Preview

How Movies Portray History

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
472 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Movies Portray History
I’ve always watched movies for the sole purpose of entertainment. Thinking about the historical backgrounds they entail never really crossed my mind. The way Hollywood portrays historical events in films isn’t very accurate, which some people see as a problem. After listening to both James Wermers & Dr.Chiltons presentations and reading The Art of War article my train of thought has changed on how films portray history. First, let’s consider the three perspective on the issue of how movies portray history. James Wermers had many opinions on filmography and history. According to him, producers have full rights to using history in fims. He believes that even though history is fair game to the film industry, movies don’t always portray historical events as accurate as they occur. He spoke about film producers use of CGI in movies and how it adds to a movies over all look. Even though CGI is a very clever use of computerized effects, it is not always used as it should be. He stated, “ CGI is no longer used for a certain effect, it is no longer the question of should we use it but how.” The reality of historical events isn’t always as accurate as it could be says Wermer but it is a good basis to a movie. Dr.Chilton had a political opinion on the matter. She stated that “filmmakers frequently use films to make statements, whether political or economic, or social, therefore, movies and their makers are protected by the First Amendment.” Whether or not we like how filmmakers are or portraying a specific event., they are entitled to portray it as they please. As Dr.Chilton reminds us, freedom of speech does not only refer to actually speech, it involves writing, sculptures, murals, and of course movies. In the Art of War article we see the artistic aspect of using CGI in films . Even though it states that a lot of the effects in the movie were very unrealistic that is also what made the movie so beautiful. It created this gorgeous scenery that could only be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Halberstam on CGI Films

    • 979 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Halberstam brilliantly enough discusses how CGI, which are out of the norm, are being used to exemplify many ideas such as revolution, capitalism, and transformation. CGI films as explained by Halberstam are movies generated solely by a computer that breaks off from societal norms which can be considered as being queer, different or odd, to Halberstam. Movies that include animating revolt usually incorporate human and non-human struggles in which two groups are then pit against each other to show a theme that would never be shown in adult movies. In the movie, Chicken Run, the chickens are the oppressed people of society while Mr. Tweedy and Mrs. Tweedy are the ones in control. Movies such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc. present a different form of animating revolt movies which Halberstam calls “Pixarvolt” in which CGI is used to intrigue the audience and the ideas presented “foreground the themes of revolution and transformation” (Halberstam 273). In, Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation, Halberstam talks about the queer theory which is incorporated in many of these “animated revolt” movies. Halberstam presents that being “queer” can turn out to be a potential advantage to one’s existence.…

    • 979 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Movies make a huge impact on how we view history. Even though a movie says it is based on a true event, it is not always historically accurate. The movie 300 is based on a true story. The movie portrays how the boys grew up. How the Spartans fought is also historically accurate. There is also some material in there that is not historically accurate or we don’t know if it happened.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Filmed historical movies have become a prime source of knowledge about the past. Historians can not deny that, but they can find glitches and certain details or events that Hollywood has tweaked that give viewers a different perception sometimes. Watching ‘Alexander’ and researching true facts about Alexander the Great has given me a clearer view on how history portrayed though Hollywood films can sometimes be misleading with details.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    From an historical perspective, David Leans’ film, Lawrence of Arabia was flawed with inaccuracies of both characters (especially Lawrence) and events, but it was truly an epic film that has been rightly seen as a classic.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Historicism in Film

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages

    After watching the films Titus (1998) and Elizabeth (1998), it has come to my attention that both of these films consist of two things. These two things that stuck out to me are violence and history. I will also be touching very briefly on the religious mechanics that drive these two films. Now many great movies contain these important aspects, but it’s the way that Julie Taymor (Titus) and Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) have used them to portray the times and above all else, provide us with great films to have in our library. I will be discussing in detail the similarities and differences of these two films with regards to the violence, history, and religious motifs behind them.…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Memories make up the past and what individuals have experienced in life over time. Memories do not allow for us to forget what has happened, this is why preserving memory is so important. If something is forgotten, it is as if it never happened, which is tragic since that history was not kept alive. This section of movies focused on how filmmaking preserves historical memories. I have come to the conclusion that films preserve historical memory by making the background the memory they want you to remember. We see this in all three films that war is the canvas of the film and is preserved through the details of the individual's own recollections of the events. In this paper I will focusing on Peter Davis’s documentary Hearts and Minds; John…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The media constantly has movies coming out about all different topics. Directors create movies sometimes out of tension in politics today. There are many movies about war, and the war in Iraq, which are telling a story based upon how the director sees it. That is a form of freedom of speech because the leader of the program is putting his thoughts and feelings out there for all to see and speculate on and make their own opinions based on what they’ve seen. For many, we don’t see the wars and other political things taking place. So, we may turn to many movies to get an idea of what others are going through. A movie captivates you, draws you in, so you feel like you’re in it, and everything that’s happening, is happening to you. This could also change ones own opinion based upon the knowledge they received with the movie. What a freedom it must be to put ones beliefs out for everyone to see and to be able to put a thought in someones mind, and possibly create more out of it, than just a…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    2. Why are fictional historical films appealing to audiences? Do audiences go to films like this to be entertained or to learn something about history? Did you find the film entertaining or educational? Perhaps both? Explain your answer with specific scenes from the film…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Braveheart Vs History

