Gandhi

The film Gandhi was directed by Richard Attenborough in 1982. The film was nominated and received numerous awards such as best picture, best director, and best actor (Ben Kingsley). In a historical perspective, many claimed that the film was historically inaccurate. According to the author of the article, Michael Hofland, many people criticized the portrayal of Mohammed Al Jinnah, a revolutionary in the Muslim world. Jinnah is portrayed as a terrible person, unwilling to create a cooperation between Hindus and Muslims, according to the critics. Hofland states that many people feel that Gandhi had flaws too and was not always right. The critics believe that "the film portrays him basically without a flaw, when it should show his true self." Some say that a large part film is propaganda, but nevertheless, "Gandhi was honored with many Hollywood awards and continues to be a beloved film," states Hofland.

History of the Qin Dynasty

This link provides a detailed account of the first dynasty to rule China, the Qin Dynasty. The Qin also known as the Ch'in seems to be the formation of China. They were the first dynasty to take control primarily because of their advances in modern warfare, implementing the calvary and the military defense mechanism - The Great Wall. Besides being a brutal war machine and tyrannical dictatorship, the Qin were able to accomplish some amazing things for China such as the standardization of language and writing. The Qin have a rich history in China and have laid a partial foundation for the modern state of China.

The Qin Dynasty

I found this article from the website http://library.thinkquest.org/12255/library/dynasty/qin.html. This artcle provides a brief history of the Qin's second emperor.

"The emperor of this era wanted to conquer the warring states that the Chou dynasty had in essence created. This emperor succeeded and China was one nation once more."

Besides wanting to keep China one nation, this emperor wanted to become a god. Therefore, he sent for scientists to help him achieve this goal. Ironically, this action is what eventually lead to his demise because the medicine that he was given contained mercury. For more in-depth information, click on the link!

Enjoy!

Persian Gulf War

The link is to an article from Encyclopedia Britannica. It is an overview of the first Gulf War. Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 with a goal to secure Kuwaiti oil reserves at the same time expanding Iraq. "Iraq's invasion and the potential threat it then posed to Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and exporter, prompted the United States and its western European NATO allies to rush troops to Saudi Arabia to deter a possible attack." Before the war started there was a massive buildup of military forces known as Operation Desert Shield. The actual war started on January 16/17 1991 with a massive air attack with the United States leading the way. The air attack became known as Operation Desert Storm destroying most or all of Iraqi defenses followed by an allied ground attack Operation Desert Sabre. The whole war claimed 8000-100000 Iraqi lives, while the allied forces lost only about 300.

The History Behind Braveheart

The movie, Braveheart, is based off of the legends about the life of William Wallace-a Scottish national hero. The link I provided is found on the MyGenealogy website, which provides a lot of historic information on past wars around the world. The article regarding the history of Braveheart is titled, The History Behind Braveheart. During the early 1300's the Scottish struggled to fight for their independence from the English. The film surrounds the story of William Wallace, a Scottish hero who decided to fight for the freedom of his country against the English. He slowly gathered a large group of followers to defeat the English rule. As illustrated in the movie, Wallace and his followers defeated the English army at Stirling on September 11, 1297. Unfortunately, on July 22, 1298, King Edward II led a large English army against Wallace at the battle of Falkirk. Wallace was captured and taken to London where he was executed on August 23, 1305. Although Wallace was not able to free his country from English rule, he inspired others to carry on the struggle for freedom. Following the death of Wallace, Robert Bruce, a Scottish fugitive, was inspired to fight for the freedom of his country, and was crowned king of Scotland. On June 24, 1314, Bruce led and army of 40,000 troops to fight against the English army of 60,000 troops led by King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn. As the English launched a mass attack against the Scottish, Bruce had prepared camouflaged pits in the ground that allowed his troops to slain the English as they fought to attack. The English were defeated and lost about 10,000 men. This battle marked the Scottish independence from the English.

History Behind Schindler's List

The link provided gives an in-depth summary of the Holocaust, which is the event that the movie Schindler's List focuses on.

During World War II, Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered approximately six million Jews. The Holocaust is the name used to refer to this systematic, bureaucratic, and state-sponsored campaign of persecution and murder. Beginning with racially discriminatory laws in Germany, the Nazi campaign expanded to the mass murder of all European Jews.

