The Class Activity

Your task:

Become familiar with the public and scholarly reaction across various social and communications media to two influential, history-based films, Lincoln and Django Unchained.

Consider how you might focus on a historical event or perspective portrayed in either of the films according to your own interests. What piques your interest? Even if you have not seen either film, you have ample scenes, character descriptions, and plot points described in the instructor-provided resources that were linked previously.

Consider the resources to be examples of the public discussion of historians and others around the two films, as well as examples of primary sources that may shed light on your analysis. Use the examples as jumping-off points for the activity.

Follow the guidelines below to "become your own historians."

1. Read: "Katyń: History, Lies, Fiction and Myth" (short essay by Dr. Laura Gibbs) which asks us to consider what we all know, but do not always remain mindful of when we are seeing a film for entertainment purposes.

http://journeytothesea.com/katyn-history-myth/ (opens in new window)

I believe that Laura's approach to history and story in this foreign film will be a useful process to you as you delve into the history behind our two Oscar-nominated films. Although her film is about a different nation in a different time, keep the process in mind for possible application to your own work below.

2. Select one interesting event, scene, or perspective that seems to have caused controversy among historians and others upon the release of either Lincoln or Django. This may be as broad as the "Spielberg style" that has been said to minimize the role of abolitionists in the filmed viewpoint ofLincoln, or as narrow as the presence of Klansmen in 1858 in one scene of Django.

3. Locate and describe in detail a primary source (record, artifact, etc.) that gives a more accurate (truthful?) account of your selection from item 2. This may be from the Library of Congress, from the National Archives, or from any other source.

4. Compare and contrast the two, the film and the record. Consider the needs of the creators to tell a compelling story as well as the needs of people in the modern-day US to understand what may have actually occurred, what was possible and what was not, and why that should matter. Try Laura Gibbs's general approach and see where it takes you.

Some of what set my class and me down this road

Required Reading for the Lincoln/Django (Antebellum/Civil War Era) unit

These are the resources that I proposed as background for my Cyberdemocracy class because the films and the public & scholarly reactions seemed to cross all boundaries of the blogosphere, the Twitterverse, Facebook, etc.

I delayed sharing this set of resources because of additional discussion with colleagues, as well as some personal angst over my initial direction with this unit. I think all this side discussion has settled down some, and a few alert students have taken matters into their own hands on their own class blogs! Good for them!

Overall background: Movies, History, & Politics/Government Overlap!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/movies/lincoln-django-unchained-and-an-obama-inflected-cinema.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/movies/awardsseason/black-characters-are-still-too-good-too-bad-or-invisible.html?hpw&_r=0

Django:

Reactions from scholars:
http://www.notevenpast.org/watch/quentin-tarantinos-django-unchained

http://io9.com/5971780/django-unchained-what-kind-of-fantasy-is-this

Popular (non-scholarly) views & reactions:
http://mije.org/richardprince/mayor-outraged-police-diss-newspaper#Django

Lincoln:

Historian response and reactions:
http://www.notevenpast.org/watch/historian-views-spielbergs-lincoln

http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2012/11/historians-respond-to-spielbergs-lincoln.html

Great "roundtable" discussion with diverse views:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/category/lincoln-roundtable/

Being Your Own Historian: Primary Sources of the Period

Discussion of Civil War artifacts (great links in the article)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/arts/design/photographic-artifacts-of-black-civil-war-troops.html

The Emancipation Proclamation
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

Slave Narratives (via the Library of Congress):

NOTE: This material can be overwhelming in terms of both quantity and depth. So just familiarize yourself with how the primary materials and background are laid out at each link. Perhaps read ONE narrative of your choice and listen to ONE audio of your choice. This will be enough to tackle our follow-up activities.

Texts and background discussion at:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snintro00.html

and related links at:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snrelated.html

and audio at:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/index.html

Dibs on the Blogger Title, Anyway

I was not the first to realize that two major films focused on the era of US slavery were released in late 2012. (Spielberg's Lincoln was first, in early October. Then, on Christmas Day, we received the gift of Tarantino's Django Unchained.)

Nor, as it turned out, was I the first educator to spot an opportunity (a necessity, some would argue) to work the films into a class as soon as possible. Is it merely permissible to bring a close look at these entertainments to our classes, or is it a duty? Or something else?)

I'm not even the first to come up with the portmanteau phrase Lincoln Unchained. Darn it.

Try the Google search of the phrase (using quotes) and be amused... or enlightened... or not. Your call.

At a minimum, this site will consolidate and share some resources about the subject matter of both films, the histories and alt-histories involved, and the public responses to both that have permeated the online world. At best, we'll all learn something.

Possible future posts may discuss:

Wait, Did They Wear Those in 1858?
Mrs. Lincoln Looks a Lot Like Aunt May to Me
Just Hand Daniel Day-Lewis the Oscar® and Go Home
We Expect Better from Hollywood
No, We Don't