This is entertaining, but cinema. I happened to be reading Tim Weiners "Legacy of Ashes" when this came on television, and can say that some "artistic liberties" have been taken. Take episode 3, where supposedly an American agent was in contact with the rebels; according to Weiner, who've had access to the archives, the CIA knew next to nothing about what was going on during the uprising, no more than it read in the papers. This man McAuliffe, which supposedly was apprehended by the Hungarian secret police, is not mentioned in he book. That does not automatically mean that he didn't exist, but if this is to be an accurate account, it means the filmmakers had better access to information than the Pulitzer-prize winning author who've written a 700 page book about the history of the CIA. To me, that seems rather unlikely. Much more probable, in my opinion, is that they preferred exciting over accurate, and made something which isn't historically correct at all, other than the names of some of the people involved.
Perhaps not a complete fib, but "history-lovers" have me excused. This is not history, but fantasy. I give it 6 for entertainment value.
Perhaps not a complete fib, but "history-lovers" have me excused. This is not history, but fantasy. I give it 6 for entertainment value.