Is Media Changing History?
When you think about history, what do you see in your mind? Sailing ships, ironclad warriors, dragons and other magical creatures? Chances are, your last memory of history was influenced by some form of media. This can be either a classic example such as a novel, or a more recent invention like electronic media. You may have seen the film Braveheart (1995) and were later surprised to discover that Scotsman did not wear kilts until the 16th century, many years after the film realistically took place in 14th and 13th centuries. Perhaps you have played one of the video games in the Assassins Creed franchise and discovered that your view of historical violence has been romanticized from its portrayal in the game. Whatever the source of your content, should we consider this as a problem for society, or the just the work of the entertainment industry doing its job? That is what we will explore in this article.
The tricky thing about history in entertainment is that it can be perceived, both by the creators and the consumers, in so many different ways. Some works simply may be inaccurate, others very accurate, and others may borrow from real history but utilized for fictionalized historical accounts. Examples of this would be tales such as There Will be Blood (2007) about a fictional oilman inspired by real life individuals, or fantasy stories such as The Lord of the Rings that were heavily inspired by medieval Europe despite taking place in a fictional world. I will not categorize this as a concern, but I will categorize it as a curiosity at the very least. I see no problem with using history as a basis, as long as this fact is told to the audience beforehand. In other words, one could argue that persuasion of the audience is acceptable as long as they have a head start with what they are about to be told.
There are many examples of this. When playing your favorite Blu-ray or adding a new title on your watchlist on your streaming service, the movie may start with “based on a true story” or something along the lines of “inspired by true events”. The first example basically means that most of the story you are about to see is true, whereas the latter example means that most of what you are about to see is fictional with a salting of real life events. The movies Catch Me if You Can (2002), Tucker: The Man and his Dream (1988), and The King’s Speech (2010) would include the “based on a true story” concept.
Stories that are simply inspired by true events are a little more difficult to discern. Are these films an ethical problem for their portrayal of history? I think not. If these films were in the documentary genre, then that would be the case. But if they are within the narrative genre, then I feel this is fair territory as long as the audience is aware of this fact. The film Gold (2016) directed by Stephan Gaghan and starring Mathew McConaughey is a good example of this. The film is loosely based on the Bre-X mining scandal of 1993. If you are interested in exploring this historical event, then I recommend this article from mining.com that gives a timeline of the highlights of the scandal, http://www.mining.com/web/bre-x-scandal-a-history-timeline/. However, the filmmakers I feel present a much more entertaining perspective of the story, even if it is partly fictionalized. What is the the consequence of this? In the opinion of your humble author, it is purely that of interest. Even though the portrayals of the film were not exact, it did inspire me to research the actual events, which in the long run, proved to be nothing but beneficial.
In the end, if life is always portrayed as it is, in other words realistic, it may have a backfire consequence on what it intends to do. If the intention is to inspire and educate, then maybe romanticizing the source material is not a bad idea. That way it makes you more curious about the events, and thus encourages you to research the real historical content of the story. However, this is only acceptable if the content creators are honest about the material they are presenting. As long as the audience is aware of the fact that what they are partaking in is partial fiction, then there is no negative effect in my opinion. In fact, Not all persuasive techniques in media are necessarily harmful. The end result may not even be negative at all, but perhaps even be positive, and, most importantly, inspirational.
