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Pop Culture: Archives

  • "The Last Samurai": Is the new Tom Cruise movie rooted in fact or fiction?

  • "It's a Wonderful Life": Why it hurts now to watch the Frank Capra classic.

  • "The Reagans" (Showtime): The NYT review calls the movie tame.

  • Smithsonian Exhibit on Transportation: This is not your father's museum transportation exhibition. The Smithsonian Institution's National American History Museum opens its huge, new, 25,000 square foot Hall of Transportation on Nov. 22, with some still fairly novel ideas.

  • "Reporting at War" (PBS): A three-hour documentary that charts how the U.S. media has reported on conflicts ranging from the Spanish-American War to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

  • "JFK: A Presidency Revealed" (History Channel): A close look t JFK's presidency. 3 hours.

  • "Diaspora": Syria's month-long Ramadan TV special,"Diaspora", has begun airing on Hizbullah's Al-Manar satellite television channel. Echoing last Ramadan's Egyptian series"Knight Without a Horse" based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,"Diaspora" suggests a global Jewish government as it presents a version of the story of Zionism from 1812 to the establishment of the State of Israel.

  • "Communicate!": A new permanent exhibit at the Royal Museum of Scotland tells the history of human communication from bongo drums to the Internet.

  • The Emperor's New Clothes and According to Monsieur N: Two new movies about Napoleon claim he eluded his captors and slipped off to a new life.

  • Morning Sun: A new documentary about Mao's Cultural Revolution.

  • "The Reagans" (CBS): A two-part mini-series that steps squarely into the spirited — and often partisan — debate over President Ronald Reagan's legacy.

  • "Petra: Lost City of Stone" (American Museum of Natural History): Temples and tombs carved into the rockface. An advanced irrigation system that created gardens and pools in the desert. This was Petra (Jordan)--the prosperous city at the crossroads of international trade more than 2,000 years ago.

  • "Tibet: Treasures From the Roof of the World": For years, only those who climbed to the fabled"roof of the world" glimpsed the sacred treasures of the Dalai Lamas. Now, the Western world will get a firsthand look at the items used in lavish ceremonies and daily rituals at the Potala Palace by the Dalai Lamas and their courts when nearly 200 rare objects go on display for the first time outside of Lhasa, Tibet.

  • "Battlefield Detectives" (History Channel): Was the Spanish Armada meant to be fought on the sea? Why did Napoleon lose at Waterloo? Review famous battles in a fresh way through the expert eyes of forensic scientists, archaeologists, ballistics experts, historians and military experts on the new series BATTLEFIELD DETECTIVES.

  • Rosenstrasse:"The little-known story of a successful uprising by women against the Nazis has reached the screen in a harrowing film on Germany's only significant rebellion on behalf of the Jews during the Holocaust."

  • "History Detectives" (PBS): If it does nothing else, the new PBS series History Detectives proves over and over what Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen express so well in their surveys of Americans’ attitudes toward history: many Americans connect most directly to the past through their own family stories.

  • Luther: Eric Till's teeming screen biography of Martin Luther.

  • The Passion: Mel Gibson's movie about the crucifixion of Christ attracting controversy.

    1. Pro
    2. Con
  • Jerry Stiller's Audio Tour of the Lower East Side of NYC: A cell-phone walking tour of New York City’s Lower East Side. Narrated by Jerry Stiller, the expedition focuses on the neighborhood’s Jewish roots. There’s music from composer Irving Berlin, a former resident, and interviews with historians.

  • "Mavericks, Miracles and Medicine" (History Channel): Medical oddballs today who feel shunned by mainstream practitioners can take comfort, for better or worse, in a new mini-series on medical history that makes heroes of fanatical scientists of yesteryear.

  • "Paul McCartney in Red Square" (A & E): Television documentary features McCartney's spring 2003 visit to Russia and the shocking evidence that the Beatles music influenced politics and may have contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union.

