Evaluation Of Historical Accuracy Of The Movie Pompeii

When I watched the movie Pompeii, I was instantly confused. The way some of the seans played and would move to the next one and then flash back but this time it had sound. From the beginning I felt as if I was missing something. As I continued to watch it was very distracting and I had a hard time focusing on the story of the movie. Once I realized it was going to do that most of the movie, it went down even farther in my opinion of liking it.

I was having a hard time putting into words how I though the movie was so I went to the library website just to see what other people had to say. I came across this one opinion that was very clear for me, and thought it was one of the best was to put it. “In this gladiator disaster film, Romans massacre a Celtic horse tribe. The lone survivor, Milo (Kit Harington, left), becomes a slave, whose horse-whisperer talents attract the attention of a young aristocrat, Cassia (Emily Browning). Though the film's gorgeous color palette resembles burnished jewelry, there is a staleness and overfamiliarity to these early scenes. The film is not even enlivened by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Waves crash and cliffs collapse, but we know exactly how this end. Eventually, as Milo tries to save Cassia from the CGI lava, the film becomes a dripping, bombastic romance, with ash scattered like confetti.

But Mr. Anderson displays his mastery as a director in the sword-fighting scenes. The camera glides and tilts in exact counterpoint to the thrusts of the knives, as if a bloody ballet. These scenes recall the elegance and deftness of great car chases from films like ''Bullitt'' (1968). But the glares and eye rolls that bookend these scenes are what make this film both GIF-ready and campy fun.” 

In Ms. Bale’s review of the movie, she points out the negative and the positive of the movie from her point of view. A lot of the things she points out I do agree with. I feel like they could have made it a little bit better at least. One of the other things that was hard to follow was a sean would show and you could see their mouths moving but didn’t hear anything, but then when it showed again you could hear what they where saying. It was very difficult to follow, and I think it could have been done better.

There were a few things that where not historically accurate, this first one that stood out to me was the depiction of Xerxes, the Great King of Persian. No matter where you look, no history sources has him looking the way he doses in the movie. He also did not undertake an expedition to a site and transform into a king demigod because of his father’s death. In the film, Darius I the Great died in the Battle of Marathon; however, this did not in fact happen. History says he died years later in 486 B.C, from more naturel causes than anything.

Another big thing is Artemisia, Xerxes’s right-hand women, did not die during the Battel of Salamis. It is not clear on how she died but it also did not happen with the way the movie had it out to be. Set in 79 A.D., Pompeii tells the epic story of Milo, a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent Pompeii crumbles around him. 

In conclusion, I took multiple things away from this movie; In different ways. I have never been into history that much as a kid, due to most of the things I tried to do with history didn’t make since because of my learning disabilities. When I received this assignment, I was kind of scared and trying to figure out how I was going to do this but as I went on it became a little easier.

When I first started watching the movie I was unsure of how I was going to make it through the entire thing with the way it started. Once you get about thirteen minutes in it is a little bit better but is very distracting with the way they have it cut back and forth. The way it did cut back and forth is majority of why I did not enjoy the film. I think they could have done a much better job with the way they did decide to approach it.

There was also a lot things that were not historically accurate. I found it odd that people could create a history move that is not even accurate. A few things that caught me by surprise the most was the way they have Xerxes look in the movie is not correct according to history. When they have the part in the movie about Darius I the Great dyeing, they have him dyeing during the Battle of Marathon, but once again that is not true. As well as when and how Xerxes right handed women died. It is still undetermined how she passed away.

Works Cited

• “Pompeii.(Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk)(Movie Review)(Movie Review)” The New York Times, C8(l)
• Batchler, Janet Scott, et al. Pompeii Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2014, Bale, Miriam