Research & Scholarship

TEACHR Dealing with historical movies in the History and English classroom

Daniel Reynaud Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Avondale College, NSW

Abstract which shape the nature of its historical dialectic. Movies based on historical events can be of Despite the problems, historical movies can be a value to the teacher of History and English. very rich resource for History and English teachers Unlike documentaries however, they are not who know how to use them. To make the most of used as much as they might be in the History historical fi lms, we need to consider the relationships classroom, because as essentially fi ctional between three areas: history, fi ction, and fi lm. texts, they pose problems of interpretation for the historian. Given a correct understanding History and fi ction of how history and cinema interact, and how David Lowenthal’s book The past is a foreign the cinema differs as a historical source from country1 contains the best concise coverage of the conventional records, the History teacher can issues of history and fi ction. In the chapter Knowing make the most of movies as texts that reveal the past, he argues that the past is alien—the not so much what happened in history, but foreign country of his metaphor. Both the historian rather the importance of the event to later and the fi ction writer give us access to the past by generations. Senior English teachers, who making its foreignness familiar, by explaining it in face the challenge of teaching the nature of terms of the present, and by giving it structure and representation in various texts, could also fi nd shape. Contrary to the claims of some historians, a better understanding of history and cinema who set themselves up as telling the truth, their useful. Movies are sources that allow the student work can never simply record the past; it always to explore issues of bias, representation and provides a construct of the signifi cance of the past. interpretation, and they have the added potential This involves a process of selection of evidence advantage of being texts that are intrinsically and a weighing of value. As such it always involves interesting to students. interpretation, which inevitably brings into play the writer’s own perspectives, ideology and inherent Introduction biases. Historians undertake a selective shaping, Historical While the use of documentaries is common in clarifying, tidying and elucidating in order to provide movies offer the History classroom, an under-used potential a coherent knowledge of the past. This is always “a compelling resource is movies based on historical events. done through hindsight, through giving the past a narrative Senior English teachers have a slightly different structure and signifi cance which was not there when which can challenge in meeting syllabus needs on the nature the events were happening. Inevitably, the historian engage the of texts in different and media, especially in orders the past according to the framework of the interest of the Advanced course, section C, Representation present. Thus each age writes history according to students in and Text. Historical movies have the advantage its own concerns. This of course removes the notion ways that of offering a compelling narrative which can that history is an absolutely true record of the past. written texts engage the interest of young History and English It does, however, give some light on the past, and might not students in ways that written texts or conventional approximates the truth.2 pedagogic methods might not. However, historical The debate between historians over the nature movies present a number of issues which must of history has continued, especially as post-modern be understood and addressed before their benefi t approaches have shaken the certainty that perhaps ”can be maximised in the classroom. The primary infl uenced older writers. Some scholars have concern of movie makers is the box-offi ce; their fi lms emphasised how the boundaries between history must work as cinematic entertainment fi rst, to which and fi ction have been far less distinct than historians the demands of history must be subjected, or run the might have acknowledged in the past. Hayden White, risk of producing a worthy but dull movie. Cinema for example, argues that history is essentially the itself has particular codes and generic limitations same as fi ction through history’s use of types

