In the last few weeks I made it a point to see “The Social Network” and “Spartacus” because I wanted to be entertained and both movies delivered spectacularly.  David Fincher and Stanley Kubrick each found novel ways to tell their stories that made an impression so the movie was with me after the final frames. I was thinking about scenes, dialogue and performances I had seen but not about the history of Facebook or the Third Servile War.

Because I didn’t ask for or get that. Neither of those movies were or claimed to be history lessons.  There was nothing in the advertising or opening of the films to say that what we were seeing was a historically accurate accounting that all experts (or people portrayed within) would agree on.  So there is no reason for people to consider that The Social Network didn’t accurately depict the real Mark Zuckerberg’s relationship status as a fault when Jesse Eisenberg was able to portray masked jealousy so well.  Similarly I much prefer Charles Laughton’s “Gracchus” to the historical fact that the man didn’t exist.

If I wanted to know the truth in either of those situations, I’d read a book or watch a documentary that claimed to be accurate.  But I didn’t.  Maybe later I’ll want some history and truth, but at the time all I wanted some entertainment and I got it.

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