1 4 CAH'iler"sletter Novernber 1990

-ll(At'
Ltliu rn bia Pictur es

Scene from 'Gloqf

Can Movies Teach History? by HarveY H. Jackson

and indeed what even who praised the film for its accuracy and. f,or its mes-
n an article last' year in the New York Times, the lerters did not address,
touched on a subject that Bernstein left unresoived, was the initial ques- sage [January 17, 1990]. In contrast to movies such
Richard Bernstein
Movres Teach History?' ,r-Mirrnt ippi Burning, she found Glory "a badly need-
deserves more attention from historians who tion--"Can
In the same issue of the fimas in which these ler- ed reminder of the bravery and character of so many
earn their keep in the classroom [November
ters appeared [Decemb er 77 ,19891, Richard Bernstein black men.' Indeed, she felt "it ought to be required
26, Ig}gJ. Most of us are aware that
the sru-
reviewed Glory, which he praised as "a rare example viewing for all black furrerican high school srudents."
dent's we teach are Part of a media-moved generation,
wherein a Hollyrvood film tells a good story while Here we could easily get bogged down in a pro-
and we cater to them in a variefy of ways-including
remaining rrue to the actual events of history"-what rracted debate over what makes one film "good histo-
the use of films. But in most cases, we show docu-
ry" bur not anorher-why does one film
"teach histoD/
mentaries. Commercial movies based on historical he wished had been done in Fot Man and, Little Boy
and Mnsirsippi Burning. Though there were some and another one not. Instead, let me sutsest that
subjects have generally been found inaccurate, biased
films such as Glory, Fat Man and Little Boy, and even
or misleading, and as such have been rejected for inaccuracies and fictionalizations in
Glo1v, this film
seemed to fulfill Bernstein's criteria for good historv. Mirsrssip pi Burning can teach history, though not nec-
classroom use.
essarily in the way generally supposed'
I suspect that Mr. Bernstein would applaud this He was not alone in his opinion; a few weeks
later
him that "movie makers and Pulitzer Prize winning historian James McPhersonIr is in rhe comments of people like cynthia Tuck-
selectivity. It. concerned
"the most powerful and historically €r, Richard Bernstein, Roland Jaffe and James
television producers have become our most powerful, declared Glor,v
though p.ih"pt not our most carefrll, historians,' and accurate movie about that war ever made" [The New McPherson, and in the response of movie audiences to
seemeci. rhese films, that we find a way to teach history with
h. fOund it "disconcerting' that film makers were able Republic, January 8 & 15, 19901 . Glory, it movies-a way that depends on the very inaccuracies
to 'mingle fact with fancy, history with imagination, was a film that could teach history.
no way of anci interpretations which trouble literalists.
in such *"y that the average viewer has
Though we should prepare srudents to judge the
"
sorting out one from another." As a result, an audi- We can find a way to teach history
accuracy of morion picnrres deaiing with historical
ence might accePt Mrssrssippi Burning as an accurate with movies-a way that dePends on subjects, it is an equally valuable exercise for them to
po.tt"y"l'of the Civil Movement, when in reali-
Rights
'largely unhistorical the very inaccuracies which trouble use the films and their reception by the public to gain
