History WebVideo / HistoryBuffs

** In ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'', Nick points out that 11th-century Scots are wearing kilts, which weren't invented until the 16th century.

* AbledInTheAdaptation: In his ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' review, he points out that Henry Hill had serious learning disabilities. Since he went to school in the 1950s, he didn't have the supports available today, and so he disliked school and had trouble academically. Because the movie doesn't mention this, it gives the impression that young Henry was just a troublemaker and a delinquent. (Then again, it wasn't until ''Goodfellas'' was released that Henry Hill was the target of interviews and he was able to relate the ValuesDissonance of TheFifties and the modern era.) [[invoked]]

** In ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'', Nick points out that 11th Century Scots are wearing kilts, which would not have been invented until the 16th Century.
** The presence of turkeys in Spain at the start of ''Film/FourteenNinetyTwoConquestOfParadise'', even though the continent the turkeys are from hadn't been discovered yet.

** The opening lecture in ''Film/{{Timeline}}'' where it's suggested that English troops wore red uniforms and French troops wore blue uniforms during UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar. The English did not adopt red uniforms until the 17th Century, while the French did not adopt blue uniforms until the 18th Century.

* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Calls out ''Film/{{Timeline}}'' for this. First the film assumes that people in 14th Century France spoke modern French, when in reality they spoke Middle French and Occitan. Then when the time travelers meet Lord Oliver, they are able to converse in modern English when Oliver would have been speaking either Middle English or Anglo-Norman French; likewise, Gerard Butler should have been speaking Norn, Gaelic, or Scots if he wanted to pass as a 14th Century Scotsman. Nick points out both times that the time travelers and the inhabitants of Castelgard should not be able to understand each other.

** Nick is disgusted by the portrayal of UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus in ''Film/FourteenNinetyTwoConquestOfParadise''. Contrary to the film's depiction of Columbus as a benevolent rogue and visionary, Nick rightfully points to abundant evidence that the real Columbus was a borderline AxCrazy war criminal and profiteer. He is also baffled that people still insist Columbus was a hero despite his genocidal actions and the fact that he neither discovered the Americas or proved the Earth was round.

** Nick also finds that ''Film/ThePatriot'' has an excessive anti-British bias, with all of the incessant references to "shooting redcoats." It gets taken UpToEleven when the British are depicted as burning down a church with the entire population of a rebel village locked inside -- a scene which was inspired not by any real-life incident during the Revolutionary War, but by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre Oradour-sur-Glane massacre]] committed by Nazi troops during World War II.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: In his review of ''Film/{{Dunkirk}}'', Nick takes a moment to criticize complaints about the movie lacking representation of women and people of color, pointing out that while both groups were instrumental in the war effort overall, very few were present at Dunkirk.

** Nick also finds that ''Film/ThePatriot'' has an excessive anti-British bias, with all of the incessant references to "shooting redcoats." It gets taken UpToEleven when the British are depicted as burning a church with the entire population of a rebel village locked inside -- a scene which was inspired not by any real-life incident during the Revolutionary War, but by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre Oradour-sur-Glane massacre]] committed by Nazi troops during World War II.

** In ''Film/GoodFellas'', Paul Cicero is depicted as an intimidating but AffablyEvil [[EvilMentor Mentor]] to Henry Hill who doesn't commit any violent acts onscreen. In reality, Paul Vario was just as vicious as Jimmy Burke/Conway and Tommy [=DeSimone=]/[=DeVito=], and Nick shows a documentary clip of the real Hill recalling Vario's assault of a barmaid with a baseball bat. Also, while the film doesn't give this treatment to Tommy [=DeSimone=]/[=DeVito=] in the slightest, Nick does mention one incident he did that wasn't brought up in the film, though likely because Henry Hill was the only source for it: at one point while Henry was in prison, Tommy tried to rape Henry's wife Karen; Paul Vario, whom Karen was having an affair with at the time, [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend was enraged by this]] and sold Tommy out to the Gambino crime family for this and the murder of Billy Batts. The rest of the film is largely an aversion, however, and its realistic portrayal of UsefulNotes/TheMafia is why Nick favors it over ''Film/TheGodfather''.

