Below is a transcript of our conversation with Scott Roberts, Professor of Social Studies Education at CMU:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. When you go to the movies, you don't always plan on learning something, but if it's an historical movie about a person, a time period or event, in the back of your mind, you might wonder how true to life the story is. And if a movie is part of the lessons in school, what telling of history is being shown to your kids? Scott Roberts is a Professor of Social Studies Education at CMU. He has worked with colleagues here and at other colleges and universities as a coeditor on a series of books, “Hollywood as History.” He told me about how teachers can better understand the real thing and, well,…
DN: The Hollywoodization of it.
Scott Roberts:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think back in the in the 90s, Steven Spielberg with his you know, with Schindler's List and then Saving Private Ryan, received a lot of credit for trying to be as accurate as (as) possible. And in the discussions I've had about both films, there's certainly. It leans more towards the accuracy than some other films like, I don't know Braveheart. Mel Gibson is the exact opposite of Steven Spielberg when it comes to these historic films, but there's still room where the director wants to add more to the story. What were you? What was the motivation behind Schindler, as humanitarian? Was he doing it because he saw it as a business opportunity? Was somewhere in between? And that's the kind of stuff the nuances of history that I'm not sure of, a director can really bring to the to the screen. But again, just with the, a good story, as you said, there's a lot of based on, you know, and where they do a lot of changes to the actual story. The new Bob Dylan movie, exactly the same. There's a lot of conversations between Bob Dylan (and) Johnny Cash that never happened because Johnny Cash wasn't there. But to make the make the movie go on and to make it more entertaining, these directors always do that kind of artistic license, as they call it.
DN:
In the series of books that have been done so far and focusing on some different focal points and different aspects and different themes, what are some that you think would still be out there to explore? As we look at the long history of films, what (what) do you see as (as) some of the area still to be explored, written about, and added to the series that you've done so far?
SR:
Yeah. So, I mean, we have books about (a)variety of topics and in those books, even more topics based on social education which ignores race, class, gender and equality and equity, climate change, animal rights, everything. So, we've covered many of those topics in the 10 volume books. We have now American History, World History. We even had an author, Annie Whitlock, over at Grand Valley State, do a book about The Simpsons, how it can use The Simpsons to teach social studies. So, we've covered a lot of material. I think for future books, we certainly, we have a book about Latin X history coming out soon. We have a book about African American History in the works, you know, different groups. I think we need to have more books about that to really focus on how Hollywood films discuss different groups. I think that would continue. But the one thing that I think is (is) untouched that I'm actually looking forward to and I'm trying or will be pretty soon starting that volume where I'm the primary editor, is documentaries. Even though they're not Hollywood film, I think compared to, and fill in the movies, documentaries almost get a pass. Like every, I mean, and I am I do too, everybody loves Ken Burns. Right. And you watch Civil War and you're like, ok, this is probably, you know, the most accurate account we have of the Civil War, you know, especially compared to textbooks, our (our) film, but no one's really dived into that so. I'm really looking in looking into how to do the same process with documentaries as opposed to Hollywood. We've had a few people use documentaries because when we say film of the books, it can be TV shows, documentaries, whatever. But we're going to have a whole book about American History and World History. Just looking at the documentaries. Based on those topics, using the same process.
DN:
And the series of books is making an impact. But there's something to be said from all of us learning some of the lessons on, what, pun intended, lens we look at when it comes to these stories? Scott Roberts, it's (it's) been a pleasure to learn about this and we can still enjoy a movie, but maybe we'll start thinking a little bit more about it when we see some of these things come to the big screen in the future. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us. We appreciate it.
SR:
Thank. Thank you very much!
