Inventing Historical Truth On The Silver Screen Analysis

In this movie the African Americans were treated nicely but in reality they did not feel this way. The masters mistreated their slaves but in the movie they were actually having conversations. There is a scene in the movie where a group of African Americans were shaking hands with the white Americans. The producer of the movie wanted to inform others that the “birth” of America was founded on the basis of equality rather than discrimination. If the producer of the movie did not show how the slaves were mistreated, the people will just see the world in only that point of view; the slaves’ point of view does not exist. Ruling countries oppressed both the undeveloped, barren places and the African Americans. The Birth of the Nation is a perfect example of a form of travel writing; the Americans wanted to inform others about America but this movie was only produced in their perspective. Rather than recording the reality, the produces or writers record history with the input of their own influences.

The Patriot The movie, The Patriot, was released in the year 2000. It is a drama/action film that relates to the American Revolutionary War. Although the plot of the movie is fictional there are many aspects that relate to what happened in the war, but some have discrepancies. The Patriot is the story of a South Carolina plantation owner, Benjamin Martin, who is played by Mel Gibson. It is more a story of a family during the war then the war itself.

In conclusion, we take a basic movie about revenge and pull back to reveal a great historical piece about change in America. We see how immigration affects culture by introducing new a group into an environment and how people adapt to change in varying ways. Also we see how material possessions have a huge impact on the different social classes. The saying “to the victors go the spoils” holds true in all eras. Finally, we see how politics and popular culture play

Many a time has Hollywood skewed the difference between reality and fantasy, exaggerating the truth and placing heavy importance on the myths. A recent historical movie was made about the Alamo. This movie though very historically accurate was different from the documentary; I will compare the two and show the differences. The movie was

Did you know people do not think if the story from history movie is a truly based on real history or filled with fiction? Almost every history movie contains some kind of fiction in it to make it a great story and to keep the audience's entertained. For example, the movie called “The Patriot” which was the American Revolution had happen. The movie has some historical accuracy but there are some historical inaccuracies also.

Although many historical filmmakers alter some events and use fiction as a tool in providing an accurate historical representation, the makers of “The

Can people learn accurate history from movies? Movies and television have become our most influential media in recent times and moviemakers have become our most powerful, though perhaps not our most careful, historians. However, director Roland Joffe argues that the purpose of a movie is to try to find that interior truth that lies behind the often surface and superficial facts. Films like To Kill a Mockingbird and Platoon are born with this type of mentality, because both are valuable interpretations of controversial times for Americans but not necessarily historically accurate. To Kill a Mockingbird can teach us many things about history – facts, attitudes, and spirit of the times are some of them.

When talking about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Ceserani stated, “Should this matter if the book is a ‘fable’ which is presumably intended by its author to warn against the evils of prejudice? Yes. Because there are people at large who contest whether the systematic mass murder of the Jews occurred.” (Ceserani, Paragraph 11) This shows that when history is taught through fiction, whether a movie, or a story, people are being mislead to believe ideas that are inaccurate. According to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, “when the information in the movie conflicts with the historical facts in the text, students are more likely to remember the film version, regardless of whether it's correct.” (Edweek.org) Before a history lesson is presented, either through text or film, it should be checked for the possibility of erroneous facts being taught.

In Douglass's Opinion, The United States Constitution is more anti-slavery than it is pro-slavery, but the government who created The Constitution, mainly white male slave-owners were pro-slavery, “The Constitution may be right, the Government is wrong. If the Government has been governed by mean, sordid, and wicked passions, it does not follow that the Constitution is mean, sordid, and wicked” (Douglass). By this definition, The Constitution has pro-slavery parts and pieces. In more recent years, film has also been able to create a better understanding of what has occurred in the past. The historical film created in 1997, Amistad directed by Steven Spielberg tells the story of the events that occurred in 1839 after the Spanish slave ship

This film is a remake of the 1968 version, which exemplifies the postmodern inclination to regurgitate the past. It is a product of Hollywood conglomerates that raises viable questions about what

Felten taught a US history course focusing on the 1960s in which students envisioned a “Forrest Gump narrative” of the decade. To confront this, Felten designed an exercise to confront student’s beliefs about the 1960s. He gave his students on the first day of class ten primary sources from the 1960s and asked them in pairs of students to put the sources in chronological order and to explain why they placed each source where they did. As students began to discuss each source, they began to notice and see the gaps in “Forrest Gump narrative.” Students started realizing the 1960s was more complicated and disrupted their knowledge and beliefs of the decade. This source-sequencing exercise continued over the course of the semester, as students practiced making historical sense of complex sources, including images and films. Nevertheless, I found Felten’s exercise useful because students learn how to view visuals that help them confront their deeply held beliefs in particular historical narratives and learn how to analyze the nature of any source from moving images to the analysis of a still

It is difficult to comprehend the full scale of the atrocities that occurred from slavery by just learning about it through a textbook. Because of this, I believe that watching films about slavery, such as Amistad, is extremely important. Although, it was terrifying watching the horrendous dehumanization and barbaric treatment of the African American, this clip opened my eyes on a completely different level about the evil of slavery. Tears in my eyes, I watched the Africans being chained and dragged under the water. Additionally, I felt sick and was appalled when one of the white people threw a bag full of dead babies over the side of the ship. Another scene that stuck out was the when they were all being fed. Their broken body language, suffering,

Glory is a movie about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official all black units in the United States during the Civil War. It’s an inspirational story of how a young Union soldier, Robert Gould Shaw, is offered the chance to lead an army unit that will change not only his life, but the lives of many other Americans.

All of this proves that Hollywood is not doing a good job in making up for the blatantly racist films of the twentieth century. Hollywood needs to do more to reverse the stereotypes of early film because such stereotypes are still seen today along with their respective repercussions.

Steven Spielberg’s film Amistad is shown in classroom throughout the United States to teach about a significant landmark case that came before the Supreme Court prior to the Civil War. Some critics argue the facts in the film are to numerous and distort the truth. Others uphold the film as a valuable teaching resource especially for advanced secondary and universities students. Despite the distorted facts portray in the film, should the Amistad film be shown in the classroom?