Can movies teach history by harvey h jackson

1 4 CAH'iler"sletter Novernber 1990

-ll(At' Ltliu rn bia Pictur es Scene from 'Gloqf

Can Movies Teach History? n an article last' year in the New York Times, Richard Bernstein touched on a subject that deserves more attention from historians who earn their keep in the classroom [November 26, Ig}gJ. Most of us are aware that the sru-

dent's we teach are Part of a media-moved generation,

and we cater to them in a variefy of ways-including the use of films. But in most cases, we show docu- mentaries. Commercial movies based on historical subjects have generally been found inaccurate, biased

or misleading, and as such have been rejected for classroom use.

I suspect that Mr. Bernstein would applaud this selectivity. It. concerned him that "movie makers and

television producers have become our most powerful,

though p.ih"pt not our most carefrll, historians,' and h. fOund it "disconcerting' that film makers were able to 'mingle fact with fancy, history with imagination, in such "

*"y that the average viewer has no way of sorting out one from another." As a result, an audi-

ence might accePt Mrssrssippi Burning as an accurate po.tt"y"l'of the Civil Rights Movement, when in reali-

ry it was, in Bernstein's words, a 'largely unhistorical jolice adventure that Prerry much invented the role of

the F.B.l.' Among the movies Bernstein singled out for criti-

cism was Fat Man and Little Boy, Roland Jaffe's film

which highlighted the moral dilemmas that faced the

men who created the atomic bomb. Jaffe, however, was accused of a sin Sreater than inaccuracy. Accord-

ing to Bernstein, in Fat Ma4 and Littl,e Boy,'a srrongly feii point of view [Jaffe's well'known 'anti-nuclear,

oro-dir"rrnamenc stancel guided the film makers in deciding what hisrorical facts to show and how to show them.' "lf you beiieve,' Bernstein observed, 'rhat man can know himself only in historv, then the

distortion of the past, panicularly for the motives of

profit or politics, becomes a maner of serious contem-

plation." A few weeks,later a number of lerters responding

to Bernstein's article were published, includinS one

from Jaffe asserting "that one of the pleasures of de-

mocracy is the'right' to offer uP an interpretation of

history.'Onthewhole,however,theexchangefo- cused on rhe historical objectiviqv of the film. what

by HarveY H. Jackson

the lerters did not address, and indeed what even Bernstein left unresoived, was the initial ques- tion--"Can Movres Teach History?'

In the same issue of the fimas in which these ler- ters appeared [Decemb er 77 ,19891, Richard Bernstein reviewed Glory, which he praised as "a rare example wherein a Hollyrvood film tells a good story while remaining rrue to the actual events of history"-what he wished had been done in Fot Man and, Little Boy and Mnsirsippi Burning. Though there were some inaccuracies and fictionalizations in Glo1v, this film seemed to fulfill Bernstein's criteria for good historv. He was not alone in his opinion; a few weeks later Pulitzer Prize winning historian James McPherson declared Glor,v "the most powerful and historically accurate movie about that war ever made" [The New Republic, January 8 & 15, 19901 . Glory, it seemeci. was a film that could teach history.

We can find a way to teach history with movies-a way that dePends on the very inaccuracies which trouble

literalists.

Still, some of the inaccuracies in Glory perplexed McPherson, esp€ciaily when the acrual events seemed

as significant as the fictional ones. For example, de- picting members of the 54th Massachuserts as mostly

io*.r slaves rather than Freemen (as they acrually were) denied rhe film maker the oppornrniry to deai with "the relationship of Northern blacks to slaveq/ or

"the wartime ideais of New England culture." Yet Mcpherson was quick to point out that even though rhe iiteral-minded historian might be troubled by such

erTors , Gktry is rme to the temper of the times' And besides, ne ad<ieci,'lhis is not simpiy a film about tire 54th Massachuserls, trur about blacks in the civrl war.' Mosr of the 188,000 soldiers and sailors who served in the Llnion Army had been slaves before rhey

enlisted . GIory, Professor lv{cPherson observed, "is the story of their transformation from an oPpressed to a

proud people." This poinr was carried even further by Atlanta

Journal an<l (irrlstitutiort cr>lumnist Cynthia J'ucker.

who praised the film for its accuracy and. f,or its mes- sage [January 17, 1990]. In contrast to movies such ,r-Mirrnt ippi Burning, she found Glory "a badly need- ed reminder of the bravery and character of so many

black men.' Indeed, she felt "it ought to be required viewing for all black furrerican high school srudents."

