Modern History in the Movies

Films and TV series set in the past can help students (and teachers) of history to visualize the period they are studying. But film makers are usually much more concerned with making an entertaining film rather than a historically accurate depiction. The films I suggest here will, I think, give you some insight into the periods we study in Core 4, but they are far from perfect.

All can be rented from Video Stores in New York. [If a local store does not have a movie, try Kim's Video on St. Mark's Place (between 2^nd and 3^rd Avenues), or World of Video on Greenwich Avenue (between 6^th and 7^th Avenue), both in Manhattan.] At some point in the not too distant future I think films will be viewable over the Internet, but we are not there yet.]

In general, I recommend seeing foreign language films in the original language with subtitles rather than dubbed into English. [Try watching John Wayne dubbed into French someday - and you'll see why dubbing almost never works.]

Students can secure extra credit by posting to the Caucus class discussion list a long review [7-8 paragraphs] of one of the films below during the week when the class is discussing the given section. Here are the sort of questions you should aim to answer.

1. What seems to be accurate in the film? What sources are you using to assess accuracy?
2. In what ways does the film impact your reading of any of the documents you have been assigned in this course.
3. What liberties does the film take with the past? Why?
4. Is the film primarily entertainment, or is it really trying to work within a historical period? How can you determine the film maker's intention?
5. What, if any, modern point is the film trying make?

History Movie Guide

Notes

• By "clicking" on the title of the movie, you will be taken to the Internet Movie Database record on that movie.
• VHS means that I am certain a film is available on VHS Video. Even if a title does not have VHS next to it, it may be available at Kim's or World of Video (but not Blockbuster!)

Section 1 The Roots of Western Culture

Christopher Columbus: The Discovery 1992 [in English] VHS
Dir. John Glen, With Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck, Rachel Ward

Christopher Columbus 1985 (TV)  [in English] VHS
Dir. Alberto Lattuada, With Gabriel Byrne, Faye Dunaway, Oliver Reed
-there are many other Columbus movies to chose ftom.

The Mission 1986 [in English] VHS
Dir. Roland Jaffe. With Robert de Niro, Jeremy Irons.
The Jesuit plantations in Paraguay

Luther 1953  [in English] VHS
Dir. Irving Pichel, With Niall MacGinnis
-probably better than the 1993 version with Stacey Keach as Luther, but which was produced by the American Lutheran church and makes Luther a complete hero.

Luther 1973  [in English] VHS
Dir. Guy Green. With Stacey Keach
-based on John Osborne's play of the same name, which was a theatrical version of Erik Erikson's effort at psychohistory, Young Man Luther.

Caravaggio 1986   [in English]
Dir. Derek Jarman

The Agony and the Ecstasy 1965 [in English] VHS
Dir. Carol Reed, With Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison

Yo, la peor de todas 1990 [in Spanish] VHS [I, the Worst of All]
Dir. María Luisa Bemberg. With Assumpta Serna
-the life of Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz.

The Origins of Modernity

Section 2 The Ancien Regime: Absolutism and the Modern State

The Return of Martin Guerre 1982 [La Retour de Martin Guerre] [in French] VHS
Dir. Daniel Vigne, With Gerald Depardieu
One of the best historical movies ever made. Get subtitled rather than dubbed version.

Queen Margot 1994 [La Reine Margot][In French]
Dir. Patrice Chéreau. With Isabelle Adjani
-Based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas pčre, it is set during the French wars of religion.  Margot de Valois, sister of the Catholic King Charles XI, is forced to marry Hugenot King Henri of Navarre.

La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV 1966 (TV) [in French] VHS
Dir. Roberto Rossellini, With Jean-Marie Patte, Raymond Jourdan
-Aka The Rise of Louis XIV

Elizabeth 1998 [in English]
Dir. Shekhar Kapur, With Cate Blanchett.
-there are many other movies on Queen Elizabeth.

Section 3 The Ancien Regime: Constitutionalism and Roots of Modern Political Thought

Cromwell 1970 [in English] VHS
Dir. Ken Hughes (I). With Richard Harris and Alec Guinness.

Restoration 1995 [In English] VHS
Dir. Michael Hoffman, With Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill, David Thewlis, Meg Ryan,
Ian McKellen, Hugh Grant
-About a doctor at the court of Charles II.

