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Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
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Eric Johnson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:46:48 -0500
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Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
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Hi, Anita--

Thank you (and others) for your thoughtful replies!

As devil's advocate, I thought I might tug a bit at one thing you mentioned:
"Many people start to really learn about history as children by watching tv
or movies with historical themes."  Indeed, I absolutely agree--which is why
I'm not as concerned at historical inaccuracies on film, because to me the
chief virtue of historical films isn't their accuracy, it's how they serve
to hook people into a field that we each find so endlessly fascinating.

You went on to say, "From watching film, I wanted to learn more so I started
to read about it and got more detailed and accurate information."  That was
very much my story as well; my own personal experience has been that my
understanding of historical events hasn't suffered, because while the films
inspired me, I learned to look elsewhere for the detailed and accurate
information.

As a dark confession: I sometimes have the radical thought that no *real*
harm comes from inaccuracies in historical films: for those to whom history
means little anyway, it doesn't matter if it's accurate or not (it's likely
that their sense of historical events is very skewed no matter what they see
on screen)--whereas for those to whom history comes to mean much, they'll do
the work to find out the "real" story.  I place responsibility in the hands
of the larger historical and educational communities, rather than on
filmmakers, to encourage a broad sense of what makes history important, and
good, and real.

This shouldn't be seen as support for inaccuracy--on the contrary, I'd
always much MUCH prefer them to be accurate however and whenever they can be
(and am always willing to help them be so).  But I don't get bent out of
shape as an educator and historian when they "get it wrong," for the reasons
I outline above and in my earlier message--the primary one being that we
shouldn't look at an art form to be the basis for education.

And with that said, I'll hop off my little film canister box.  ;)

--Eric

Eric D. M. Johnson
Proprietor
The Village Factsmith Historical Research & Consulting
http://www.factsmith.com/
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Anita L. Henderson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: NYT praises "The New World," new version


> Dear Eric:
>
> I think historians and living historians like myself get heartburn
> watching
> Hollywood's attempts at historical interpretations is that they have such
> a
> wide audience and a lot of people take look at what appears on film as the
> truth!
>  Also so many people will go to movies rather than read poetry or go to
> the
> National Gallery of Art or MOMA, sad to say.   Many people start to really
> learn about history as children by watching tv or movies with historical
> themes.
> I know by personal experience that watching historical films got me
> interested in history specifically Civil War, Western and WW II.    From
> watching
> film, I wanted to learn more so I started to read about it and got more
> detailed
> and accurate information.

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