Sunday, June 16, 2013
Analysis of Peer Reviews
Five people reviewed my project when I had completed it. Overall, while they said that the blog was put together nicely, and that I had used well chosen evidence to back up my conclusion, there are a couple things that I would change, or do differently if I were to do my project again. One reviewer suggested that another way that I could have done this project was to take three different movies about the same event and analyze their accuracy. If I were to do this project again, I may consider using this idea because it would show the different ways that different directors portray certain historical events, and how they each change it to depict the event. Another way in which I would change my project would be to make my analysis and data collection more concise and to the point, rather than dragging out my posts for longer than they needed to be. The reviewers also liked the film clips, and pictures in my blog that I used to support my conclusion. However, if I were to do this again, I would add more analysis after each film or picture that explains how they support my conclusion, and why I am using them as evidence. In addition, while the reviewers said that the MLA bibliography was well done, I would be more clear to which citations go with the film clips, which citations go with the pictures, as well as which citations go with the research that I used. Finally, the reviewers appreciated how they could relate to the popular movies I used to compare with historical events, however if I were to do this project again, I would use one or two more movies based on historical events to compare them to what actually happened. This would help strengthen my conclusion.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Conclusion
By researching the accuracy of the three films: Argo, 300, and Les Misérables, I have come to the conclusion that while many films based off of historical events have accurate parts to them, many films also are either dramatized to appeal to the viewers, or leave out essential information that cause viewers to come to inaccurate conclusions. Also, in some ways the events are influenced by what people already believe they know about the event. In the movie Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, much of the factual details are accurate, showing how the directors did want the movie to be relatively authentic. However, they dramatized the ending of the movie, adding a plane chase that did not happen to make the viewers get more into the movie, and left out some essential information about the rest of the hostages, outside the six ones the movie focused on. They also did not give Canada much credit for what they did to help the hostages, and showed mostly Americans making the rescue happen. This is one example of how the movie's bias on who gets the credit can influence what the viewers of the movie actually think happened.
In the movie 300, directed by Zack Snyder, many of the aspects of the battle are also similar to what actually occurred, although like the directors in Argo, many scenes were dramatized, especially the ones with fighting. Also, important information was left out about how the 300 Spartans were not the only ones at the end fighting the Persians . This was so that the Spartans would seem more powerful, and the movie would be much more suspenseful if they were the only ones fighting Xerxes' massive army. Finally, in 300, some of the costumes, including those of the Persian soldiers were completely inaccurate, some of the soldiers being dressed as Arab horsemen that were not around until thousands of years later. In this way, the movie is shown to dress them how many people thought they may have looked. The movie Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper, like both other movies, also is fairly historically accurate, but gives the viewers the wrong idea of how the battle ended as it ends on a more happy, and hopeful note, although the actual revolution failed. The added dramatic music also brings in the audience more. In addition to this, the movie focuses on individual fictional characters, instead of the actual historical events, causing the viewers to be less focused on the historical aspects of the movie. Much background information is missing from the movie, as well, and so there are no parts that outline what happened in France to make it so full of poverty, and violence. In conclusion, my hypothesis was fairly correct. Most movies based off of historical events are inaccurate in many ways, althought they are, in fact more accurate than I originally thought they would be in my hypothesis. However, the films are not necessarily inaccurate because of the established ideas of what occurred, like I said, but more because of some essential information being omitted, causing the viewers to see the event in the way that the directors of the movie intended it to be seen.
