Find the Fact Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ptolemy kept a diary

The film is told from the perspective of Egyptian pharoah Ptolemy I Soter (Anthony Hopkins). Colin Farrell plays the Macedonian general. The film was widely criticized by from a variety of sources, ranging from Macedonian nationalists to professional historians.

Alexander lived between 356 BC and 323 BC. He is regarded as one of the boldest military commanders in world history, and at the time of his death, he ruled one of the largest empires ever known.

What is a definite fact is that Ptolemy did keep a diary, although it was destroyed when the library at Alexandria was burned. As for the other things: Darius III, king of Persia, would have been between 45 and 50 during the relevant scenes in the film. While Alexander was wounded in India, it was not at the Battle of Hydapses. The lighthouse was built between 300 and 280 BC, completed during the reign of Ptolemy II.

"Alexander" the film was widely panned by critics. It received six Razzie nominations, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Colin Farrell), Worst Actress (Angelina Jolie) and Worst Director (Oliver Stone), and Worst Supporting Actor (Val Kilmer). It lost out to "Catwoman" (2004).

Answer: Gladiators fought with wild animals, such as tigers

"Gladiator" starred Russell Crowe as General Maximus Decimus Meridius, who was sold into slavery and became a gladiator. While Maximus is fictional, much of the story regarding gladiators in roughly historically accurate. Joaquin Phoenix played Commodus, the Roman emperor.

Gladiators often did fight wild animals in the arena, and Commodus would often hold staged hunts where he would kill wild animals.

As to the factual inaccuracies: Marcus Auerelius died in battle; he was not killed by his son. Commodus, who reigned for 12 years (not the much shorter period in the film), was killed by a slave in his bathtub, not during combat in the arena. And there was not quite as much bad blood between father and son as the film depicted; Aurelius chose Commodus to be his successor. Finally, Roman legions were extremely well disciplined and would not have fought as depicted in "Gladiator" (2000).

"Gladiator" was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe. Phoenix was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Answer: Robert the Bruce led the troops at the Battle of Bannockburn

"Braveheart" (1995) is based on the life of Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, and it is closer to the mythological version than the actual historical version. Wallace was real and was a thorn in the side of the British for almost a decade. And while many of the battles and historical figures mentioned are real, they are not always portrayed accurately.

Robert the Bruce, the first king of Scotland, did win at Bannockburn in June 1314. While the precise location of the battle is unknown, it was near Stirling, close to the English-Scottish border.

As to the rest: It is highly unlikely Queen Isabella was romantically linked with Wallace, as she was born in 1295, she was only 10 when he died. She did not even arrive in England until after Wallace's death. In the film, Wallace and some of the other Scots are wearing kilts, which were not commonly worn until the early 1500s, a good two centuries after Wallace's time. Edward I died in July 1307, two years after the execution of Wallace.

"Braveheart" was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Answer: Elizabeth I gave a speech to the troops at Tilbury

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007) is a sequel to "Elizabeth" (1998), both featuring Cate Blanchett as the British monarch. "Golden Age" is set between 1585 and 1590. Clive Owen plays Sir Walter Raleigh. The soundtrack was done by A.R. Rahman who would win Academy Awards for his work on "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008).

Yes, the queen did deliver a speech to the troops at Tilbury prior to the Spanish Armada. It was recorded by Leonel Sharp, a chaplain with the troops at the time. The speech Cate Blanchett gives in the film is nothing close to the speech that history records Elizabeth giving, leaving out even the "weak, feeble woman" line. But she looks cool on a horse.

While there are lines indicating England lost ships during the Armada, it never happened in reality. And Raleigh was tasked with the land defense of Britain while Francis Drake was in charge of the naval defense. In reality, Infanta Isabella was 19 years old in 1585, the year the film begins. The film also has suitors courting Elizabeth I, who would have been 52 at the time the film begins.

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards. Alexandra Bryne won for her costumes, while Blanchett was nominated for playing Elizabeth I.

Answer: Ned Alleyn was a real actor

"Shakespeare in Love" (1997) features Joseph Fiennes as Shakespeare and Gwyneth Paltrow as his love interest Viola de Lesseps (a fictional character). Judi Dench plays Elizabeth I.

Ned Alleyn, the character played by Ben Affleck, was a real actor, who really appeared in plays by Christopher Marlowe.

If the Queen was going to see the play, she would have seen it at her court, not the Globe Theater. Royalty did not stoop to visit theaters (which would have been closed any way because of the plague)

As to "Twelfth Night" it was completed in 1601, six years after "Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare wrote a dozen plays in between, including "Julius Caesar" (1599) and "Hamlet" (1599-1601). Shakespeare based the play on a 1562 story by Arthur Brooke, which was a translation of an earlier Italian story. The earliest version of the Romeo and Juliet story dates to Italy in 1476, over a century before Shakespeare was writing.

"Shakespeare in Love" was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Dench), Best Screenplay and Best Music.

Answer: There were Revolutionary War battles in South Carolina

South Carolina was a major theater of the American Revolution, especially along the Atlantic coast. Francis Marion also engaged in guerilla operations further inland.

Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a former military man turned farmer who becomes a rebel to avenge the death of his son. The film is widely criticized by US historians for the wild liberties it takes with historical reality, particularly regarding British soldiers.

As to freedom for slaves in the Revolution, some were given freedom: slaves who fought for the British. The Continental Congress, in which southern slave owners had great influence, was not about to give freedom to slaves. George Washington, the leader of the Continental Army, was a major slave owner.

With the burning church, there is no historical incident from the American Revolution remotely close. It does resemble the massacre at Oradur Sur Glane in France, which was done by Nazi SS Storm Troopers in June 1944.

The French first arrived at Yorktown in 1778, one of the reasons the United States was able to defeat the British. Even so, the fighting continued until early 1783 and the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

For a good review of exactly how much history "The Patriot" gets wrong, check out "Founding Myths" by historian Ray Raphael.

"The Patriot" was nominated for three Academy Awards: John Williams music, cinematography and sound. It didn't win any awards.

Answer: Thomas Andrews sank with the Titanic

"Titanic" (1997) is based on the sinking of the ocean liner in April 1912. Its center is the love story of Jack Dawson (Leonardo Di Caprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet). The epic film is 194 minutes long.

Thomas Andrews, the architect who designed the Titanic, did die in the sinking. Murdoch did not commit suicide, and his family was so outraged at his portrayal in the film that the Vice President of the studio actually donated 5000 pounds to a fund established in Murdoch's memory. The biggest problem many critics have with Cameron's film is that he minimized the heroism of the crew of Titanic.

First and Third class were strictly segregated on the Titanic. It is highly unlikely that a passenger in steerage like Jack would have been wandering around the First Class decks.

Lake Wissota is a man made lake that was created in 1918, six years after Titanic sank.

"Titanic" won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Song and Score and multiple technical awards. None of the actors won, although Winslet was nominated.

Answer: Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding) shot down several planes

"Pearl Harbor" features a love triangle between two pilots and a nurse during the opening days of the Second World War. The bulk of the film focuses on the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid afterwards. It stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale.

The section of the film regarding Dorie Miller was fairly accurate. He did fire anti-aircraft guns on the USS West Virginia and was present when Captain Bennion died. And as Trey Parker notes "Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part, he was way better than Ben Affleck." Miller was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions at Pearl Harbor; he died during the Battle of Makin in November 1943.

Rafe McCauley was an active duty US airman, and therefore would not have been permitted to serve in the Royal Air Force. The profession of crop dusting did not start before World War II, and even if it had, the plane used in the scene was first manufactured in 1934. The Zeroes that attacked Pearl Harbor were painted gray. The Japanese Navy did not start painting Zeroes green until 1943.

These are just a few among the dozens of historic goofs found in "Pearl Harbor".

"Pearl Harbor" did win an Academy Award, for sound editing. It was nominated for Best Song, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. It was nominated for multiple Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Actor (Affleck), Screen Couple, Director and Screenplay. Thankfully for Affleck and Bay, Tom Green made "Freddy Got Fingered" (2001).

Answer: Oskar Schindler's first factory was in Krakow, Poland

"Schindler's List" focuses on businessman Oskar Schindler, who used his considerable fortune to rescue 1200 Jews from concentration camps. Liam Neeson plays Schindler and Ben Kingsley plays his accountant, Itzhak Stern. Ralph Fiennes is concentration camp commander Amon Goeth. While the movie strives for historical accuracy, it does get several facts about Schindler's life wrong and contains multiple anachronisms.

Schindler did rescue the women from Auschwitz, but not personally. He sent a family friend named Hilde to rescue the women, according to Schindler's wife. While Schindler had been an intelligence officer for Germany between 1935 and 1939, he was never awarded the gold medal; even if he had, most were made of gold plated brass, so they weren't worth much. According to his service record, the highest rank Goeth held was Captain.

"Schindler's List" was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director (Spielberg), Score (John Williams), Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski) and Screenplay (Steve Zaillian).

Answer: There were Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in the Iraq War

"The Hurt Locker" stars Jeremy Renner as the leader of an explosive ordnance disposal unit serving in Iraq in 2004. There were EOD units in Iraq during 2004. However, analyses by Iraq War veterans point out numerous technical errors in "The Hurt Locker."

The uniforms are just one the many glaring technical errors. The ACU uniforms were not issued until February of 2005. They should have been wearing the Desert Combat Uniform. The flags worn on the uniforms were also incorrect.

Drinking alcohol in either Iraq or Afghanistan was prohibited by military regulations, and an EOD officer could lose their job for an alcohol related incident. And Chinooks are flown by the Army, not the Marines.

Other anachronisms include an Xbox 360 (came out in 2005) and a mention of YouTube (which went on-line in early 2005). Bigelow shot the film in Jordan, near the Iraqi border, and this did result in several Jordanian specific continuity errors in the film.

"The Hurt Locker" had nine Academy Award nominations and won six, including Best Picture, Best Director (Bigelow was the first woman to win) and Best Screenplay (Mark Boal). Bigelow also won a BAFTA, a DGA (Directors' Guild) and thirty other awards for the film.