United States History

Jackson Pearson

September 12, 2014

Mrs. Lawson

USH Essay

Movies as a Teaching Material is not Bogus

Although it is quite unusual to have watch two movies by mid-quarter, my previous history teacher used movies as a way of showing the feelings and the atmosphere of a historical period. For instance, she showed us the movie Glory and the movie 12 Years a Slave to portray the events that occurred during the time of slavery. Glory and 12 Years a Slave helped us learn about slavery by showing us how the slaves were treated, how the owners had sympathy, and how slaves had empathy toward each other. The movies both conveyed the same feelings that people had for slaves, both movies had close to the same ideas about how slavery was treated and handled.

The Historical movies that my teacher showed us in class had completely different plot, Glory, based on slavery during the Civil War, 12 Years a Slave, based on a kidnapped slave placed in a cotton field. Both these films are accurate with the situation in history they are depicting but some of the parts of the movies are over-dramatized to keep the audience paying attention. However, contrary to the movie Glory, Col. Robert Shaw was not so willing to be Col. Even though there was some things in the movie that were either not true or overdramatized, I learned a lot because I was more interested in watching a movie oppose to taking notes. Also, because it was a movie I was capable of seeing the harshness that the slaves went through at what the slaves had to endure to become free. If I had not seen these movies I would have studied slavery like I had years before and I would not have had my eyes opened to the horrific things that I had no idea even occurred. Typically, (as a teenage boy) It takes a lot to encourage me to do research on a movie, or anything really, and after this movie I did research because I was inclined to do so after I saw these movies. I do feel though that if these movies had not been as interestingly directed and acted out as it was then I would not have been even half as interested. Which leads me to the question that all directors must ask themselves while writing.

How much fact versus how much story? If they put more facts in the movie then the movie will be boring, but if they include too much story then the movie will have some false facts in it. It is a very hard thing as a director to make a movie that has lots of facts and also keep the story interesting. In both Glory and 12 Years a Slave the amounts of story and the amount of facts is balanced in my opinion perfectly so the story is interesting but also educational. The directors of these films are very good at taking a very saddening story of slavery and turning it into a story that gives hope to the people who watch it and inspiration to the people who are able to empathize with the film.

In the films empathy is a huge factor. The black people in both films understand what the other is feeling when they are beaten, or when they are treated like crap while they are risking their lives just like all the white people. Being able to see the empathy in these films helps us as the viewer to stay interested and hooked to the story which allows them to include many facts and in the end making for a great movie.

I hope that you (as my new history teacher) has been persuaded, by my facts, to show our class some movies. We will benefit from them and learn a lot from them as I have already in my previous class. Although your fellow teachers and friends may disapprove you can be glad to know that in the end the students have learned more and will get better ACT and SAT grades in the future.