History picture

Sources, Film Research – Glory & 12 Years a Slave

IMDB – List of 12 Years a Slave Awards

The New York Times-historical accuracy of 12 years a slave

Ash Brook University-historical accuracy of Glory

YouTube- Interview with Steve Macqueen director of 12 years a slave

IMDB- list of Glory awards

Boxofficemojo- box office numbers 12 years a slave 

Box officemojo- box office numbers Glory

Film essay

Walker Bragg

September 15, 2014

USH

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History through Film

            Watching historical movies is a very good way of getting a good depiction of what life was like in the point in time that the movie is based in. Although, watching movies alone is not a sure fire way of learning all the facts that you should learn from a history class, you must also make sure that the movie you are watching is accurate. Both the movies Glory and Twelve Years a Slave are accurate depictions of life around the civil war. Glory had a few more historical inaccuracies then Twelve years a slave. One large inaccuracy was that most of the soldiers in the 54th all black regiment were highly educated free men and not just runaway slaves like the movie Glory depicted them as. Another smaller detail that was passed over by the movie director was that General Shaw was not the first choice to lead the all black regiment and even when he was asked he was hesitant to say yes. Historical facts that were wrong in the movie were small things such as the union attacking the fort at the end from the north when they actually attacked from the south in real life.

            Twelve Years a Slave was a more personal account of history and most of the facts were from Solomon’s book. Twelve Years a Slave was a very accurate representation of life of some slaves and most importantly Solomon. The director of Twelve years a slave, Steve Macqueen, said that he wanted to tell the story of Solomon; He wanted to keep the movie as historically accurate as possible. A few of the scenes especially in the beginning of the movie were added into the movie by the director and were not in Solomon’s original story. These stories were added to show more of the life that Solomon and people like him could have lived instead of the life that he did live. The rest of the movie was very accurate to the story that was in Solomon’s original book.

            These movies were all very good pictures of history with a small number of Hollywood changes. With a bit of research historical inaccuracies in the movies can be distinguished, and watching a movie in class can be a fun and informative look at the past.