Historically Inaccurate Film Analysis

Name: Steven
Date: Aug 16th 2013
091A Research Paper II

Can Historically Inaccurate Films Have Positive Effects on Education?

“Titanic” is one of the most famous films in the world, which is based on a real shipwreck mixed with fiction. About 2 years ago, My girlfriend and I saw the film and discussed the facticity of the film. Both of us thought that the film was a historical true story, because everything was perfect matched in the film and we could not find any mistakes in it. Nevertheless, what surprised me was that a research in Duke University found that there was a great deal of historical inaccuracies in the “Titanic” such as First Officer William Murdoch did not commit suicide on the ship, and he was believed to have
died in the water. Sharda Umanath (2012) who is the leader of this research states that historically inaccurate films can have negative effects on education, because “it can hurt students’ ability to separate truth from fiction” (p.1). However, based on the latest research, historically inaccurate films can also benefit students by increasing critical thinking, reducing the acquisition of false information, and encouraging students to learn more history. Firstly, watching and researching historically inaccurate movies promote students to think deeply and find the truth by themselves. Critical thinking is a way of gathering information from convinced evidence and deciding whether others’ opinions are true or false. It is a very important learning skill that helps students to think independently. Most teachers will practice it in their class. Eric Carlson (2007), a history professor in Gustavus Adolphus College, claims that historically inaccurate films can be used in the classroom to promote students to think more constructively and deeply about evidence. His examples came from a course that he taught on the Elizabeth I who was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death. At first, three different types of films about Elizabeth I were shown during the class. Then, he played a game of “Gotcha” in which every students need to find some historical mistakes in those films. At last, he discussed the errors and analyzed the films with his students. The results were something of a surprise. All of the films have wrong historical information. For instance, Elizabeth was too tough and professional in the film which is not true in history. However, Carlson (2007) explains that those historical inaccuracies are not bad for his teaching. The reason is that students learn from it and know how to deal with these problems, so their critical thinking capacity has increased. At the same time, Sharda Umanath, Andrew Butler and Elizabeth Marsh (2012) also suggests that “Student’s monitoring for misinformation in films is likely to increase the depth at which they process all of the materials, including accurate content in the films and the texts”(p.2). In other words, watching, teaching and studying historically inaccurate films really help students to think in several different ways. Therefore, historically inaccurate films positively affect education by improving students’ ability of independent thinking. Secondly, detecting inaccuracies in historical films help students to decrease the possibility of receiving misinformation and remember the truth. In general, students will attain a large number of historical information through the films. If no one compels them to analyze the truth of the films, they will just realize those information about history is true ,and take movies as a useful tool to memorize those gratuitous historical information. That is also the reason why so many people believe that historically inaccurate films are harmful to students. In order to solve the problem, Marcus (2005) states that “Successful detection may undermine the credibility of films as a source of correct historical information, making it less likely that students will acquire false knowledge from them”(p.2). If teachers can take advantage of historical inaccuracies to persuade their students that they should doubt any kind of unjustified information, it will be helpful in decreasing the acquisition of wrong information. By the way, if students can detect the truth of historically inaccurate films by themselves, they will be more likely to remember the accurate information because they generate the information independently. For example, one of my best friends who started to learn how to swim last year told me that he could not swim very well because he often forgot some crucial swimming skills. Then, he practiced a lot in a swimming pool, which helped him to remember all the skills tightly and became a very good swimmer. For the same reason, if students can keep the truth in their head, it will also reduce the influence of misinformation. In addition, the detection of wrong information in historically inaccurate films includes a warning about the presence of errors. Umanath, Butler and Marsh (2012) claims that “informing students about what information in the film is inaccurate (a ‘specific warning’) led to a reduction in the production of misinformation”(p.1). Accordingly, detecting errors in historically inaccurate films can have a positive effect on preventing the acquisition and retention of false information. Last but not least, historically inaccurate films stimulate student interest in history.
On one hand, historically inaccurate films usually are more attractive than historically accurate films, because inaccuracies events or stories which are created by directors can make the films more entertaining and dramatic. For example, “Saving Private Ryan” is another famous film which is based on a real story in the invasion of Normandy. The invasion of Normandy is a significant battle in the World War II. The film told a story about Ryan, and he was a soldier whose three brothers have died in the war. He is the only one son who is still alive in his family, so American government sent a small group of soldiers to rescue him from the battlefield of Normandy. However, the real story is no soldiers were sent to save Ryan. The director of the film changed the story and created a rescue operation, which attracted a lot of young people to see the film. Thus, students are more likely to have interests on historically inaccurate films. On the other hand, Borim Kim (2011) writes that “Having represented events in the past through actors, films stimulate the students’ motivation of and interest in learning”(p.2). It shows that historically inaccurate films can arouse the curiosity of students. If teachers use historically inaccurate films to teach history, it will be more interesting than textbook. Furthermore, Carlson (2007) also notes that his students are very interested in learning history from inaccuracies in historical films, because historical events and figures in films are more lively and easily to understand. In consequence, historically inaccurate films encourage students to learn much more historical
knowledge. In Summary, it is obvious that inaccuracies in historical films also have value in the study of history. Although historically inaccurate films have some negative effects on education, there is no thing wrong with historically inaccurate films. In fact, it is a valuable way to find the truth. Teachers should use it to stimulate students’ studying in history or other classes, because historically inaccurate films can affect students positively by improving their thinking ability, decreasing the influence of wrong information, and facilitating history education.

References
Carlson, E. (2007). Teaching Elizabeth Tudor with movies: film, historical thinking, and the classroom. Sixteenth Century Journal, 38(2), 419-428.
Marcus, S. (2005). “It is as it was”: Feature film in the history classroom. The Social Studies, 61-67.
Kim, B. (2011). A study on history education accompanied with movies: focusing on the Korean War in the history class. The 2011 Barcelona European Academic Conference. Retrieved from http://conferences.cluteonline.com.
Umanath, S. & Butler, A. & Marsh, E. (2012). Positive and negative effects of monitoring popular films for historical inaccuracies. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(4), 556-567.
Umanath, S. (2012). Historical inaccuracies in movies can hinder learning. Retrieved from http://today.duke.edu/2012/03/movieerrors.