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History and the Movies



Does anyone know who the "historical consultant(s)" was on The Patriot?  I
fully expect it to be Doris Kerns Goodwin - you know there are really many
of her!  Baseball Doris, McNeil/Lehrer Doris, First Lady Historian Doris,
Hilary Watcher Doris, Boston Doris, New York Doris, Academic Doris,
Casually Intellectual Doris, and Presidential Historian Doris.  Could there
be a Revolutionary War Doris as well?

Please don't misread my comments I think she is a great writer/historian
and even better persona for the historical profession.  At least the media
cares enough to ask her!  She, unlike many of her colleagues, is not too
elitist to speak coherently on the relationship between history and current
issues.

I agree that the movies often get it wrong when it comes to "accurate"
history, but we should give the movie industry some credit in at least
asking the pros about what and how it happened.  Even if they choose to
ignore their advice.

Yet, set design budgets for movies like Sleepy Hollow, Saving Private Ryan,
and Gladiator, are more than any exhibit budget, and more folks will see
the past through Hollywood, than through the Smithsonian.  I thought the
movie Sleepy Hollow was uninteresting, but I marveled at the attempt  to
recreate early Federal New York.  It was better than any exhibit I have
seen.  Hopefully, the trend toward accuracy will get stronger based upon
the success of these movies.


Finally, because we all  light our Cubans with Benjamins, plate our Dixie
cups with platinum, and fill our pools with caviar,  California may not be
the place to find 1500 extras willing to work for Hollywood's
less-than-competative pay scales.  Noting the shortage of labor, the ethnic
composition of the service industry and the socioeconomics here the writers
of the Patriot would have to figure out how 1500 undocumented laborers,
hippies and blond, tan and buff surfers wound up at Cowpens!  The British
would have fire engine red hair, not red coats, and fix their bayonets
through their nostrils (amongst other places!).  Now that would be
revisionism.

Eureka!

Chuck Piotrowski
Waiting for my Hair Design Team to fly in from Stuttgart.

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