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and narrative frames which impose on history a mythic signifi cance of those events for the culture fi ctive orderliness and purposefulness absent in the that upholds them. events themselves. Others, like Noel Carroll, have As we have seen, the relationship between countered White by insisting that while historians history and fi ction is often problematic. Many works select and shape using literary conventions, their of historical fi ction and fi lm inhabit a grey area Historical work is still distinct from that of fi ction writers between the discipline of history and the freedom fi lm inhabits because of the need for historians to remain faithful of expression of fi ction, a territory that Lowenthal a grey area to standards of external and (relatively) objective terms “faction”. He describes it as “a compromise “between the evidence that do not apply to writers of fi ction.3 that claims the virtues of both while accepting discipline However, the dilemma is most evident in the genre the limitations of neither”. He notes the tendency of history of historical fi ction, which owes something to the for television history to indulge in this, claiming and the traditions of both history and fi ction. adherence to the facts while freely inventing, adding freedom of Historical fi ction, like history, strives for perceptively that “visual images are more convincing expression verisimilitude to give readers a feel for the period. than written accounts”. The power of faction lies of fi ction But where the historian is forbidden either to invent particularly in the popular belief that history is the or to overlook relevant material, historical novelists facts, the objective truth, the reality of the past. By are free to invent or ignore characters, motives, imitating history’s fi delity to detail and authenticity, and events as best suits their purpose. Novelists faction is able to pass off its inventions and 5 ” may recreate the past without the obligation to be ideological stances as truth. fair or objective. This subjectivity allows fi ction to explore elements of the past that a historian cannot Truth, realism and fi lm properly contemplate—the hidden and unrecorded, Film and television present a particular diffi culty in particularly of motive and character. Arguably, the this area, because of cinema’s habitual imitation historical novelist offers more in some respects of reality. In the fi rst instance, the camera mimics than the historian, because the novel brings the human eyesight by recording events in a way that is past to life. Historians may dispute the implication similar to how we see them in real life. The camera that they do not bring the past to life, but they must does this by its very nature, as opposed to painting concede that they work within tighter constraints for instance, where the artist is not bound to record than novelists, for whom invention is a legitimate a literal image of the subject. The authenticity resource. of fi lm is further heightened by the use of realist Like history, written and cinematic historical cinema codes such as realistic sets and costumes, fi ction speaks to the present, but uses the past chronological time, and editing techniques, which to address contemporary issues. There are four cloak the constructed nature of fi lm in a naturalistic motives for moving present issues into the past. The disguise. This reality is so persuasive that some war fi rst is to use the past to authenticate authority in the journalists, for example, have measured the reality present, in much the same way as successive recent of actual combat by how closely it corresponded Australian Prime Ministers Paul Keating and John to what they had seen in movies. Further, fi lm may Howard have evoked the Anzac Legend to legitimise appear real because it offers an emotional world their actions or policies. The second is more that viewers can relate to. Even melodramatic subversive, exposing unpalatable present truths soap operas or non-naturalistic cartoons may through the safety valve of a setting in the past. be rated realistic by viewers who recognise their The third is an escape into nostalgia, seeking a lost own personal confl icts in the heightened of golden age, again in the manner of Howard evoking television. The problem is that fi lms often appear as Australian values that he feared new generations unmediated refl ections of the truth, whereas in fact might be losing, and the fourth is the search for they always construct a truth. Contrary to popular origins to discover the foundations of a civilisation belief, the camera always lies. It always takes a point or culture, as with many of the brashly nationalistic of view, and infl uences through what it reveals or Australian period fi lms of the 1980s.4 These motives leaves out of the frame. Lighting, camera angle, shot imply an engagement between the novel or the size, fi lm stock and other technical aspects further movie and national myths, with the text acting either add bias to the apparently objective image. To make to affi rm or deny the validity of the myths. the most of historical movies, we need to identify As documents addressed to the present, what version of reality they construct, and by what historical fi lms are indicators of what a nation’s means fi lmmakers authenticate that reality. fi lmmakers consider to be important historical events Historical fi lms go one step further in identifying and values for their own times. Hence a study of themselves as truthful. fi lms characteristically historical fi ction fi lm offers useful insights into the anchor themselves to some referent, some cultural

