general media Bringing Modern Politics Into A Historical Setting ·

[Bendy 1,821]

Why would someone do this? I don't care how violent, racist or sexist the past was, depict the way it was. Why can't movies/tv shows depict a historical setting the way it was? It's immersion breaking to see modern politics.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Bendy

[EpicEnergy 23,222]

Someone would bring modern politics into a historical setting in a movie/TV show to gain viewers so that they could make more money. Many companies don't care about what actually happened in history, why would they create movies about history without inserting modern-day controversies and politics when doing such would mean a larger profit and more attention?

Edited January 1, 2020 by FestiveEnergy

[Latecomer 439]

3 hours ago, Bendy said:

Why would someone do this? I don't care how violent, racist or sexist the past was, depict the way it was. Why can't movies/tv shows depict a historical setting the way it was? It's immersion breaking to see modern politics.

For some, racism, sexism and violence are worse immersion breakers. (And think you mean "modern standards" or "modern morals" rather than "modern politics".)

 

[Goat-kun 2,527]

For the same reasons evolution deniers were making "museums" where Adam and Eve were hanging with the dinosaurs. Intersectionalism is the new Church. A failed ideology needs to constantly promote itself wherever and whenever it can.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

I don't understand that either, but I also don't understand the need for this thread.

[SharpWit 2,689]

I completely understand where you're coming from, and the unfortunate answer is that people have done this for all of history for propaganda purposes.

The most immediate example I can think of is Bismarck from 1940, where he's portrayed to have the same speech patterns and mannerisms of Hitler. This isn't much of a surprise given the source, but that's from about 80 years ago when people could get away with a lot more. Anytime a nation, people, or group had an incentive to push some kind of message, this would happen, and they'd do it with whatever folklore, myths and legends they had available.

The most egregious modern example I can think of was the most recent version of Robin Hood, where they portrayed the crusades to being just like today's conflicts in the middle east, and the medieval coalmines to look like mount doom and an oil refinery had a lovechild. While the film was probably supposed to be more about anticorruption and helping those in need like we're used to it being about, it came off as purely anti-capitalist/pro-communist.

Luckilly there are more people around these days who would like to tell stories of the past as they were, but people love their drama, so we'll just have to appreciate the few gems that make it through, and todays political tactics for film media today I think mostly come sin the form of distracting the masses rather than actually change or set their minds on something, but it does happen. Independence Day: Resurgence is the closest that comes to mind for trying to get people to do something, and that's because of how heavy handed the US Army's involvement was.

Less political but certainly something only a modern film would do, the first movie I ever saw with my girlfriend, on our second date, before we were official, and only just opening up to each other, was 2018's The Favorite. Thought it was just an amusing historical film, which it technically was, but it took a way different turn than we were expecting.