but is it real?

     The movies often do a good job of portraying historical events. The problem is, some of the audience may not  know when the events portrayed are real and when they are fictional. A useful way to think of dramatizations of history or current events is "levels" of reality.
   The first level, the most realistic, would be a portrayal of actual persons and events, as realistically done as possible.
     The second level would be a movie in which fictional characters are set against a background of real history and historical events, as when fictional characters are introduced to tell the story of a real war.
     The third level would be mainly fictional, but with accurate historical details to lend authenticity to the story.   
     The fourth level would be pure fiction.
      The fifth level would add historical details that are not necessarily correct. Some of these are reasonably harmless, such as modern makeup on medieval women. Others are more confusing, and might give viewers a distorted view of history. Perhaps we could institute a system of rating movies for historical authenticity.