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  • Essay / Films and Videos as a Source of Historical Knowledge

    Over the years, history has adapted and changed to find and accept new forms of historical knowledge. From the beginning, visual history has been used for centuries in caves to show and explain through images what happened in the past. To the more recent form of oral history that historians have slowly begun to adopt as a reliable source of historical knowledge. Once again we are faced here with the dilemma of whether or not to allow modern development and creation such as filmed depictions of the past into the set of things we consider and rely on for historical knowledge. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay In recent years, we have seen an unprecedented increase in the number of historical films recreating the past, such as 12 Years a Slave, which has won 30 film awards and Hidden Figures to more focused recreations of a single person's historical influence like King's Speech and Jackie. Consequently, this has given rise to a growing demand to tackle the question of whether films can be used to contribute to historical knowledge or whether they are simply an overly dramatized depiction of twisted truth, designed to receive as many points of view as possible. Before considering something as historical knowledge, all forms of the work, in each individual case, must be treated with circumspection. For example, more often than not, the primary sources that we rely on and place great emphasis on a piece of historical knowledge are often originally developed with an alternative motive in mind, designed and constructed to describe an impression that is not realistic. Like the propaganda videos released by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, giving the impression that it had hundreds of missile launchers when in reality it only had ten to twenty-five, thus causing the missile deficit. When it comes to answering the question posed, filmed representations are no different, each individual representation must be analyzed before classifying them as historical knowledge. The definition of a representation according to Oxford Dictionaries is that it is “the description or portrait of someone or a person”. something in a particular way'. Highlighting that the filmed depiction is not always an exact replica of the history we learned from other sources. This is often demonstrated by filmed depictions of the past which are an art and which are constructed to be a cinematic experience. This can be a disadvantage as the experiences created often have a vested interest, such as monetary gain. An example of this is the Hollywood hit film Pearl Harbor (2001), where it depicts Japanese kamikaze bombers targeting hospitals and medical facilities during the bombardment when in reality they were targeting Allied warships docked at the port. The hospital heightened the harmful effect of the attack in the eyes of the viewer, as it was a place considered safe and where vulnerable people were cared for. This inaccurate lens dramatized the historical story that was being created. With film performances, unlike other sources of historical knowledge, you must create a story, a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, designed to leave you with a message. Traditionally, this message also turns out to be optimistic, the historical event.