"Outlander" from a HISTORICAL perspective.....

[CollinMacD]

Interesting comments, and I did go back to read the threads from several years ago. I have to agree with most comments here. History can never be put to film, too many variables, to little research done by the movie company, and to be frank, budgets for the movie product limits what can be done, so what can be done is mass appeal to all.

OK, so I enjoy the series for entertainment value, and do think they try to do a good job historically, but just cannot be done.

Thanks for all your posts and thoughts, find it interesting.

Regards....

[Tobus]

History can never be put to film, too many variables, to little research done by the movie company, and to be frank, budgets for the movie product limits what can be done, so what can be done is mass appeal to all.

Yeah, it's sad to say, but that's pretty much the gist of it. It is possible to do an authentic historical reproduction, with full research and attention to detail. But that would be more in line with a documentary piece, and would probably lack the sort of appeal that's needed for a blockbuster film or a popular television series. Historical reality, sadly, lacks the romantic fantasy that it takes to appeal to the masses. They are competing with shows like Game of Thrones. How on Earth is a documentary supposed to compete with that?

But as we so often say here on this forum when we see inaccurate portrayals of Scottish history (like the unfortunate Braveheart movie, Rob Roy, etc.), at least it's a "teachable moment". It gets people curious and provides an opportunity to attempt to enlighten them on what actually happened, or what life was really like. Some people genuinely want to know. But others will continue to show up at Highland Games and Scottish festivals wearing blue face paint and carrying two-handed claymores.

[OC Richard]

History can never be put to film... too little research done by the movie company... budgets for the movie product limits what can be done...

The galling thing is when they take the trouble to hire Technical Advisors and then don't follow their advice!

Joseph Wambaugh was a stickler for authenticity. I was on the set of The Onion Field (one of many pipers hired- he wanted actual pipers, not extras, for the Highland Games scene) and we were all yelling up at him (he had a high perch on a crane thing) because they had hired an accordion player to play for the Highland Dancing competitors!

"They don't use accordions! They use bagpipes!"

As soon as he figured out what the row was about he got rid of the accordion guy and one of us pipers stepped up to the dance platform.

Sadly directors like him seem to be the exception.

I have friends who were hired as advisors for this show or that and they have tales of their advice being overruled.

I've played on the soundtracks of many things and my advice has likewise often been ignored. Stuff like that is why on some films you'll see a Highland piper but hear uilleann pipes. A group of us did one TV show years ago; we had uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhran, and harp playing a 9/8 jig for some Irish dancers. When the show aired they had replaced our playing with an accordion and clarinet playing some hokey tune in 4/4, making it look as if the dancers couldn't properly follow the music! (Obviously dancers dancing in 9/8 isn't going to line up with music in 4/4.)

About the budget, that's not the issue, I don't think. Outlander spends vast sums of money (into the hundreds of thousands of dollars at least, I would guess) just on the embroidery on the costumes. They have a whole embroidery team working on them. Ditto Games Of Thrones.

[OC Richard]

Could only bear to watch one episode. It''s rubbish!

My wife read your comment and asked "but what do the female Highlanders think about it?"

It's a chick-flick, let's face it.

There's a handsome guy who spends hours in the gym and in every episode they cook up some reason for him to take his shirt off.

Heck, in one episode he takes his shirt off, and the shirt is the only stitch of clothing he's wearing at the time!

[neloon]

My wife read your comment and asked "but what do the female Highlanders think about it?"

I'm afraid my wife and daughter also thought the film was nonsense.

Alan

[ThistleDown]

My wife watched episode one, but that was it for her. She's from the 'other' Highlands, mind you: Switzerland Part of the problem, she admitted, was that the accents didn't sound like any of the Highlanders she knows.

[llyd]

Fifty Shades of Plaid...

I just got some very strange looks from the office crowd or busting up laughing.

But I am used to that.

I actually enjoy the show....but I also enjoy picking apart the details. "Counting bullets," if you will. My fiancee is incensed at the giant freisians....she wants scrubby looking fell ponies....
I understand the Plaid brooches are a few years too late as well....pretty tho.

[Jock Scot]

--------- "but what do the female Highlanders think about it?"---------

To quote Mrs Jock after the first episode when asked if she wanted to see the second:

" I don't think I could endure another second of that drivel."

I could not have put it any better myself.

[Michael A]

I take it that the gents here have actually seen Caitriona Balfe disrobe in this series? For that, all else is forgiven.

[Dollander]

I take it that the gents here have actually seen Caitriona Balfe disrobe in this series? For that, all else is forgiven.

To that, I say "meh". Not since my 20s have I found myself so enamored with a specific actress that I'd go out of my way to watch something just because she has a nude scene. There are far more efficient means of seeing women disrobe than the brief gratuitous nude scenes in an otherwise non-erotic drama. While I realize he's being true to the books, I can't help but wonder if Ron Moore is making up for all the nudity that SyFy's broadcast standards wouldn't allow in Battlestar Galactica.

I suppose I should go on record saying that, while I am defending the show's historical inaccuracy for the sake of entertainment value, I'm not a huge fan. I bought the season 1 DVDs, I watched them and enjoyed them, but I'm in no rush to go out and buy season 2. Nor is it something I'd watch over and over...unlike BSG.