Director Michael Bay has been subject to many controversies, from indecent comments to being accused of sexual harassment. Now, controversies have surrounded him once more as he was being flamed for the use of one of Britain's historical landmark - as a Nazi camp.
During Bay's filming of "Transformers: The Last Knight" in England this month, local newspaper The Sun took the production to British headlines showing the famous Oxford landmark Blenheim Palace being draped with Nazi banners. Apparently, the director used this historical place for his movie as a headquarters for the World War II German army, which caused uproar among English veterans. One could see why this was the case because this particular Oxford landmark is the birthplace of World War II British prime minister, Winston Churchill.
Instead of the production representatives commenting on the situation, it was actually Michael Bay who brought up issue in an interview with BBC. He assured that he would "do nothing to disrespect veterans." He dismissed the critic's claim, saying that "have not been fortunate enough to read the script and they don't know that Churchill in this movie is a big hero."
"Churchill would be smiling," Bay added, claiming that viewers would understand more once they watched the movie itself. He did assert that his movies included "a lot of veterans and more active military men and women in [his] movies" than "any director in the world." Although being bold in his last statement, there is yet to be information about that claim.
However, the director did have a point in saying that the critics haven't read the script to get entire context of the Nazi imagery. Anything can happen in a "Transformers" movie and Nazis can be a key plot point in that.
Michael Bay hasn't had the best reputation involving cultural sensitivity or accuracy, but then again he had the best reputation of caring. For some reason, he's always had a way of hitting the top spots in the box offices.
A lot of critics have bashed the "Transformers" film (and a lot of Michael Bay's works as well), especially the last two. While "Transformers: The Last Knight" may be the film in the series, movie-goers are curious to see if this will actually redeem the series, albeit to a small degree at least.
"Transformers: The Last Knight" hits theaters on June 23, 2017.