In the movie 300, directed by Zack Snyder, many of the aspects of the battle are also similar to what actually occurred, although like the directors in Argo, many scenes were dramatized, especially the ones with fighting. Also, important information was left out about how the 300 Spartans were not the only ones at the end fighting the Persians . This was so that the Spartans would seem more powerful, and the movie would be much more suspenseful if they were the only ones fighting Xerxes' massive army. Finally, in 300, some of the costumes, including those of the Persian soldiers were completely inaccurate, some of the soldiers being dressed as Arab horsemen that were not around until thousands of years later. In this way, the movie is shown to dress them how many people thought they may have looked. The movie Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper, like both other movies, also is fairly historically accurate, but gives the viewers the wrong idea of how the battle ended as it ends on a more happy, and hopeful note, although the actual revolution failed. The added dramatic music also brings in the audience more. In addition to this, the movie focuses on individual fictional characters, instead of the actual historical events, causing the viewers to be less focused on the historical aspects of the movie. Much background information is missing from the movie, as well, and so there are no parts that outline what happened in France to make it so full of poverty, and violence. In conclusion, my hypothesis was fairly correct. Most movies based off of historical events are inaccurate in many ways, althought they are, in fact more accurate than I originally thought they would be in my hypothesis. However, the films are not necessarily inaccurate because of the established ideas of what occurred, like I said, but more because of some essential information being omitted, causing the viewers to see the event in the way that the directors of the movie intended it to be seen.
Les Misérables Film Clip
Doc 10
This film clip is an example of how filmmakers take a part of history, in this case the barricades, and replicate it into a movie.
Les Misérables (2012) Directed by Tom Hooper
The movie Les
Misérables
takes place in 19th century France, and is a story told
through music and singing about an ex- prisoner, and the determined
policeman who will not leave him alone (“Synopsis”). The ex-
prisoner then goes on to take in the daughter of a factory worker
turned prostitute. These events all occur during a time when France
was going through a hard time, and a revolution was brewing.
The movie Les Misérables,
which can be translated into “the wretched ones” or “the
outsiders” is based off of the novel by Victor Hugo which was
based off events that occurred in France from the years 1796 (when
Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread and goes to prison) until the
June Revolution of 1832 (Alleyn). The
movie does depict Jean Valjean's experience in prison correctly, as
prisoners like Valjean “were imprisoned in galleys
that didn't go to sea, then moved to a prison called the Bagne”
(“Les Misérables movies”) which had horrible conditions.
Although the characters are fictional
(Roberts), the movie does portray some
of the events that occurred in France during this time period
accurately, but tends to oversimplify many parts of France's
struggles.
In 1793, throughout Maximilien de Robespierre's
“Reign of Terror” there were many wars and famines before
Napoleon Bonaparte took over France and ruled from 1804 until 1814.
It was only then that Louis XVIII assumed the throne of France, and
when he died, Charles X became king, although he “[was] soon exiled
in 1830 during the July Revolution, also known as the Second French
Revolution” (Bradford). Finally, Louis
Philippe d'Orléans began to rule France (Bradford
). The movie Les Miserables shows the June Revolution of 1832 against
the ruler Louis Philippe (von Tunzelmann
) despite the popular belief that it is about the French Revolution
of 1789 (von Tunzelmann) . However,
although the movie portrayed this correctly, they failed to show most
of the events that led up to the June Revolution and showed only that
revolution. Another aspect of inaccuracy in the movie is that the
movie makes a very huge deal of the June Revolution, leading viewers
to believe that it was a large part of French history, although in
reality it was relatively small, and not incredibly significant
(Maranzani ). During the time of the June Revolution, a “deadly
cholera epidemic had exacerbated a severe economic crisis” (“Enjoy
Les Misérables”) . This is shown accurately throughout the
movie with the hundreds of sick, poor people walking around town, and
with Fantine having to become a prostitute in order to bring in money
after being fired from her factory job. This accumulation of
poverty, as well as the death of General
Jean Maximilien Lamarque,
who had helped the poor was what triggered the revolution.
The movie
accurately showed how the huge mob of people accompanied Lamarque's
funeral procession, and “some witnesses claimed it eventually grew
to 100,000.”(“Enjoy
Les Misérables” ).
The movie also accurately depicted how barricades were used during
the revolution (“Enjoy
Les Misérables” ),
how most of the rebels were students (Maranzani ), and how the
citizens of Paris did not come and assist the rebels in their
revolution (“Enjoy Les Misérables”).
