History VIA movies...

[RobertScorpio]

I was in an interesting conversation with my daughter and a couple of her friends. Its clear to me, that for whatever reason, History, be it world or American (I live in America) just isn't that hip with kids; but movies are.

I wonder if someone could pick a bunch of movies, with leanings not so left or right, in the middle, that could possibly teach these kids history, since its obvious teachers/books are not.

There have been enough movies about slavery, holocaust, world wars, ancient wars, recent wars, people, events..ect....I think it could work.

What do you think? History via movies; good idea? Or just a science fiction dream

Rob

 

[captcalhoun]

sit them down with Saving Private Ryan and The Longest Day. that should take care of WWII.

LOL!!!

seriously, you should show them those two, as well as The Dambusters, The Battle of Britain and Tora! Tora! Tora! for coverage of WW2. Black Hawk Down for the mess in Somalia. The Green Berets for Vietnam, followed by The Deer Hunter...

 

[Hermiod]

Take a note from my sister the historian - you really do not want to teach kids history with movies.

For instance, Braveheart ? Wrongest movie in the history of wrong. As one historian said - Braveheart couldn't be more inaccurate if they'd inserted a plasticine dog in to the film and called it William Wallace and Gromit.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Oh, I agree..those are all great movies that I think might 'get into their brains' better than books. My daughter still remembers watching Shindlers List when she was a kid. With a generation being raised on tvs, handheld devices, I think its only natural to think ahead. Yes, we all love books, and reading is important. But if they're not doing it, not reading, then we need to find another way to educate them.

Rob

 

[Nerys Myk]

At best a movie can spark an interest in the events that inspired it. Mostly people are there for entertaiment not education.

 

[Owain Taggart]

A Bridge Too Far. Pretty much required viewing, plus a damned good movie. Possibly one of the greatest casts.

 

[Mistral]

Jeremiah Johnson. I got it in American History twenty-(mrrph) years ago.
The Andersonville Trials
maybe Chaplin or De-Lovely
The Longest Day

But most films are so off base....

 

[Mary Ann]

Ice Cold in Alex, Heroes of Telemark, Dambusters, and The Colditz Story are recommended by my husband, who has a special interest in WWII, and specifically the Battle of Britain. For light, comedic but accurate British history there are a lot of Horrible Histories clips on YouTube. This series is based on the books of the same name and they have helped a lot of kids in the UK to develop an interest in history.

 

[Greg Cox]

There's a great old book, THE HOLLYWOOD HISTORY OF THE WORLD, which covers the whole genre of historical movies, rating them for accuracy. Maybe you can track down a used copy.

And, yeah, none of them will be totally accurate, but they might spark an interest to learn more.

More examples:

1776 (the musical)

INHERIT THE WIND (the 1925 Monkey Trial)

GRAPES OF WRATH (the Great Depression)

SHOGUN (Japanese history)

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (the Middle East)

THE LAST EMPEROR (China)

GHANDI (India)

EVITA (Argentina and fascism)

REDS (the Russian Revolution)

Hope this helps!

 

[Marten]

John Adams?

 

[auntiehill]

^That was my thought. No, not technically a movie, but the "John Adams" mini-series would be a great thing for high schoolers to watch. I think it would definitely give them a feel for the time, and maybe spark an interest in American history.

 

[JarodRussell]

Teaching history with movies is the worst thing you can do.

Documentaries are better, and even them are way too often very incorrect.

The trick is to get kids to be interested in reading books. Everyone can give up and just put them in front of the TV, but that's not good for either side.

 

[Greg Cox]

More suggestions:

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

BECKETT.

CROMWELL.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

There's a lot of inaccurate "historical" movies out there. I was recently watching the Young Guns DVD, which includes a documentary about the life of Billy the Kid that directly contradicts a lot of stuff in the movie. Examples:

Spoiler: Young Guns

Casey Siemaszko's character survived in real life. And Terrence Stamp's fatherly figure John Tunstall? In real life, he was only 25 when he died.

At best a movie can spark an interest in the events that inspired it.

Agreed. I can think of very few movies that would provide anything remotely close to accurate historical information or appropriately in-depth analysis of the events that occur. At best, there are some bio-pics that might provide some insight into the personal stories of various historical figures. The two of those I would recommend:

HBO's John Adams mini-series (Although I never bothered to watch the final episode, after Adams left political office.)

Downfall, a very interesting German movie about the last days in the life of Adolf Hitler, leading up to his suicide. Made famous by the endless series of YouTube parodies that take one of Hitler's longer rants from the film and changes the subtitles so that he is now bitching about some random pop culture thing, like getting banned from X-Box Live, changing the ending of the Watchmen movie, or Jay Leno re-replacing Conan O'Brien as host of The Tonight Show.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'd also recommend the Hitler: Rise of Evil miniseries, which offers an interesting look at how Hitler grew to power, starring Robert Carlyle.

 

[TEH BABA]

Does he still use his scottish accent?

 

[Owain Taggart]

It wasn't apparent when I saw it, so I'm guessing not. His portrayal was actually quite interesting. Good performance.