** Geri [=McGee=] and Lenny Marmor (Ginger [=McKenna=] and Lester Diamond) in ''Film/{{Casino}}''. Contrary to the film's depiction of Ginger as a greedy ex-prostitute and Lester as her former pimp, Geri and Lenny were high school sweethearts who already had a daughter together by the time Geri met Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal (Sam "Ace" Rothstein). Geri was also never a prostitute. Conversely, the film [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade omits]] Frank's history of infidelity and domestic abuse to make Ace more sympathetic at Geri/Ginger's expense.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Nick notes that despite being personal and geopolitical enemies, Stalin and Hitler shared a paranoid hatred of Jews.

-->Even the intro's boring. Look, even the cat's fallen asleep.

*** The movie skips over the Earps' failed attempt to run a stagecoach business before they rejoined law enforcement. Also because it would make them look less heroic if it were shown that their return to law enforcment [[MoneyDearBoy was motivated by money]].

** During the scene in ''Film/Midway2019'' when the US launch the Dolittle bombing raid at Tokyo, US sailors at Pearl Harbor are hearing a Tokyo Rose broadcast from Radio Tokyo, which was part of the Japanese's government Propaganda to demoralize the US. However, the Tokyo Rose broadcast didn't began until 1943, a year after the Dolittle raid.

** He also has major dislike of movies making horrible historical figures or people as heroic like ''Film/Midway2019'''s dedication to the Japanese sailors who died during the battle, despite the fact the Imperial Japanese Navy along with the Imperial Japanese Army committed horrible war crimes during their reign; or Christopher Columbus being treated like a hero despite he and his men committed torture, rape and genocide against the native populace they met.

* AbledInTheAdaptation: In his ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' review, he points out that Henry Hill had serious learning disabilities. Since he went to school in the 1950s, he didn't have the supports available today, and so he disliked school and had trouble academically. The movie makes no mention of this, giving the impression that young Henry was just a troublemaker and a delinquent. (Then again, it wasn't til ''Goodfellas'' was released that Henry Hill was the target of interviews and he was able to relate the ValuesDissonance of TheFifties and the modern era.) [[invoked]]

* AdaptationalVillainy: In his ''Elizabeth: The Golden Age'' review, Nick is quick to point out that the Babington plot never got to the point of Anthony Babington attempting to assassinate Elizabeth in church. Instead, like every other plot against Elizabeth in the past, it was discovered and thwarted by the efforts of Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham well before there was any threat to Elizabeth's safety.

** ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'' never explains Ike Clanton's animosity with Wyatt Earp. The real reason was because Ike had previously sold out an outlaw gang to Wyatt in exchange for reward money, something Wyatt hoped would allow him to beat Johnny Behan in the election for Sheriff. Even though the wanted men were killed in another state, Ike became paranoid after fearing that Wyatt would reveal Ike's betrayal to the Cowboys, explaining his hatred for Wyatt in the film.
** ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'' killed off the Jesuit priest John Ballard (played by Creator/DanielCraig), which means that in ''Film/ElizabethTheGoldenAge'', a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute named Robert Reston has to perform Ballard's role in the Babington Plot.

** During the scene in ''Film/Midway2019'' when the US launch the Dolittle bombing raid at Tokyo, US sailors at Pearl Harbor are hearing a Tokyo Rose broadcast from Radio Tokyo, which was part of the Japanese's government Propaganda to demoralized the US. However, the Tokyo Rose broadcast didn't began until 1943, a year after the Dolittle raid.

** He was also outraged by the blatant historical inaccuracy of both UsefulNotes/ElizabethI films starring Creator/CateBlanchett, and was worried that the films would be used to teach students in history classes. His fears proven quite founded in his ''Film/ElizabethTheGoldenAge'' review when he said a viewer told him ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'' was indeed screened for him in class.

** He also has major disliked of movies making horrible historical figures or people as heroic like ''Film/Midway2019'''s dedication to the Japanese sailors who died during the battle despite the fact the Imperial Japanese Navy along with the Imperial Japanese Army committed horrible war crimes during their reign or Christopher Columbus being treated like a hero despite he and his men committed torture, rape and genocide against the native populace they met.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'' points out that the conflict between the Earps and the Cowboys was a little less clear cut than the movie made it out to be.

** Much of the events of ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'' happened months apart (and were sometimes unrelated), but to have them jump back and forth with [[TimeSkip time skips]] would have been too much.

*** The Cowboys' retaliatory attacks on Wyatt Earp's brothers, which result in Virgil being critically wounded and Morgan being killed, are depicted as happening on the same night, when in reality they were actually three and a half months apart (Virgil on December 28, 1881; Morgan on March 18, 1882).

