We’ve surveyed our faculty, graduate students and staff about their favorite history movies. This summer we’ll be sharing their favs.
Monday, July 29, 2019
This week’s Monday Movie Pick comes from Prof. David Staley who chose “Schindler’s List.” The movie is based on the novel “Schindler’s Ark” by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally and follows Oskar Schindler, a Sudeten German businessman, who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It won 7 Oscars.
Monday, July 22, 2019
Our movie pick for today comes from Professor Birgitte Søland. She says, “My recommendation for a history movie is ‘Pelle the Conqueror’ (Denmark, 1987), based on the 1910 novel by the same name, written by the Danish author, Martin Andersen Nexø. The film tells the story of a desperately poor agrarian worker and his son who emigrate from Sweden to Denmark in the late 19th century in the hope of a better life. The movie illustrates the abuse and exploitation of rural workers, and the circumstances that led so many poor Scandinavians to migrate from the countryside to urban areas within Scandinavia and, in many cases, to the United States. The relationship between the father and the son is beautifully depicted, and the hardship they endure is heartbreaking, but their resilience is inspiring. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.”
Monday, July 8, 2019
Today’s Monday Movie Pick is from History Department Chair Dr. Scott Levi. He lists “Master and Commander” as one of his favorite historical films. He says, “Of course it’s fictional, but I love the rich attention to detail in its presentation of life on an 18th-century ship as well as the way the storyline explores the tensions between imperial agendas and scientific discovery.”
Monday, July 1, 2019
Our Monday Movie Pick today comes from Prof. David Stebenne. He says one of his favorite movies is, “‘Thirteen Days’; it deals with how the Kennedy Administration tried to deal with the problems created by the introduction of Soviet missiles into Cuba in 1962. The best thing about the movie is its success in conveying just how frightening that situation was, and how it could very easily have gotten out of hand.”
Monday, June 24, 2019
Our Monday Movie Pick comes from Prof. Joe Parrott. He says, “From the Earth to the Moon is one of my all-time favorite mini-series. Produced by HBO and Tom Hanks in 1998, its 12 episodes dramatize all the missions of the Apollo space program, drawing heavily from the book A Man on the Moon by science reporter Andrew Chaikin. The series uses its length to examine in detail unique, sometimes obscure aspects of this history. Emphasis is on the interpersonal dynamics of the crews, but specific episodes take time to explore the engineering of the spacecraft, media coverage, politics, and even the production of Georges Méliès silent 1902 Le Voyage dans la Lun. The special effects are solid and, when combined with the simple but stirring score, can make for beautiful viewing. The talented ensemble cast and subtle hints of the problems and critiques of the space program temper the hero-worshiping elements of the stories but do little to dampen the awe-inspiring power the Apollo program achieved at its heights.”
Monday, June 17, 2019
For this week’s Monday Movie Pick, Prof. David Stebenne shares one of his favorites, “A Man for All Seasons.”
He says, “It tells the story of Thomas More, whose conscience would not allow him to consent to Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. I’ve shown it to the students in the gateway to the history major course (History 2800) in years past (because the first reading assignment is Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, an historical mystery in which More’s History of England plays a critical role. The movie is a timeless commentary on the tensions that can arise between one’s duty to one’s government and one’s conscience.”
Monday, June 10, 2019:
Today’s Monday Movie Pick is from Prof. Joan Cashin. She says, “…my favorite is ‘Glory’ from 1989. The best movie about the Civil War, because it puts race and slavery at the center of the narrative, and it got most of the history right.”
“Glory,” starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick, follows the U.S. Civil War’s first all-black volunteer company and highlights prejudices from the Confederates and its own Union Army.
Monday, June 3, 2019:
Prof Parrott says, “A fantastic, over-the-top Reagan era favorite that my Gen-X cousins loved for the action and its all-star cast (Swayze, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and a dozen other familiar faces). I often show it in class to capture the flavor of the era. It combines 1980s teen angst with the greatest hits of Ronald Reagan’s early policy – depictions of the Soviet Union as evil, concern over adventurous Cubans (who were still fighting in Angola at the time), rabid anti-communism, and even a pro-gun message. Most importantly, it’s a great encapsulation of the Reagan doctrine backing anti-communist guerillas that takes on new meaning when you compare scenes from the film (the Soviet hind helicopter attack on the kids) and publicity stills with the contemporaneous coverage of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Wolverines!”