However, while the movie portrayed many of the events historically
accurately, the movie ends on a more happy, and hopeful note, which
gives viewers a different view on what actually happened (“Les Miz:
Mizleading”). The revolution caused most of the rebels to lose
their lives (“Enjoy
Les Misérables”)
and was a failure. It was not until sixteen years later that yet
another revolution got rid of Louis Philippe (Maranzani). The
director of the movie Les Misérables did manage to incorporate many
accurate aspects of French history into the musical movie. However,
the dramatic music, and the lack of historical background of what
occurred before the June Revolution of 1832, caused the movie to be
less accurate, and in some ways influenced the viewers to come to the
conclusion that the revolution ended well. In a similar way, the
movie focused on specific fictional characters rather than the
historical event that occurred, causing the viewers' attention to
shift away from the historical aspects of the movie.
Although
the film Les
Misérables,
based on the popular book by Victor Hugo, has many historically
accurate parts such as the funeral procession of Lemarque, and the
considerable amount of poverty in France during this time, the
extreme focus on this event, and only this event creates an
inaccurate perspective of France's history. The directors did not
include any of the other important events in France before the
revolution, that in fact was not very significant. Also, the music
throughout the entire movie makes the violent event seem more
romantic, and at the end of the movie, despite the failure of the
revolution, and many deaths, the movie ends on a hopeful note,
causing the viewers of the movie to see the event differently.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
300 Video Clip: Final Stand
In this video clip, the last scene of the movie is shown depicting only the Spartans fighting the Persian forces, although they were also accompanied by other armies (Fitzgerald). The warriors' costumes can also be seen to be inaccurate as the Spartans did not go into battle bare chested (Borza), and the scene is set to dramatic music to make the battle more intense and suspenseful.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
300 (2006) (continued)
In
addition to these stereotypes, there is also the fact that in the
movie the Spartans are portrayed as the brave soldiers who are full
of justice while the Persians are portrayed as the “evil side”
(Borza). This flattering portrayal of the Spartans is not true as
“they were always conquering neighbouring areas to build their
slave labor” (“300: The Movie Vs Real Life”). Through the
inaccurately glowing portrayal of the Spartans in the movie 300,
the
movie gives a major bias to the viewers on how they view both sides
of the battle, and how
they
see the Persian side to be the cruel, and unnecessarily vicious side.
In addition to this bias, is how the ancient Iranian women are
portrayed as sexual objects as they dance around the throne room of
Xerxes which is very inaccurate as many Iranian women were
priestesses, guardians, and even warriors (Farrokh). This contrasts
with how the women of Sparta are accurately portrayed as strong bold
individuals in society. They were even allowed to own property
(“Women in Sparta”). The way in which the directors showed the strong women of Sparta and portrayed the Spartan soldiers
as valiant and right as opposed to the way in which they
inaccurately depicted the ancient Iranian women, and in how they
portrayed the Persians as tyrants is a way for them to make the
battle that the movie is portraying more interesting with the idea of
a “villain”. Throughout the movie, the directors also use
stereotypical ideas of groups of people to depict certain characters,
therefore being heavily historically bias.
Overall,
while the movie 300 has
many accurate parts such as the battle it is based on, and the
fact that many of the historical figures
included in the movies were real people,
it also has many historical inaccuracies, and employs many aspects of
bias. The directors of the movie consistently portray the Spartans as
the “good guys” of the film, and the Persians as the “bad guys”
of the battle,
which changes
the viewers'
perception of the movie, and goes along with the accepted idea of
Spartans being strong and brave. The fact that the movie is based off
of a comic book also influences the movie in how the soldiers are
portrayed as bare chested warriors, which makes them seem more immune
to the violence around them. In addition to this, the directors left
out the part where the 300 Spartans were joined by other forces to
fight the Persian armies, making the inaccurate idea of there being
only 300 soldiers against Xerxes’ vast army more impressive and
dramatic. Through these ways, the directors of the movie change the
movie around so that it is not fully historically accurate to make
the movie more appealing to the movie’s viewers, using common
accepted ideas of certain ethnic groups and historical bias.
300 (2006) Directed by Zack Snyder
The
movie 300, directed by
Zack Snyder tells the story of the bravery and unity of King Leonidas
and his army of three hundred Spartans who fought the army of Xerxes
and his vast Persian army to their deaths (“The Story”).
The
movie 300
is based off of the historical Battle of Thermopylae (which
translates to “The Hot Gates”) ("The
Movie, 300, Historically Accurate?")
of 480 B.C. that occurred between the Spartan king Leonidas and his
soldiers and the Persian king Xerxes and his large army (Hughbanks).
