The dust-up this Oscar season over historical accuracy on film seems most focused on the depiction of President Lyndon Johnson in "Selma" and how he is portrayed in dealings with Martin Luther King Jr. and efforts to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

I've read compelling arguments on both sides, and it might be fair to say that there is legitimately room to disagree about whether LBJ is treated fairly in the film.

The controversy first arose with an essay in the Washington Post by Joseph A. Califano Jr., a ranking aid to LBJ.

"Contrary to the portrait by 'Selma' Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. were partners in this effort," Califano wrote in the Post, suggesting that the film be ignored this awards season. "Johnson was enthusiastic about voting rights and the president urged King to find a place like Selma to lead a major demonstration. That's three strikes for 'Selma.'"

And yet the complaints about "Selma" all fall far enough into a subjective zone of interpretation, that it's not clear a blatant mistelling of history has occurred.

That was not so much the case two years ago, when a glaring historical inaccuracy - on how Connecticut lawmakers voted in Washington on the abolition of slavery - occurred in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln."

The inaccuracy in the climactic voting scene in "Lincoln" shocked eastern Connecticut's congressman Joseph Courtney, who had finally caught the film when it was winding down its theater release. He fired off a letter to the famous director.

"Placing Connecticut on the wrong side of the historic and divisive fight over slavery is a distortion of easily verifiable facts and an inaccuracy that should be acknowledged," Courtney wrote at the time, also suggesting DVD versions of the film be corrected.

The director didn't budge and the inaccurate vote by Connecticut delegates is still what people see when they watch "Lincoln."

Courtney, who got a sympathetic reaction from a lot of Connecticut social studies teachers for his worries about how schoolchildren might learn the wrong lesson, is now hoping to better set the record straight. The movie is sometimes shown in classrooms.

On Monday, Courtney and some social studies teachers will release a new pamphlet, an online resource guide to accompany the movie. It will be available in time for 150th anniversary of the vote Saturday.

It includes profiles of the four Connecticut legislators - Connecticut had only four big Congressional districts then - who voted with Lincoln, including Augustus Brandegee, a New London lawyer who also once served as mayor of the city.

The congressman's resource guide will certainly recall Connecticut's significant proactive pursuit of the abolition of slavery.

It's a record Connecticut can be proud of 150 years later.

And here in eastern Connecticut, we can consider ourselves fortunate to have a representative in Washington who cares a lot about keeping that record straight.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: DavidCollinsct