movies 
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
2/10/2021
"Judas and the Black Messiah" Is an American Tragedy
The performances of the lead actors in "Judas and the Black Messiah" elevate the story of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton's assassination by the police and FBI to a complex story of the Black freedom movement.
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SOURCE: CNN
12/19/2020
How World War II Shaped 'It's a Wonderful Life'
The now-classic movie was unsuccessful in its own time, perhaps because its expression of the uncertainty and fatigue of a nation emerging from a global war was not an upbeat or enjoyable theme.
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SOURCE: Medium
12/9/2020
The Other ‘Mank’: Joe Mankiewicz and the Wildest Night in Hollywood History
by Greg Mitchell
The Netflix film "Mank" provides an opportunity to remember the civil liberties stand taken by Frank Mankiewicz's brother Joe, who opposed the imposition of loyalty oaths on the Directors' Guild at the height of the postwar red scare.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
9/14/2020
Why ‘Glory’ Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later
by Kevin M. Levin
The film based on the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry is streaming on Netflix. Kevin Levin suggests that despite the narrative license taken, the film puts the story of Black freedom fighters and the question of emancipation at the center of the story of the Civil War.
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SOURCE: New York Post
3/30/2020
Helen Hunt Brings Trailblazing War Journalist to Life in "World On Fire"
“I remember reading that she called her paper the next day and held the phone out the window [so they could hear the gunfire and chaos] and said, ‘It’s happening right now!'”
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SOURCE: NY Times
2/8/20
‘1917’ Turns a Horrific War Into an Uplifting Hero’s Journey
by Cathy Tempelsman
World War I was a disaster, but Sam Mendes’s Oscar-nominated epic paints a dangerously misleading picture of the conflict.
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SOURCE: Time
1/31/20
6 Films to Watch for Black History Month, Recommended by an Expert
They comprise fictional features, documentary films and even one “home movie,” and together tell an important story.
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1/21/20
1917: The War Movie at Its Very Best
by Bruce Chadwick
The movie is a story within a story – the two men within the greater war
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SOURCE: BBC History Extra
1/14/20
“A staggering tour de force – but an opportunity missed”: a historian’s review of the film 1917
by Jeremy Banning
How does 1917 deal with the realities of war and what does it show about the real events of 1917 – the retreat by German forces and life in the trenches?
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1/5/20
Little Women are Bigger Than Ever
by Bruce Chadwick
Director Gerwig, who also wrote the screenplay, has made this a very modern look at life in the 1860s.
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1/12/20
Cinema Paradiso: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Will Be The Home of Movies, Past and Present
by Andrew Fletcher
When it opens in 2020, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be an interesting landmark for historians and movie buffs alike.
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11/12/19
The Battle of Midway Movie is Mostly Terrific
by Bruce Chadwick
Despite its drawbacks, Midway is a rip-roaring military saga and a testament to the men who won it.
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11/5/19
Harriet Appropriately and Aptly Honors Harriet Tubman
by Bruce Chadwick
Harriet is not only an enjoyable and inspirational film, but one that covers a lot of pre and post-Civil War history as well as some about the war itself.
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SOURCE: Process History
10/31/19
African American Women's Work in the Underground Railroad Beyond Harriet Tubman
by Jazma Sutton
African American women, arguably the most vulnerable group in antebellum America, used every means at their disposal to escape slavery, liberate family members, assist in others’ self-liberation, and hold on to whatever measure of freedom they had achieved.
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SOURCE: Time
10/25/19
The Real History Behind The Current War
by Olivia B. Waxman
In the 1880s, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla went to battle over who had the superior technology for electrical transmission.
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10/9/19
A Brooding, Psychotic New Joker Joins the Batman Legend
by Bruce Chadwick
Bruce Chadwick examines the history of the character of the Joker and reviews the latest film.
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8/11/19
The Cultural History Behind Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood
by David L. O'Connor
Like most folktales, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is filled with interesting characters, events, and messages from a bygone era.
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4/14/19
When Women Ran Hollywood
by Juliette Fay
Their names may no longer be widely recognizable, but women built and ran early Hollywood, shaped the industry in myriad ways, and influenced what we see on the silver screen even today.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
3/28/19
Want to unify the country? A community organizer and a Klan leader showed us how.
by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
In the midst of the identity crisis we face as a nation, the organizing tradition that Ann Atwater embodied is the strong medicine we need.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/21/19
Every Sunday, These Historians Go to the Movies — All in the Name of Digital Community
#HATM (Historians at the Movies) and public engagement.
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