Filmmakers and the Truth: It Can Be Tricky Relationship

I’m confused by Patrick Goldstein’s use of “December 7th” and “Battle of San Pietro” as examples of filmmakers’ right to tamper with the truth in dramatizing real events (“History Is Only the Launch Pad,” Dec. 19). Isn’t he missing the point?

Indeed, John Ford and John Huston restaged World War II battles--a director’s necessity that no one would dispute--but did they alter the facts to give their movies box-office boost? No way.

But let’s suppose they did. Let’s suppose Ford’s film claimed that FDR knew 24 hours ahead of time that the Japanese would strike at Pearl Harbor. The howling among critics--Goldstein among them, I suspect--would have resounded as ferociously as, well, bombs hitting battleships. And properly so.

JAMES FULTON

Upland

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A central criticism of “The Hurricane” was that it did not simply invent “a single racist cop,” as Goldstein writes, but instead took a real policeman, turned him into a readily identifiable character with a similar name, and made him responsible for all sorts of fictitious misdeeds.

This is far more dubious than simply “inventing” a fictional character for plot purposes in a fact-based film. It is the equivalent, say, of making a “docudrama” about nefarious doings at a Los Angeles newspaper and naming its villain “Patrick Goldberg.”

HENRY D. FETTER

Los Angeles

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I am not so much bothered by the “creative liberties” the filmmakers of “Thirteen Days” are taking than by the obvious liberties they are taking in regard to some of the equipment shown in the movie, as evidenced by your article’s accompanying photo.

Never were Soviet missiles transported on U.S. Army M-series trucks, which first appeared in the early ‘50s. Some of them are still in service today--but never in the service of the Red Army. The red star on the driver’s door of the tractor cab looks even more out of place--what a glaring mistake! Don’t they have consultants in the film industry that can tell these people how wrong they are?

Many World War II movies use historically incorrect equipment (with the notable exception of Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”) despite the fact that the correct period vehicles are still available in sufficient numbers. Of course, many collectors (myself included) would never let the movie industry use them, but there are others who make a living renting their vehicles for these purposes.

HERMAN PFAUTER

Santa Barbara

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It seems that filmmakers instinctively observe Dean Acheson’s famous dictum regarding license in the geopolitical arena: “Sometimes it is necessary to make things clearer than the truth.”

DAVID R. GINSBURG

Los Angeles