Despite the fact that some parts of the movie are historically
accurate, the fact that it is based off of a graphic novel by Frank
Miller who “appears to have relied on the writings of Greek
historian Herodotus, whose works, though valuable, inevitably contain
an element of bias, as do any historical works from any culture”
(Farrokh) can influence the accuracy of the movie of the real- life
battle overall. Even though the movie may be biased, the Battle of
Thermopylae did occur in a narrow mountain pass like in the movie
which made it more difficult for the Persian armies, as they would
have to participate with hand- to- hand combat with the Greeks
(Frye). The Spartans were trying to delay the Persians, preventing
them from being able to attack the back end of the Greek navy (Gill).
Also, while there were only three hundred Spartan soldiers, like in
the movie, there were between
5,200 and 11,000 Greek soldiers which eventually became only 300 Spartans,400 Thebans, and 700 Thespians after many of the Greek troops withdrew from the battle (Fitzgerald).These troops were not portrayed in the movie.
This small group of soldiers faced the army of Xerxes, that the Greek historian, Herodotus, thought to be approximately 1.7 million, although “Herodotus' numbers must surely be overstated, although we will never know by how much”, although it is known that Xerxes' army was incredibly large (Frye). While the actual number of troops on both sides is still being debated, the Persians actually had a force between 70,000 and 300,000 men (Fitzgerald). At the end of the battle all of the Greek soldiers were dead (Fitzgerald), and many of the Persians also were dead, the number said to be about 20,000 (Frye). The fact that the movie played up the part of the Spartans valiantly going into battle with just the three hundred, and not with the other armies that were there also, shows how the directors changed the movie around so that it was more dramatic and impressive to the viewer. Also, Xerxes was not actually bald, or covered in glitter like he is portrayed to be in the movie, and was in fact, bearded (“The Movie, 300, Historically Accurate?”). This dramatic portrayal of Xerxes by the filmmakers was done by the filmmakers to make him seem in some ways more powerful, and more set apart from his soldiers.
This small group of soldiers faced the army of Xerxes, that the Greek historian, Herodotus, thought to be approximately 1.7 million, although “Herodotus' numbers must surely be overstated, although we will never know by how much”, although it is known that Xerxes' army was incredibly large (Frye). While the actual number of troops on both sides is still being debated, the Persians actually had a force between 70,000 and 300,000 men (Fitzgerald). At the end of the battle all of the Greek soldiers were dead (Fitzgerald), and many of the Persians also were dead, the number said to be about 20,000 (Frye). The fact that the movie played up the part of the Spartans valiantly going into battle with just the three hundred, and not with the other armies that were there also, shows how the directors changed the movie around so that it was more dramatic and impressive to the viewer. Also, Xerxes was not actually bald, or covered in glitter like he is portrayed to be in the movie, and was in fact, bearded (“The Movie, 300, Historically Accurate?”). This dramatic portrayal of Xerxes by the filmmakers was done by the filmmakers to make him seem in some ways more powerful, and more set apart from his soldiers.
300 Spartans, 400 Thebans and 700 Thespians(Fitzgerald)
which
were not portrayed in the movie. This small group of soldiers faced
the army of Xerxes, that the Greek historian, Herodotus, thought to
be approximately 1.7 million, although “Herodotus' numbers must
surely be overstated, although we will never know by how much”,
although it is known that Xerxes' army was incredibly large (Frye).
While the actual number of troops on both sides is still being
debated, the Persians actually had a force between 70,000 and 300,000
men (Fitzgerald).
At
the end of the battle all of the Greek soldiers were dead
(Fitzgerald),
and
many of the Persians also were dead, the number said to be about
20,000 (Frye).
The
fact that the movie played up the part of the Spartans valiantly
going into battle with just the three hundred, and not with the other
armies that were there also, shows how the directors changed the
movie around so that it was more dramatic and impressive to the
viewer. Also, Xerxes was not actually bald, or covered in glitter
like he is portrayed to be in the movie, and was in fact, bearded
(“The Movie, 300, Historically Accurate?”). This dramatic
portrayal of Xerxes by the filmmakers was done by the filmmakers to
make him seem in some ways more powerful, and more set apart from his
soldiers.
