Within historical movies, there is much more underneath the surface that cannot be seen right in front of your eyes. The characters emotions, body language and possibly their thoughts must be analyzed in order to get a full understanding of the event that the character is living in. An example of this analytical thinking being required is during the movie Glory is when the soldiers of the 54th regiment were all huddled around the fire singing spiritual songs just days before battle. To someone who doesnt try to analyze this scene will only see just that. However, there is much more that you can learn from this scene, such as that the this is the moment that some of the soldiers such as Thomas, finally realize that they must depend on each other and not one of them is any better or worse than anybody else in that regiment. This is depected by passionate clapping and singing by Thomas who is also staring into a fire, thinking about not just himself, but the people that he must depend on all around him. Scenes such as these throughout any historical movie can provide a great deal of insight to the way that the men of that time period could and mostl likely would have felt. If seen in the right ways, these types of scenes can greatly increase analytical skills. Not only can analytical skills be increased by historical movies but your knowledge of historical events can also be increased as well.
Black Soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts regiment from Glory
Throughout historical movies there are many important historical events that happen that also happened in the real life. Many of the events depicted in movies are highly accurate but need to be shortened and usually only include the interesting parts to keep the audience engaged. For the filmmaker this is always a struggle and can be very impressive if pulled of correctly. An example of this being pulled of very well is in the movie I 12 Years a Slave where Ford is going throughout a slave market looking at all of the slaves for sale. The seller goes through them very quickly and only really takes a look at the interesting ones like the very big men or the kids. The seller also does not give Ford very much time to choose and its almost like Ford knows exactly who he wants right away. However, in real life as depicted by a Pennslyvania man in a slave market,much more thought would go into buying a slave by the buyer, they would take each slave off to the side and would have them stripped and would inspect them, having them do many physical tests such as running in place or walking smartly up and down and down from stands or stairs. The buyer would also be notified of their height, weight, and experience.In the the depiction from 12 Years a Slave, the process of buying a slave is much faster because of the filmakers need to keep the audience engaged and to only fit in the important moments from real life events that would have taken much longer whick maybe could have been fit into a book. The watcher, rather than the reader, will be able to get much more out of the shorter depiction than the much longer one because of the amount of details that would be packed into a short amount of time. Especially if further research is done to clear up any questions the watcher has after watching the movie.
Solomon and fellow slaves on the sugar cane plantation
It is possible to develop great analytical skills and explore real events, circumstances, and attitudes just by wathcing movies in a critical way, and doing some research. Movies are very powerful learning tool by their ability to cleary depict events that may be hard for some people to imagine. Analystical skills are greatly developed by watching historical movies because of the need to analyze certain scenes the clearly understand what they actually mean on the inside. Real events can also be explored very deeply because of the ways that movies fit so much important actions, details, and emotions into such a short time frame so that more information can be retained and interpreted. Not only are movies a good way that students can learn about historical events if they are watched in a critical and analytical way, they are one of the best ways to learn about events throughout history.
Work Cited
. "A Northerner Visits a Slave Market." Inside American History, 2007., .
Bruchko, Erica Ann. "Solomon Northup." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2016, americanhistory.abc-
clio.com/Search/Display/1839436. Accessed 27 Sept. 2016.
Canby, Vincent. "Review/Film Black Combat Bravery in the Civil War." New York Times. New York
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Newman, Jason. "Slavery." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2016, americanhistory.abc-
clio.com/Search/Display/263268. Accessed 27 Sept. 2016.
Williams, Charles H. "54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment." American
History, ABC-CLIO, 2016, americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1825050. Accessed 27
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