful storytelling. Braveheart was at least a good movie.

Quote from a friend of a friend. "I learned so much history from watching Sons of Liberty"…. We are DOOMED.

"No he was real, just like on TV"

Most people assue that if it is on tv it is true. The History Channel shows history. No body in the audience knows any better.