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Historical Accuracy Of Pompeii

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The movie Pompeii is based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, destroying the city and killing all of its inhabitants. The movie did do a fairly good job of portraying the correct historical details of what this day in history would have actually been like.
For the opening of the movie the writings of Pliny the younger, a young man who witnessed the eruption and wrote about the occurrences of that day, were quoted. Although Pliny had written the description of the day many years after the eruption, it is the best description on what actually happened. The producers of the movie also used footage of the actual ruins of Pompeii to help recreate the city for the set and any green screen footage. By using photos of the ruins they were able to rebuild the city over the ruins and were able to seek help from archaeologists to ensure that the recreation was …show more content…

For instance the wife of the mayor was shown as having more power in the business of the city, but during the times of the Roman Empire she would not have held any real power. Also, the destruction of the city did not match the real accounts of what had happened in order to dramatize the story more. In the description left by Pliny, the city would be covered in up to sixteen feet of ash and would have more molten lava flowing toward the city. In the movie it showed large fireballs flying toward the city and not as much ash falling over the city. At the end of the movie is where the ash begins to take affect, but it is shown as just a giant cloud covering the city all at once, which is not how it would have happened. The casts of the people of Pompeii were also created instantly in the film, but the ash didn’t cause the casts, the casts would be created in the nineteenth century by archaeologists who found the remains of the people of the

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