Feature

Based on a Half-True Story

Hollywood’s always taken liberties with the historical record—remember the murder of Pope John Paul I in The Godfather: Part III? But lately, it’s all about rewriting the watershed moments of the sixties.

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By Bilge Ebiri
Published Jul 10, 2011

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(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures/Courtesy of Neal Peters Collection)

WATCHMEN
In the movie: Doctor Manhattan’s quantumpowers win the Vietnam War, assuring the heroic Richard Nixon a third term.

Actually: Bereft of a giant blue superhero, the U.S. lost; Nixon resigned the presidency, albeit for unrelated reasons.

(Photo: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
In the movie: Evil mutants instigate the Cuban Missile Crisis and nearly trick the U.S. and Soviet fleets into starting a nuclear holocaust.

Actually: The blockade of Soviet missile ships was Armageddon-y enough without X-Men meddling.

(Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
In the movie: JFK decides we must land on the moon after a spaceship from robot planet Cybertron crashes there. In 1969, Apollo 11 explores the wreck.

Actually: The moon landing never happened. It was secretly staged in a TV studio by Stanley Kubrick.