Frances Ce Liang

Professor Erin Dietel-Mclaughlin

WR-13300-SS13

24 October 2014

Research Proposal
I am studying a number of early films that were produced as reflections upon certain
historical events in US history because I want to find out how exactly these films
portray these events and how they shape audiences understanding of them, wars and
movements. I am doing this research in order to show scholars studying US history
and history major students how intensely these non-documentary films could
influence audiences perspective towards history, and to help foreigners and
immigrants who are attempting to learn more about this country better understand
American society and culture. This issue is important and timely because as a form of
modern media, film plays a significant role in shaping peoples perspectives towards
social, cultural and historical issues. Also, there is no doubt that conveying
information via video is much more powerful in influencing audience than doing so
via written documents since the film format provides a more vivid visual presentation
of historical events. To illustrate this, I plan to focus on several films that each
portrays a certain period of time in US history, discuss how accurately these films
depict US history and demonstrate how they achieved their tremendous influence on
audience. (Films category: 1492: Conquest of Paradise, The Patriot, Gone with the
Wind, The Birth of a Nation, Citizen Kane, Rebel Without a Cause, Platoon, and

Forrest Gump)

KEY SOURCES FOUND SO FAR

Type of source?
MLA citation

Stoddard, Jeremy. Film as a

Thoughtful Medium for
Teaching History. Learning,
Media and Technology, 37.3
(2012): 271-288.
Past Imperfect: History
According to the Movies,
Mark C Carnes, New York:
H. Holt, 1996, c1995, 1st
Owl ed. 304 p.
The Birth of A Nation D. W
Griffith [David Wark],
Chatsworth, Calif. : Image
Entertainment distributor,
1998, 1 videodisc (187 min.)
Deshpande, Anirudh. "Films
as Historical Sources or
Alternative History, The
New York Times, Nov 8,
1992 39.40 (2004): 44554459.

News article? Scholarly

journal article? Book?
Website? Other?

What does the source

offer your project?
Background? Statistics?
Theory? Argument?
Counterargument?

Scholarly journal article

Supporting evidence &

Argument

Book

Background & Argument

Evidence & Basic source

A DVD from the AudioVideo Resource Center

(Actually, this source is

the DVD version of a film
I am going to discuss.)

Newspaper article

Statistics & Background &

Argument

Exploratory Draft
I plan to argue that although most American historical feature films may contain
dramatic elements as works of art, they still serve as accurate and reliable
representations of US history. They call public attention to the events they depict, and
intensely shape the audiences perspectives of these events in a positive or a negative
way. Firstly, I found this topic interesting because I am quite interested in US history
and have watched and studied a variety of historical films depicting Colonial America,
the American Civil War and the Vietnam War. Also, I regard this topic as significant
and worth discussing because, as modern technology develops at an amazing rate,
film art, a major form of visual media nowadays, is playing a more and more
significant role in peoples daily lives. What is more, a number of classic historical
films released during the past 100 years have greatly helped the public better
understand intriguing historical events, reshape their old stereotypical perspectives,
and even promote the development of later events. Although most scholars studying
US history usually regard such historical films as fictional and never take them into
account when searching for reliable sources of evidence for research, I hope to
persuade my audience to dispel of this view.

As I mentioned before, my intended audience include scholars and history major

students who regard films as a less reliable source than articles, journals and other
written documents. Also, as films usually present intriguing historical events in a
relatively more interesting and less complex way, they may greatly help those who
are eager to get to know American cultural and social history within a short period of

time. As a result, I think new immigrants, foreigners, and young students who are
quite ignorant of what took place in the history of America may also benefit from my
research paper.
I am going to convince the audience of my arguments quality and relevance by
making the claims listed below.

Most historical films are highly credible. Although they are not intended to be
documentaries, the scenarios they depict are based on actual historical events.

A number of the historical films I am going to discuss are contemporaries of

the events they depict, calling public attention to the issue and somehow
promoting the development of future events.

As a media, historical films are quite powerful in conveying emotions and

evoking sympathy. For example, the film Platoon, which depicts the cruelty
of Vietnam War, successfully evoked public sympathy for both the American
and Vietnamese victims and promoted the anti-war movements in the 1980s
and 1990s.

Certain films, released during a specific time in history, may express biased
views towards certain issues. (For example, the 1915 film The Birth of a
Nation somehow glorifies KKK.) As a result, they serve as useful historical
evidence indicating popular perception of these historical events.

So far, I have assembled a variety of sources including books, e-books, newspaper

articles, scholarly articles and, of course, the films themselves to support my
arguments. They provide me with necessary background information, supporting
evidence and statistics to structure my paper. However, I am still trying to locate more
sources such as academic dissertations and scholarly journal articles in order to add to

the credibility of my points. As the focus of my research project would be the

accuracy of the films depiction of history and the ways in which they shape
audiences points of view, the audience of my research paper would be eager to see
credible statistics provided by authorities showing to what extent the plots of
historical films coincide with actual events, as well as detailed examples showing
their influence on peoples perspectives and actions. I think a number of historians,
biographers and documentarians would tend to disagree on my argument, because
films are long been regarded as closely related to fictional plots and excessive
dramatic elements, so these audience would probably point out that films should not
be regarded as a serious and credible way of presenting history. As a result, evidence
provided by authoritative organizations would be vital in the development of my
rebuttals.

I regard the most challenging problem I would encounter in structuring my research

paper and developing arguments as the limitation of sources available. As film and
history are two topics that are seldom discussed together, the sources in Hesburgh
Library are quite limited in number and quality. So, currently I am still trying to
locate more sources online. Actually, I have found a number of sources that would
provide supportive evidence for my project, but some of them are written in Chinese.
I am not sure if I am allowed to translate those parts into English and write a full
MLA format for them, but if I am allowed to do so, they would be of great help.