History HistoricalVillainUpgrade / LiveActionFilms

** ''Film/{{Anonymous}}'' gets mentioned below for its portrayal of William Shakespeare, but the utterly bizarre depiction of Elizabeth as a woman who secretly slept around ''so'' much that she was constantly having bastard children, didn't bother keeping track of which families they were sent to, and ends up having an ''incestuous'' bastard by one of them definitely puts it here as well.

* ''Film/{{Anonymous}}'' effectively turned Creator/WilliamShakespeare into an illiterate drunkard and the true killer of Creator/ChristopherMarlowe.

* ''Film/{{Lisztomania}}'': Music/RichardWagner really did hold antisemitic views, but the film portrays him as a swastika-wearing vampire/Antichrist who uses MindControlMusic to run a cult, creates a robotic Viking to kill Jews, massacres most of Berlin's Jewish population, ultimately causes UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking plagiarizes from Franz Liszt]].

* ''Film/{{Lisztomania}}'': Music/RichardWagner really did hold antisemitic views, but the film portrays him as a swastika-wearing vampire/antichrist who uses his music to mind control people into killing Jews, creates a robotic Viking to bring back the master race, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking plagiarizes from Franz Liszt]].

* ''Film/Napoleon2023'' greatly ups the already deplorable traits of the legendary French conqueror. One of the worst embellishments from Ridely Scott historians decried was Napoleon being depicted as abusing his first wife Joséphine with him brutally slapping her after Joséphine tells him she wants their marriage annulled. In actuality Napoleon's most redeeming trait was his documented deep love for Joséphine whom he continued to adore even after he was forced to seperate from her when she could not produce an heir. Napoleon would have never raised a hand against her as Scott's film depicts.

* ''Film/TheMummy1932'' and ''Film/TheMummy1999'' both do this to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep#Medicine Imhotep]], the Ancient Egyptian chancellor of Pharaoh Djoser. From what little historians have unncovered about Imhotep he was ''definitely'' a great positive influence upon Egypt and to an extent mankind itself, with his great knowledge and skill in architecture, mathematics, and especially medicine as a physician resulting in him being revered as a HealerGod by Egyptian society. In the 1932 Universal ''Mummy'' movie however, Imhotep is a skulking undead EvilSorcerer who in the later Creator/BrendanFraser films is a WalkingWasteland, OmnicidalManiac and even a DarkMessiah - basically ''the exact opposite'' of everything the real life Imhotep was worshipped by Ancient Egyptians for.

** ''Film/QueenElizabethTheGoldenAge'' [[AmericansHateTingle bombed in Spain]] precisely because of this trope. Spanish audiences were insulted with its depiction of Philip II (a remarkably pious man) as -- quoting one critic -- "a cackling, Spanish Doctor Doom." And its prequel, ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'', certainly followed the formula insofar as both her sister Mary and the Catholic Church at large were concerned.

** [[spoiler: Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister.]]
** [[spoiler: Prince Victor Albert. Maybe Queen Victoria]]

* ''Film/ShadowOfTheVampire'', a fictionalized movie about the making of ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', depicts Max Schreck, the actor who played Graf Orlok, as a real [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] who kills multiple people. The real Schreck wasn't the most personable man, but even ignoring the supernatural stuff, there's no evidence that he committed any serious crimes, let alone murder.

* ''Film/Napoleon2023'' greatly ups the already deplorable traits of the legendary French conquer. One of the worst embellishments from Ridely Scott historians decried was Napoleon being depicted as abusing his first wife Joséphine with him brutally slapping her after Joséphine tells him she wants their marriage annulled. In actuality Napoleon‘s most redeeming trait was his documented deep love for Joséphine whom he continued to adore even after he was forced to seperate from her when she could not produce an heir. Despite his mass murder and cruelty to others Napoleon would have never raised a hand against her as Scott’s film depicts.

* Creator/LordByron gets this in ''Film/MaryShelley''. While the film is from Mary's prospective and how she sees the chauvinistic and arrogant male writers around her, the film goes far to portray Byron as little more than egotistic, callous, misogynistic {{Jerkass}}. In the film, Byron drunkenly belittles Mary and Percy, abuses Mary's sister Claire his lover, only begrudgingly promising to provide financially for their illegitimate child and is perfectly okay with stealing credit for Dr. John William Polidori's story "The Vampyre". Byron wasn't the nicest or most well behaved poet in real life, but by all accounts he was a geuinely good friend and host to the Shelleies and he did actually care about Allegra the child he had with Claire (being truly upset at her death at just age five) and didn't treat her upbringing as an afterthought. Byron also didn't deliberately steal from Polidori in reality and was just as angry as the doctor for the mix up between their stories.