Here we could easily get bogged down in a pro- rracted debate over what makes one film "good histo-

ry" bur not anorher-why does one film "teach histoD/ and another one not. Instead, let me sutsest that films such as Glory, Fat Man and Little Boy, and even

Mirsrssip pi Burning can teach history, though not nec- essarily in the way generally supposed'

Ir is in rhe comments of people like cynthia Tuck- €r, Richard Bernstein, Roland Jaffe and James McPherson, and in the response of movie audiences to

rhese films, that we find a way to teach history with movies-a way that depends on the very inaccuracies

anci interpretations which trouble literalists. Though we should prepare srudents to judge the

accuracy of morion picnrres deaiing with historical subjects, it is an equally valuable exercise for them to use the films and their reception by the public to gain

some insight into the era in which the films were macie we should ask them why the makers of Glory mighr have felt it more important to have slaves fight- ing for freedom in the 54th rather than blacks who had never known bondage? They should be pressed

ro consider this in light of the way Misstssippi Burning porrrayed blacks as passive actors in the struggle for their freedom in the 196Os. And they also might be asked to ponder why Fat Man and Little Boy was not a popular movie, despite a toP box office aftraction,

Paui Newman, in a leading role. wh"at sociery accepts as history reveais as much

atrour rire sociefy as it does about the past, and there .rre flew places where a socieqy's historical perspective

is rnore clearly revealed rhan in its resPonse to films. in 1915, the movie The Birth of a Norion was hailed by rhe Atlanta Journal as 'the soul and spirit and flesh

of the heart of your counfrly's history," and most white

Southerners (along with many white Northerners) agreed. 'foday no rePutable historian accePts D. W.

Griffirh's epic as an accurate account of the Civil War

anci Reconstnrction, but it is frequently shown to

November 1990 ONI Newsletter 5

modernstudentstodramatizetheracismthatinfected society in erog;;t"" Era ryt"tt', -lt-:11:t:::":

Mississip pi Burning reveals that change' There n"a'U"!n other changes 1 we.ll' In the

197os and earlY-igeot, th€ ima-Se.of *,t black 11f:

in our history' These films also offer teachers an

opportunirv to gti -

t*a:"::,"1: .:iy i:-::l5: H:

il/o;;b ifr"* understand the historical Perspec- tive that helped rationalize the system

of racial dis- ;:lH; ;;il " u""ti"g. Movies like rhe cotor

-:-- --tlffiffi.J; "*ntion ?; P:"-'::d j"::, :T:::'1:ilfi:t^;;*t;lack males to-serve as ro]e-111i"1: il#'Iit ffiA;'"J th'T an 'end":s::"1.species'" Miss rss rpp i B u rn ing did I ittl e'o -ltlP, 1|r" T j:lt^":ilffi ;l;;; A; ;ppos ite' .I ts critical Tl^o^:*S ,.r.Illr'r;;il;t't'"tti'un*"ric.annulliti!:^',"-1::ffiffi;fi *uu"s to "'knowle{ie. *1"1:: :*

::ffi":i ;:; i'";;ilid' but to Ponder whY the film was made as it *"i' Moieover' they can

consider

how the popult"t"ttion to films reveal the values of

sociery. Today, srudents watch and snrdy The Birth of

aNcriontohelpthemunderstandanirudesinnrrn.of. the-century America' In a few years 9:V

may be

doing thu ,arni with Glory ' Fot Man and Little Boy '

ot

Mrrsissippi gr-i^g' 11; these films they can learn

something of the Civil War' World War II' and the

Civil Rights t"to""*""t' They can also learn a lot

crimination known as Jim Crow'

Srudents t"t"tl;;sider the reaction to Muititsippi Burningin the ,-"*" way' Had that film been

made in

the late 1g6os of early !g7os, it might have been

greeted with "pfi""t" f:t 9t way it

accurately por-

trayed troe uroiiity "r qe.Ku Klux Klan and the par-

ticipation of ro.J om.i"t, in the murder of civil rights

workers. A nation fed on a steady dose of Ellion Ness

and"TheUntouchables'wouldalsohavemorereadily accepted tfre fgt as the "hero'" But by the

late 1980s'

KIan outrages were well-known' the rePutation of the

FBI during the attil Rights Movement badly tarnished'

and w specials such is 'Eyes on the Prize" had given

Americans a clearer understanailq of what really took

place in the s;utrraurina the 1e@j; T:i:::,T:t":

iliJffiH ;i;r"u in the nation's history, and snt- l"rro t """ "

iririorical subject with modern relevance'

What happened in the Civil War' or what we Per-

ceived happened, becomes a means of understanding

about the 1980s'-- e"a that decade, of course' is history'

I

Harttey H. Jackon is professor and head of the de'

portmentotto'iiniiu"'statl-u1'::'::y:::'S]ili3i.,;;;;;';. ffi essay is an expanded, version of an arn- cle which opfir'"a- ii" the Atlanta Journal and

Constinrdon- ttff

*il;* had ti""g"d' and tht re"ttion to

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