Film Critique
and
Comparison

Instructions
for Writing
Your Paper
 

Dramatic films based on historical people and events have been common fare since the beginning of cinema. The visual images portrayed by these films are powerful and memorable. When people see these films, they often taken them as gospel, transforming a much-stretched tale into historical reality. In fact, there is almost always a big difference between real history and how that history is portrayed in a film.

Historical films are almost always dramas, and a drama tells a story in a serious way. But cinematic storytelling has dramatic needs peculiar to the form. It relies on dramatic effects to keep the attention of the audience and tends to simplify plot and character. Furthermore, sex and violence sell. While history has more than its fair share of sex and violence, Hollywood will frequently add even more.

Real history also has the problem that it is often complex, confused, and highly detailed. Storytelling for dramatic purposes tends to simplify things. The narrative is reduced to good guys versus bad guys. The multitude of historical characters who participated in actual events is reduced to a manageable few. Typically, dramatic films will blend several historical figures into one person, and a sequence of complex historical events will be reduced to one or two plot lines to move the story along quickly and simplify the demands of the narrative. The result of such creative license is frequently bad history. Accuracy is sacrificed and audiences are given a distorted version of the past.

The cable TV series The Tudors is a good example of historical drama done very badly. It is unfortunate because history is exciting and interesting.

In this class, you will view two films, Elizabeth (1998) and Cromwell (1970). After you have watched these films, you will write a compare and contrast paper that evaluates each film as a depiction of history. Your paper will consist of the following sections.

1. A synopsis or summary of the plot of Elizabeth in two pages.

2. A synopsis or summary of the plot of Cromwell in two pages.

3. An analysis of what Elizabeth got right and got wrong in terms of history in two pages.

4. An analysis of what Cromwell got right and got wrong in terms of history in two pages.

5. An evaluation of the usefulness of each film for the teaching of history to a general audience and in the classroom in two pages.

6. A bibliography of works you consulted.

Feel free to do a compare and contrast of the two films as one combined section for parts 3 and 4 of your papers, in which case, you will be writing about four pages.

You will need to research historical background. Your textbook (Bucholz and Key) is an excellent resource. You should also plan on consulting the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (R 920.041 O98o 2004), The Historical Dictionary of Tudor England (R 942.05 H67h 1991), and The Historical Dictionary of Stuart England (R 941.06 F91h 1996). Each of these resources can be found in the ASU Library’s reference collection.

Your paper is due on 29 November.