  • DC 9/11: Time of Crisis (Showtime): Television docudrama about President Bush's role on the day of 9-11 by a sympathetic filmmaker.

  • Cold Mountain: Law and Nicole Kidman star in a movie about an injured Civil War soldier who travels across the country back to his love. (This review puts recent history movies in context.)

  • The Last Samurai: Edward Zwick's attempts to get history right in his epic about the rebellion against the Tokugawa Shogunate.

  • "Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin" (PBS): 2 hour documentary.

  • National Constitution Center (Philadelphia): Linda Greenhouse in the NYT recounts her recent visit.

  • "The Living Century" (PBS): Notable centenarians profiled in new installments to reveal the history of the 20th century.

  • Greenfield Village: Henry Ford's museum gets a make-over.

  • And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (HBO): Review of the movie (LAT).

  • The Magdalene Sisters: Review of the movie (NYT).

  • Seabiscuit: Review of the movie (Slate).

  • Good Bye Lenin!:"The huge domestic success of Good Bye Lenin! reflects nostalgia for the old east germany."

  • "Speak of Me as I Am": Fred Wilson's imaginative museum exhibit on the history of Venice.

  • The Da Vinci Code: New movie ..."What if Jesus and the Magdalene were husband and wife?"

  • "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" (PBS): 2-part, 4 hour documentary featuring David Starkey.

  • "Petropolis":"The New-York Historical Society is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Petropolis: A Social History of Urban Animal Companions, a family-friendly exhibition that traces the history of the relationship between city dwellers and their pets."

  • "Globe Theater":"Original documents revealing the often turbulent lives of William Shakespeare's colorful contemporaries are on display Thursday at the bard's reconstructed Globe Theatre in London."

  • "Rebels and Redcoats" (BBC2 Documentary by Richard Holmes rewrites the history of the American Revolution.

  • "Murder at Harvard" (PBS American Experience: Simon Schama's Documentary

  • National Constitutional Center: An assessment of its architecture.

  • "The Commune": Movie about the Paris Commune of 1871.

  • "Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment": exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 4–September 7, 2003.

  • Computer History Museum: The place where motherboards go to die.

  • Computer History Museum: The place where motherboards go to die.

  • Hollywood during Christmas of 2003 to debut blockbuster epics set in the 19th century.

  • "Hitler's :ost Sub": PBS documentary The film follows a six-year odyssey by a group of divers to identify a mysterious U-boat they discovered in 1991 off the coast of New Jersey.

  • "Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy": PBS documentary by Daniel Yergin on the history and politics of American capitalism in a world economy.

  • "The Big Dance": TV movie by a White House insider about President Bush's response to 9-11; scheduled for the fall of 2003 (Showtime).

  • "Berga": Charles Guggenheim's last work about Americans taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge. (PBS)

  • "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert McNamara": Errol Morris's documentary about Robert McNamara.

  • The Alamo: New Disney $80 million movie celebrates the Alamo as a lesson in multiculturalism.

    1. How the movie may offend Texans and traditionalists.

    2. LA Times article.

  • "Sacco and Vanzetti: Fact, Myth and Memory": The Commonwealth Museum in Boston has put together an exhibit on the two Italian immigrants who were executed in what many view as a miscarriage of justice.

  • "Jean-Antoine Houdon - Sculptor of the Enlightenment": Exhibit devoted to the work of Houdon in Washington at the National Gallery of Art through Sept. 7; Nov. 4, 2003, to Jan. 25, 2004, at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; and from March 1 to May 30, 2004, at the Chateau de Versailles in France.

  • "From Swastika to Jim Crow": Documentary about the 50 exiled German Jews who taught at black colleges in the South after World War II.

  • "Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings": The chilling history of the book burnings is the subject of a new exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

  • "The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz": Brooklyn Museum features the first exhibit devoted to the art created by concentration camp prisoners.

  • "Cambridge Spies": BBC drama assailed as KGB propagnada.

  • "April, 1865": History Channel documentary based on Jay Winik's account of the final month of the Civil War.

