US History Honors Assignment
Please write a synopsis of 4 films from differing time period explaining their historical relevance and any errors that you many see in it
presentation. The papers are to be typed, double spaced, #12 font Times News, and cite any outside sources that you used. These papers are to
be turned in the first day of class 1/22/2014.
Thank you
USA: Early Years
The Buccaneer (1938) –pirate hero Jean Lafitte, who aids American cause in Battle of New Orleans, War of 1812
The Buccaneer (1958) Andrew Jackson relies for help in the Battle of New Orleans on Lafitte
The President’s Lady (1953) Andrew Jackson criticized for his wife with a past
The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) trouble for Napoleon exiles in Demopolis, Alabama
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) mountain man who had his own personal war with the Crows
Mountain Men (1980) story of mountain men who led many of the settlers into the West
The republic of Texas and the Mexican-American War
The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1956) (TV) TV series based on the life of Jim Bowie
Texas (1994) history of Texas from its settlement via Stephen Austin to statehood
The Alamo (1960)
The Last Command (1955) Jim Bowie and the Alamo
Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987)
Bloody Kansas:
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) for vengeances joins “Bloody Bill” Anderson’s gang, a pro-southern gang of “outlaws”
Quantrill’s Raiders (1958) psychopathy leading outlaws with a pro-southern slant
Kansas Raiders (1950) Jesse James joins Quantrill’s Raiders
Dark Command (1940) Civil War Kansas; Quantrill’s Raiders
Ride with the Devil (1999) the war in bloody Kansas and Missouri
Seven Angry Men (1955) John Brown
Civil War Begins and Ends
Gods and Generals (2003) early Confederate victories: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville that led to excessive hubris in Gen. Lee
The Horse Soldiers (1959) set in Vicksburg campaign: John Ford and John Wayne
Gettysburg (1993) 1863 battle, high water mark of the Confederacy
Lincoln (2012) passage of the 13th amendment
Far and Away (1992) Irish immigrant makes his way across America
World War I
The Day that Shook the World (1977) events leading up to WW I
USA: 1920’s
Inherit the Wind (1960) 1925 Scopes Trial on evolution, Clarence Darrow vs. Wm. Jennings Bryan
The Great Gatsby (1949) F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tale of class snobbery among the rich
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Last Call (2002) biography of the mature F. Scott Fitzgerald
Spirit of St. Louis (1957) Lindbergh, first solo trans-Atlantic flight
Crime of the Century (1996) Lindbergh kidnapping trail
Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994) famous aviator
Cobb (1994) TV Cobb great baseball player
The Babe (1992) John Goodman
WWII and Cold War
October Sky
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) development of the atomic bomb
Good night and Good Luck –McCarthyism and journalists Edward R. Murrow
Civil Rights
Keep the Faith, Baby (2002) Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. pushes integration in New York State and elsewhere
Separate but Equal (1991) legal challenge of school segregation by NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall
The Road to Freedom: The Vernon Johns Story (1994) father of Civil Rights movement, predecessor of King in Montgomery, AL
Boycott (2000) MLK organizes the bus boycott
King: A filmed Record: Montgomery to Memphis (1970)
The Long Walk Home (1989) –Montgomery Bus Boycott
Vietnam War
Go Tell the Spartans (1978) early years of Vietnam War
The Great Berets (1968) early film in support of the Vietnam War
Backlash Nixon and the 1970’s
The Boys in Company C (1977) Vietnam War
The Anderson Platoon (1967) French documentary about American soldiers in Vietnam War
Nixon (1995)
All the President’s Men -Washington Post reporters track down Nixon and Watergate
The Pentagon Papers (2003) negative report on the War in Vietnam