** Also at issue is the treatment of the American Revolution in ''Film/ThePatriot'', especially where slaves are concerned. The movie suggests that UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington's promise to free black men who fought for the Revolution embodied the American ideal of equality, when in fact the Americans were desperate to counteract a similar offer made to the slaves by the British and stop them from gaining an advantage. Not only did American ideals not apply to non-whites at the time of the Revolution, but most of the black men who fought for the Americans ended up never being freed. Creator/MelGibson's character Benjamin Martin technically counts, as one of the inspirations for the character, Francis Marion, was a slave-owner whose slaves fled his plantation and enlisted with the British... which, as Nick points out, tells you he was pretty despicable as a person.

** ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', along with other films about Wyatt Earp and his posse, have always portrayed them as good lawmen fighting the Cowboys to protect the town of Tombstone. In truth, Wyatt and his posse were really just seen as the good guys because they had badges, and the Earp Vendetta Ride was them breaking the law to ruthlessly kill Cowboys as revenge for the maiming of Virgil and the death of Morgan

*** The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I is portrayed as a naive woman who is unaware that her longtime lover, Robert Dudley, is already married. In reality, Elizabeth wasn't naïve, was aware that Dudley was married, and continued their affair regardless. Even if she could marry Dudley after his wife died in mysterious circumstances, she didn't due to his family being involved in a plot against the Monarchy in the past. While Dudley himself was found innocent, he still carried the stigma of his family's treason, which would have undermined Elizabeth's rule if the two married.

** In ''Film/GoodFellas'', Paul Cicero is depicted as an intimidating but AffablyEvil [[EvilMentor Mentor]] to Henry Hill who doesn't commit any violent acts onscreen. In reality, Paul Vario was just as vicious as Jimmy Burke/Conway and Tommy [=DeSimone=]/[=DeVito=], and Nick shows a documentary clip of the real Hill recalling Vario's assault of a barmaid with a baseball bat. Also, while the film doesn't give this treatment to Tommy [=DeSimone=]/[=DeVito=] in the slightest, Nick does mention one incident he did that wasn't brought up in the film, though likely because Henry Hill was the only source for it: at one point while Henry was in prison, Tommy tried to rape Henry's wife Karen; Paul Vario, whom Karen was having an affair with at the time, was enraged by this and sold Tommy out to the Gambino crime family for this and the murder of Billy Batts. The rest of the film is largely an aversion, however, and its realistic portrayal of UsefulNotes/TheMafia is why Nick favors it over ''Film/TheGodfather''.

** He also criticized ''Film/FromHell'' for its negative portrayals of Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline and Sir Charles Warren during the Jack the Ripper murders. In the film, Abberline is shown to be an opium addict and has an affair with Mary Jane Kelly, Jack's last victim, even though the RealLife Abberline was never a drug addict and was devoted to his wife. Warren gets it worse, being portrayed as an arrogant aristocrat who looks down on the lower class, an ObstructiveBureaucrat who constantly tries to stop Abberline's investigation, and a racist who is fine with scapegoating London's Jews for the murders (neglecting to point out that his command to destroy the graffiti blaming Jews for the killings was to prevent anti-Semitic riots) which is nothing like the RealLife Warren.

** Geri [=McGee=] and Lenny Marmor (Ginger [=McKenna=] and Lester Diamond) get this in ''Film/{{Casino}}''. Contrary to the film's depiction of Ginger as a greedy ex-prostitute and Lester as her former pimp, Geri and Lenny were high school sweethearts who already had a daughter together by the time Geri met Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal (Sam "Ace" Rothstein). Geri was also never a prostitute. Conversely, the film [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade omits]] Frank's history of infidelity and domestic abuse to make Sam more sympathetic at Geri/Ginger's expense.

** With ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', Ike Clanton is depicted as a full-fledged member of the Cowboys when in real life, he was more an associate of theirs. Similarly, the Cowboys are also shown shooting at the Earps' wives during their revenge hit on the Earps for the OK Corral, which never happened; they only went after Virgil and Morgan. Also, the Cowboys in real life never [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything wore red sashes around their belts to identify themselves like they were members of the Bloods]].