  • "Avoiding Armageddon": PBS series includes segment on Japanese Unit 731, where Chinese were the victims of germ warfare lab experiments during World War II.

  • Hungary's House of Teror: The museum the government tried to close down.

  • Nowhere in Africa: A German director makes a movie about the Nazi past.

  • "History Detectives": PBS show;"Each episode will begin with people in various regions of the U.S. asking questions about everyday places and objects, all of which have stories that connect to a larger view of American life."

  • "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience" : PBS documentary co-written by Bill Moyers.

  • "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" : TV movie that was supposed to be based on biography by Ian Kershaw.

  • "Rebel Heart" : TV movie by the BBC; romantic drama about Ireland after the Easter Rebellion.

  • "At First Sight: Photography and the American Imagination" : New Smithsonian exhibit features rarely displayed photographs; opens May 2003.

  • "A Work of Giants" : TV history of the building of the transcontinental railroad; on The Learning Channel (TLC)

  • "The Journey of Sacajawea": The first documentary of her life; on public television

  • The Pentagon Papers: Movie on FX (March 9, 2003).

    1. Daniel Ellsberg comments on the movie.

    2. Review of the movie.

  • "Hitler's Hat": Documentary about U.S. soldiers who liberated Munich and went to"Hitler's house" and discovered his top hat.

  • "Niagara Nine": Filmakers in Canada want to do a movie about a group of former slaves who left Niagara to fight the Confederacy.

  • "Flight Trails": A new exhibit at Purdue University featuring Amelia Earhart's most personal items, including a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt saying that her husband Franklin would not let her use her newly acquired pilot's license to fly.

  • Monsieur N: Antoine de Caunes thriller about the end of the life of Napoleon and the mystery of his death.

  • Gods and Generals: Ted Turner's 3 hour epic on the Civil War.

    1. Review of the movie by Roy Beck in History Today.

    2. A historian concludes that the movie accurately reflects broad themes of history (National Review).

    3. Civil War Film May Reopen Debate on Cause of Conflict.

    4. Gods and Generals is Good Hollywood -- Don't Go See It.

  • "The Death of the Red Baron": Discovery Channel documentary.

  • "William Randolph Hearst": A new documentary.

  • "Secrets of Leadership": A new BBC series hosted by Andrew Roberts.

  • Danish Documentary: How the Danes allegedly were responsible for the deaths of thousands of German children during World War II.

  • Frida: History concerning the life of Trotsky.

  • "No Surrender: German and Japanese Kamikazes": History Channel documentary.

  • "Salem Witch Trials": Four hour Mini-Series on CBS.

  • "Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas": New Exhibit at the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. (Subscribers only.)

  • HBO's Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives: Dramatic readings of accounts of slavery compiled by the WPA. (Subscribers only.)

  • Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election: A new documentary about the battle for the presidency in Florida.

  • Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary: A new documentary features interviews with Hitler's secretary; she says he was a swell guy to work for.

  • To Kill a King: New $50 million movie about Cromwell claims he's a"homicidal thug"; condemned by historians.

  • Rabbit-Proof Fence: New film about the treatment of Australia's aborigines in history.

  • BBC2:"Witchcraze," the story of Agnes Sampson, the woman accused of being a witch by King James VI

  • Wisconsin Veterans Museum: new exhibit on the Civil War prison, Andersonville.

  • The Cartoon Museum: what happens when cartoons take on serious subjects like Watergate and 9-11.

  • New Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Leonardo da Vinci

  • The Trials of Henry Kissinger reviewed for HNN by Ron Briley

  • Max ... the Portrait of Der Führer as a Young Man

  • Documentary: Ancient Discoveries

  • PBS documentary about the"Murder of Emmett Till."

  • Documentary rescues overlooked explorer of Antarctica.

  • A & E's Benedict Arnold

  • PBS Chicago Documentary

  • Gangs of New York

    1. Review by historian Robert Brent Toplin.

    2. Review on NPR