* Tavington from ''Film/ThePatriot''. While [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banastre_Tarleton Banastre Tarleton]], the historical counterpart to Colonel Tavington, was notoriously ruthless (c.f. his actions at the Waxhaws Massacre and his fervent support for the Slave Trade as an MP), the film greatly exaggerates his actual misdeeds. Some of the worst atrocities presented in the film were in fact inspired by the ones committed by the Nazis in World War 2: erasing entire villages, locking all the townsfolk into their church and burning it down, etc.

* ''Film/OutlawKing'': [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] as per [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst King Edward I]], and somewhat played straight with his son [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Edward, Prince of Wales]].
** In clear contrast to previous and stereotypical depictions of Edward I, he has visible moments of being a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and the OnlySaneMan in his court. He will, at most instances, try to give his opponents a chance to redeem themselves to him and profess their loyalty. If they fail/backstab him, however, he will punish them--[[TheGlovesComeOff utterly and without scruples]]. Many of his brutal actions and policies, accurate to history, remain consistent with this.
** On the other hand, Prince Edward (based on records) is actually OutOfFocus in historical records during this period. It cannot be credibly established whether he played a major role in the Scottish campaigns under his father (especially since scholarly consensus suggest he was textbook IdleRich at best). In this film, he is seen to be actively making the effort to contribute to the war project--if ineffectually. There's no evidence for the real Prince Edward being this sadistic, either then or later as king. He in fact frequently delegated his duties and was a reluctant ruler. The real man was well known for [[NiceToTheWaiter generosity toward his household staff]] and chatting with commoners, something people during the era criticized.

* ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'' is generally extremely good at empathising the real word moral greyness and layered complexity to the people it portrays, largely without falling into cliche. However a couple of real life figures did not escape this.

** Lewis Strauss is the hardest hit in the film. While it is true he had vendetta against Oppenheimer (whom had openly humiliated him) and tried hard to get him accused and arrested as a Soviet spy, in reality Strauss wasn’t so despicable and petulant as the film makes him out to be and much like Oppenheimer he had a mixture of noble and flawed traits. Firstly there’s the fact he was also from Jewish descent himself and was a member of the American Jewish Committee whom lobbied hard to change U.S policy to accept more Jewish refugees from Germany and was also one of the very few top players to advocate that the atomic bomb not be dropped on a city but on an uninhabited island instead as a demonstration to the Japanese — an action Oppenheimer himself was ''against'' at the time. The film greatly omits these altruistic traits from Strauss to focus solely on his jerkassery and egotism in order to put his foil Oppenheimer in a better light.

** Henry Stimson has a potent example of this. During the haunting U.S council of where they should drop the bombs in Japan, Stimson cheerfully recommends they spare Kyoto, saying he and his wife enjoyed their visit there. The line was suggested by Stimson‘a actor James Remar and supported by Nolan to highlight the appalling casualness of this atrocity regarding numerous innocent human lives. In actual fact Stimson actually lobbied to spare the city understanding the deep cultural significance it had to the Japanese likely influenced by the acclaimed historian Langdon Warner whom was the one making a persuasive and genuine case to spare Kyoto to the American military (for which Warner would be venerated in Japan).

* In ''Film/AmericanSniper'', Chris Kyle is dogged throughout his career by his ArchEnemy Mustafa, a Syrian sniper and former Olympic medalist, who he finally defeats in an epic SniperDuel across Baghdad just before shipping back home for good. In reality, there was a Syrian sniper and former medalist called Mustafa in Iraq, but to the best of anyone’s knowledge, Kyle never crossed paths with him, and if he did he couldn't possibly have known, and he's mentioned in Kyle's book a grand total of once. Kyle didn't even kill him, a different Navy Seal sniper did, or rather, the other sniper shot someone they were all fairly sure was Mustafa, since it's not like the body was wearing a name tag. Presumably, the filmmakers decided Kyle needed a nemesis for the sake of drama, and Mustafa was too attractive an EvilCounterpart to pass up.