* InkSuitActor: His analysis of ''Film/{{Casino}}'' points out that the casting of Creator/JoePesci as Nicky Santoro wasn't just a creative decision by director Creator/MartinScorsese to work with actors he'd previously worked with on ''Film/GoodFellas'', but also because Pesci was a dead ringer for Tony Spilotro, the mafioso Santoro was based on, which he demonstrates with some side-by-side of press footage of Spilotro alongside footage of Santoro. This is especially noticeable given Pesci's short stature also worked in his favor because Spilotro was also [[TheNapoleon short in stature]], to the point that many nicknamed him "the Ant".
* TheMafia: Calls out the trope as a whole for overly romanticizing "honor-bound" Italian-American gangsters -- especially as applied in ''Film/TheGodfather'' -- while ''Film/GoodFellas'' depicts their true colors: psychotic scumbags who terrorized everyone and routinely turned on each other out of pure greed.

* NotSoDifferent: Nick notes that despite being personal and geopolitical enemies, Stalin and Hitler shared a paranoid hatred of Jews.
* ObviouslyEvil: In ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', the Cochise County Cowboys are made identifiable by wearing red sashes around their waists. Nick posits that the movie took influence from the gangsta films that came out around that time.

* PopCultureOsmosis: Nick sets up the ''[[Film/TheDeathOfStalin Death of Stalin]]'' review by stating that while most people associate UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler with pure evil, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin was also right up there and it would have been perfectly appropriate to celebrate his death.
* RiddleForTheAges: Certain actions undertaken by the Earps during the OK Corral gunfight are so confusing that even the cast of ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'' wondered what their intentions were in confronting Ike Clanton's group.

* TheStoolPigeon: In his ''Film/{{Casino}}'' role, Nick is inclined to agree with all the evidence that came out after Lefty Rosenthal's death that suggested he was a secret FBI informant, as it explains why Lefty never had to worry about jail time or his assets being seized by the federal government.

** He does two of these in his review of ''Film/GoodFellas'': he criticizes countdown-style Website/YouTube shows for "liking" cool scenes in movies without even understanding what made them cool and is critical of ''Film/TheGodfather'' for showing a fake, romanticized view of the Mafia that was unduly influenced by Mafia pressure behind the scenes.
** While discussing Music/{{Queen}}'s "I Want to Break Free" video in the ''Film/BohemianRhapsody'' episode, he says that the video was based on ''Series/CoronationStreet'', which he refers to as a boring British {{soap opera}}.

*** When she releases Sir Walter Raleigh and Bess Throckmorton from the Tower of London. The film suggests that Elizabeth did this as a magnanimous gesture of forgiveness. In reality, Elizabeth only (reluctantly) released Raleigh when his men found out he was imprisoned and threatened to withhold the queen's share of the spoils from the Battle of Flores, and released Bess out of guilt over the fact that the baby she conceived with Raleigh died of plague while she was in the Tower. ([[InfantImmortality The baby stays alive]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation in the film.]])

** Nick also finds that ''Film/ThePatriot'' has excessive anti-British bias, with all of the incessant references to "shooting redcoats." It gets taken UpToEleven when the British are depicted as burning a church with the entire population of a rebel village locked inside -- a scene which was inspired not by any real-life incident during the Revolutionary War, but by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre Oradour-sur-Glane massacre]] committed by Nazi troops during World War II.

** He also has major disliked of movies making horrible historical figures or people as heroic like ''Film/Midway2019'''s dedication to the Japanese sailors who died during the Battle despite the fact the Imperial Japanese Navy along with the Imperial Japanese Army committed horrible War Crimes during their reign or Christopher Columbus being treated like a hero despite he and his men committed torture, rape and genocide against the native populace they met.

** Criticizes ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'' for this in regards to the Christian Crusaders and Knights Templars. The film makes them cruel or evil to contrast them with Saladin and the Muslims. However, as he points out, the Christians were no more evil or good than the Muslim people living there, and that the film was pushing a heavy bias against Christians, which he feels hurts the films quality heavily because it turns a GrayAndGrayMorality story and period of history in to the biased perspective of "The Crusades were just evil Europeans".

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Nick wistfully noted that while ''Series/TheTerror'' was true to the book and kept a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere as the threat, he wished they'd just gone with the very real, ''very'' dangerous foe of a large polar bear, which would have been just as scary and hewn closer to reality. [[invoked]]

** With ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', Ike Clanton is depicted as a full-fledged member of the Cowboys when in real life, he was more an associate of theirs. Similarly, the Cowboys are also shown shooting at the Earps' wives during their revenge hit on the Earps for the OK Corral, which never happened; they only went after Virgil and Morgan.