The Madness of King George 1994 [In English] VHS
Dir: Nicholas Hytner, With Nigel Hawthorne.

Section 4 The Scientific Revolution: Copernicus to Newton

Galileo 1975
Dir. Joseph Losey, With Topol as Galileo!
An all star cast, but this going to be hard to find.

Galileo Galilei 1989 (TV) [In Italian]
Dir. Ivo Barnabň Micheli, With F. Murray Abraham
Probably hard to get hold of.

The Draughtman' Contract 1982
Dir: Peter Greenaway

The Story of Louis Pasteur 1936
Dir. William Dieterle, With Paul Muni

Section 5 The Enlightenment

Dangerous Liaisons 1988 [in English] VHS
Dir. Stephen Frears, With Glenn Close and John Malkovich
Based on a, 18^th-century novel, this is a deliciously wicked portrayal of aristocratic culture of the period immediately preceding the French Revolution.

Ridicule 1996 [in French] VHS
Dir. Patrice Leconte, With Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Fanny Ardant
-Set in the court France of Louis XVI.

Section 6 The French Revolution: Liberal Ideals

Danton 1982 [in French] VHS
Dir. Andrzej Wajda, with Gerard Depardieu

La Nuit de Varennes 1982 [In French]
Dir. Ettore Scola, With Marcello Mastroianni, Hanna Schygulla, Harvey Keitel

La Révolution française 1989 [In English]
Dir. Robert Enrico, With Klaus Maria Brandauer, Jane Seymour, Sam Neill

Section 7 The American Revolution

Revolution 1985 [In English] VHS
Dir. Hugh Hudson. With Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski

Amistad [In English] VHS
Dir. Steven Spielberg, with Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins,Djimon Hounsou
This film represented Steven Spielberg's response to what happened at a showing to young people in Los Angeles of Schindler's List - some of them laughed. In trying to understand why, Spielberg evolved this project on the Amistad revolt.

Section 8 The Industrial Revolution

Hard Times 1994 (TV) [In English]
Writing credit:  Peter Barnes (I), With Alan Bates
Based on Dickens novel. There was also a 1977 TV series.

Modern Times 1936 [in English] VHS
Dir. Charlie Chaplin, With Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard.

A Century of Western Power and Ideology

Section 9 The Conservative Order Transformed

Victoria the Great 1937 [in English]
Dir. Herbert Wilcox, With Anna Neagle
The "Great woman" approach to history. Compare with Mrs. Brown..

Mrs. Brown [in English]
Dir. John Madded, With Judy Dench and Billy Connolly.

Section 10 The Liberal Tradition

Les Misérables 1998 [In English] VHS
Dir. Bille August. With Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, Claire Danes
-most recent of many versions.

Section 11 The Nationalist Dream

Section 12 The Socialist Analysis

Rosa Luxemburg 1986 VHS
Dir. Margarethe von Trotta, With Barbara Sukowa

1900 1976 [in Italian] VHS
Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, With Robert DeNiro
DeNiro learned to speak Italian for this 3-hour saga about the Italian Communist party and the rise of the Black Shirts.

Section 13 The Imperial Project

Zulu 1964 [In English] VHS
Dir. Cy Endfield, With Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and Michael Caine.
The British-Zulu wars of the late 19^th century. Specifically the battle of Rourke's Drift.

Breaker Morant 1980  [In English] VHS
Dir. Bruce Beresford, With Edward Woodward.
-Three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners during the Boer War.

Out of Africa 1985   [In English] VHS
Dir. Sydney Pollack. With Meryl Streep, Klaus Brandauer
Isak Dinesen's life in 1910's Kenya.

The Crises of the Twentieth Century

Section 14 World War I and Cultural Anxiety

Song of Bernardette 1943 [in English] VHS
Dir. Henry King (I), With Jennifer Jones,
Jennifer Jones won an Oscar for her portrayal of the Catholic girl who claimed to have a vision of a "beautiful lady" at Lourdes. The film is a useful reminder of the continuing power of religion in the modern world.

Gallipoli 1981 [in English] VHS
Dir. Peter Weir, With Mel Gibson
Looks at the Australian forces in the British attack on the Turkish Gallipoli peninsula, one of the most bloody and pointless battles of the war.

