Do Historical Films help or hinder our understanding of the past? Discuss with reference to one or more films.

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Mark-James Fisher        History          Module 1002: Presenting and Representing the Past     Essay 1    

Dr. Mark Sandle                                    

“Do Historical Films help or hinder our understanding of the past?”  Discuss with reference to one or more films.

Historical films help our understanding of the past because they enhance our knowledge of past events in ways that are more accessible than written sources; however, historical films also hinder our understanding of the past because feature films based on historical events are merely for entertainment purposes. Historians are divided as to whether historical films help or hinder our understanding of the past. Alan Munslow argues that historical films hinder our understanding of the past as he suggests how films are “at worst an inventive entertainment that can only do permanent injury to our understanding of the past.” However, alternatively, Robert A. Rosenstone agrees that historical films help our understanding of the past as he argues that “a feature film can provide a construction of the past as legitimate as a book written by an academic historian.”

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall (Der Untergang) are two films that illustrate how historical films both help and hinder our understanding of the past.  

Spielberg’s Schindler’s List helps our understanding of the past because the producers choice of a film in black and white rather than colour, allows Spielberg to create a realistic atmosphere, and thus places us into this dimension of memory. 

Spielberg’s Schindler’s List hinders our understanding of the past as although the use of black-and-white cinematography reminds us of commemoration and memory, this also distorts public memory as the film tries to be too realistic as a feature film. The critic Bratu Hansen furthermore supports this as he suggests that  “by posing as the ‘real thing’ the film usurps the place of the actual event.” 

Furthermore Schindler’s List hinders understanding of past events as there is a scene in the film illustrating Oskar Schindler’s preference for Jewish workers to work for his company rather than polish workers.  It must be remembered that the Holocaust was universal and that other ethnic minorities such as gypsies, poles, homosexuals and Slavs had suffered due to Nazi policies.  The critics, Geoff Eley and Atina Grossmann furthermore support this as they illustrate “the film has no context for understanding Nazism.” As varying social groups do not appear or are not mentioned in Schindler’s List, this suggests the film’s misinterpretation of Nazism’s victims.

 Spielberg’s film  can also hinder our understanding of the past as, like other films portraying historical events, this film is a product of Hollywood, and therefore could be seen to entertain us. This is further illustrated by the critic Miriam Bratu Hansen who argues that likewise with Spielberg’s other major blockbuster movies that he attempts to turn the holocaust into a theme park. 

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Hirschbiegel’s Downfall may help our understanding of the past because we see that the producer, Eichinger, attempts to portray the film by illustrating the End of the Third Reich as (in Leopold von Ranke) how it really happened. 

Downfall further benefits our understanding of the past as Eichinger portrays Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz) as the ‘human being’ rather than a ‘monster’. The critic, Tudor Georgescu, agrees that the depiction of Hitler’s humanity in Downfall could help us to understand the past as he argues that “An approachable Hitler may, therefore, better help a broad audience to understand the origins of National ...

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