Film Essay

Film Essay

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.

I believe that movies are a very effective way to learn history because it keeps the audience engaged and makes it feel like a story rather than hard facts. I personally have learned more in the past month and a half from watching Glory and Twelve Years a Slave than I did in all of World History through lectures. History is not a favorite subject of mine, but by putting it into a movie format, I have come to enjoy it. Learning history through movies isn’t just sitting and watching a movie, but analyzing what is going on, why things happened the way they did, and how the filmmakers and producers made it realistic. After watching the movies, research is necessary to dig deeper into the information and accuracy behind the actual events. Learning history from movies teaches more skills than lectures do. Skills of research, analyzing, discussion, listening, watching and many other skills come from teaching through movies.

During a lecture the teacher usually has a monotone voice that puts the students to sleep and hardly holds anyone’s attention. If the historical events are in a movie format, they’re more likely to not only listen and pay attention to whats happening, but to take something from it. Movies put a visual into the students’ heads of the reality of past events in history. Often we read about slavery and segregation, but to actually see it is totally different. The website Heart of Wisdom says that we’re much more likely to actually learn from listening to stories rather than just facts, especially if they are in a visual form. They also mention that Jesus taught many many people through parables or short stories. 

I learned a lot from watching both Glory and Twelve Years a Slave. Although the budget for the two movies were similar, the time in which the movies were made was very different causing Glory to have had a higher cost for that time. Both movies won lots of awards for not only the movie itself, but for acting, producing, and costumes. The directors both wanted to show the reality of how slavery was during that time and the brutality of it. Director of Twelve Years a Slave, Steve McQueen, said, “There is no black and white, just America.”. To show this to the world was one of his goals. He wanted his movie to show people that they need to face the reality of history, not avoid it. He also felt that there was a lack of knowledge of American history among Americans. He explained this by saying, “It upset me in the way, ‘How did I know Anne Frank but I didn’t know Soloman Northrup?’ I read ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ and thought, ‘This is the Anne Frank diary of America.”. The accuracy and harsh truth of the movies is very close to exact. 

The level of accuracy in both movies is what made them so successful. People really began to realize what it was like for both slaves and black people in general, which was a hope of Glory director, Ed Zwick. He also wanted people to go back and take a second look at history through the movie (tech.mit.edu). Glory is not only known in the theaters and on TV, but in the classroom as a way to teach history. A reviewer of the movie Glory referred to the movie as, “a truth truer than the literal truth”, which proves the accuracy of historical movies. When a movie is very close to historically accurate, it is a very useful learning tool. I have learned so much from just watching and researching two historically accurate events in the form of a movie. Movies help bring real events, that seem impossible to believe, to life.

Sources, Film Research- Glory & 12 Years a Slave

Glory:

• google search
• http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?id=denzelwashington.htm
• http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-00-patriot/
• http://www.historynet.com/basking-in-two-decades-of-glory.htm
• http://tech.mit.edu/V109/N60/zwick.60a.html

12 Years a Slave:

• google search
• http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=twelveyearsaslave.htm
• http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/12-years-a-slave.php
• http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/how-em-12-years-a-slave-em-gets-history-right-by-getting-it-wrong/280911/
• slate
• indiewire

Both Films:

• http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/28_04/28_04_stoddard.shtml

Practicing Incorporating a Quotation

I thought the scene where one of the soldiers was being whipped was very intense and film critics agree. The reviewer on Reelview said, "the camera moves in for a close-up of Washington's face and holds there, showing an incredible range of emotion: fury, pain, humiliation, and isolation.".

What I learned today: Today I learned that you have to be very careful when paraphrasing so you don't plagiarize. I also realized that adding a quote is to support your statement, not to fill space on a page. It is important to always hyperlink to give credit where it's due.

What Mrs. Lawson wanted me to learn today:

• Only use a quote when it adds power and style to my writing.
• Always make it clear, from context, that I understand the full meaning of the quote.
• Whether I quote or paraphrase, always be transparent about the source and how I'm using it.
• If I use another author's exact words or phrases, to any extent, I have to use quotation marks and give credit.
• If I use another author's presentation of facts or ideas, but put their ideas into my own words, I better have a good reason for doing that, and I MUST give credit.
• Hyperlinking is so easy, there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources.

I do understand the rules, but I may need some more practice just to be safe.

Paraphrase Practice

1. "Glory could have easily become one-sided, but, instead of presenting just Shaw's perspective, Zwick successfully gives us five distinct points-of-view. We see events not only from Shaw's vantage point (his is the "dominant" voice, since much of the narration is taken directly from the real-life historical documents written by the Colonel), but from those of Trip, Jupiter, Thomas, and Rawlins. In the end, none of these men are shortchanged. The sense of balance presented between the characters is one of Glory's strengths."- Glory (United States, 1989) by Reelviews

2. Glory shows five different viewpoints, rather than just the perspective of Shaw, the main character whose dialogue was based on true notes written by the actual Colonel of the time. The views shown are of Shaw, Trip, Jupiter, Thomas, and Rawlins. Zwick manages to show all an equal amount of focus. The fact that so many viewpoints were shown is one of the key elements of the movie Glory that makes it so good.

Historical Accuracy in Glory

Glory

Empathy vs. Sympathy

In class we talked about the definition of empathy which is the intellectual identification or vicarious experience of the feelings, thoughts, or attitude of another. Empathy is the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective, while sympathy is the feeling of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.

I can empathize with Nazi soldiers even though I believe that what they're doing is awful because they feel pressure from authority. Nazi soldiers were considered weak, unmanly, or traitors if they could not carry out the task of killing the Jewish people. Although some didn't agree with it, they feared for their own lives and for their punishment they would receive if they didn't carry out the given task. I can empathize because sometimes you have to choose between moral obligations and authority.

Empathy is important for people studying history because you have to be able to put yourself in their shoes in order to understand why they did what they did. Without empathy, you would not be able to make sense of some of the decisions that were made in the past.

Empathy