355: Tora! Tora! Tora! with Jon Parshall
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 355) — Today is the 83rd anniversary of the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that was depicted in the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora! Often praised for its accuracy, Tora! Tora! Tora! has also perpetrated some myths about what really happened. To help us separate fact from fiction, […]
354: Casablanca with Bob LeMent
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 354) — Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, we’re walking into Casablanca on this episode to answer: How historically accurate is the movie? Helping us separate fact from fiction is Bob LeMent from StaticRadio.com. Bob’s Historical Grade: B What’s your historical […]
352: This Week: Napoleon, Thirteen Days, The Patriot, The Last Duel
BOATS THIS WEEK (OCT 14-20, 2024) — This Wednesday is the anniversary of Marie Antoinette’s execution in 1793 that we saw inn the opening sequence of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (2023). After that, we’ll travel exactly 169 years from 1793 to 1962, because Wednesday is also depicted in Thirteen Days (2000) as it’s showing the start […]
351: This Week: Che!, Eight Men Out, 1492, Captain Phillips
BOATS THIS WEEK (OCT 7-13, 2024) — 57 years ago tomorrow, Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia. Then, two years later, Omar Sharif portrayed him in the movie version of Che’s story that we’ll compare to the true story of this week’s event. Then, we’ll shift to Eight Men Out because as baseball season comes […]
350: This Week: Alexander, 61*, Black Hawk Down, The Social Network
BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 30-OCT 6, 2024) — Thousands of years ago this week, Alexander the Great fought his final decisive battle against Darius III so we’ll start our journey by comparing the true story of Gaugamela with the battle in 2004’s Colin Farrell movie. Then we’ll hop onto the baseball field because tomorrow, October […]
349: This Week: Turn, A Bridge Too Far, The Godfather Part III, Remember the Titans
BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 23-29, 2024) — AMC’s Turn: Washington’s Spies shows us how Benedict Arnold’s treason was discovered back on September 24th, 1780. The next day, on Wednesday this week, marks the anniversary of Operation Market Garden coming to a close, which we see in the classic film A Bridge Too Far. And then […]
347: We Were Soldiers with Joshua Donohue
Travel back to the 1960s during the Vietnam War while historian Joshua Donohue unpacks the real events behind the 2002 film “We Were Soldiers.” From the heart-pounding “Broken Arrow” moment to the crucial role of helicopter pilots in the heat of battle, discover what Hollywood got right and where it took creative liberties. This deep […]
346: This Week: 300: Rise of an Empire, United 93, A Star-Spangled Story, The Exorcism of Emily Rose
BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 9-15, 2024) — Tuesday this week marks the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon, which we see in the movie 300: Rise of an Empire. Then, of course, we’ll be looking at this week’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks from the movie United 93. For our third historical event, we’ll learn […]
343: This Week: Rome, Geronimo: An American Legend, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
BOATS THIS WEEK (SEPT 2-8, 2024) — On this day almost two thousand years ago, the Battle of Actium decided power in Rome. Not coincidentally, we’ll learn about that today from a TV show called Rome. The second event from this week in history according to the movies comes from the 1993 film called Geronimo: […]
339: This Week: The Philadelphia Experiment, Macbeth, The Pacific
BOATS THIS WEEK (AUG 12-18, 2024) — Today is the 81st anniversary of the conspiracy theory from the 1984 movie The Philadelphia Experiment. Or is it? Tune in to find out. After that, we’ll move into the Shakespearean classic-turned-modern movie Macbeth (2015) because this Wednesday is the 984th anniversary (1040 CE) of King Duncan I […]
338: This Week: Braveheart, Hatfields & McCoys, The Walk, Frost/Nixon
BOATS THIS WEEK (AUG 5-11,2024) — This week’s events from historical movies starts with Monday’s 719th anniversary (August 5th, 1305) of William Wallace’s (Mel Gibson) capture shown in the movie ‘Braveheart.’ In the History Channel’s dramatic miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys”, we’ll see how it portrays the feud between their two families turning to bloodshed for […]