ry it was, in Bernstein's words, a literalists. some insight into the era in which the films were
jolice adventure that Prerry much invented the role of
macie we should ask them why the makers of Glory
the F.B.l.'
Bernstein singled out for criti- Still, some of the inaccuracies in Glory perplexed mighr have felt it more important to have slaves fight-
Among the movies
when the acrual events seemed ing for freedom in the 54th rather than blacks who
cism was Fat Man and Little Boy, Roland Jaffe's film McPherson, esp€ciaily
which highlighted the moral dilemmas that faced the as significant as the fictional ones. For example, de- had never known bondage? They should be pressed
of the 54th Massachuserts as mostly ro consider this in light of the way Misstssippi Burning
men who created the atomic bomb. Jaffe, however, picting members
of sin than inaccuracy. Accord- io*.r slaves rather than Freemen (as they acrually porrrayed blacks as passive actors in the struggle for
was accused a Sreater
maker the oppornrniry to deai their freedom in the 196Os. And they also might be
ing to Bernstein, in Fat Ma4 and Littl,e Boy,'a srrongly were) denied rhe film
feii point of view [Jaffe's well'known 'anti-nuclear, with "the relationship of Northern blacks to slaveq/ or asked to ponder why Fat Man and Little Boy was not
England culture." Yet a popular movie, despite a toP box office aftraction,
oro-dir"rrnamenc stancel guided the film makers in "the wartime ideais of New
deciding what hisrorical facts to show and how to Mcpherson was quick to point out that even though Paui Newman, in a leading role.
historian might be troubled by such wh"at sociery accepts as history reveais as much
show them.' "lf you beiieve,' Bernstein observed, rhe iiteral-minded
rire sociefy as it does about the past, and there
'rhat man can know himself only in historv, then the erTors , Gktry is rme to the temper of the times' And atrour
is not simpiy a film about tire .rre flew places where a socieqy's historical perspective
distortion of the past, panicularly for the motives of besides, ne ad<ieci,'lhis
a maner of serious contem- 54th Massachuserls, trur about blacks in the civrl is rnore clearly revealed rhan in its resPonse to films.
profit or politics, becomes of a Norion was hailed
plation." war.' Mosr of the 188,000 soldiers and sailors who in 1915, the movie The Birth
served in the Llnion Army had been slaves before rhey by rhe Atlanta Journal as 'the soul and spirit and flesh
A few weeks,later a number of lerters responding most white
. Professor lv{cPherson observed, "is the of the heart of your counfrly's history," and
to Bernstein's article were published, includinS one enlisted GIory, from an oPpressed to a Southerners (along with many white Northerners)
"that one of the pleasures of de- story of their transformation
from Jaffe asserting agreed. 'foday no rePutable historian accePts D. W.
proud people."
mocracy is the'right' to offer uP an interpretation of
This poinr was carried even further by Atlanta Griffirh's epic as an accurate account of the Civil War
history.'Onthewhole,however,theexchangefo- (irrlstitutiort cr>lumnist Cynthia J'ucker. anci Reconstnrction, but it is frequently shown to
cused on rhe historical objectiviqv of the film. what Journal an<l
 November 1990 ONI Newsletter 5

