Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Random Stuff, Part 1: History by Hollywood-Only
I’m a history buff. I rarely read fiction. I like reading about history. But who has the time?
I like watching movies.
So, a few months ago I decided to merge two things I love into a more efficient time management system and I decided I am only going to learn my history through Hollywood movies (and the occasional foreign movie). I will accept the inaccuracy and bias, willingly, and will treat the movie as fact. The actual people from history books are never as good-looking at the actors and actresses portraying them, historical things with don’t have dramatic musical scores, and for entertainment purposes, screenwriters, directors, and actors add things (including dialogue) to make history better.
I will, from now on, happily accept it all.
Last month, I watched The Report and I do not want to know how biased it is. If you want to convince me of something different, make a movie, please.
I just watched Operation Finale, about Adolf Eichmann hiding out in Argentina and a group of special forces Israelis that snatched him out of Argentina and brought him back to Israel to stand trial and be executed. If I had wanted to learn about this in some other way than watching a two-hour movie, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I might not have even known about it at all (it’s embarrassing how little I actually know about stuff). I mean …just watch the trailer below!!! Who wouldn’t want to learn about history by watching Ben Kingsley deliver an emotional and pleading performance that invokes rage, sympathy, and horror in the viewer? In real life, there’s no way all of it went down like this movie shows it did. Who could ever know if one of his captors shaved him and gave him a cigarette? Some black and white stock footage and a historian being lit from the side and telling you about history is never going to be better than learning history from an Academy Award winner.
Next up on my History by Hollywood tour is…
- Munich (Steven Spielberg)
- Argo
- Vice
Now …watch this trailer and learn a little something.
Don Kowalewski 