movies

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  3/4/2021
  

  People Longing for Movie Theaters During the 1918 Flu Pandemic Feels Very Familiar in 2021

  As in 2020, public health concerns closed movie theaters in 1918. But then, without home streaming technology, a fledgling industry was threatened with ruin. Hollywood bounced back because so many Americans missed the theater experience.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/10/2021
  

  "Judas and the Black Messiah" Is an American Tragedy

  The performances of the lead actors in "Judas and the Black Messiah" elevate the story of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton's assassination by the police and FBI to a complex story of the Black freedom movement. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  12/19/2020
  

  How World War II Shaped 'It's a Wonderful Life'

  The now-classic movie was unsuccessful in its own time, perhaps because its expression of the uncertainty and fatigue of a nation emerging from a global war was not an upbeat or enjoyable theme. 

• 
• SOURCE: Medium
  12/9/2020
  

  The Other ‘Mank’: Joe Mankiewicz and the Wildest Night in Hollywood History

  by Greg Mitchell

  The Netflix film "Mank" provides an opportunity to remember the civil liberties stand taken by Frank Mankiewicz's brother Joe, who opposed the imposition of loyalty oaths on the Directors' Guild at the height of the postwar red scare. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  9/14/2020
  

  Why ‘Glory’ Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later

  by Kevin M. Levin

  The film based on the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry is streaming on Netflix. Kevin Levin suggests that despite the narrative license taken, the film puts the story of Black freedom fighters and the question of emancipation at the center of the story of the Civil War. 

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• SOURCE: New York Post
  3/30/2020
  

  Helen Hunt Brings Trailblazing War Journalist to Life in "World On Fire"

  “I remember reading that she called her paper the next day and held the phone out the window [so they could hear the gunfire and chaos] and said, ‘It’s happening right now!'”

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  2/8/20
  

  ‘1917’ Turns a Horrific War Into an Uplifting Hero’s Journey

  by Cathy Tempelsman

  World War I was a disaster, but Sam Mendes’s Oscar-nominated epic paints a dangerously misleading picture of the conflict.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  1/31/20
  

  6 Films to Watch for Black History Month, Recommended by an Expert

  They comprise fictional features, documentary films and even one “home movie,” and together tell an important story.

• 
• 1/21/20
  

  1917: The War Movie at Its Very Best

  by Bruce Chadwick

  The movie is a story within a story – the two men within the greater war

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• SOURCE: BBC History Extra
  1/14/20
  

  “A staggering tour de force – but an opportunity missed”: a historian’s review of the film 1917

  by Jeremy Banning

  How does 1917 deal with the realities of war and what does it show about the real events of 1917 – the retreat by German forces and life in the trenches? 

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• 1/5/20
  

  Little Women are Bigger Than Ever

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Director Gerwig, who also wrote the screenplay, has  made this a very modern look at life in the 1860s.

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• 1/12/20
  

  Cinema Paradiso: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Will Be The Home of Movies, Past and Present

  by Andrew Fletcher

  When it opens in 2020, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be an interesting landmark for historians and movie buffs alike.

• 
• 11/12/19
  

  The Battle of Midway Movie is Mostly Terrific

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Despite its drawbacks, Midway is a rip-roaring military saga and a testament to the men who won it.

• 
• 11/5/19
  

  Harriet Appropriately and Aptly Honors Harriet Tubman

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Harriet is not only an enjoyable and inspirational film, but one that covers a lot of pre and post-Civil War history as well as some about the war itself.

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• SOURCE: Process History
  10/31/19
  

  African American Women's Work in the Underground Railroad Beyond Harriet Tubman

  by Jazma Sutton

  African American women, arguably the most vulnerable group in antebellum America, used every means at their disposal to escape slavery, liberate family members, assist in others’ self-liberation, and hold on to whatever measure of freedom they had achieved. 

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  10/25/19
  

  The Real History Behind The Current War

  by Olivia B. Waxman

  In the 1880s, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla went to battle over who had the superior technology for electrical transmission.

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• 10/9/19
  

  A Brooding, Psychotic New Joker Joins the Batman Legend

  by Bruce Chadwick

  Bruce Chadwick examines the history of the character of the Joker and reviews the latest film. 

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• 8/11/19
  

  The Cultural History Behind Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood

  by David L. O'Connor

  Like most folktales, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is filled with interesting characters, events, and messages from a bygone era.  

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• 4/14/19
  

  When Women Ran Hollywood

  by Juliette Fay

  Their names may no longer be widely recognizable, but women built and ran early Hollywood, shaped the industry in myriad ways, and influenced what we see on the silver screen even today.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/28/19
  

  Want to unify the country? A community organizer and a Klan leader showed us how.

  by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

  In the midst of the identity crisis we face as a nation, the organizing tradition that Ann Atwater embodied is the strong medicine we need.