What if Wednesday
Hollywood Got History Right?
Peter S. Field
University of Canterbury
Been to a Film lately? Expectations?
Entertained?
Same Expectations
for
Historical Films?
Accuracy?
Authenticity?
Twelve Years a Slave
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Argo
American Hustle
Does it Matter?
Would you not buy a
ticket if I told you …
“Based on a true story”
The bottom line is $$$.
Should it Matter if …
It matters to me.
Millions of Eyeballs
Morality
Ethics
…got what right?
Authenticity and Accuracy??
Right? Mimesis & Audience
assumptions?
Spielberg
&
Day-Lewis’
Lincoln
Twang!
Celluloid History: Forrest Gump
“’Immense:’ Not just a love story”
Right or wrong,
History sells.
Oscar for Best Film
2013 - "12 Years a Slave"
1990 - "Dances With Wolves"
2012 - "Argo"
1986 - "Platoon"
2010 - "The King's Speech"
1984 - "Amadeus"
2009 - "The Hurt Locker"
1982 - "Gandhi"
2002 - "Chicago"
1972 - "The Godfather"
1998 - "Shakespeare in Love"
1970 - "Patton"
1997 - "Titanic"
1966 - "A Man for All Seasons"
1995 - "Braveheart"
1962 - "Lawrence of Arabia"
1994 - "Forrest Gump"
1993 - "Schindler’s List"
1959 - "Ben-Hur"
Getting history right?
No out-there truth.
History: indirect, incomplete, valueladen & must be structured
Perspective.
A Hollywood perspective?
Hollywood is (a metonym)

American

Capitalistic empire

Filmmaking industry
As filmmaker, Hollywood … creates
AND reflects tastes
Racial attitudes of Segregation Era
 Liberal Consensus of ‘40s & 50s
 Fracturing of 1960s
 Democratic, Left-liberal critique of
post-Vietnam America
… changes over time.

Era of Jim Crow Segregation
Hattie McDaniel
War Ideology for the ‘40s
Liberal consensus of the ‘50s
1960s
Vietnam
War
Increasingly Democratic, Left-liberal
tradition…(exposing the American
underbelly)
Changing Perspectives: Race
… In the Age of Obama
… got history right?
Overlap of ‘history’ and ‘story’
Right? Detail over Interpretation
But upon examination: Argo
… got history right?
No more job for the professor?
... Our shared interest in provocation,
the courtship over consummation.
… interest in ourselves.