All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 [in English] VHS
Dir. Lewis Milestone
Based on Remarque's classical novel.

Oberst Redl 1985 [In German]
Dir. István Szabó. With Klaus Maria Brandauer
-The Austrian army and state on the eve of World War I/

Metropolis 1926 VHS
Dir. Fritz Lang

Section 15 The Soviet Experiment 1918-1989

Nicholas and Alexandra 1971 [in English] VHS
Dir. Franklin Schaffner, With Janet Suzman
The Russian Revolution from the viewpoint of the Tsar and Tsarina. This is long, but worth the effort.

Reds [in English] VHS
Dir. Warren Beatty, With Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton
The Russian Revolution, and socialist politics in general, from the viewpoint of the American journalist John Reed, the author of the classic Ten Days that Shook the World.

Oktyabr 1927 [Silent, with Music by Shostokovich] VHS
Dir. Grigori Aleksandrov/Sergei M. Eisenstein
-early Soviet film about the Russian Revolution.

Dr. Zhivago 1965 [in English] VHS
Dir: David Lean, With Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.
Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak.

Section 16 World War II and the End of Empire

Cabaret 1972 [in English] VHS
Dir. Bod Fosse. With Lisa Minelli and Michael York
A musical set in Weimar Germany and based on the "Berlin novels" of Christopher Isherwood.

Triumph of the Will 1934 [Triumph des Willens] [Silent] VHS
Dir. Leni Reifenstahl
A "classic" presentation of Nazi Germany in the most romantic way possible. The prime example of the propagandistic use of film.

Mephisto 1981 [In German] VHS
Dir. István Szabó (I). With Klaus Maria Brandauer
-About an actor and his pact with the Devil ini the shape of the Nazis.

Bataan 1943  [in English] VHS
Dir. Tay Garnett. With Robert Taylor
- Long considered one of the great war movies.

Saving Private Ryan 1998 [in English]
Dir. Steven Spielberg. With Tom Hanks.

Schindler's List 1993 [in English] VHS
Dir. Steven Spielberg. With Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley.
Stephen Spielberg's presentation of the Holocaust. It might be interesting to compare it to Spielberg's Amistad and ask about ways in which Spielberg might be distorting the past.

Judgment at Nuremberg 1961 [in English] VHS
Dir. Stanley Kramer. With Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift.

Exodus 1960 [in English] VHS
Dir. Otto Preminger, With Paul Newman and Eve Marie Saint
Israel's birth pangs from a particular point of view.

La Battaglia di Algeri 1965 [in French with English subtitles.] VHS
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, With Mohamed Ben Kassen
- chronicles the Algerian war against French colonialism.

Gandhi [in English] VHS
Dir: Richard Attenborough, With Ben Kingsley
Richard Attenborough's hagiography of modern India's founder. In reviewing this movie, also search out information on Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (INA).

TV Series: The Jewel in the Crown 1984 [in English] VHS
The end of the British Raj in India, and without doubt one of the greatest TV series ever made.

Cry Freedom 1987 [in English] VHS
Dir.  Richard Attenborough. With Kevin Kline Denzel Washington.
On the life and Death fo Steve Biko in South Africa

Mandela 1987 (TV) [in English]
Dir. Philip Saville, With Danny Glover

Section 17 Post War Themes: 1945-1989

The Man in the White Suit 1951 [in English] VHS
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick. With Alex Guinness

Pixote 1981 [in Portuguese] VHS
Dir. Hector Babenco
The life of a small Brazilian boy in a major Brazilian city. The film highlights the social stratifiction of the developing world, where the wealthy participate in a western dominated world culture, while the poor do not have access to the social services of a western welfare state.

The Killing Fields 1984 [in English] VHS
Dir. Roland Joffé
Cambodia's holocaust.

TV Series: The Buddha of Surburbia [in English]
Dir. Roger Miche
or My Beautiful Laundrette 1986 [in English] VHS
Dir. Stephen Frears, WIth Daniel Day Lewis.
Startling presentations of multiculturalism in modern Britain, based on the scripts by Hanif Kureshi.

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See Also

• Art Historians' Guide to the Movies
• Left-Wing Films
• H-Net Reviews [historians review movies!]

Contents Page

Site Design: Paul Halsall

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created 9/11/1998 : revised 1/28/1998