Hollywood goes to history books - Essay Example

Hollywood Goes to History Books Order No. 232456 No. of pages: 2 Premium 6530 Movies, the most popular form of entertainment in the modern world have entrenched themselves in our lives and that too, most firmly. Movies serve as cultural artifacts which bring alive past eras, resurrect dead people for the viewers and lead us through some of the most amazing incidents in the world. In this essay, we shall set out to discover how real life incidents involving history and people are depicted in movies, and how artistic liberties are used to enhance these incidents and events, in the creator’s vision for his craft.

In the year 1912, the famous Cunard Liner “Titanic” made its maiden voyage from the port of Southampton to New York, but the journey was tragically cut short. This supposedly unsinkable ship was laid waste by an iceberg and this tragic event has been pasteurized many times over. The most successful of them being, the starrer “Titanic” directed by one of the greatest Hollywood names, James Cameron. This movie uses the real incident of the sinking Titanic while weaving a beautiful love story between Rose, the high-society English girl and Jack Dawson, the drifter, who was in the hope of making a better life for himself by migrating to America.

James Cameron has taken great pains to recreate the ship, the ambience, the costumes, the language, and the sensibilities of the era, but falls short in his depiction of the romance between Jack and Rose. The social structure of the era was extremely rigid and romance between a lady of high society and a poor lad was something unheard of. Though the romance between the two characters was fictional, yet the onus lies with the director to portray society in the way it existed. “Titanic” the movie is more a feast for the eyes, a tale of puppy love, where action and romance are treated with such extravagance, that the ship and its tragedy get relegated into the background that served more like a prop, than the real incident that took place.

“Pocahontas” is one of the most successful movies from the Disney studios. It is an animated version of the real story of Pocahontas, the daughter of the Red Indian Chief, Powhatan. It deals with the friendship between Pocahontas and the Englishman Captain John Smith and of how she saves his life by putting her head on top of his, when he was sentenced to die by being clubbed to death. As with all forms of art, here also artistic license is quite evident. The story differs from the actual sequence of events in more ways than one - the age of characters, their physical appearance with the historical references being kept to the bare minimum and the story being taken forward with a view to cater to a wider audience.

In the real incident, the colonists left England in three ships, while the movie version shows them sailing on only the Susan Constant. John Smith is shown exploring the land as soon as he landed; while in reality he spent his journey on the ship, clapped in irons and was released only a month after the colonists had landed in Jamestown. The animated Pocahontas is a very alluring young girl, while in reality Pocahontas was a 11 year old girl, and whether she was beautiful is best left to the viewers to conjecture.

It is a vignette of American colonial history, embellished by the love story of the little girl and the Englishman. Viewing the movie as historical fact would be misleading, but that the story was real and not to be doubted in any way. The third movie in this essay is about to look at Howard Hughes, the reclusive American millionaire, through the eyes of director Martin Scorcese, in his film “The Aviator.” It is one of the most brilliant biopics by Howard Hughes, a pioneer in the field of aviation who is also a famous and influential movie producer.

The director portrays Howard Hughes for what he was – a tragic, complex, character, suffering from obsessive - compulsive disorder, striving for glory, but in the end leading the life of a recluse. While Martin Scorcese does not shy away from portraying Hughes with his warts et all, the only restraint he shows is in dealing with his germ phobia, probably a result of his syphilis, when the doctor asked him not to shake hands with anyone. Scorcese glosses over this fact, more as an act of respect rather than an aberration on his part.

One of the reasons for the movie not digressing from facts could be because it deals with a person whose life is still vivid in memory and so any diversion could be challenged. These films deal with historical facts and the fictionalization of them is only in terms of story. They weave their narrative around actual events, and the real incidents serve more as the canvas on which the characters and storyline leave their stamp. Titanic and Pocahontas are more of fiction, using facts as a base on which to build the story, while The Aviator portrays Howard Hughes, the real person, and not a sketchy portrait of the brilliant individual.

References The Real Pocahontaswww.pocahontas.morenus.org/The Titanic http://www.nicksflickpicks.com/titanic.html History in the Movieshttp://www.stfrancis.edu/historyinthemovies/aviator.htm