In class Essay about Movies and History
Many teachers may believe that
students aren’t able to learn anything based on a movie, but this can
definitely be argued. Movies develop historical truths and may not always be
completely accurate in their history. I believe that it is possible to develop
great analytical skills and explore real events, circumstances, and attitudes
just by watching movies in a critical way, and doing some research. The historical
movies ‘Glory’, and ’Twelve years a Slave’ are great examples of historical truths,
used to display historical concepts and themes. These movies also allow for
students to be entertained, causing them to take more away from a movie, as
opposed to a lecture.
Glory is a movie from the 1980s
placed in the time period of the Civil War. It is about one of the first black
regiments, called the 54th regiment. These black regiments,
according to History.org, were mainly composed of 180,000 of the 500,000 free African
American men. There were 163 units, the 54th being one of them. In
the film, the director tried to get the viewer to empathize with the characters
more, so the regiment was mainly made up of runaway slaves, instead of free
blacks. The movie tried to make the point that these men had something to fight
for, so they changed the historical fact, but overall got their point across.
This overall helps the watcher to take in this information by getting a more
personal connection to the characters. According to the New York Times’ review
on Glory, the movie was based off of Colonel Shaw’s letters, named “Lay this
Laurel” and “One Gallant Rush”. Although this movie is basically based off of a
memoir, one must think about perspective. Roger Ebert’s review on glory helped
me to think about why the director chose to have Colonel Shaw be the
protagonist, when it could be from the black men’s point of view. This is a
challenge faced by the film writer and all of the people making the movie. The
movie could’ve been more juicy and empathetic if it was through one of the
soldier’s eyes, but choosing for it to be from Shaw’s perspective helped the
movie to be more historically accurate. The movie Glory also helped me to
understand the intenseness of the Civil War.
The New York Times says, “Glory is celebratory, but it celebrates in a
manner that insists on acknowledging the sorrow”, which I completely agree
with. In the last scene of the battle at Fort Wagner, Shaw proudly stands up
and says that his regiment will lead the rest in the battle. This helped me to
see how much pride went into being in these regiments, and being a soldier,
while also acknowledging the sorrow that many of the men would die. I believe
that the movie Glory helped me to understand what went into being a soldier,
and the extent of the events in the Civil War.
Twelve Years a Slave is a movie
about a real man, Solomon Northup, who was a free man, until he was drugged and
kidnapped, only to be sold as a slave for twelve years. This story is
completely based off of a memoir told by Northup, but written by his lawyer,
David Wilson. Before watching this film, I had never heard of free men being
kidnapped, and never really understood what went into slavery. Roger Ebert
wrote that this movie makes viewers think “that they have actually witnessed
American slavery in all its appalling horror for the very first time”, which is
very true. The director uses many scenes to make the viewer uncomfortable, that
Roger Ebert refers to as “discomfort cinema”. For example, McQueen uses
multiple nudity scenes, to make readers understand that these slaves are at
their most vulnerable and again helps the reader to emphasize, according to
Roger Ebert. McQueen also tries to get other points across, even if not
included in the actual memoir. According to the Atlantic, the scene on the
boat, when the sailor goes to molest a slave being transported, never happened.
This scene is put in to show what would happen on the boats and the full extent
of what these slaves had to live with. One quote that was put into the movie
that helped me to understand what these people were going through, was when
Solomon said, “I don’t want to survive I want to live”. By putting this quote
in the script, it makes it easier for viewers to empathize and understand how
these people felt. All of the slaves were trying to survive their whole lives,
but never understood what it was like to live. This helped me to put myself in
Solomon Northup’s shoes; making me think about what it would be like if my
regular life was suddenly taken from me.
Although each of these movies may
not be entirely, historically accurate, the point could be made in both of
them. Each of the movies have been exaggerated, such as the scene in Glory when
the small town was invaded, but by making it more juicy, there were more views
from the public. The directors and writers of each of the movies had tremendous
hardships trying to figure out when certain facts could be changed or not. The
movies can’t always be completely factual, for it isn’t a documentary, but the
point getting across to the public is what is essential. I believe that each of
the movies, Glory, and Twelve Years a Slave helped me to better understand, and
empathize with all of the people in the Civil War.
This article helped me to see some of the historical inaccuracies in the movie Glory.
This source showed me the numerous awards the movie won.
11. The Atlantic-12 Years a Slave
This source showed me the different historical inaccuracies and taught me about the real memoir written in the 1800's
