Historian John McManus rates the accuracy of World War II battles in movies and TV shows.

He looks at the bombing raids in “Masters of the Air,” starring Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan. He describes the many challenges of the Battle of Okinawa as portrayed in “Hacksaw Ridge,” starring Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, and Sam Worthington. He compares the portrayals of the Battle of Iwo Jima in Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers,” starring Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, and Paul Walker; and “Letters From Iwo Jima,” starring Ken Watanabe. He discusses World War II-era munitions in “The Pacific,” starring Joseph Mazzello and Rami Malek. He separates fact from fiction in Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbor,” starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, and Alec Baldwin. He talks about the contributions of Navajo code talkers in “Windtalkers,” starring Nicolas Cage and Mark Ruffalo. He breaks down the tank battles in “Battle of the Bulge,” starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. Finally, he talks about the many terrain challenges American soldiers faced in the Pacific in “The Thin Red Line,” starring Sean Penn and Jared Leto.

McManus is a Curators’ distinguished professor of military history at Missouri University of Science and Technology. He has written 15 books, most of which cover World War II topics such as D-Day and the Pacific theater.

You can find more of his work here:

https://johncmcmanus.com/

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