Best history movie questions of 2006

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300 (2006)

300 picture

Question: Could someone please explain the goat in Xerxes' 'sex room' (for lack of a better word). The scene before Xerxes offers the hunchback Ephialtes everything, this scene begins with a shot of a goat with human hands playing an instrument and (I believe) smoking something. Does Xerxes have a goat fetish or something? Could someone kindly explain this for me.

Answer: The scene is meant to show that Xerxes has exotic creatures/slaves from every corner of the world. In the reality of the film, a goat-headed musician would certainly qualify.

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United 93 picture

Question: In the beginning of the movie, why were the hijackers shaving their chests and genital areas? Is this some kind of religious ritual?

Answer: Muslims are supposed to remove their pubic and armpit hair at least every 40 days. It is part of being clean and they would want to be as clean as possible while committing an act on behalf of their religion.

Myridon

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Flags of Our Fathers picture

Question: What exactly happened to Iggy? Are we ever supposed to know exactly how he died?

Answer: The movie insinuates that he was killed horribly but doesn't provide many details. Books about Iwo Jima have quotes from witnesses about what happened to him and they all say that he was very brutally tortured, including having his eyes cut out and his genitals removed and stuffed in his mouth. The book "Flags of Our Fathers" contains the following quote, "A few days later someone yelled that they'd found him. They called me over because I was a corpsman. The Japanese had pulled him underground and tortured him. His fingernails... his tongue... It was terrible. I've tried hard to forget all this.

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Copying Beethoven picture

Question: Why was Beethoven depicted as an obnoxious, rude and unlikable man in this movie? I read that in the real life he wasn't such a bad person.

Answer: It's a fictional version of Beethoven. Artistic license is used to enhance the drama by embellishing Beethoven's personality, likely to show his anger, frustration, and despondency over becoming deaf. Like many similar biographical movies, it is not meant to be an accurate portrait.

raywest

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Hollywoodland picture

Question: I was wondering whether the evidence that Adrian Brody gathered was true, or if it's artistic license. It seems that if it were true, there should have been a further inquiry into George Reeve's death.

Answer: Here is a good link that will help separate fact from fiction. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/george_reeves/1_index.html.

pross79

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Marie Antoinette picture

Question: Why wasn't it acceptable for Marie to breastfeed her daughter?

Answer: It was typical for royalty and the aristocracy to remain extremely "hands off" regarding child rearing. Nannies, wet nurses, and tutors tended to all their offsprings' needs, and parents usually spent relatively little time with their children. It would be considered extremely odd for a queen to engage in something so personal and common as breastfeeding her child.

raywest

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