History vs. Hollywood: The French Connection
History vs. Hollywood: The French Connection (1996) Part of a fascinating History Channel series, The French Connection gets high marks for accuracy. Key NYC detectives are film advisors, and others are actually in the movie. Most interesting is the huge impact that this Oscar-winning film had on increasing public and government interest in an aggressive drug interdiction campaign.History vs. Hollywood: M.A.S.H.(1996) Part of a fascinating History Channel series, M.A.S.H. is considered one of the most important antiwar films ever made. This was achieved clandestinely by the director, since his studio didn't wish to become involved in the Vietnam political imbroglio of the late 1960s. As he described it, the studio's public relations man was bamboozled whenever he visited the southern California set chosen because it was cheaper than going on location in Korea. A confrontation occurred, when the studio sought to eliminate all "blood" (too yucky?) in the surgical scenes. The film portrayed actual events with considerable accuracy. It led to one of the most successful TV series in history.