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code such as genre which allows us quick access as history. So, in using movies in the classroom, to its meanings. The genre characteristics of the we need to identify the external referents used to , for example its incredible sharp-shooting authenticate their view of history. heroes, are widely recognised, regardless of their Hence, historical fi ction fi lms blur the distinction lack of correlation with reality, but few, if any, between fact and metaphor to varying degrees, confuse these codes with reality. but the apparent truthfulness of a fi lm will depend The history fi lm, however, uses a referent of to a large extent on the relationship it constructs a different nature. By borrowing the trappings of between the historical world and its story. Historical events generally known to have happened in the range across a spectrum from fi ctions past, historical fi lms use as their referent something to factions. The latter adopt various strategies to external to the creative processes, something that authenticate their truthfulness. The classic American existed before the movie. Therefore audiences fi lm, (1915), has moments of re- tend to give it an objectivity and actuality that genre enactment which aim to recapture on fi lm historical codes cannot match. The existence of genre codes events which preceded the camera, and takes them depends entirely on the literary and cinematic very seriously, giving them elaborate footnotes in Griffi ths felt fi ctions of writers and fi lmmakers, but the past the inter-titles. D. W. Griffi ths, the director, felt that that fi lms like exists as cultural and historical capital, regardless in the future fi lms like his would replace history his would of and independent of the arts (although it survives books, and people would be able to see objective “replace in popular consciousness through the mediation history as it was, without the confusion of differing history of historians and artists), and this independence historical opinions. While historians and fi lm books, and lends considerable authenticity and realism to the scholars take issue with the simplistic view of that people historical fi lm. era, people today can still confuse historical movies would be The nature of documentary fi lms helps us with history. At the other end of the spectrum, some able to see understand the issue of referents more clearly. Bill fi lms merely adopt a historic setting in which to objective Nichols argues that the external referent separates enact their acknowledged fi ctions, while other fi lms history fi ction from documentary, saying that the fi ction fi lm position themselves at various points in between. as it was, bears a metaphoric resemblance to reality, whereas But regardless of where fi lms position themselves, without the the documentary is perceived more as a replica the best that historical movies can do is to give an confusion than a likeness. “Instead of a world, we are offered image, an interpretation, rather than a defi nitive view. of differing access to the world.”6 He states that the fi lming of a historical death in a documentary means that an actual death Cinema as historical text opinions took place; in fact not just a death, but the death that Fiction fi lm presents additional problems for the was portrayed. A death in a fi ction fi lm, however, historian generally unaccustomed to working with indicates an event that has only occurred within the moving images. Historians typically expect more discourse of the fi lm. In making a distinction between from fi lm than it can deliver. One hazard is the ”the metaphor of fi ction and the indexical nature of sequential nature of the medium, where event documentary, Nichols quotes Jerry Kuehl as saying: follows event, without time for the viewer to stop and refl ect. Hence fi lm gravitates towards narrative At the heart of documentaries lie truth claims, rather than analysis, and atmosphere rather than and these claims are based on arguments and evidence. Did Khrushchev ever lose his temper in fact. It is very poor at abstract ideas. This does not public? Film of him banging his shoe on the desk at mean that historical drama is free of interpretation; the U.N. may not convince everyone; fi lm of Telly indeed it tends to be more expansive and explicit Savalas wearing the Order of Lenin and banging in its interpretations than does history because it is a desk on the set at Universal City will convince no-one.7 less obligated to correspond to the known evidence. But it does so through the force of emotional rather This is only partly true, for what needs to be than rational persuasion. remembered is that Telly Savalas, while not the Characteristically fi lms are more cryptic and index of truth, still bears a closer relationship to simplistic in dealing with historical complexities; the historical world than another fi ction fi lm which written histories, which allow for variable-paced might have invented an event by a Soviet President reading, re-reading and refl ection, are more likely that never occurred. Because Khrushchev actually to represent the complexity of reality. Alternate banged his shoe, Savalas’ performance has greater possibilities are usually ignored in fi lms, where potency. Thus the metaphor of the historical fi lm cause and effect are usually simply and directly is a much stronger signifi er of the actual than the linked, giving history a certain air of inevitability. metaphors of most fi ction fi lms, which is what This is generally forced on fi lm-makers because of makes historical fi lms so powerful and persuasive the limited time they have to present their subject

