Stephen T-B
Stephen T-B
Is this the right place to talk about the ethics of making films and documentaries which are presented as dramatasing real events?
The subject came to mind after I’d been reading about the portrayal of General Lord Cornwallis in the The Patriot and how it was a perversion of generally-acknowledge facts regarding his character.
Does artistic licence extend to misrepresenting real people (perhaps still alive, but certainly those whose children/grandchildren are still living) and events which are supported by a ton of good evidence?
For instance, how justified, ethically, is The Crown?
In my days – long gone – as a TV critic, I was severe in my criticism of drama documentaries whose makers had carefully choreographed events so as to maximise their dramatic effect. I argued that it was a form of deception, encouraging viewers to think they are watching real life unfold when it was in fact stage managed.
For that reason I disliked the enormously popular under-water films made the French naturalist Jaques Cousteau (d. 1997) which were shown here in the UK by the BBC; I felt they duped the viewer by purporting to show Nature-in-the-raw when the viewer was in fact seeing a film-maker’s carefully-disguised artifice.
The subject came to mind after I’d been reading about the portrayal of General Lord Cornwallis in the The Patriot and how it was a perversion of generally-acknowledge facts regarding his character.
Does artistic licence extend to misrepresenting real people (perhaps still alive, but certainly those whose children/grandchildren are still living) and events which are supported by a ton of good evidence?
For instance, how justified, ethically, is The Crown?
In my days – long gone – as a TV critic, I was severe in my criticism of drama documentaries whose makers had carefully choreographed events so as to maximise their dramatic effect. I argued that it was a form of deception, encouraging viewers to think they are watching real life unfold when it was in fact stage managed.
For that reason I disliked the enormously popular under-water films made the French naturalist Jaques Cousteau (d. 1997) which were shown here in the UK by the BBC; I felt they duped the viewer by purporting to show Nature-in-the-raw when the viewer was in fact seeing a film-maker’s carefully-disguised artifice.
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