A not so true story

[VisionofMilotic]

Movies, books and tv are notorious for taking artistic liberties when making content about real people and events.

Are there any stories that are just too fictionalized for you to enjoy?

For me one would be Disney's Pocahontas. I think the animation is beautiful, the music is soaring, I love Judy Kuhn's broadway vocals, and the messages at the heart of the story are important ones to share with audiences of all ages. I didn't dislike watching it as a little kid, especially the amusing antics of Meeko. However, the prospect of watching the movie now kinda turns me off, now that I know more about the real Pocahontas/Matoaka. I usually don't take fiction that seriously, in fact, it is usually best not to. I try to remain aware that it's drama, and enjoy it on it's own terms of it has storytelling merits, and if I'm looking for the facts, and not just trying to be entertained, I will watch documentaries and read biographies.

But I think what bothers me about Pocahontas is that it's presented as a love story, and knowing that she was really just an 11 or 12 year-old girl that was kidnapped and a hostage of English settlers and treated so badly is too disturbing for me to see romanticized, so that's a flick I can skip rewatching.

Is there an adaptation of a "true story" that you have a bone to pick with?

 

[Orion☆]

Any series about English history made by Starz - especially The White Queen, The White Princess, The Spanish Princess and Becoming Elizabeth. I've studied it inside out when I took English History at college and these series get. So. Many. Details. Wrong. Sometimes to a disturbing degree. I'll put some details under the cut in case you don't want to be grossed out.

Spoiler:

-The otherwise great ending of The White Queen was absolutely ruined for me when Richard III slept with his niece Elizabeth of York... who was a minor at the time. Not only is this historically inaccurate, but also added in for shock value. Disgusting.
-The White Princess deals with the fallout of the above in an equally disturbing manner, with Henry Tudor slut-shaming Elizabeth, his wife, over the incident. Neither of them is very likeable, but it made my skin crawl. Also, in an example with flipped genders, Margaret Beaufort murdering Jasper Tudor, whom she supposedly loved, in order for her son to keep the throne. Again, "artistic" license, people!
-The Spanish Princess had that God-awful pregnant armor Catherine of Aragon wore in the first two episodes of S2. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing historical women kick ass and take names as much as anyone else, but this one both stretched the realm of believability and painted Catherine as an irresponsible person, considering she fully intended to keep the baby. Plus, the historical Catherine was not at the battlefield; she was running things from the palace and was essentially Regent during that time. There are many ways to do a strong female character, and the way this series did it was just not it. (I should add, however, that I would not have bothered to witness this monstrosity if said episodes hadn't featured Ray Stevenson as the King of Scotland. I had already dropped the series at the end of S1, but came back just to see him. As expected, he stole the show. It absolutely gutted me to see his character die so suddenly.)
-I've already talked about Becoming Elizabeth in the TV series thread, but I haven't mentioned why I dislike it so much. It portrays the predatory relationship between the 30-something Thomas Seymour and the 14-year-old future Elizabeth I in a less-than-predatory light at times. It also portrays Catherine Parr, Thomas's wife, as having partaken on her husband's antics up to a certain point. This isn't so much a question of historical accuracy as of tone, and even though it gets deconstructed later, it's hard for me to wipe the first impression off my brain.