By: Samantha Streahle
Hollywood and the media greatly define our society. Once something reaches the media the entire world hears about it. People are more likely to believe what they see in movies and the media because they think its accurate. There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to films based on historical events because they are not always 100% accurate. Views of what our history was really like easily get misconstrued through media and movies.
When it comes to Hollywood they want something that will sell. They often through extra scenes in movies to keep it more interesting even though it never really occurred. A lot of the movies get denied their original scripts of what they want to include because the government does not want the truth to be told. When a lot of the war films are being made they request assistance from the government. Many scripts are altered to make the Army or the government look better. If they want their help whatever they want changed or taken out happens. They always want to make sure all of their angles are covered and they keep themselves safe.
While many of the films we viewed in class were filled with accuracy there were also many inaccuracies. The movie "Glory" took place in Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War. It followed the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. General Shaw was put in charge of the first infantry to be made up of African Americans. The struggles they faced because of their race were all accurate and most of the fighting scenes were. One scene that stood out very much is the scene where they burned the villages. Something like that never would have happened. They would have never burned an innocent village down and hit the women and children.
"Forrest Gump" was both accurate and inaccurate in a unique way. The time period was set from the 1950's to the 1980's. It showed two opposite spectrum's of the way people lived. How they lived was all accurate. The inaccuracies in this film were mostly meant to be comical. In the film Forrest and his mother rent their house out to people passing through the town. His mother comes upstairs to find him in a room with one of the men who was staying there. He's dancing along to the music the man's playing and does some strange dance. The man, who is later discovered to be Elvis Presley, asks Forrest to show him that dance again. A couple days later they see Elvis doing the dance Forrest showed him on national television. In the movie Forrest was supposedly the one who taught Elvis Presley his signature dance. We know this is false but it was a comical way to include something historical from that time period.
The last film we viewed was "The Help." This film takes place during the 1960's during the time of segregation and civil rights. The majority of the things that took place in this film were accurate and would have really happened. The white owners were just as uppity and disrespectful back then as they were portrayed in the movie. Not all of them were like that but they were too afraid to stand up against it. The maids were treated with such little respect even though they did everything for the families they worked for. Nothing was exaggerated to make it seem worse because it was actually that bad.
Overall, the way Hollywood and the media depicts history definitely influences our society and the way we view things. Our perspectives are easily swayed by things we see in films or on television because they're believable.
