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1. Quasi-mentary. A retelling of history in dramatic form. Not a documentary which edits historical documents, but which reenacts historic events. EX: Apollo 13
2. Historical Drama. A retelling which take more liberties with history, condensing events more and consolidating multiple people into single characters. EX: HBO's Chernobyl
3. Could've Happened Historical Drama. Stories that take place during a period, and relative to our vantage point, could have happened (for all we know). Forrester always hard Horatio Hornblower conveniently kept out of major Naval engagements in history. He writes the character as a sea captain who could've been at sea during the time of Nelson. The events depicted didn't happen, but we feel that they could have happened (for all we know) during that time.
4. Convergent Alternative History. The story could not have taken place and the audience knows that it obviously violates known facts of the period. The setting is historical, but the events and players are obviously wrong, but if we squint we can imagine it might have happened that way. Most important, the events depicted get us back, more or less, to the present that we are in today.
5. Divergent Alternative History. The story could not have taken place and the audience knows that it obviously violates known facts of the period. The setting is historical, but the events and players are obviously wrong. Most important, the events depicted do NOT get us back, more or less, to the present that we are in today. EX: Inglorious Basterds.
6. Fantasy. The story not only could not have taken place, despite the presence of historical details, because it steps outside of our reality.
EX: Dr. Stange and Mr. Norrell.
There are probably very few films in category #1, since liberties are almost always taken for the sake of narrative expediency.
#2 is probably the most dangerous since many people will only "know" what they know about an event through this allegedly "true story." Oliver Stone's JFK and Nixon are interesting works, but some audiences have mistaken them for accurate historical records of events, which they are not.
#3 is a clever way to have your cake and eat it too. The less consequential the players, the easier it is to pull off.
#4 is less dangerous than #2, because by definition, the audience knows that this isn't how it went down. It might, however, still tell "lies" in terms of background assumptions.
#5 is a ready template for historical science fiction and counter-factual cerebral projects (e.g., what if the South had won the Civil War?).
#6 fantasy is an interesting category in terms how much we sometimes expect it to "get right" and how much it can get right (as a hyperbole) of actual events. Game of Thrones, after all, is largely an imaginative retelling of English history.
2. Historical Drama. A retelling which take more liberties with history, condensing events more and consolidating multiple people into single characters. EX: HBO's Chernobyl
3. Could've Happened Historical Drama. Stories that take place during a period, and relative to our vantage point, could have happened (for all we know). Forrester always hard Horatio Hornblower conveniently kept out of major Naval engagements in history. He writes the character as a sea captain who could've been at sea during the time of Nelson. The events depicted didn't happen, but we feel that they could have happened (for all we know) during that time.
4. Convergent Alternative History. The story could not have taken place and the audience knows that it obviously violates known facts of the period. The setting is historical, but the events and players are obviously wrong, but if we squint we can imagine it might have happened that way. Most important, the events depicted get us back, more or less, to the present that we are in today.
5. Divergent Alternative History. The story could not have taken place and the audience knows that it obviously violates known facts of the period. The setting is historical, but the events and players are obviously wrong. Most important, the events depicted do NOT get us back, more or less, to the present that we are in today. EX: Inglorious Basterds.
6. Fantasy. The story not only could not have taken place, despite the presence of historical details, because it steps outside of our reality.
EX: Dr. Stange and Mr. Norrell.
There are probably very few films in category #1, since liberties are almost always taken for the sake of narrative expediency.
#2 is probably the most dangerous since many people will only "know" what they know about an event through this allegedly "true story." Oliver Stone's JFK and Nixon are interesting works, but some audiences have mistaken them for accurate historical records of events, which they are not.
#3 is a clever way to have your cake and eat it too. The less consequential the players, the easier it is to pull off.
#4 is less dangerous than #2, because by definition, the audience knows that this isn't how it went down. It might, however, still tell "lies" in terms of background assumptions.
#5 is a ready template for historical science fiction and counter-factual cerebral projects (e.g., what if the South had won the Civil War?).
#6 fantasy is an interesting category in terms how much we sometimes expect it to "get right" and how much it can get right (as a hyperbole) of actual events. Game of Thrones, after all, is largely an imaginative retelling of English history.
