USH- Learning History
through Film
Not
all movies are based on facts or have any truth to them at all, but when there
are certain movies that have been proven to contain factual evidence of a
situation then they can help to enrich the learning experience of the learner.
In the movies Twelve Years a Slave and Glory, the directors try to convey a
situation that accurately gives the viewer an insight into what it was like to
be a slave in that time period. The movies Twelve Years of Slave and Glory may
have historical inaccuracies but the benefits of watching movies in class and
the lessons that can be learned through these movies out ways the negative
effects.
In
the movie Twelve Years a Slave the director, Steve McQueen, takes the viewer
into a real situation where a man is taken from his freedom and turned into a
slave. Mr. McQueen prides himself in the fact that he did not back off of the violence
in the movie because that is a surreal situation that a slave would have been
through. Mr. McQueen also stated “If I was to illustrate the book it would be
far more worse than I filmed.” Personally I was uncomfortable in the parts of
this movie where violence was shown, but it is very important to learn what
happened in our history so that we don’t make the same mistakes in the future.
Mr. McQueen was able to provide just the right amount of discomfort so that we
were able to see an accurate representation of the horrible abuse that slaves
were put through without showing too much violence that was in the book. This
is a great example of why showing movies in class could provide a clear idea of
what happened in situation, and that not every movie is watered down completely
or altered by Hollywood in order to make the most profit. While it can be
challenging to make a film that draws people to the theater and creates a large
amount of income, Twelve Years of Slave had no trouble doing this. They spent
twenty million dollars making the movie and made a gross profit of 187,733,202
dollars. Twelve Years a Slave depicted being a slave in that time period quite
accurately, but at the same time a few minor details were altered in order to
capture the interest of the viewers. Now I understand that this could be a
problem for a history teacher that wants their students to learn the true facts
of history, but if these details become a problem then an easy way to fix that
would be to stop the movie and take a few to explain what actually happened.
In
the movie Glory the viewer is shown the trials that a regiment of slaves would
endear in their time in the army. Now while this film did have quite a few inaccuracies
such as the fact that the 54th regiment was made up of freed slaves
instead of run away slaves and the fact that Shaw was actually not Jackson's
first choice to command the regiment, it does depict what it would have been
like for a group such as the one that is depicted in the movie would have gone
through. It shows what battles were like and how they persevered even thought they
were threatened with their lives if they were caught. It shows you the training
that they were put through and how men of color were not treated fairly in
terms of pay or their uniforms. While this movie has some downfalls the facts
that can be learned by watching this movie in class outweighs the inaccuracies
that can be taught in class after or during the movie.
I
understand that there can be some hesitation about watching movies in class
because of inactive learning and the inaccuracies that some movies contain, the
benefits of actually seeing what happened and learning what happened in these
situations benefits the learning of students more than it would hurt it.
Sources, Film Research-
Glory & 12 years a Slave