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(usually around two hours and rarely more than means that fi lmmakers must ensure that their three), and because greater complexity has the product will reach the largest possible audience. potential to confuse the viewer, who is forced to Filmmakers make what they think will sell, and often watch usually at a single pace and without pause. draw their subject matter and their perspectives Historians are rarely allowed such simplicity, having from popular literature. If this is at the expense of to juggle a multitude of contributing factors with a thorough research and historical accuracy, then host of possible outcomes. Historical fi lm rarely so be it. In the end it is the producer who bears questions its sources, usually offering a superfi cial responsibility for the failure of the fi lm; historians view of events. At best, fi lm can offer multiple rarely have to face up to the commercial realities of readings of a single event by showing it through fi lm and television. It is true that historians often have the eyes of various witnesses, a technique which to accommodate the fi nancial considerations of book is growing in popularity in fi ctional fi lm, but is yet publishers, but historical works can be published to have a big impact on historical movie making. economically, often with grants of a few thousand Perhaps its best recent incarnation is in the two fi lms dollars, to specialised audiences in a way that is of Clint Eastwood, Flags of our fathers (2006) and virtually impossible for the cinema. Even fi ction can Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), which offer empathetic be published relatively cheaply in comparison to the American and Japanese perspectives on the battle multi-million dollar budgets of the average movie. for the island in 1945. Besides, cinematic histories are not about Movies are Some historians are annoyed at the conveying information but about sharing some of not intended simplifi cations of fi lm history, but this overlooks the the passion and enthusiasm of the producer for as precise fact that the various media have different strengths the subject. Movies are not intended as precise “historical and weaknesses in communication. The moving historical documents, and for historians to worry documents; image is relatively weak in conveying abstract ideas, about ‘mistakes’ is a mistake itself. Often a factual often a such as class confl ict, but can express with great error is deliberately used to create an appropriate factual emotional power a particular instance of that confl ict mood, as happened in the 1969 movie The Battle of error is through a narrative revolving around individual Britain, where a Luftwaffe offi cer gives a Nazi salute deliberately characters. Hence fi lm’s tendency is always towards instead of a military one. The effect transformed used to the particular, rather than the general. The manner an otherwise dull scene by highlighting confl icting create an in which fi lms generalise is through the portrayal ideologies, but famed German ace and historical appropriate of individuals who act as representative types advisor General Adolf Galland stormed off the set mood already familiar to the audience, usually drawn in protest at the travesty of the facts.9 In any case from well-known genres or national mythology. historical fi lms should not be watched for the history These particular characters, through their mythic they purport to show, but for what they can tell associations, implicitly embody a generalisation. So, us about the values of the society that made and ” when using historical movies, we need to identify the watched them. use of types, and their mythological origin, and what The problem of historical accuracy still exists, generalisations they stand for. however, for while teachers may recognise the Another problem for historians is what is tenuous relationships between history, fi lm, and perceived as the errors that fi lms perpetrate. As truth, students are often not so discriminating. As we have observed, the very nature of fi lm means we have seen, fi lmmakers adopt many strategies that history must be simplifi ed, and this is where to make their fi lms more credible, and when these some ‘errors’ occur. In a fi fty minute documentary, a are overtly or implicitly given the label of ‘truth’ or commentary must be no longer than 1500 words or “true story”, they are often read as being true in else the audience: every respect. A university tutor commented to the author about how diffi cult it was to get her fi rst year Will be repelled, not informed. The consequences students to read about the Gallipoli campaign—they of this may be quite sobering to an academician: it is that whatever the writer wishes to say ought felt they already knew the facts because they had to be said in the equivalent of … a fi fteen-minute seen Peter Weir’s fi lm Gallipoli. lecture. There is no way around this. If he tries to Similarly, distinguished journalist Sir Simon say more his audiences will understand less.8 Jenkins took issue with four popular historical fi lms of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Shadowlands, Film’s principal mode of communication is through In the name of the Father, JFK, and Schindler’s list, its images; historians trained in the written word for deliberately dressing fi ction as fact. He admired constantly evaluate what is said and are unfairly the fi lms as fi lms, and acknowledged the right of critical. fi lmmakers to invent, and the power of “falsity [to] Furthermore, the high cost of fi lm production tell [its] own sort of truth”, but deplored the way

