1. How to Evaluate a Historical Feature Film

2. Grading Responses

3. Some (confusing) criteria historians use in evaluation of historical feature films accuracy of detail use of original documents and interviews consulting with a professional historian type/nationality/looks of actors appropriate music “ poetical and metaphorical ” use of historical details: Robert Rosenstone: anachronisms and “ displaced facts ” are ok, as long as the film ’ s interpretation “ rings true ” as a result (Example: Born on the 4 th of July, where events shown as happening at University of Syracuse actually happened at several other universities.)

4. Historical film that presents history without anachronism: The Return of Martin Guerre A film about an impostor who takes place of a husband who goes to war. The film takes place in a 16th-century French village. Natalie Zemon Davis, a professional historian of France, consulted on the film. Her book was the basis for the film. But: Natalie Zemon Davis was criticized for her book anyway, because both the book and the movie speculated about the motives behind the wife ’ s acceptance of her fake husband--her critic argued that Davis produced an unverifiable “ feminist ” interpretation

5. Historical film that aroused protests of French historians despite its historical veracity: Danton (dir. Andrzei Wajda, 1983) A film about the French Revolution, where Danton ’ s execution during the Terror is used as a metaphor for communist repressions in Eastern Europe French historians attacked the film as a misinterpretation of the history of the French Revolution But: Andrzei Wajda was more interested in communism in Poland than in revolutionary France

6. Historical film comedy that does not try to be factual yet was lauded for authenticity: The Front (dir. Woody Allen, 1976) A film about blacklisted screenwriters in 1950s United States where Woody Allen plays a gambler who submits screenplays written by his blacklisted friends. Nobody expected a comedy to be realistic But: Woody Allen used many actors who were blacklisted during the 1950s so his film is often used by historians teaching McCarthyism

7. Jackson, “The Perfect Informant” Later, Stewart told me that some of the men in the veteran's group had figured Jim for a phoney several months before it all unraveled and that one had seen some official records that said Jim had spent his entire overseas time in Germany and that he'd left the military under a cloud. He asked one of the group's leaders why they didn't say anything. 'He was doing such a good job calling campus attention to veteran's problems,' the vet said, 'that we thought we'd wait a while.' Not long ago I ran into a vet who had been in my classes some years ago, a fellow who was still around the fringes of the university trying to get a degree. He is less crazy than when I'd first known him, but he's still a spooky guy. I asked him if he had known Bennett. 'Sure,' he said. I asked if he'd known that Bennett was a phoney, 'Sure,' he said. He'd been a Green Beret himself and he'd been at one or two of the places Jim said he'd been, so he knew Jim was making it up. 'Why didn't you blow the whistle on him?' 'Wasn't doing me any harm. And he told such great stories. I loved listening to him tell those goddamned stories. I mean, I was there and I couldn't tell stories like that guy.'

8. Reasons for stories “I told them that my point was that stories weren't just facts, they were also strategies … we ought to be looking behind the narration for the reasons a particular story has a particular power.” Bruce Jackson, “The Perfect Informant” “They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness. Greased, they'd say. Offed, lit up, zapped while zipping. It wasn't cruelty, just stage presence. They were actors and the war came at them in 3-D. When someone died, it wasn't quite dying, because in a curious way it seemed scripted, and because they had their lines mostly memorized, irony mixed with tragedy, and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself. They kicked corpses. They cut off thumbs. They talked grunt lingo. They told stories about Ted Lavender's supply of tranquilizers, how the poor guy didn't feel a thing, how incredibly tranquil he was.” Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”