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages

    own liking because of the nature of these stories. This is only one of many reason, however, that can attract a filmmaker to the Middle Ages. Another reason is more ideological and academic in nature, which can found in the film Braveheart.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marketing, education, suggestion and propaganda all subtly influence the opinions and values a society’s members hold. All too often, we have no clear idea how we came to hold the opinions we develop over the course of our lifetimes. From the earliest days of the film industry’s rise at the beginning of the twentieth century, film has had an enormous impact in shaping public views and ideas about everything from what it means to be a “good citizen” to what roles are acceptable and proper in a “civilized” society. With the exception of academics and serious students in film or cultural studies, most movie-goers regard the viewing of films (with the exception – sometimes – of documentaries) as simply an entertainment activity when, very often, central to the experience is the swallowing of messages that the creators of the film wish to advance. Since films are often very expensive to produce, the films that find financial backing must also meet with the approval of a society’s elite, moneyed class. It is most often the case, then, that subtle messages and affirmations about the political, social and personal norms the dominant class wishes to endorse and inculcate are embedded in films that reach a wide segment of the population.…

    • 2074 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    CGI gave the production of science-fiction movies the possibility to have a realistic feel. The significant differences between CGI and classical hand-drawn animations are not only the obvious; one being done by computer and one is on paper. The biggest difference is time efficiency and believability. A computer-generated image can be done one of two ways: a picture that is hand-drawn and then scanned into a computer or an entirely computer produced image, with a software specially designed for computer made imagery (Abbott, Pg. 91). After this step computer animators can move images around in one thousandth of the time it would take to move a hand-drawn image. Hypothetically meaning that if a hand-drawn scene took you twenty-four hours to move images around, with a CGI it would take twenty-four seconds. That changes the entire playing field when it comes to filmmaking. The ability to go in and out of scenes and move the image or objects not wanted, without distorting the background or surrounding images, is a step that has made CGI animator friendly. The images and…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cgi's Impact On Movie

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Imagine a movie about living dinosaurs in the modern era who terrorize an amusement park? You probably did not have to use that much imagination because you have probably seen that movie, Jurassic Park. It was, and still is, a cinematic classic that was only made possible through the use of computer generated imagery, or CGI. CGI has revolutionized the movie and television industry in a greater way than even video games. Almost every movie today is made with at least some CGI scenes or effects and many tv shows today also use this technology. They use this to create scenes or characters that could never be seen in real life. It has added an element of unrealistic realism that was once impossible. Thanks to this, computer generated imagery has…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    False Events In Hollywood

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In my opinion, if your going to make a movie that is based on someting that happened in reality, you must atleast create scenes that really happened in real life and it must also be detailed. Sometimes the directors will find trouble on recreating some scenes. Because probabley they don't have enough information or details of some events that happened in real life and at this point they start to make some false events to make the movie longer and more exciting for the audeince. Plus to get alot of profit from the movie, according to how many tickets have sold in the box office. For me and for some people they won't have any problem if hollywood distort history, but for others they won't agree on what they do to history, as they think it is another way of spreading false information for a specific topic or movie that is based on a true story.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    History is something that many people, even adults, have not learned enough of. But what is the best resource for learning history-books or movies? Some people might argue that books would be a better resource, but I'm here to convince you that movies are better. From the way children learn, to the engagement of the watcher, to the cost, movies are a much better way. Read this essay and I'll have you for sure! I'm so glad I got this assignment!…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Patriot

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The movie really doesn't talk to much about actual historic facts, it just changes the events into its own scenery. The mov…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays