Film critic Diego Pineda Pacheco has published a Collider feature arguing that historical accuracy is not a prerequisite for a great period film, listing ten acclaimed movies that take significant liberties with the historical record yet remain, in his view, masterpieces. The piece matters chiefly as a talking point for cinema fans, illustrating how passion and craft can outweigh factual precision in celebrated historical dramas.

The article ranks the films from "worst to best" and details their inaccuracies. Examples include The Last Samurai (2003), which invents Tom Cruise's American protagonist and misrepresents samurai technology and dress; Braveheart (1995), branded possibly the most inaccurate masterpiece ever for its fictionalised depiction of William Wallace and anachronistic kilts; Oliver Stone's JFK (1991), criticised for embracing conspiracy theories; and The Imitation Game (2014), which portrays Alan Turing as a lone genius while downplaying the teamwork behind his codebreaking work.