what movies have good reenactment scenes concerning the american revolution?

September 29, 2006 8:11 PM

What movies or documentaries have good scenes that could help me demonstrate important topics surrounding the American Revolution? I teach 8th grade.

I don't want to show an entire movie, as I think this is often a waste of precious little classroom time, but I would like to punctuate our discussions and activities with scenes illustrating a particular point or topic.

example: I imagine that a reading on the Boston Masacre would be particularly more interesting if it were followed by a short clip of it in action.

I'm pretty adpet at ripping dvds to divx and slicing them into bite sized chunks.

posted by allthewhile to Education (16 answers total)

The musical 1776 has lots of funny (or, when I was in 8th grade I thought it was hilarious) stuff about that year. Maybe you could cap off your unit by having a popcorn afternoon when you could all watch a video of it together. (Or, of course, stage a production)

Here's a list of historically approved movies. They list two for the American Revolution.

There's of course "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson, but as I understand it, there are some complaints about its historical accuracy, so you might want to check in to that.

There's the book and 1992 movie (and earlier movie versions) Last of the Mohicans, which takes place during the French and Indian War, which you may or may not be covering.

A quick search of IMDB keywords turns up The Crossing, a made-for-TV movie about Washington crossing the Delaware.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:50 PM on September 29, 2006

You might try this Ben Franklin documentary.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:51 PM on September 29, 2006

How about the Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot"?

It's about rag-tag insurgents who use cowardly guerilla and terrorist tactics to defeat the occupation of their country by the technologically and militarily superior soldiers of world's only superpower.
posted by orthogonality at 8:53 PM on September 29, 2006

Best answer: Ok, more wikipedia links.
The Patriot - describes the historical accuracy vs inaccuracy of it
The Crossing - discusses the hist. acc.
Revolution - this was one of the films recommended at the "historical films" page linked above; not much info about it on wikipedia
Amistad - this was one of the films recommended at the "histrocial films page I linked above. Here's a review that the wiki page links to, which gives details about historical accuracy.

Here is a link to a place where you can buy History Channel DVDs; useful just to get a sense of what to look for in your library.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:08 PM on September 29, 2006

Disney's Swamp Fox was my introduction to the subject. However, I am Canadian and perhaps this movie is not cool enough for today's kids.
posted by acoutu at 11:04 PM on September 29, 2006

Excerpts from the History Channels documentary series: The American Revolution.
posted by ericb at 11:36 PM on September 29, 2006

Also -- PBS's Liberty! The American Revolution.
posted by ericb at 11:42 PM on September 29, 2006

I second 1776, at least the first half of the movie (the second half drags a little); it actually makes the political maneuverings of the Continental Congress interesting and fun. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, but even if it's totally off, you can use it as a jumping-off point for your lesson. Bonus: Mr. Feeny's in it!
posted by sarahsynonymous at 4:56 AM on September 30, 2006

Second Last of the Mohicans—the movie version. The seige scenes are incredible, the treking through the Colonial-era forests was incredible, the relationship between the Indians and Colonists was incredible. The love story... eh. But the scenes of war are very well depicted with such a big budget. I'm particularly fond of the scene where the English line is ambushed by the Indians—it's an excellent demonstration of why the guerrilla tactics were so effective later when used by the colonists against the British in a few decades time. The speech by the tribal chief at the end gives a good summary of their history with the French and British up until that point.

For naval warfare common at the time, I'd recommend Master and Commander. The series of books is likely beyond what your students will put up with, but the movie does a good job presenting the technical details.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:06 AM on September 30, 2006

Best answer: I teach this topic in college, and like to use films in my teaching, but there just aren't many acceptable Hollywood films and few good documentaries.

1776 is a favorite of mine--extremely accurate in some places, wildly off in others. A good book for any history teacher is Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, an anthology where prominent historians write reviews of Hollywood movies. It has a very useful review of 1776. See also the "Declaring Independence" chapter of the book After the Fact, which examines some of the myths around the signing of the Declaration. Two key scenes you could use are where they argue about who will write the Declaration (based on letters by Thomas Adams, which you could share with the class ahead of time) and the actual signing, very inaccurate but teachable for that very reason.

I would not use The Patriot or Last of the Mohicans. I love Mohicans as a sweeping adventure story, but the history is a convoluted mess. This includes the seige scene, which features shells exploding at night--something that was not present in that war.

Documentaries: The History Channel Series linked above is quite good, but five hours are more than you need! The PBS series Liberty! was a huge disappointment, almost incoherent. Biographies of individual founders like the Franklin documentary might engage your students.

By the way, a NetFlix membership will give you access to a wealth of documentaries.

Good luck, and feel free to email me if you have any questions.
posted by LarryC at 8:11 AM on September 30, 2006

1776 was my favorite movie that my American history class watched in 8th grade. It sparked my lifelong fascination with John and Abigail Adams. Quite a lot of the dialog is directly quoting from letters written at the time.
posted by MsMolly at 10:01 AM on September 30, 2006

I thought the 4 hour PBS series "The War That Made America," covering the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763), was excellent, as did critics. It certianly puts Washington's early military reticence in the later War of Independence in perspective, and explains British sentiment about the American colonies in the days leading up to the American Revolution as well as anything you could introduce in video format. There is a companion book, as well.
posted by paulsc at 12:48 PM on September 30, 2006

Response by poster: I just want to thank everyone who has helped me with ideas. I work in an inner city school and work very hard to make my lessons fun and interactive. The few ideas that you've given me go a long way!
posted by allthewhile at 1:18 PM on September 30, 2006

We watched 1776 in 8th grade US history and we all liked it. Definitely helps get a sense of the Continental congress, etc. My US history this year (junior year) recommends we watch the Patriot to get an sense of the feelings of the patriots, not because it's historically accurate.
posted by MadamM at 3:03 PM on September 30, 2006

See also: Reel American History, an uneven but often extremely valuable fact checker of historical films.
posted by LarryC at 7:59 AM on October 1, 2006

How about the Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot"?

It's about rag-tag insurgents who use cowardly guerilla and terrorist tactics to defeat the occupation of their country by the technologically and militarily superior soldiers of world's only superpower.

By any reasonable criterion, France was also a superpower at that time.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:53 AM on October 2, 2006