* InkSuitActor: His ''Film/{{Casino}}'' review points out that the casting of Creator/JoePesci as Nicky Santoro wasn't just a creative decision by director Creator/MartinScorsese to work with actors he'd previously worked with on ''Film/GoodFellas'', but also because Pesci was a dead ringer for Tony Spilotro, the mafioso Santoro was based on, which he demonstrates with some side-by-side of press footage of Spilotro alongside footage of Santoro. This is especially noticeable given Pesci's short stature also worked in his favor because Spilotro was also [[TheNapoleon short in stature]], to the point that many nicknamed him "the Ant".
* TheMafia: Calls out the trope as a whole for overly romanticizing "honor-bound" Italian-American gangsters -- especially as applied in ''Film/TheGodfather'' -- while ''Film/GoodFellas'' depicts their true colors: psychotic scumbags who terrorized everyone and routinely turned on each other.

** Occasionally it makes some of its own, if by accident. A good example is the review of ''Film/TheLastSamurai'', where Nick describes the arrival of Matthew Perry as being a kind of alien invasion since the Japanese were so isolated from the outside world. In actual fact, the Japanese had traded with the Dutch, the English, and other Europeans during the Sakoku era, restricting them to an area of Nagasaki and controlling their movement and activity. The Americans used Dutch accounts for research and guidance during their mission. The Japanese certainly knew quite a bit about the West even during the era of isolation.
** Discussed in several videos about historical authenticity vs. historical accuracy. Nick notes that if something is done authentically then it's understandable that some license to be taken with the events and accuracy isn't that big of a deal. This is especially important for historical films that are not documentaries as despite trying to be accurate, their first and foremost objective is to be entertaining, so some leeway is to be had. For example, in ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'', none of the actors even attempt to use Russian accents despite it being set in Soviet Russia. However, each person has an accent that would be analogous to a stereotype of the region they're from (such as Stalin having a Cockney accent due to him having a Georgian accent while speaking Russian). This makes the character's roots much easier to understand as well as avoiding the {{Narm}} of a bad Russian accent. Nick's usually fine with completely fictional characters who were based on existing people (so long as they're used in the correct historical context).

** The presence of turkeys in Spain at the start of ''Film/FourteenNinetyTwoConquestOfParadise'', even though the continent the turkeys are from hasn't been discovered yet.

* ArtEvolution: Earlier episodes show Nick's animated self moving only in still shots. In later episodes the animation improved to where his lips and arms could move.

** Nick calls out ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' for claiming William Wallace had sex with Queen Isabella, whose son became King Edward III, as a big lie and impossible since not only was Edward III born ten years after Wallace's death, Isabella wasn't married yet to King Edward II during the events of film as she was still living in France and ''was nine years old!''

* InkSuitActor: His ''Film/{{Casino}}'' review points out that the casting of Creator/JoePesci as Nicky Santoro wasn't just a creative decision by director Creator/MartinScorcese to work with actors he'd previously worked with on ''Film/GoodFellas'', but also because Pesci was a dead ringer for Tony Spilotro, the mafioso Santoro was based on, which he demonstrates with some side-by-side of press footage of Spilotro alongside footage of Santoro. This is especially noticeable given Pesci's short stature also worked in his favor because Spilotro was also [[TheNapoleon short in stature]], to the point that many nicknamed him "the Ant".

* DoesntLikeGuns: He calls out ''Film/TheLastSamurai'' for claiming the Samurai refuse to use guns as they found the weapon dishonorable, when in reality the Samurai had no problem with using guns when they were first introduced to them by Portuguese traders during Japan's Warring States period -- to the point the Japanese were able to make local Arquebus rifles that were much better than the ones they imported from the Europeans. Even the RealLife event the movie was based on, the Satsuma Rebellion, rebel Samurai were using guns against Government forces and were forced to switch to bows and arrows after running out of ammunition.

** He does two of these in his review of ''Film/GoodFellas'': he criticizes countdown-style Website/YouTube shows for "liking" cool scenes in movies without even understanding what made them cool, and is critical of ''Film/TheGodfather'' for showing a fake, romanticized view of the Mafia that was unduly influenced by Mafia pressure behind the scenes.

