movie that influenced peoples views on history?

Question

i have to write a 10 page research paper on a controversial issue.. and i was wondering if anyone knew of a (historical type movie) that influenced the way people thought about an issue..

for example.. propaganda influenced the way Germans felt about Jews.. but i dont want to do it on that topic

Answer 1

D.W. Griffith's Birth of A Nation tried to convey the idea that the Ku Klux Klan was a noble enterprise and that the U.S. was better off before the Civil War.

More recently, Oliver Stone's JFK tried to peddle the idea of a conspiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Answer 2

Munich.

A topic I was aware of but knew few details on.

We all know of what happened on that day, but the movie goes into the aftermath. In the end you get the impression that the Israeli gov't were just as brutal, if not more, than the PLO.

Another great movie was the Last King of Scotland. As terrible as Idi Amin was, I don't think he was really a canibal. There is a scene in the movie that is very shocking and sickening, but when I watched the DVD extras that included interviews, this part of the movie was admitted to be pure fiction. Most people that watch the movie would never know this scene wasn't a true historic fact.

Answer 3

This is an awesome question. Here are some examples to think about:

Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith, 1915: This is the film that gave birth to the movies as we know them--with astronomical production values and innovative narrative and technical techniques, audiences across America were absolutely swept up--no spectacle like it had ever been experienced before. Unfortunately, the film was obscenely racist--directed by the son of a Confederate soldier, it featured actors in black-face, including a very white man who played a stereotypical fat female "mammy" role. During the civil war, the blacks are docile and spontaneously burst into song--following it, they wreak havoc on virtuous whites, raping their women and disenfranchising their men. The hero of the movie forms the KKK to stop the chaos, and a scene in which blacks are forcibly barred from voting by hooded men with pistols is shown in a positive light. The movie was so extreme in its views that it even provoked some outrage in 1915 (though President Woodrow Wilson said that the movie represented the truth about the Civil War and its aftermath). It enhanced racial tensions and actually became so popular that the KKK was revived as a result of the movie--incredibly, the movie is even shown for recruitment purposes to this day. (How drunk must they get those new recruits to enjoy a silent movie from 1915, who knows).

Gone With the Wind, Victor Fleming, 1939: Based on Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Gone With the Wind, perhaps the most perfectly marketed movie in history, went on to win 10 Academy Awards and make more money when adjusted for inflation and be seen by more people than any other film in history, to this day; consummately acted, well-scripted, and incredibly well-produced, Gone With the Wind is perhaps the greatest of Hollywood's classic films. By romanticizing the Old South and portraying it in idealistic terms, however, it downplayed the impact of slavery and created an image of the ante-bellum south as a beautiful, dream-like place; it also portrayed numerous "Uncle Toms" and other stereotypes among its black characters. This is the view of the period since widely popularized around the world. In fairness, though, the movie's producer, David O Selznick, took out references to the KKK and the divisive n-word from the movie, and Hattie McDaniel's performance as a loyal slave was so subtle and nuanced that she became the first black person in history to win an Academy Award.

Mrs. Miniver, William Wyler, 1942: In order to inspire the United States to join the war in Europe against Nazi Germany, MGM released this propaganda-film that portrayed the hardships faced by World War 2 English people in gut-wrenching terms--in one scene, it is revealed that a choirboy, a beloved old man, and the principle young female character in the movie have been killed in a German air raid. This film concluded with a speech delivered by a priest to a grieiving congregation inspiring them to fight onward and not lose faith, telling them that "this is the people's war...and may God protect the right." The speech was so effective that President Roosevelt ordered it reprinted and dropped in leaflets over Europe.

I hope this helps!

Answer 4

Unfit for Command by the Swift Boat veterans probably had a lot to do with John Kerry's losing the 2004 Presidential race. The opinions of many of the men who served with him during his very brief four months in Vietnam raised questions about his performance and the medals he got, including three Purple Hearts ( during the 4 months ) for putative injuries that didn't cost him one day's loss of time. People have already mentioned some of the influential environmentalist books such as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb. Silent Spring led to the practical banning of the use of DDT and it has been estimated that millions of people died of malaria as a consequence. The Population Bomb triggered a wave of vasectomies in the U.S. although not one of Ehrlich's predictions turned out to have a shred of validity or credibility when subsequently examined. It is likely that Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth will suffer a similar fate.

Answer 5

The "Patriot" with Mel Gibson gives a very accurate view of the British ways and means in our early years.

"Roots" by Alex Haley is a very accurate view of the cruel treatment of the blacks in America.

There are more then several movies, some are historical, some only relatively entertaining. Like the "Kentuckian" with John Wayne and the beginning of the Special forces the "Green mountain boys"
The "Trail of tears" of the tragedy of the Cherokee Indians and the horrors we instilled upon them.

You could go on and on.

Answer 6

The Message
Stalin
Desert Fox
Chief Crazy Horse
Roots
Brave Heart
Kingdom of Heaven

Answer 7

ROOTS, by Alex Haley, was a film series in the 70s that opened people's eyes to the brutality of the slave trade and slavery in the United States. Virtually all public school children saw it in school, both in the US and in American schools abroad.
Unfortunately, as was discovered about 10 years ago, instead of really being a story of Alex Haley's ancestors, the author made the story up and passed it off as researched history. A real shame because such a story really needs to be told.

Answer 8

Diary of Anne Frank - Schindler's List - Triumph of the Will - Trail of Tears - I Will Fight No More Forever - They Died With Their Boots On - Brave Heart - 1776 - The Alamo - Gettysburg - Camelot - Ten Commandments - Ben Hur - Story of Ruth -
Passion of the Christ -

Answer 9

Rabbit Proof Fence.

Answer 10

The Oliver Stone movie JFK.
Most people actually look to that movie as being factual and it also introduced a lot of people to JFK assassination conspiracy theories.