UPCOMING EPISODES

The movie ‘American Sniper’ tells the tale of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. history, but is this version really an accurate portrait? The truth is that Kyle is a more controversial and complex character than anything seen in the movie.

In 2014 Ridley Scott released ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’, a retelling of the Biblical account of the Jews flight from Egypt. Most people see it as myth but some researchers believe it’s rooted in real events just as fantastic as any Hollywood movie.

Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film ‘Munich’ is a powerful account of the Israeli assassination campaign to hunt down Palestinian terrorists responsible for the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Yet the ‘real story’ is more controversial.

Martin Scorsese’s film about the New York mafia is considered one of the greatest gangster movies of all time. It is based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, called Wiseguy. Based on the life story of Henry Hill it features the Lufthansa heist at JFK where $6 million in cash and jewellery was stolen in 1978. The movie claims that Hill went clean from 1987, after having his identity changed as part of the witness protection programme. But he didn’t – as he was arrested for narcotics offences right up to his death in 2012. However he had a parallel career as chef and a cookbook writer and was a regular guest on the Howard Stern show.

Hacksaw Ridge is an unusual film about the Battle of Okinawa, unusual because it is the story of a pacifist and his role in the battle. Desmond Doss was a Seventh day Adventist who refused to carry arms. For his actions in the battle he became the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor – for saving 75 men when his unit was over run on Hacksaw Ridge on Okinawa. It was difficult to get the film financed as it is not about a normal combatant. Doss refused to carry a firearm of any kind, the film says because he once had to threaten his drunken father with one, but it seems more likely that this was simply because of his strongly held pacifist beliefs. What the film does not go into is how badly injured Doss was after his experiences in the Second World War. He was wounded four times in Okinawa – and later contracted tuberculosis in Leyte. His treatment for TB involved him losing a lung and five ribs. He also became completely deaf after treatment with antibiotics. Despite this he lived until he was eighty seven and raised a family.

The 2012 film directed by Kathryn Bigelow about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Various critical elements in the film were later disputed; like the effectiveness of the water boarding and the use of classified information, and also the way in which Osama bin Laden was killed. The CIA agent, Maya, is made up – although it is true that most of the team hunting bin Laden were women. There is also a controversy about how bin Laden was found. The film says it was by tracing a courier – but journalist Seymour Hersch says that it was because there was a tip off from a Pakistani intelligence officer. No DNA from bin Laden, nor photos of him dead, have ever been released. Some reports say that half his skull was blown off. Again this was neither in the official version nor the movie.