Schindler's List helps the audience grasp what was going on and tells its story through the perspective of Oscar Schindler and some of the Jews that were captured. For the film Schindler's List, experts on the Holocaust were brought in to make sure the film stayed true to historical facts. The nice aspect about the link I provided is that it lets you click on keys words surrounding the Holocaust and goes into further detail on each of those words. For example, you can click on "concentration camps," and the site will take you to another page that deals only with different concentration camps and how they were used in Schindler's List.

History Behind The Godfather

This link provides a short historical analysis of the The Godfather by stating that the film depicted "poverty, the turn of the century, a family, and the hypocracy of politics in America." Also, the link refers to The Godfather as an accurate portrayal of the Sicilian Mafia through the language and culture. However, this links doesn't give an indepth historical analysis as it does link the movie to key figures and events during the '20s. The link goes into descriptions of which characters in The Godfather resembled real-life gangsters, such as Johnnie Fontaine is most likely a link to Frank Sinatra, who was suspected of having mob connections. Also, Moe Green and Hyman Roth, in the movie, was closely related to Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky because of the related deaths and roles within the movie.

Forrest Gump- A Fictional Character

In the article, Forrest Gump: A Controversal Approach of American History, is an article dealing with historic events in the movie Forrest Gump. The article is written by Ludovic Courtes, from the George Washington University. He states in his article how various events taken in the film can be a controversal argument. An example Courtes has used from the film is when Forrest reveals the political scandal of the Watergate. Courtes also says that Forrest is a fictional character and the movie shows us how he deals with certain trauma events in history.

From the movie, one can get the impression that the author tried to have him movie embracing a whole part of the American History by just showing it through the eyes of a fictional character.

Gladiator's Commodus vs. the actual Commodus

The movie Gladiator, for those who have never seen it, is about a very respected general of the Roman Empire who is exiled by the new ruler Commodus. The general is captured and sold as a slave. He finds himself soon fighting in arenas as a gladiator against other men and animals. Eventually he fights Commodus in the arena and kills him.




Commodus was a real emperor of Rome. His full name and title is Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus. He was a very brutal ruler who had many senators killed after an attempt on his life and ordered the execution of his chief advisor to please the army, and the successor was killed in a riot. He started to lose his mind and pretended that he was Hercules entering the Colosseum to fight gladiators and animals. On December 31, 192 AD, his advisors had him strangled by a champion wrestler.

Braveheart: Fact or Fiction

In response to the popularity of the blockbuster Braveheart, Scottish historian Ewan J. Innes replied, "One of the most common questions I'm asked is how factual Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace was in the 1995 film Braveheart. The short answer is that is hasn't an iota of fact in it." Continuing Innes explained, "It's a good film, just don't take it as fact... For example, Isabella cannot have been carrying Wallace's child (and presumably Edward III) as she was in France at the time and did not arrive in England until two years after Wallace's death. She could also therefore have not warned him at York (which Wallace didn't attack anyway)."
Another fault in the films historical accuracy is its interpretation of the battle of Falkirk. While the film conveys a much more heroic approach, in actuality "Wallace escaped the field but the majority of the Scottish army did not. Bruce was not at the battle as he was in Carrick in the southwest at the time."
Following the Battle of Falkirk, Wallace "resigned as Guardian and was sent on a diplomatic mission to France and Rome. He did not return until after the Scottish surrender in 1302." Yet, another example of the film's skew on historical events. Although Braveheart cannot serve as sufficient history source, the film's themes of freedom, romance, and integrity uphold its popularity. While, historians due tend to find flaws in th films accuracy, its only fair to note that the movie does open with the line "[history has been] written by those who have hanged heroes," which strikes wonder.

The Auto-Industry and Terminator 2

In this post you will be made knowledgeable about the brief history of the auto industry. This post gives a timeline of the auto industry from the years of 1960-1998. Under the year 1980 its states "Japan emerged as the world's leading producer of automobiles with just over 11 million units produced in a world-wide total of over 38.6 million." This is interesting to me because it relates to a statement in the article, Termination or Transformation (my summarization article) . In this article it states that "U.S. auto manufacturers adopted methods, which they assumed accounted for the success of Japanese industry." This brief history relates to the Terminator 2 because it ties into the movie and how auto manufacturerers tried to replace humans with robots. These manufacturers thought that robots would be more beneficial, since they couldn't get hurt on the assembly -line. Also the robots they thought could perform more challenging tasks, without any complaints. Without being said the manufacturers believed the robots would bring more income to the auto industry.