These
in our history'
-
films also offer teachers an
Mississip pi Burning reveals that change' to gti t*a:"::,"1: .:iy i:-::l5:
we.ll' In the opportunirv H:
::ffi":i ;:; i'";;ilid' but to Ponder whY
the
modernstudentstodramatizetheracismthatinfected There n"a'U"!n other changes 1
society in erog;;t"" Era ryt"tt', -lt-:11:t:::": 197os and earlY-igeot, th€ ima-Se.of *,t
black
11f: film was made as it *"i' Moieover'
they can consider
il/o;;b ifr"* understand the historical Perspec- u""ti"g. Movies like rhe cotor films reveal the values of
of racial dis- ;:lH; ;;il " how the popult"t"ttion to
tive that helped rationalize
crimination known as Jim Crow'
the system
ffiffi.J;
:ilfi:t^;;*t;lack "*ntion ?; P:"-'::d j"::, :T:::'1
-:--

males to-serve as ro]e-111i"1:

--tl
sociery. Today, srudents watch
and snrdy The Birth of
to Muititsippi aNcriontohelpthemunderstandanirudesinnrrn.of.
Srudents t"t"tl;;sider the reaction
that film been made in il#'Iit
ffiA;'"J th'T an 'end":s::"1.species'" the-century America' In
a few years 9:V may be
Burningin the ,-"*" way' Had
Miss rss rpp i B u rn ing did
I ittl e'o
-ltlP, 1|r" T
j:lt^": thu ,arni with Glory Fot Man and Little Boy ' ot
the late 1g6os of early !g7os, it
might have been doing '
greeted with f:t way it accurately por-
ilffi ;l;;; A; ;ppos ite' ts critical
.I Tl^o^:*S Mrrsissippi gr-i^g' 11;
World War II' and the
learn
these films they can
"pfi""t" 9t Klux Klan and the par- ,.r.Illr'r;;il;t't'"tti'un*"ric.annulliti!:^',"-1:: something of the Civil War'
trayed troe uroiiity "r qe.Ku
ticipation of ro.J om.i"t, in the
murder of civil rights ffiffi;fi
iliJffiH
*uu"s to "'knowle{ie.
;i;r"u in the nation's
*1"1:: :*
history, and snt- Civil Rights t"to""*""t' They can also learn a lot

workers. A nation fed on a steady dose of Ellion Ness

iririorical subject with modern relevance' -- the 1980s'
about
history' I
l"rro t e"a that decade, of course' is
and"TheUntouchables'wouldalsohavemorereadily What
""" "
happened in the Civil War' or what we Per-
But by the late 1980s' a means of understanding of the de'
accepted tfre fgt as the "hero'" ceived happened, becomes Harttey H. Jackon is professor and head
outrages were well-known' the rePutation of the
KIan
badly tarnished' portmentotto'iiniiu"'statl-u1'::'::y:::'S]ili3i.
,;;;;;';. of an arn-
FBI during the attil Rights Movement ffi essay is an expanded, version
Prize" had given
and w specials such is 'Eyes on the
of what really took cle which opfir'"a- ii" the Atlanta Journal and
Americans a clearer understanailq Constinrdon-
place in the s;utrraurina the
ttff had ti""g"d' andT:i:::,T:t":
1e@j; tht re"ttion to
*il;* Program
smithsonian lnstitution Fellowship
AND SENIOR POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
GRADUATE STUDENT, PRE-,
'cfnure,
POST', eartt
N"* Y"t lit",u'y a$ent invites sutmissions anttrropology, biological sciences'
in American history and materiai brr,noilgy. Tenable in residence at
regarJing Ameri"u" hittory' sciences, history of aft, history
of sclence and
tonures Yary'
the Smithsonian i6 research facilities' Stipends and
;d
with '"1[-aJJ'"""J' DeadlirP: January 15th annuallY
S"nJ letter J"sdbin$ proiect(s)' 'Tttl", itJ C*tt t Smithsonian lnstitution
rr"*p"i "t.r"lop"' A no fee agency'
send to: 'r"rsYb
gffi g;i*'x,:lf'ffi: 9ltrDesk H

J"k"Y H' H"rman Washin$on, DC 20560

Literary A€"cY' Inc' (202) 287 -3271
Th" I"ffH";;;
500 Greenwi"h St'"et' #501C without regard to .r:ce, color,
religion,
Awards are based upon merit,
N"w Yo,L, NY 10013 sex, nati onal origin,
oi condition-ot handicap of applicant'
(2r2) 94r-0540 "g",

PROGLAM
Harvard UniversitY FrvE COLLEGE TLOWSHII
s cHo LArt s
Foii =IN
M" oRITr
CHARLESWARREN CENTER -
th e F ia e C olle ge Co nsor
for Studies in American HistorY Lo c atedin w es t er n Massachuset t s,
Mouit Holyoke
tium is comprised of Aryiiii,"i{qipthi"'of Massachusetts'
1991.9 2FELLOWSHIPS and smith'i;ttrg;l and iiiuniaersity

The charres wanen center

will make six awards for 1991
of American history, broadly defined,
major research project -g fq
who are involved
whom locadon at Harvard or
useful. Sct oiu" of Americanhistory
-92to scholars
in some stage of a
in the Boston area
who are not' cidzens
* i*i,ltF$ iiIiff
**#jl;HH*il',''i':f':**ffi
wourd be puticuturty
orrhcunited+:":,I:::!l'.':,I:l:nru:f;',fjfflTff iL'i,Tillll: 1I I I