 

[Cicero]

Band of Brothers and The Rough Riders would be decent choices, and Warm Springs is excellent. Perhaps Gettysburg and Glory would be considered worthwhile, too? Zulu? The Wind and the Lion?

Despite its many inaccuracies, They Died With Their Boots On does give a good impressionist version of Custer's life. (I'm still amazed that the dialogue from the scene depicting his promotion from captain to brigadier general was taken from Custer's own writings; weirdly, the true story of his promotion - that a captain with no direct command experience was intentionally advanced to brigadier general - seems almost even more improbable than the fictional accident shown in the film.)

There's a lot of inaccurate "historical" movies out there. I was recently watching the Young Guns DVD, which includes a documentary about the life of Billy the Kid that directly contradicts a lot of stuff in the movie. Examples:

Spoiler: Young Guns

Casey Siemaszko's character survived in real life. And Terrence Stamp's fatherly figure John Tunstall? In real life, he was only 25 when he died.

At best a movie can spark an interest in the events that inspired it.

Agreed. I can think of very few movies that would provide anything remotely close to accurate historical information or appropriately in-depth analysis of the events that occur. At best, there are some bio-pics that might provide some insight into the personal stories of various historical figures. The two of those I would recommend:

HBO's John Adams mini-series (Although I never bothered to watch the final episode, after Adams left political office.)

For more recent history, HBO's From the Earth to the Moon and the Apollo-focused productions The Dish and Apollo 13 are also quite good.

Downfall, a very interesting German movie about the last days in the life of Adolf Hitler, leading up to his suicide. Made famous by the endless series of YouTube parodies that take one of Hitler's longer rants from the film and changes the subtitles so that he is now bitching about some random pop culture thing, like getting banned from X-Box Live, changing the ending of the Watchmen movie, or Jay Leno re-replacing Conan O'Brien as host of The Tonight Show.

Valkyrie might also be worth mentioning. It took liberties, strangely enough, in downplaying the romantic nature (in the eyes of his contemporaries) of the lead character, but is otherwise generally factually accurate.

 

[Bloodwhiner]

Speaking as a teacher certified in all secondary levels of history and geography, I (and just about every other teacher) are well aware of the difficulties of igniting the passion in children. This is a generation that wants everything instantly; they don't want to learn anything, they just want to be told the information. You can no longer expect the typical student to read chapters of text. The just won't do it.

Films sound like a great way to reach them but it isn't that easy for numerous reasons.

First - few movies are accurate enough to be used for teaching facts. Even acclaimed movies tend to have glaring inaccuracies. Yes, the student will get a base understanding but I will spend nearly the same amount of time correcting misunderstandings.

Second - A standard 100 minute is nearly three days worth of classes and that is without any discussion.

Third - Points throughout any film need to discussed and questions answered, but to do that means stopping the flow of the film every 5-10 minutes and thus ruining the continuity of the storyline. It also means the film will take even longer to complete.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg of issues. It doesn't even get into student behavior when the lights get turned out. Plus (at least in my district) any film rated PG-13 (R in high school) requires a signed parental permission slip in advance for a student to see it. Students in a group setting like a classroom cannot maturely handle scenes depicting sex or nudity. Raw language raises issues with many parents as well.

Just last week I proposed a class to a school administration that would study the influence of photography and film on the public perception of history and government. From the staging of bodies by Matthew Brady during the Civil War to the propaganda masterpiece "Triumph des Willens" and the work of the WPA photographers during the Depression. In more modern times the photography of the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam actually changed history. One of my proposal was to divide the class into two groups, assign each the same subject (say school athletics) and have one group produce a movie using a documentary method while the other group does the same with a propaganda approach. Then we will compare the two. My hope is to get the student to develop critical thinking skills and understand the need to question material rather than just accept everything as fact.

Film and video have a place in the classroom. But just like a parent should not use a TV as a babysitter, teachers can not use films as a substitute.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Technology and social dynamics are changing the way kids interact with the world. Anyone who has a kid knows this. Kids just are not reading, and I might add, even the schools my kids go too are cutting down on the required reading.

Online colleges are changing the education system. My wife, and I, and most of our friends, have/will/are in some sort of online college. Anyone who takes an online college knows this little dirty secret; they're not reading the books. My wife is about to get her masters, from University of Phoenix, and hasn't read one book she has ever been 'forced' to get. She hunts and pecks for the answers. He had to buy three books for a history course, and read, maybe, 25% of them.

You want to know where these government debts are going to lead? They're going to lead to massive lay off of teachers. This is a BAD thing, I agree, but its coming. My friend, my best friend, teaches three courses for two online colleges. He had over four hundred 'students' total in all three classes. So do the math. That means he is teaching over a hundred people per class..without the need of a building..desks...and all that administrative stuff....

Online teaching is here, and its growing. My wife just recently got an A in an American history class..and I'm the one who wrote her final report. And I didn't read a damn thing to do it. Her assignment was women's rights in American history. I just googled it, and used Wiki (using Wiki is not allowed by the way..but I did). Most of the stuff I spoke of I just pulled out of my head, found books about the person who said, made fake references..and...she got an A.

Having said all that? I think its a sad that ONLINE learning will spread; but there's nothing to stop it.

Rob