History by Hollywood

History by Hollywood

If you've ever watched a movie based on true events and thought "I didn't know that" or "I wonder if that is how it happened" then this is the podcast series for you

Episodes

March 8, 2021 84 mins
This powerful but very entertaining movie depicts the efforts of lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative to force a retrial of Walter “Johnny D” McMillian in 1990s Alabama. Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx lead a strong cast in this quest for justice in the face of deep-rooted bigotry and bias. We examine the degree of their success as portrayed in the movie and, of course, how much of the depiction is true to the re...
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In this, the final episode of 2020, Martin flies solo as he embarks on T&T 3, looking at common misconceptions through the medium of lemmings and trying to approach some complex societal issues from a fresh perspective. With a review and listener feedback at the end of the show along with festive greetings from the HbH crew, it’s a short farewell to an interesting year.
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December 6, 2020 103 mins
This week sees Martin joined by Sean Munger and Cody Climer from the Green Screen podcast as they join forces to examine this 1988 movie about primatologist Dian Fossey and her efforts to study and protect mountain gorillas in Rwanda. It’s a wide-ranging show and with due apologies for the length of time you’ve all had to wait for this episode, we do hope it’s worth it.
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October 10, 2020 88 mins
In 1973, former men’s tennis No1 Bobby Riggs challenged women’s champion Billy Jean King to a $100k exhibition match. Riggs, an unapologetic chauvinist, gambler and hustler was 55 years old but still confident he could beat the best of the current female players. This week’s movie looks at the depiction of the lead-up and the match itself in this 2017 movie, starring Emily Stone as Billy Jean King and Steve Carrel as Bobby Riggs. J...
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September 19, 2020 144 mins
This week sees the welcome return of Ray Harris Jr from the long-running History of WWII Podcast as we examine 2019’s Midway, derided by critics yet loved by audiences. Not for the first time, we side very much with the audience and find ourselves surprised by director Roland Emmerich and writer Wes Tooke’s efforts to be as accurate as possible. Naturally, for an HbH featured movie, it stars Woody Harrelson too. It’s a long episode...
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This week sees the second outing of the T&T supplementary. Join Martin as he examines the multiple issues involving the African American community in the US and how this has been depicted in a number of movies already covered by HbH including Glory, Selma and Hidden Figures, attempting to interpret the meanings, both obvious and subtle that these movies have brought to light.
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August 6, 2020 100 mins
This week we are joined by Des Latham, regular guest host, this time in his capacity as the host of Plane Crash Diaries, Des being a keen aviator and student of aviation safety. We look at 2016’s Sully, detailing the incredible landing on the Hudson River in mid-New York by Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger in January 2009 after his Airbus A320 airliner suffered a double engine failure after hitting a flock of geese. We hope...
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Welcome to the first episode of Thoughts & Themes in which Martin will look for the themes and deeper meanings within Braveheart and Gladiator plus references to Kingdom of Heaven and 300. We look beyond the factual errors which all of the featured movies contain and ask whether there is a deeper truth concealed beneath the surface. The result may be…. unexpected….. or it would have been until I said that. Do join us and let us...
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July 18, 2020 82 mins
We dive into the 2018 Netflix movie starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as the two ex-Texas Rangers who led the pursuit of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, seeking to bring to an end their murderous crime spree. The movie takes a very different perspective to the 1967 Bonnie & Clyde film and we will attempt to both fact-check this recent release and also highlight the differences in focus, after we covered the original mo...
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July 11, 2020 14 mins
News of the amended planned episodes plus a new addition to the HbH library; Thoughts and Themes will launch towards the end of July 2020, complete with a new variation of our theme music. 
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June 20, 2020 117 mins
This week sees Martin joined by Chris Wimmer, host of both Infamous America and Legends of the Old West podcast series’ who brings an expert eye to the examination of 1988’s Young Guns, the story of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, starring many of the so-called Brat Pack in the forms of Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips and Kiefer Sutherland.
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This episode examines the 1980 movie The Coal Miner’s Daughter, telling the story of the early life and subsequent early career of Loretta Lynn, one of the matriarchs of Country music, from her tough Kentucky childhood to becoming a Country legend, singing about the real life ups and downs of being a working-class, rural American woman. Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta but how close to the truth ...
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May 16, 2020 137 mins
Episode 73 Zulu Dawn. Sunday 17th May 2020. This week we focus on 1979’s Zulu Dawn, a much-underrated and little-known prequel to 1964’s Zulu, concentrating on Lord Chelmsford’s advance into Zulu territory and the disastrous battle of Isandhlwana which took place the day before the action at Rorke’s Drift. For this episode we are delighted … Continue reading "Episode 73: Zulu Dawn"
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April 18, 2020 117 mins
Whatever people think about Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt, he fought a number of legal battles for the right to publish, battles which effectively became a universal fight for the right to free speech. This 1996 movie resonates today as we will look at the historical accuracy of the movie and some of the points … Continue reading "Episode 72: The People vs Larry Flynt"
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March 21, 2020 97 mins
Episode 71 Denial, 22nd March 2020. In our latest outing we examine 2016’s movie telling the story of Professor Deborah Lipstadt, an American historian and author who wrote a book about Holocaust deniers in which she named David Irving, a British amateur historian as a case in point. He sued her in 2000 in the UK’s civil courts and this movie tells the story of that court case.  Rachel Weisz stars as Prof Deborah, Timothy Spall as ...
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Martin and Jules arrive at the conclusion of the movie, examine both its accuracy and entertainment but stress that despite the very high entertainment value, as far as provoking thought and discussion about wider topics, this movie is far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s been a lengthy journey, the total coverage actually exceeding the length of the movie but we believe that it’s a movie that warrants such detailed examinat...
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February 29, 2020 44 mins
Join Martin and guest-host Jules with the continuing story as the Winklevoss brothers turn up the heat on their efforts to stop Mark Zuckerberg developing his Facebook concept, still complaining that he had stolen their idea and we meet Sean Parker, portrayed by the annoyingly talented Justin Timberlake who leaps aboard the Facebook bandwagon, much to the irritation of Eduardo Saverin. As the poster says, you don’t get to 500 milli...
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February 22, 2020 50 mins
This week sees us dive into the main body of the show for which we are joined by software engineer and HbH’s theme music composer Jules Cisek who has some fascinating insights into the world of IT and Silicone Valley, primed to hit us all with large dollops of factainment. Fabulously watchable though The Social Network is, we will keep our eye on any divergence from the known facts.
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February 15, 2020 39 mins
This week’s episode is 2010’s portrayal of the genesis of Facebook with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg played by Jesse Eisenberg. Directed by Fight Club’s David Fincher and written by the West Wing screen writer Aaron Sorkin the movie has been praised for bravely stark portrayals of such recent events and active protagonists and equally criticized by some of those very same protagonists but everyone agrees that it’s a ver...
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February 1, 2020 50 mins
Episode 69.2 Frost/Nixon Part 2. We rejoin the action as the interviews begin, the wily veteran politician determined to retain control of the narrative and to try and rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the American people. Frost’s research team, serious journalists, are desperate for their man to pin the ex-President down, ask some tough questions and elicit some form of admission of guilt but Frost himself seems more concerned a...
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