Historical Film Anaylsis
Throughout the year you will watch a movie and analysis it from its historical perspective. Below are a list of movies and their descriptions. You will pick one movie or you will be assigned a movie that you have not seen. Below are different movies in groups. I will assign a group number and your movie will be chosen or given from that assigned group.
Pre, During, and Post Questions
Make sure the answers are in complete sentences and with detail. Turn this in on google classroom, through my email, or a hard copy.
Historical Film Analysis Sheet.doc | |
File Size: | 33 kb |
File Type: | doc |
1st Group
Lincoln (2012) PG-13 150 min.As the Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg Writers: Tony Kushner (screenplay), Doris Kearns Goodwin(book) Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn |
Gettsyburg (1993) PG 271 Min.In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Director: Ron Maxwell (as Ronald F. Maxwell) Writers: Michael Shaara (novel), Ron Maxwell (screenplay) (as Ronald F. Maxwell) Stars: Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang |
Dances With Wolves (1990) PG-13 181 Min.Lt. John Dunbar, exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost, befriends wolves and Indians, making him an intolerable aberration in the military.
Director: Kevin Costner Writers: Michael Blake (screenplay), Michael Blake (novel) Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene |
2nd Group
Far and Away (1992) PG-13 140 min. A young man leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter after some trouble with her father, and they dream of owning land at the big give-away in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local bare-hands boxer, and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple's money and they must fight off starvation in the winter, and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman's parents find out where she has gone and have come to the U.S. to find her and take her back.
Director: Ron Howard Writers: Bob Dolman (story), Ron Howard (story), Stars: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Thomas Gibson |
Newsies (1992) PG 121 Min.A musical based on the New York City newsboy strike of 1899. When young newspaper sellers are exploited beyond reason by their bosses they set out to enact change and are met by the ruthlessness of big business.
Director: Kenny Ortega Writers: Bob Tzudiker, Noni White Stars: Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall |
Wyatt Earp (1994) PG-13 191 Min.Wyatt Earp is a movie about a man and his family. The movie shows us the good times and the bad times of one of the West's most famous individuals.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan Writers: Dan Gordon, Lawrence Kasdan Stars: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman |
3rd Group
Cinderella Man (2005) PG-13 144 Min.The story of James Braddock, a supposedly washed-up boxer who came back to become a champion and an inspiration in the 1930s.
Director: Ron Howard Writers: Cliff Hollingsworth (screenplay), Akiva Goldsman(screenplay), Stars: Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger, Craig Bierko |
Flyboys (2006) Pg-13 140 Min.The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.
Director: Tony Bill Writers: Phil Sears (screenplay), Blake T. Evans(screenplay), 2 more credits » Stars: James Franco, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker |
Seabiscuit(2003) PG-13 140 min.True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Director: Gary Ross Writers: Laura Hillenbrand (book), Gary Ross (screenplay) Stars: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Elizabeth Banks |
4th Group
Memphis Belle (1990) PG-13 107 min.It's May 1943 at a US Army Air Corps base in England. The four officers and six enlisted men of the Memphis Belle - a B-17 bomber so nicknamed for the girlfriend of its stern and stoic captain, Dennis Dearborn - will soon start their twenty-fifth mission, having completed their previous twenty-four successfully with nary an incident, while fewer and fewer other planes are coming back from their missions at all. If they complete their next mission successfully, they will be the first Army Air Corps B-17 Crew to complete their tour of duty. Visiting communications officer Lt. Col. Bruce Derringer wants to publicize and highly tout their accomplishment, even before it happens, as a long term good news campaign at a time when there is little good news to report. Derringer's plan is against the wishes of the base commander, Col. Craig Harriman, who would prefer to treat the ten as any of his other hard working men. The previous success of the Memphis Belle is despite the disparate natures of the ten men, whose personalities and backgrounds could not be more different. Each of the ten has a differing view of Derringer's publicity campaign as well as to the probable success or failure of what will be their last mission regardless, a dangerous one into enemy territory over the skies of Bremen, Germany.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones Writer: Monte Merrick Stars: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan |
Good Night, And Good Luck (2005) PG 93 Min.Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Director: George Clooney Writers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson |
The Help (2011) PG-13 146 Min.An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor Writers: Tate Taylor (screenplay), Kathryn Stockett(novel) Stars: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer |
Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) PG-13 130 Min.The widow of murdered civil rights leader Medger Evers and a district attorney struggle to finally bring the murderer to justice.
Director: Rob Reiner Writer: Lewis Colick Stars: Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Whoopi Goldberg |
5th Group
Selma (2014) PG-13 128 min.A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
Director: Ava DuVernay Writer: Paul Webb Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth |
42 (2013) PG-13 128 min.
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Thirteen Days (2000) PG-13 145 Min.A dramatization of President Kennedy's administration's struggle to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962.
Director: Roger Donaldson Writers: David Self, Ernest R. May (book), Stars: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Shawn Driscoll |
Apollo 13 (1995) PGNASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.
Director: Ron Howard Writers: Jim Lovell (book), Jeffrey Kluger (book) |
6th Group
Forrest Gump (1994) PG-13 142 Min.Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny Curran, eludes him.
Director: Robert Zemeckis Writers: Winston Groom (novel), Eric Roth (screenplay) Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise |
Miracle (2004) Pg 135 min.Miracle tells the true story of Herb Brooks (Russell), the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad.
Director: Gavin O'Connor Writer: Eric Guggenheim Stars: Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, Nathan West |
World Trade Center (2006) PG-13 129 min.Two Port Authority police officers become trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center.
Director: Oliver Stone Writers: Andrea Berloff, John McLoughlin (true story), Stars: Nicolas Cage, Michael Peña, Maria Bello |
W. (2008) PG-13 129 min.A chronicle of the life and presidency of George W. Bush.
Director: Oliver Stone Writer: Stanley Weiser Stars: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Ioan Gruffudd |