War films make elite weapons and brutal discipline too common

What recurring historical errors are especially bad in war and naval films?

They make swords too common, multiply Yamato depictions, and treat extreme brutality as ordinary naval discipline despite officers' dependence on skilled, armed crews.

Familiar visual errors include medieval films that make swords nearly universal and Midway scenes that seem to multiply Yamato-class battleships. A larger problem appears in Age of Sail films that reduce naval life to flogging and brutality. Officers were too few to terrorize an entire crew indefinitely, while sailors controlled the technical knowledge and access to weapons needed to operate the ship. A captain who destroyed cooperation risked mutiny as well as operational failure. Discipline aboard a fighting ship had to sustain skilled collective work rather than display cruelty.