MovieChat Forums > Goya's Ghosts (2006) Discussion > This is FICTION

This is FICTION

posted 14 years ago by minandenemail
3 replies | jump to latest

It annoyes me to see so many reviews praising this film, as a great piece of history teaching. Maybe it's OK as a drama, but it's got very little to do with the life of Goya and in stead it shows a story of some fictional characters.
On top of that I think the film shows an wrong picture of 19th century Spain.
It's always hard to say, how exactly it was living in a certaing place at a certain time in history and I'm not a historian, but it is my clear impression, that that the inquisition was not by far that powerful at this time and Spain was a well-developed society and on the heigth of the rest of Europe(until the war of independence and onwards).

If anyone has academic knoledge on the subject, please feel free to comment.
And to the rest of you - don't believe everything is historically accurate.

[–] jay_guevara-1 14 years ago

I agree. Just finished watching this and in the final seconds of the credits there's a disclaimer notifying you that it's a total work of fiction inspired by real people and events.

I've become jaded with all these offerings from Hollywood that claim to be historical pieces but turn out to be totally removed from even the basic facts.

To Forman's credit it's made me curious about Goya's life and I'll probably end up researching true facts about his career.

[–] pavel-959-574618 12 years ago

It's a movie, not a documentary.

The story is fictional, but the historical settings are real. The Inquisition, the French invading Spain, all those things are accurately portrayed. And the details about Goya are accurate too, being the royal family's painter, becoming deaf, witnessing and documenting the horrors of war, all those are true. Even if the movie invents fictional friends and events around him, it's a good general portrayal of that period of history.

I was also impressed with the great scene showing all the steps of making a copper plate engraving with all the tools and procedures being faithfully accurate to techniques of the time. That little sequence alone makes this movie worthy of watching.

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[–] PianoWired-688-539232 11 years ago

Am I too late to agree with you? (5 mos.)
All the steps in the engraving process always makes my jaw drop.
I like the movie as it makes me think about the 'what ifs'. What would I do if I were in that characters shoes.
One thing, put a plate of pork in front of me and I would lick the plate! (and I'm a vegetarian and a recovering Catholic). No, no ... you will not feed me to the lions!
As you say, it's (only) a movie. And I appreciate the film crews attempts in transporting me back to those times.

Knot2nite