Jill,

>Doug,
>
>>As far as non-historically accurate insertions or additions qualifying as 'education'... Well, I prefer the plain unvarnished facts and not some sort of spin that attempts to change history.
>
>Me too, if I'm seeing a documentary. I DIDN'T mean to imply that hollywood makes educational films. Their aim, clearly, is to sell tickets, and to do that they have to appeal to the mass market and entertain (I'm not saying that that is necessarily what appeals to me...i love documentaries, and have seen some excellent documentary films.)

I like the documentaries as well though even they tend to be a little slanted.

>
>I've resented a few recent films (Hurricane and Men of Honor) in that they implied that the stories were TRUE, rather than "based on fact" - and embellished.

Right. I dislike the Oliver Stone 'type' rewrites which push some position that usually boils down to a rewrite of the facts and history. Ugh.. Spare me. <g>

>
>Guess it's like the difference between the "fiction" category of books and "non-fiction." In general, I assume that hollywood produces fictional films.

Sure, but the scary thing is that there are people who actually gat their civic lessons through this stuff. When I grew up we actually were expected to know the facts.

>
>I recently saw Shadow of the Vampire - a fictional account of the making of the film Nosferatu (sp?)...it was entertaining and fun.
>
>J

It was one of the classics and certainly fiction.. <g>