A
traitor named Ephialtes actually did lead the Persians on a path that
took them behind Greek lines (“300: The Movie Vs Real Life”),
although he was not actually a disfigured hunchback like in the
movie, and the elephants and rhinoceroses were also made up by the
film makers (Hughbanks). The exotic creatures in the battle were
added to make the film more interesting to watch, and the traitor was
made to be a disfigured man who wanted to be a Spartan soldier to add
a plot twist to the story. In addition to the actual battle, the idea
of Spartans sending their young boys away to be trained as soldiers,
and the discarding of deformed babies is true (“300: The Movie Vs
Real Life” ), and the overall military spirit of the Spartans that
was consistently shown throughout the movie was also very accurate
(Farrokh). However, in regards to what the soldiers wore, the
Spartans did not actually go into battle bare chested (Borza),
and the Persian soldiers depicted in the movie were shown wearing
clothes nothing like they would have been dressed
in, and their clothing
resembled the Arab horsemen garb that was used thousands of years
later (Farrokh). These changes in the dress of the soldiers is
another way in which the directors of the movie changed the movie
around. The bare chested Spartans made the soldiers seem more immune
to the killing and more powerful than the Persians, and the fact that
the directors put many of the Persian soldiers in inaccurate clothing
shows how they were just
going with the common idea of how Persians were thought to have
dressed in this time period. This includes how the Immortals, an
actual unit in the Persian army were given Oriental looking masks and
were dressed in a ninja fashion (Farrokh). It is because of this that
Dr. Kaveh Farrokh thinks that “[Hollywood] is intent on conveying a
certain “image” of the Classics” and that “there is a desire
to “Orientalize” the ancient Iranians” (Farrokh). This is just
one example of how the ancient Iranians are stereotyped in this movie
with Oriental style masks, as well as some soldiers being dressed how
Arabs would be thousands of years later, promoting historical biases,
and the overall preconceived idea of the Persians.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Argo (2012) Continued
However, despite these authentic
parts of the film, many details were added by the film business to make the movie
more interesting to watch, and to appeal to a larger portion of viewers. One of
these aspects is shown in how Tony Mendez is depicted in the film to be having
trouble with his marriage, although his wife actually was the one to drive him
to the airport when he left for Iran (Haglund). Through this, the film shows
how the directors try to make the movie more interesting, and in some ways make the main
character more relatable by making him have personal problems. In addition to
these added character developments, the movie also minimizes Canada’s
involvement in the rescue as Canadians were the ones that checked out the
airport before the hostages had to go through it, bought their tickets, and
were the primary people that helped put the plan in action (Schaefer) as according
to Jimmy Carter, who was the US President at the time, “ninety per cent of the
contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian” (qtd.
in Hertzberg ). The fact that most of the planning, and rescuing the hostages in the movie
is shown to be done by the United States promotes the commonly accepted idea of
America’s power, and downplays how Canada, in fact, also deserved a large part of
the spotlight. Finally, the movie embellishes much of what actually happened
with suspenseful events that actually did not occur to make the film have more
action.
Mark Lijek, one of the six hostages, “pointed out that there were no arguments over their cover story as a movie crew, no interrogations by the Republican Guard, no armed guards pursuing an airplane down the runway”(Pond). This demonstrates just how far the movie business will go to get the viewers into the movie. If the movie had shown how the hostages had actually gotten through the airport and onto their plane smoothly, without any problems, then the ending of the movie would not have been so suspenseful, and the movie may not have been so incredibly popular. In addition to this added drama, the movie focuses on the six individual hostages, and their story, and despite occasional mentions of the other hostages left in Iran, the hostages, who were left in Iran for 444 days (Lawrence), are rarely mentioned. Because the story of the six hostages lets the movie focus on the different characters specifically, and what they are thinking, the other large group of hostages are barely talked about, making the story more about Tony Mendez, and the six hostages, rather than how the other hostages were released on January 21st, 1981 (“Iran Hostage Crisis”) even after a failed rescue caused the deaths of eight Americans after the crashes of US helicopters (“Hostage Rescue Mission Ends in Disaster”).
