Let's nail it down at the very beginning: Now or never! an adventure film that begins with the caption: »As it happened and as it could have happened«. We could end this joke conversation here, but I will continue.
"A message to those concerned about historical fidelity,
among whom there is a Széchenyi Prize-winning historian as well as a leftist film critic and a self-proclaimed hobby scientist...
Let's nail it down at the very beginning: Now or never! an adventure film that begins with the caption: »As it happened and as it could have happened«. We could end this joke conversation here, but I will continue.
Of course, it is tragicomic in itself when the anointed critics of the haladár press, which can hardly be accused of patriotism, are worried about any kind of historical fidelity and the "trampling" of Hungarian history. Those who at other times loudly proclaim the indisputability of artistic freedom, celebrating black Cleopatras and white Othellos. But they are also the ones who think that the Netflix horror Bridgerton, which - marching under the holy banner of the abolitionist culture - depicts the court of Queen Charlotte of England in such a way that almost every English aristocrat in it is from the Far East or black is also completely true to its time and appealing. Well, they are now raving about Now or Never! about its fictional characters and fictional storyline – hissing a summary opinion.
It is funny that it is the dollar media that accuses the Petőfi film of falsifying history
If possible, the real historians who complain loudly are even worse than them, who, as single-minded professional barbarians, are unable to understand that when writing and making a two-hour film, we have to take into account a million other aspects, and we must live in the process of telling the story by condensing, simplifying or just zooming in with the film language tools.
This is what makes a story or the character of a historical hero exciting, understandable, relatable and lovable.
So it's not that we saved time when writing the script and didn't read half a library's worth of historical works, and that we couldn't accurately answer a significant part of the historians' suggestions, it's just that the knowledge of history doesn't directly lead to a watchable movie. I hardly dare to imagine what the scientists and critics could have said about the shameless scandals below, please be strong now.
The evil Jumurdszák of the Egri stars did not exist, just as Gergely Bornemissza's wife was not called Éva Cecey.
The Baradlay family known from The Sons of the Stone-Hearted Man is just Jókai's invention, supposedly inspired by Dániel Irányi, the figure of Ödön.
The Roman emperor Commodus in the movie Gladiator did not actually kill his father Marcus Aurelius, just as there was no gladiator named Maximus.
Titanic's romantic couple: Rose and Jack are also fictional.
The examples could be listed endlessly, and yet: these films are close to all of our souls, and we would certainly be poorer without them."
Featured image: Facebook/Rákay Philip
