Thursday, 4 July 2013

The Reel History of America: Introduction

A film tour of the history of the United States of America? Why not? I don't even have to leave my home (the best kind of vacation*)!

There are a number of reasons why I chose to do a rather straightforward project like this - catch up on movies I've missed and haven't had a chance to see (e.g. Lincoln and Django Unchained), learn more facts about the United States for Jeopardy!, have an excuse to watch more movies, etc., etc. But the biggest factor is that I just love the history of the United States - its minutiae, the cast of strange and eccentric characters, reading about and stewing over its bad qualities. Even my hate is love! Because, if you'll forgive me for quoting Christopher Hitchens:

What a subject America [is]: an inexhaustible one, in fact, begun by written publications and assertions that were open to rewriting and revision and amendment, and thus constituting an enormous "work-in-progress," which one might hope to play a tiny part. 

And nobody - not even me, a Canadian with zero ties to the US of A other than a couple of pairs of jeans from a Lewiston outlet mall - loves American history more than the entertainment industry. Telling the stories of those who make up the 'work-in-progress', from the mightiest decision-makers to the tiniest of bit players, is good biz.

But the big-wigs also like a good story. And the problems surrounding a good story like Argo caught my attention.

I saw Argo opening weekend, and I enjoyed it. And while the film got rave reviews after its release, Ben Affleck's historical thriller came under close scrutiny leading up to and immediately following its Oscar win, and not just from Canadians who felt jilted at our nation's role being underplayed. What was true and what wasn't true suddenly made Argo not worth the gold it won, and Affleck was attacked from all corners for adding things to make the story- a very real story- more action-packed. The close call at the airport? Never happened. The Iranian security chase as the plane taxied off the Tehran runway with the six American hostages? Didn't happen either. Reading the Wired article the film is based on, you learn it certainly was tense for the Americans who managed to escape their besieged embassy during the Iranian revolution. But a minor, routine delay at the airport (what actually happened) isn't great for a story, so the facts were embellished.

The Globe and Mail came to Argo's quasi-defense: "Anyone who watches U.S movies should realize that there is often something very false in the depictions of people, society and history and, paradoxically, a reflection of something very true to the U.S mythos." There's a mindset you have to have going into and coming out of a movie: what you are about to see and/or just saw may have been based on reality, but it wasn't real. And to be fair, it is more than a little stupid to get your facts from mainstream films; crucial details are often changed, added, or omitted to ramp up the drama in every movie, not just Argo.

I think the only way of getting past this is always, always, always taking everything with a grain of salt. Like a screenwriting professor says in this Boston Herald article, "People going for a history lesson are going to the wrong place."

Unfortunately, people do get their history from the wrong place. For the longest time after seeing Amadeus, I thought that it was the real-life story of Mozart, and not until I got interested in the deeper story that I found out it was mostly BS (albeit very entertaining BS). If people don't get interested in the deeper stories (something that really isn't their responsibility, movies being entertainment after all), they'll come out with a wrong version of history.

So in the interest of setting the record straight (as much as one blogger can) and for the love of both cinema and American history,  I'll be watching movies that either tell the stories of the United States or reflect them, from the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the presidency of Barack Obama.

I'm going to try and concentrate on fictional films, and though documentaries are used as sparingly as possible (this is a project looking at America through fictional storytelling), movies like 2016: Obama's America and Fahrenheit 9/11 are about versions of reality that critics claim are the opposite of the reality, and thus have been criticized as fictional. Even if that means me clawing my eyes out watching those movies.

And the itinerary:
  1. 1492: Conquest of Paradise / Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
  2. The New World / Pocahontas 
  3. The Crucible 
  4. The Patriot
  5. 1776 
  6. The Alamo
  7. The Devil and Daniel Webster
  8. Amistad
  9. Gangs of New York
  10. Gods and Generals / Gettysburg
  11. Abe Lincoln in Illinois / Young Mr. Lincoln 
  12. Abraham Lincoln (1930 DW Griffith) / Lincoln
  13. The Birth of a Nation
  14. Jesse James (1939) / I Shot Jesse James (1949) / The True Story of Jesse James (1957) / The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  15. There Will Be Blood
  16. Inherit the Wind
  17. The Grapes of Wrath / Bound for Glory
  18. Public Enemies / Bonnie and Clyde / The Untouchables 
  19. Modern Times
  20. Pearl Harbor / Tora! Tora! Tora!
  21. U-571 
  22. The Great Escape / The Big Red One
  23. Red Tails / Miracle at St Anna
  24. The Great Dictator
  25. Dr. Strangelove 
  26. The Steel Helmet / M*A*S*H
  27. The Front / Guilty by Suspicion 
  28. Thirteen Days
  29. JFK / Bobby
  30. Mississippi Burning / Ghosts of Mississippi
  31. Malcolm X
  32. The Green Berets / Full Metal Jacket
  33. Born on the Fourth of July / Platoon / Heaven and Earth
  34. Easy Rider
  35. Nixon / All the President's Men / Dick / Frost/Nixon / Secret Honor
  36. Argo
  37. Red Dawn 
  38. Wall Street
  39. Do the Right Thing
  40. Jarhead / Three Kings
  41. Slacker
  42. Primary Colors
  43. The Straight Story
  44. W.
  45. United 93 / World Trade Center / Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close / 25th Hour
  46. The Hurt Locker / Zero Dark Thirty / Green Zone 
  47. Fahrenheit 9/11 / 2016: Obama's America
A great number of high-profile biopics and historical dramas have been omitted from this list, but I haven't forgotten them. I'll be using related movies as a springboard to the filmed version of history that includes the more serious fare. Believe me, if there's a movie about American history, I've got it on a list somewhere. I won't restrict this series to just the main entries though, so check back for other things I learn along the way!

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," says Maxwell Scott in The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance. And when legend becomes fact, print a lengthy blog post about why it isn't. Or is. Or maybe both.
*note: I do in fact like leaving my home for vacations.

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