Mark Lijek, one of the six hostages, “pointed out that there were no arguments over their cover story as a movie crew, no interrogations by the Republican Guard, no armed guards pursuing an airplane down the runway”(Pond). This demonstrates just how far the movie business will go to get the viewers into the movie. If the movie had shown how the hostages had actually gotten through the airport and onto their plane smoothly, without any problems, then the ending of the movie would not have been so suspenseful, and the movie may not have been so incredibly popular. In addition to this added drama, the movie focuses on the six individual hostages, and their story, and despite occasional mentions of the other hostages left in Iran, the hostages, who were left in Iran for 444 days (Lawrence), are rarely mentioned. Because the story of the six hostages lets the movie focus on the different characters specifically, and what they are thinking, the other large group of hostages are barely talked about, making the story more about Tony Mendez, and the six hostages, rather than how the other hostages were released on January 21st, 1981 (“Iran Hostage Crisis”) even after a failed rescue caused the deaths of eight Americans after the crashes of US helicopters (“Hostage Rescue Mission Ends in Disaster”).
To conclude, the movie, Argo tells the story of six hostages trying to escape Iran during the Iranian Revolution by using a fake movie. It is clear that the directors did attempt to be accurate in many ways such as how they portrayed the six hostages, in how the Americans first reacted to the revolutionaries storming the US Embassy, and in how they depicted the environment of Iran outside the Embassy with protesting and violence. The directors also included a sequence of events at the beginning to make the movie more understandable and to give the facts before the movie started. However, in order to make it more interesting, the facts had to be altered, and the dramatic conclusion with all the problems going through the airport to the final chase by the Iranians was added, although both events never really happened. Also, the director only focused on the six hostages, and Tony Mendez, and although it was their story the movie was telling, this focus took away from what was going on in Iran with the other hostages, and what the Iranians were doing throughout the revolution. The full impact the Canadians made on the rescue was also downplayed, which demonstrates the common idea of the United States power being shown, although they did not do all the work. These details were added to make the movie more suspenseful, and appealing to all audiences.
Doc 5 Hostages in movie Argo
Argo (2012) Directed by Ben Affleck
The Oscar Winning film, Argo, directed by Ben Affleck is about the Iranian Hostage Crisis that took place during the Iranian Revolution in the 1970's and how on November 4, 1979, some angry Iranians got into the US Embassy in Tehran and took fifty- two hostages, while six Americans managed to escape. Tony Mendez of the CIA came up with a plan involving the six hostages acting as though they were part of a fictional movie in order to get them out of Iran. (“About the Film”).
While the movie, Argo, has many accurate parts to it, there are also some inaccurate parts included in the film, as well as details added in order to make the movie more interesting, and suspenseful. Despite these inaccurate parts, the movie starts out with a sequence of pictures with details that outline the actual events that occurred. The introduction shows how the Iranians were angry due to the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, allowing Iran's former pro- Western Shah to come to the United States for cancer treatment after being previously expelled from Iran. The revolutionaries were also being heavily encouraged and influenced by the extremely anti- American religious figure, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and wanted an end to the United States constant involvement in Iran's affairs (“Iran Hostage Crisis”). These details help give the movie a factual base, and explain the reasons for the crisis. In addition to the factual introduction, according to David Haglund, the overall storyline “in which the CIA establishes a fake movie production, complete with a full script and ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, in order to rescue six Americans stranded in post-revolutionary Iran—is 100 percent true” (Haglund). Despite the seemingly far-fetched plot of the film where a science fiction movie is used by the CIA as a way to get hostages out of Iran, it really did happen. Even former CIA agent, Tony Mendez says, “that he would give the movie Argo a grade of “90 percent” for realism in its portrayal of the 1979 operation that resulted in the successful rescue of six U.S. diplomats hiding in Iran” (qtd. in Getterman). He also says that when he went on the set that he thought the actors chosen to play the six hostages “were the actual people because of how well their body language resembled that of the actual diplomats” (qtd. in Getterman). This shows that the movie directors made an effort to show individual personalities, rather than showing the overall picture of all the hostages, including the ones still being held captive. In addition to the six hostages that the movie focused on, there were also the fifty- two hostages that remained captive to the Iranians, after fourteen of the original sixty- six hostages were released. (“Iran Hostage Crisis”).
