McKenna addressed historical accuracy in drama, specifically in these two projects, which are set during World War II. He informally named the talk “History and Histrionics.”

He began the talk by describing his own historical interest in WWII, which began with a book on aircraft carriers he read as a child and eventually became the topic of his senior thesis. For his essay, he interviewed his German milkman, who was a Nazi paratrooper in WWII and fought Easy Company, the American paratrooper contingent that became the subject of Band of Brothers.

McKenna dropped out of his Ph.D. program at Stanford University because he realized he would rather try to uncover the psychological effects of war on its participants rather than focusing on the factual historical accounts his professors wanted.

This focus on psychology was the reason he became a screenwriter rather than a prose historian, he said, and it has informed his writing ever since.

McKenna is an adherent of Aristotle’s necessities of drama: plot, character, dialogue, thought/theme, spectacle, and melody/music. His job, he said, is to integrate accurate history with these rules. Limited time, however, precludes complete accuracy, even in a 10-hour miniseries, although McKenna argued that a miniseries is the best means for portraying history. He said movies are too short and too structured, and history cannot be shown through writing because psychology is too easily lost in words.

“Film can illuminate the historical record in ways prose cannot,” McKenna said.

The two main responses McKenna said he made to criticisms of the show’s accuracy: larger truths and necessary approximations.

He showed a number of clips from Band of Brothers to illustrate points about historical accuracy in film. The first clip showed an ambush of a group of American soldiers, which became a “baptism of fire” for one soldier. The event never actually happened, McKenna said, but it got at a larger truth and, like the rest of the series, accurately portrayed the feelings of infantrymen in combat.

“Second Lieutenants never know what they’re doing,” he said.

The next clip contained a historical error: trucks were substituted for trains in troop transportation due to budget constraints. A historian later criticized the show for the error, but McKenna responded, “So, should I not write the scene?”

When he was asked why he used real characters at all when he was trying to portray the spirit of the Pacific theater rather than a meticulous portrayal of fact, he said, “It makes it more poignant, it makes it more historically accurate, and it makes the audience more accepting of historical fictionalizations.”

A throng of people surrounded McKenna after the speech, seeking further answers to questions about the show.

One audience member, a WWII veteran, said, “It was so good, I’m not going to watch the show. I couldn’t handle it.”