In making The Return of Martin Guerre, director Daniel Vigne strove for authenticity. He made the film in a village near the original Artigat, studied 16th and 17th century French paintings to get a sense of the landscape, and consulted with social historian Natalie Zemon Davis to create a valid historical context. Yet Davis knew that for cinematic and aesthetic reasons the script sometimes departed from the historical record. It also simplified the story. "Where was there room in this beautiful and compelling cinematographic recreation of a village," she asked, "for the uncertainties, the 'perhapses,' the 'may-have-beens,' to which the historian has recourse when the evidence is inadequate or perplexing?" Her own book, The Return of Martin Guerre (1983), presents these issues in a more traditional historical format.

Besides local archival records that reveal contemporary village life, there are two 16th-century books about the case. The respected jurist Jean de Coras (chief judge in the movie), published Arrest Memorable in 1561. The same year, Guillaume Le Sueur wrote Historia. These books are the sources for the court testimony in the movie.

The story is, above all, about family relationships. The Guerre family originated in the Basque country, where Martin was born, but migrated to Artigat when he was young. Martin and Bertrande were married in 1538, both around the age of fourteen, younger than the average age of marriage at that time. As the movie suggests, Bertrande probably brought a modest dowry to the marriage. The couple lived in the Guerre household, in which Martin's father, Sanxi, was the head. Martin's uncle Pierre also shared work and responsibility for the family holdings.

The film is fairly accurate in presenting the known details of Martin Guerre's life. Its flaws are found in omissions rather than errors. For instance, Davis's research shows that after Martin left Artigat, he journeyed to Spain, served in the Spanish army, and was wounded in the leg fighting against the French at Saint Quentin in 1557. He returned to Artigat wearing a wooden leg in 1560, having been gone for twelve years.

Davis quotes a 16th-century France maxim: "A good wife with a bad husband often has a sorry heart." The statement helps explain Bertrande's response to the "return" of the first Martin Guerre in 1556. Obviously, her marriage left her unsatisfied, subject to ridicule by the charivari, and then abandoned by her husband. In this patriarchal world, she became dependent upon Martin's uncle Pierre, who reinforced his authority by marrying Bertrande's mother after her father died. Living without a husband's protection lowered Bertrande's status in the community. By law, however, she was not permitted to remarry without proof of her husband's death.

The social role of Artaud (the second "Martin") was also problematic. As Natalie Davis reconstructs his biography, he was born in the village of Tilh and served in the French military. It is unlikely that he knew Martin Guerre, but he apparently met two of Martin's friends who mistook him for Martin and perhaps provided him with the background details he would use in his impersonation of Martin. He arrived in Artigat in 1556. Without property and a stranger to the villagers, he would have ranked low on the social scale, but as "Martin" he had a place waiting for him.

Underlying these social issues is the history of the Protestant Reformation in France. After Martin Luther challenged the religious authority of the Roman Catholic Pope in 1517, causing a bitter division within Christianity, reformist ideas spread throughout Europe. One effect was the outbreak of religious wars that pitted Catholics against Protestants. Such conflict apparently percolated into village life, even in rural areas.

Historian Davis speculates that the new religious ideas may explain the behavior of Bertrande and Artaud. For example, they may have viewed their marriage not as a Catholic sacrament that required the approval of the Church, but rather as a relationship between the two individuals and God. Such a view would provide a spiritual justification for their marriage, regardless of Catholic requirements for an annulment of the first marriage. Also, they could have kept their secret from the village priest because Protestants did not demand the sacrament of confession before a person received the eucharist. The movie makes no reference to such possibilities. But it appears likely that Bertrande and Artaud shared a profound intimacy that enabled them to support each other's testimony when the case came to court in 1560.

The only references to the Protestant Reformation in the movie comes with the postscript that states the trial judge, Jean de Coras, was hanged for Protestant beliefs twelve years after the execution of Artaud. The same text mentions the St. Bartholomew's massacre of French Protestants by Catholics in 1572. This information provides an implicit background of the underlying tensions in the village of Artigat, but the film ignores its significance.

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