Provocative excerpts from primary and secondary sources (some with audio glosses). Read the rationale behind these sound bites for more information.
671-680 of 734 Sound Bites. [show all]
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671) Recalling the rhetoric of the past, and measuring it against the actual past, may enable us to see through our current bamboozlement, where the reality is still unfolding, and the discrepancies still not apparent. (Howard Zinn 45) [SoundBite #440]
672) Neither people nor nations live historical "stories"; narratives, that is, coherent beginnings, middles, and endings, are constructed by historians as part of their attempts to make sense of the past. The narratives that historians write are in fact "verbal fictions"; written history is a representation of the past, not the past itself. . . . To the extent that written narratives are in fact "verbal fictions," then visual narratives will be "visual fictions" -- that is, not mirrors of the past but representations of it. (Robert Rosenstone 35) [SoundBite #135]
673) I found myself to be consistently amazed by how much of my historical knowledge comes from popular culture. The facts that I learned from movies were, to me, just that, facts. We let ourselves be influenced by what we see on the silver screen regardless of what we know to be true. Without a working knowledge of how film makers try to manipulate the public, we are in danger of allowing Hollywood to make decisions for the American people. (Samuel Olsen, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #2575]
674) A movie creates a self-contained world that can bring complex situations to life in a very accessible way; more so than the hollow retelling of them that we get as part of the official discourse. Movies -- and the self-contained realities they create -- imprint themselves indelibly on the mind. And it's not even necessary to understand all the nuances. We are captivated by unforgettable moments -- images and events that won't ever leave us. People sit in the dark and pay unconditional attention for two hours. You can't skim a movie. You have to watch every frame. Not only are people immersed in that world, but they do so collectively, creating a new intimacy, a new community of sharing and belonging -- in effect a new culture unique to that film. Ideally, every filmmaker should feel a tremendous sense of moral responsibility before, during, and after undertaking an effort to, in effect, play God and create a new world. (Salvador Carrasco 176-77) [SoundBite #2751]
675) The historical film can be distinguished by this dual focus. By reenacting the past in the present, the historical film brings the past into dialog with the present. The critical interest of this genre of films lies precisely in the juxtaposition of old and new, the powerful sense that what is being rendered on-screen is not an imaginary world, but a once-existing world that is being reinscribed in an original way. (Robert Burgoyne 11) [SoundBite #1373]
676) The passage of time does not in itself provide perspective, however. Information is lost as well as gained over time. (James W. Loewen 270) [SoundBite #1287]
677) Those of us who love to read may argue that good writing accomplishes that same rapture. However, the filmmaker enables us to hear, feel, and see exactly what he/she wants us to hear, feel, and see. We buy it because we want so much to be a part of the story. (Teresa Salvatore, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #1229]
678) The historian, writes Veronica Wedgwood, "ought to be the humblest of men; he is faced a dozen times a day with the evidence of his own ignorance; he is perpetually confronted with his own humiliating inability to interpret his material correctly; he is, in a sense that no other writer is, in bondage to that material." (Henry Steele Commager 43) [SoundBite #148]
679) I have no doubt that 10 out of 10 kids in a classroom environment would rather watch a historical movie that read 30 pages of a text book. However historical accuracy and legitimacy come into question when you take a step back and look at what the children are actually watching. With film, one walks such a thin line between fact and faux that at some point we need to reevaluate the methods we are using to educate. (Harrison Lawrence, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #2953]
680) There are, of course, the people who enjoy the kinds of films that make you think. But isn't this just another form of being entertained? I can't say I've ever heard of someone whose life changed dramatically after seeing a socially conscious film. (Brendan Feeney, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #1241]