* SecondHandStorytelling/ShowDontTell: Nick criticizes the fact that a scene depicting Mark Antony's famous eulogy at Julius Caesar's funeral was cut from the second season of ''Series/{{Rome}}'', instead having a bit character give a secondhand summary of the speech. This not only removes a pivotal scene from what is supposed to be a depiction of events following Caesar's death, but the dumbed down substitute doesn't explain why Antony's eulogy was a masterpiece of political demagoguery.

* DoesntLikeGuns: He calls out Film/TheLastSamurai for claiming the Samurai refuse to use guns as they found the weapon dishonorable when in reality the Samurai had no problem with using guns when they were first introduced to them by Portuguese traders during Japan's Warring States period to the point the Japanese were able to make local Arquebus rifles that were much better than the ones they imported from the Europeans. Even the RealLife event the movie was based on, the Satsuma Rebellion, rebel Samurai were using guns against Government forces and were forced to switch to bows and arrow after running out of ammunition.

* ShowDontTell: Nick criticizes the fact that a scene depicting Mark Antony's famous eulogy at Julius Caesar's funeral was cut from the second season of ''Series/{{Rome}}'', instead having a bit character give a secondhand summary of the speech. This not only removes a pivotal scene from what is supposed to be a depiction of events following Caesar's death, but the dumbed down substitute doesn't explain why Antony's eulogy was a masterpiece of political demagoguery.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: InUniverse, Nick points out how in ''Tombstone'', the Earps are depicted as heroes and the Cowboys as a menace, but the reality was not so simple. He demonstrates this by pointing out that the gunfight at the OK Corral only served to divide the public in Tombstone, with some people seeing the Earps as heroes and others seeing them as cold blooded murderers. A lot of this, he points out, could be boiled down to simple politics: rural farmers and ranchers, who leaned towards the Democrats, despised the influx of Republican businessmen, miners and merchants who'd moved into Tombstone, and were thus inclined to view the Earps as government enforcers who backed big business at their expense; meanwhile, the Republicans were intent on taming the Wild West and viewed the Earps as guardians of law and order. This division can even be seen when comparing the newspaper coverage of the gunfight by the Republican-leaning ''Tombstone Epitapth'' with the coverage from the Democratic-leaning ''Tombstone Daily Nugget'' (who were sympathetic towards Sheriff Johnny Behan and the Cowboys as a whole).

** One film that pisses him off the most is ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'', since not only is the film historically inaccurate and lies to the audience by claiming the story is true, but it also uses HollywoodTactics like how the Scots defeated the English with no armor, a bad romance plot between Wallace and Queen Isabella (see ImprobableAge below), the director taking jabs at the English every chance he got, and the film disrespecting both the English and the Scots by ruining Wallace's character (this is because while Nick is English, he is also Scottish from his father's side of the family via Clan Robertson, hence why he makes a big deal out of this movie). You can tell how much he hated this movie by the constant anger displayed throughout the review.

* ThrowTheDogABone: Despite the many faults he finds in ''Film/{{Alexander}}'', Nick praises Creator/OliverStone for correctly portraying UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat as a bisexual despite backlash by protesters during the film's release.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: ''Film/Apollo13'' had the astronauts panicked and bickering during the malfunctions. Footage of the actual disaster showed the astronauts ''extremely'' non-emotional and businesslike.

** ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'' killed off the character of John Ballard (played by Creator/DanielCraig), which means that in ''Film/ElizabethTheGoldenAge'', a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute named Robert Reston has to perform Ballard's role in the Babington Plot.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In the movie ''Film/TheUntouchables'', Canadian Mounties help Eliot Ness and The Untouchables stop Capone's gang from transporting alcohol into the United States. While Nick admits it was a cool scene, the Mounties had no business being there. Prohibition was a US law, while buying, selling and transporting alcohol was still legal in Canada, so the Mounties wouldn't help the Untouchables in the first place since what Capone's gang was doing was legal and whatever happens to them once they cross the border into the US was none of their business.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: InUniverse, Nick points out how in ''Tombstone'', the Earps are depicted as heroes and the Cowboys as a menace, but the reality was not so simple. He demonstrates this by pointing out that the gunfight at the OK Corral only served to divide the public in Tombstone, with some people seeing the Earps as heroes and others seeing them as cold blooded murderers. A lot of this, he points out, could be boiled down to simple politics: rural farmers and ranchers, who leaned towards the Democrats, despised the influx of Republican businessmen, miners and merchants who'd moved into Tombstone, and were thus inclined to view the Earps as government lackeys who backed big business at their expense; meanwhile, the Republicans were intent on taming the Wild West and viewed the Earps as guardians of law and order. This division can even be seen when comparing the newspaper coverage of the gunfight by the Republican-leaning ''Tombstone Epitapth'' with the coverage from the Democratic-leaning ''Tombstone Daily Nugget'' (who were sympathetic towards Sheriff Johnny Behan and the Cowboys as a whole).