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in which “the fi lm business should no longer be to discuss. Films invite us to ask: How did this event able to tell a lie from a truth”. His argument was affect people emotionally? Most of all, discerning with fi lmmakers who say, as the director of In the teachers can use movies to motivate students to name of the Father, Jim Sheridan, did, “I can’t draw interrogate the evidence, to question why a particular conclusions, I can only put the facts as I know them”. representation emerged. As part of the syllabus Jenkins added: “But he puts facts that he knows to requires students to investigate issues of bias and be untrue”, then listed the distortions the fi lm made.10 representation, and question the nature of evidence, His opposition was not to fi lmmakers distorting, but fi lms can be a stimulating way of studying potentially to those who then insisted that their fi lms were still dull historiography and textuality. Oh, and one last the truth, rather than acknowledging them to be word: as documents, movies can also be a lot of fun. fi ctional re-presentations of historical events. His TEACHR argument was that, by passing off distortions and outright inventions as reality, these fi lmmakers used Daniel Reynaud lectures in, and has published the same techniques they so often deplored in the books and articles on, the interaction of history, villains of their fi lms—using lies for political and fi ction and fi lm. His most recent book is Celluloid personal advantage. This is a valid point. Films that Anzacs: The Great War through Australian cinema deal with factual topics are dishonest if they adopt (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2007). strategies that conceal their constructed nature and fi ctitious elements. It is no point arguing the right Endnotes of literary constructs to manipulate and invent if 1 David Lowenthal. (1985). The past is a foreign country. they have passed themselves off in the guise, not Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. of fi ction, but of truth, reality and fact. There is, of 2 Lowenthal, 235-237. course, no problem with fi lms taking an ideological stance; in fact not only is it virtually unavoidable, it 3 Hayden White, “The historical text as literary artifact,” Noel is one of the key functions of fi ction to raise moral, Carroll, “Interpretation, history, and narrative,” in Brian Fay et al. (1998). History and theory: Contemporary readings. Malden, MA: ethical and philosophical issues. The problem Blackwell. is when fi lmmakers and promoters insist on the 4 Leger Grindon. (1994). Shadow on the past: Studies in the objectivity of their portrayal, that their philosophy historical fi ction fi lm. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1-3. and morals are the only truth on the subject. In using historical fi lms in a teaching context, we need to 5 Lowenthal, 229-231. ask what claims to truthfulness they make, and how 6 Bill Nichols. (1991). Representing reality: Issues and concepts in those claims are received by their audiences. documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 109. Italics in original.

The most Conclusion 7 Nichols, 115-116. valuable use In effect, the most valuable use of historical movies 8 Jerry Kuehl, “History on the public screen II,” in Paul Smith (ed). of historical is not so much as documents about the events, (1978). The historian and fi lm. Cambridge: Cambridge University “ but as documents about the signifi cance of the Press, 177. Italics in original. movies is not so much as events for the culture that made the fi lms. American 9 Leonard Mosley. (1969). Battle of Britain: The making of a fi lm. documents movies about the Civil War or the Vietnam War London: Pan Books, 102-105. about the may be poor sources of fact and chronology, but 10 they are fascinating testimonies to the attitudes of Simon Jenkins, “Picture the false impression,” Australian. 22 events, April 1994. but as Americans towards those confl icts at the time the documents fi lms were made. Similarly, fi lms about the convict about the era or Gallipoli reveal more about why these events References are important to Australians than they may tell us Carnes, Mark C. (ed). (1996). Past imperfect: History according to signifi cance the movies. London: Cassell. of the events about the actual period. The teacher of History or Fay, Brian, Philip Pomper, and Richard T. Vann (eds). (1998). for the English will ask students to consider the attitude of a History and theory: Contemporary readings. Malden, MA: Blackwell. culture that movie to its subject. What interpretation does it offer Grindon, Leger. (1994). Shadows on the past: Studies in the made the of the event? How does it connect the issues of the historical fi ction fi lm. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. fi lms past with current concerns? Older historical movies Lowenthal, David. (1985). The past is a foreign country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. often reveal shifts in social attitudes. Compare for Nichols, Bill. (1991). Representing reality: Issues and concepts in example the representations of gender roles and documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ethnic minorities in older fi lms. They offer revealing Reynaud, Daniel. (2007). Celluloid Anzacs: The Great War through Australian cinema. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly ”evidence about historical change. Movies also offer Publishing. interpretations about the emotional signifi cance of Smith, Paul (ed). (1978). The historian and fi lm. Cambridge: events, which history frequently lacks the evidence Cambridge University Press.

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