Dakota Bush

History – Film Essay

          Certain movies, although some may be irrelevant to education, can teach us about history and greatly improve our understanding of historical events. This is shown in movies such as Glory, or 12 Years a Slave, both of which our class had watched while at Randolph. People may argue that movies cannot teach students about history, that movies contain altered information, resulting in an incorrect understanding of the given historical events. But while historical movies may contain a slight difference or alteration of specific events, overall, they teach us about the big picture that the movie is based upon.

          In the movie Glory, a white male by the name of Colonel Shaw instructs a group of black men, all of which voluntarily joined the military, to prepare for their roles in the Civil War. Colonel Shaw takes responsibility for these soldiers, and accepts his fate that if he is captured, he will be executed for commanding a unit of black soldiers. After everyone accepts the fact that they would rather die on their feet than die on their knees, they take the fight to the enemy, where they end up losing the battle with all of the soldiers being killed, including Colonel Shaw. Through this movie, I discovered that even though these men understood that they were either going to win the battle or die trying, none of them fled the regiment, and no one backed down. Grand displays of courage and bravery are depicted throughout the entire movie, beginning with the black men joining the military, and ending with them in the final fight against the enemy. Even throughout the final scenes of the movie, when the flag bearer in the battle is shot and killed, another man takes the flag while rallying his troops to move forward, as he is also shot and killed. This movie taught me a great deal about courage and bravery, showing me that even though the odds may be against you and the obstacles that you must overcome may seem too difficult for you to cross, you must be strong and persistent in your battles against fear and eventually you will win them.

          In the movie 12 Years a Slave, a violinist by the name of Solomon Northup is sold into slavery by two of his friends. Through the long journey of being a slave, he realizes that he can barely trust anyone, and that he must do and say as he is told. He must not say his real name, where he came from, or that he was originally a free man. He may only act as a slave, for that is the only thing that he is allowed to be. Through this movie, I learned many things, varying from Solomon’s fight for freedom, to the harshness and cruelty of America’s original sin; slavery. I never understood exactly how rough and terrible it was to be a slave until I saw this movie. But through Solomon’s terrible turn of events, and after 12 years of being a slave and being constantly beaten, harassed, and patronized, he eventually wins his fight for freedom, where he returns to his family and lives the next several years as a free man.

          Throughout many historical movies, with these two just being a small percentile of the hundreds that are out there, historical education is taught to the audience. Whether or not specific events may be differentiated or changed, the big picture is always understood, and it can teach us many new and different aspects of historical events.