** Nick also finds that ''Film/ThePatriot'' has excessive anti-British bias, with all of the incessant references to "shooting redcoats." It gets taken UpToEleven when the British are depicted as burning a church with the entire population of a rebel village locked inside -- a scene which was inspired not by any real-life incident during the Revolutionary War, but by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre Oradour-sur-Glane massacre]] committed by German SS troops during World War II.

** Much of the events of ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'' happened months apart (and were sometimes unrelated) but to have them jump back and forth with [[TimeSkip time skips]] would have been too much.

*** The movie skips over the Earps' failed attempt to run a stagecoach business before they rejoined law enforcement.

** UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat gets a couple of ones by omission in Creator/OliverStone's ''Film/{{Alexander}}'', most notably the incident where he marches his men back to Babylon through the perilous Gedrosian desert and ends up losing 12,000 men. The film depicts this as a blunder made by Alexander, when most scholars agree that Alexander was [[BadBoss deliberately punishing his men]] for threatening to revolt over not being able to return home.

*** Additionally, the reality of the Earps' return to law enforcement was that it was not motivated by a sense of morality, but rather, purely by the fact that it paid better.
** In ''Film/CaptainPhillips'', despite the film portraying Phillips as a heroic character who allowed himself to be taken hostage by Somali pirates to save his crew, the captain never did that. Furthermore, the film omits out the fact that Phillips was responsible for the pirates attacking his ship in the first place, as he ignored warnings from his superiors to avoid the area with high pirate activity to save time and money.

** In ''Film/GoodFellas'', Paul Cicero is depicted as an intimidating but AffablyEvil [[EvilMentor Mentor]] to Henry Hill who doesn't commit any violent acts onscreen. In reality, Paul Vario (the basis for Cicero) was just as vicious as Jimmy Burke/Conway and Tommy [=DeSimone=]/[=DeVito=], and Nick shows a documentary clip of the real Hill recalling Vario's assault of a barmaid with a baseball bat. Also, while the film doesn't give this treatment to Tommy [=DeSimone=]/[=DeVito=] in the slightest, Nick does mention his attempted rape of Henry's wife Karen (and the likelihood that Vario, who was having an affair with Karen at the time, sold Tommy out to the Gambino crime family for this and the murder of Billy Batts), which the film omitted. The rest of the film is largely an aversion, however, and its realistic portrayal of UsefulNotes/TheMafia is why Nick favors it over ''Film/TheGodfather''.

* InkSuitActor: His ''Film/{{Casino}}'' review points out that the casting of Creator/JoePesci as Nicky Santoro wasn't just a creative decision by Martin Scorcese to work with actors he'd previously worked with on ''Film/GoodFellas'', but also because Pesci was a dead ringer for Tony Spilotro, the mafioso Santoro was based on, which he demonstrates with some side-by-side of press footage of Spilotro alongside footage of Santoro. This is especially noticeable given Pesci's short stature also worked in his favor because Spilotro was also [[TheNapoleon short in stature]], to the point that many nicknamed him "the Ant".

* ObviouslyEvil: In ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', the Cochise County Cowboys are made identifiable by wearing red sashes around their belts. Nick posits that the movie took influence from the gangsta films that came out around that time.

'''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggHoXaj8BQHIiPmOxezeWA History Buffs]]''' is an ongoing Website/YouTube series hosted by Nick Hodges which evaluates the accuracy of historical feature films and television dramas. It generally deals with how filmmakers utilize the ArtisticLicenseHistory trope and how this can be a good or bad thing, often providing proper context to events that Hollywood has ignored.

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: He calls out ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' for doing this on William Wallace by claiming Wallace's family were peasant farmers and Wallace himself got his military skills from travelling over Europe after his parents' deaths when in fact Wallace's family were minor Scottish nobility and got his military skills from his noble upbringing and working as a mercenary with the English.