Watching films can help us enhance the way we learn because in this generation, many people watch films. The graph, “Cinema audience distribution in the United Kingdom (UK) as of 2014, by age and gender”, showed that 47% of people that watched movies were between the ages of 7-24. This matters because our generation of people watch a lot of movies rather than reading and learning from textbooks. Instead, we learn from watching films that have historic importance. Seixas did an experiment where he had students watch Dances with Wolves and The Searchers. Students found that Dances with Wolves was more accurate because it used modern techniques and promoted a contemporary interpretation of the past. Movies can help us learn about history because of the way that it enhances our learning style.
Movies like 300, Saving Private Ryan, Valkyrie, and etc. showed us what history was like back then. Saving Private Ryan showed us what World War II was about back then, specifically what happened on D-Day. The movie was also served as a reminder of the sacrifices Americans had made to help in the fight against the Nazi regime during WWII. This film was important because it showed us what happened during the Normandy invasion. The movie, 300, showed us what happened during the Battle of Thermopylae during 480-479 B.C. between the Spartans and the Persians. King Leonidas of Sparta and Xerxes 1 of Persia were real people during that time. It was also true that there were only 300 Spartans during the Battle of Thermopylae. 300 was an important movie because it showed us the final stand of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans during the Battle of Thermopylae. Another film that showed us what history was like was the movie Valkyrie. The movie was based on the July 20th plot by German officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country. Claus von Stauffenberg, played by Tom Cruise, was one of the leading members of Operation Valkyrie. That plan failed and he was executed for trying to kill Hitler. This film was important because it showed us how there were some German soldiers that wanted Hitler dead. This ties to how films can help us learn about history because it showed us what history was like back then.
Some films have historically inaccurate information, which can be dangerous to films that show us what happened in the past. One such film that we have all seen was Forrest Gump. Some information from that movie was true and false. One part that was false was where Forrest Gump was talking about how he was named after the Civil War hero Nathaniel Bedford Forrest. That information was historically inaccurate because NBF was also the leader of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). When Forrest was younger, he did not teach Elvis Presley how to dance like he did for the music video of Hound Dog. Another part from the movie that was historically inaccurate was the part where Forrest picks up the notebook that one of the students from the Little Rock Nine dropped. This film was important and historical because it introduced us to the fictional character of Forrest Gump and how he had lived through the Vietnam War, the Hippie Movement, the Black Panther Party, the Watergate Scandal, Ping Pong Diplomacy, and etc.
Films can help us learn about history because it enhances the way learn about history through visual effects; it showed us what history was like in 300, Saving Private Ryan, and Valkyrie; and how dangerous it can be to have false information for a historic film. I say that films can help us learn about history because I learned a lot from watching 300, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, and Valkyrie.
