As many others have posted before me, there are far too many historical inaccuracies in this 2014 History Channel series. I urge all teachers who think they would use this series to help teach history to DON'T DO IT!
My observations on the inaccuracies in this History Channel series are that for World War I and the Gallipoli Campaign, there was no mention that the British forces there really included not only United Kingdom(British troops), but French, Australian and New Zealand troops. The fact that I had an Australian relative who was in the combined Australian and New Zealand forces (ANZAC), who died of his wounds at Gallipoli, and the involvement of the Australians was not even mentioned, I feel is insulting to the memory of the many who died during that unfortunate campaign.
There were so many major and minor errors in the series it is laughable. I feel it follows the Oliver Stone philosophy of presenting the reenactments of historical events - bend time lines, misrepresent facts, and produce an questionable product. Here are just a few "little" errors that made me very angry about this production: - the actors portraying the younger and older Franklin D. Roosevelt couldn't even give a reasonable version of his speech patterns - we have so many recordings of the real Franklin D. Roosevelt that his voice and manner of speaking are well known - both Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin stood around 5 feet 5 inches tall (historical facts), but in their supposed meeting when Lenin returned to Russia, the actor portraying the younger Josef Stalin stood much taller than Lenin, plus, I understand such a meeting between the two is a highly questionable event - during the World War II segments with Adolf Hitler meeting with some of his officers, the length of the hair of some of the actors playing officers was way too long to be acceptable in the German military
Bottom line: Please do not use this series to teach history!
My observations on the inaccuracies in this History Channel series are that for World War I and the Gallipoli Campaign, there was no mention that the British forces there really included not only United Kingdom(British troops), but French, Australian and New Zealand troops. The fact that I had an Australian relative who was in the combined Australian and New Zealand forces (ANZAC), who died of his wounds at Gallipoli, and the involvement of the Australians was not even mentioned, I feel is insulting to the memory of the many who died during that unfortunate campaign.
There were so many major and minor errors in the series it is laughable. I feel it follows the Oliver Stone philosophy of presenting the reenactments of historical events - bend time lines, misrepresent facts, and produce an questionable product. Here are just a few "little" errors that made me very angry about this production: - the actors portraying the younger and older Franklin D. Roosevelt couldn't even give a reasonable version of his speech patterns - we have so many recordings of the real Franklin D. Roosevelt that his voice and manner of speaking are well known - both Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin stood around 5 feet 5 inches tall (historical facts), but in their supposed meeting when Lenin returned to Russia, the actor portraying the younger Josef Stalin stood much taller than Lenin, plus, I understand such a meeting between the two is a highly questionable event - during the World War II segments with Adolf Hitler meeting with some of his officers, the length of the hair of some of the actors playing officers was way too long to be acceptable in the German military
Bottom line: Please do not use this series to teach history!