Film History as a Tool
by cskinner65
For whatever reason, people tend not to think of films as historical documents. What’s odd about this though, is that movies are directly associated with when they were released. When we think of a movie, the first thing we think about is whether or not we liked it (obviously). After that though, we think about when we saw the film, and often, when it was released. When we describe films to people, we discuss the plot of the film, but often we add the year or decade that the film was released. Certain genres are even defined by the era in which they were released, such as ‘30s monster movies, the counter-culture films of the ‘70s, and the slasher flicks of the ‘80s.
As historians, we would be remiss if we dismissed the usefulness of films as historical documents. It’s common to hear students rejoice to learn “we watch a lot of movies” in a new class at the beginning of each semester, but movies present a unique way to study history. In just an hour and a half, we can learn much about a certain time period by watching a movie. We can watch A Knight’s Tale in order to learn about the culture of 14th century England. We can look at comedies released in the early 2000s and learn that people had no desire to see quality films. Movies posses a unique ability to make the audience interested in characters that can be hard to relate to. Geoffrey Chaucer is probably not an interesting person to people who aren’t interested in classic English literature. But in A Knight’s Tale, we care about Chaucer; we want Ulrich to cover his debts.
As with anything being interpreted as a historical source though, we must be careful what we accept as fact. Mel Gibson’s character in The Patriot is undeniably awesome. He is also undeniably made up. What Gibson’s character does throughout the film is actually a compilation of the works of multiple different soldiers.[1] Saving Private Ryan can be used as an examination of American patriotism, but it must be remembered that Steven Spielberg makes movies in order to make money, not to educate his audience about World War II.
Having knowledge of the history of film can be as useful to us, as historians, as using films as sources. By knowing how the movie industry developed, we are able to learn about people (speaking generally) in America. We can follow the way that people spent money at theaters and come to conclusions about how secure they felt economically at various times throughout history. We can examine the films being released, and the films being watched, and see what is socially acceptable in America at a certain time.
[1] The Patriot, DVD commentary
Sean Bean Always Dies 
Groovy post.
So here’s a random question/s: Why do you think the 1980s had so many slasher films? What do you think that said about people in the 1980s? Were we so comfortable in our yuppyism that we could bear the scary slash ’em up movies? What really drove the popularity of Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers movies?
It is strange how many people never really think of films as historical documents. I never did before this class, and I think that is because of the inaccuracies that many movies contain. As a general rule, most feature films contain few historical facts when it comes to specifics (like characters, events, etc.) But what they unfailingly contain, no matter what time period the film is set in, is the attitudes and feelings of the general public of the time they were released.