Bruce German, one of the fifty- two, says, “We didn’t know from day to day if it was our last day because they kept threatening us with guns,” (qtd. in Lawrence), and “'He recalls the hostages being forced awake at 3 a.m., blindfolded, and “paraded in our underwear into a cold hallway,'” (qtd. in Lawrence). This is very similar to what is shown in Argo, with the few parts depicting the remaining hostages being threatened by the Iranian's guns, and blindfolded. Besides how the movie shows how the remaining hostages were treated, the film also gets many other details accurate, such as the original ideas of giving the six hostages bicycles to escape, and having them acting as crop inspectors (before someone pointed out that there was snow on the ground), and how the Americans in the US Embassy destroyed the stamps used to make visas after they realized the building was being stormed (Bearman). These attentions to detail show how the directors of the film wanted to make a film that was at least somewhat accurate. The Iranians “had even hired teams of carpet weavers to successfully reassemble shredded documents” (Bearman), which is shown consistently throughout the movie, and the idea of the people entering Iran giving the officials a white slip to be kept which was then compared to the yellow slip given when they left to keep track of who came in and out of the country is also accurately featured in the movie as a problem for the hostages (Bearman). These aspects of the film show that the directors of the film tried to be pretty accurate with the details, as well as the overall event that the film portrayed. Steven Lauterbach, one of the fifty-two hostages, says, “It was a menacing environment; there were crowds on the streets and bodies hanging from construction cranes, just like in Argo” (qtd. in Lawrence). Although some of the details of the movie may be inaccurate, the movie gets the hostile environment of Iran right. Even people heavily involved thought that it accurately depicted what occurred.
Bruce German, one of the fifty- two, says, “We didn’t know from day to day if it was our last day because they kept threatening us with guns,” (qtd. in Lawrence), and “'He recalls the hostages being forced awake at 3 a.m., blindfolded, and “paraded in our underwear into a cold hallway,'” (qtd. in Lawrence). This is very similar to what is shown in Argo, with the few parts depicting the remaining hostages being threatened by the Iranian's guns, and blindfolded. Besides how the movie shows how the remaining hostages were treated, the film also gets many other details accurate, such as the original ideas of giving the six hostages bicycles to escape, and having them acting as crop inspectors (before someone pointed out that there was snow on the ground), and how the Americans in the US Embassy destroyed the stamps used to make visas after they realized the building was being stormed (Bearman). These attentions to detail show how the directors of the film wanted to make a film that was at least somewhat accurate. The Iranians “had even hired teams of carpet weavers to successfully reassemble shredded documents” (Bearman), which is shown consistently throughout the movie, and the idea of the people entering Iran giving the officials a white slip to be kept which was then compared to the yellow slip given when they left to keep track of who came in and out of the country is also accurately featured in the movie as a problem for the hostages (Bearman). These aspects of the film show that the directors of the film tried to be pretty accurate with the details, as well as the overall event that the film portrayed. Steven Lauterbach, one of the fifty-two hostages, says, “It was a menacing environment; there were crowds on the streets and bodies hanging from construction cranes, just like in Argo” (qtd. in Lawrence). Although some of the details of the movie may be inaccurate, the movie gets the hostile environment of Iran right. Even people heavily involved thought that it accurately depicted what occurred.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Hypothesis: Anticipated Findings
I think, and plan on proving that many films based on historical events are not historically accurate in details, and while the overall event may be portrayed somewhat accurately, I think that in some ways the events are portrayed how people want to see them, around an established idea of what occurred. I am going to use three historical films in my research:
Les Miserables (2012) Doc 1
300 (2006) Doc 2
Argo (2012) Doc 3
I am going to create sequences for each of these films comparing what occurs in the film with what occurred in history.
Les Miserables (2012) Doc 1
300 (2006) Doc 2
Argo (2012) Doc 3
I am going to create sequences for each of these films comparing what occurs in the film with what occurred in history.
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