It would be necessary for historians to collaborate very closely with
the producers in the preparation of historical films. The mere fact
of being called upon to provide a scene for a picture and a detailed
explanation, however, would go far to arouse a new enthusiasm in
their work among students and teachers of history. It might assist
us to vision our forefathers out of their portrait frames and parish
churches, which are, perhaps, their only extant monuments, and reveal
them to us as they lived and moved.
In most cases the educative value was confined to actual performers,
or those who took part in the preparation of costumes, and in general
the action of a scene was too far removed from the audience for close
observation and too quickly over for effective study.
Supposing one could produce a film, actually showing the scenes
enacted during the life and times of the Romans; depicting their
daily life, court ceremonial and ancient coronations, or their
judicial proceedings, their tournaments,--we should add materially
to our historical knowledge of the people; and one must not lose
sight of the fact, that when we have passed to the “Great Beyond,”
and the world still continues to be inhabited some thousands of years
hence, populated with people actuated with the same ideas, the same
aspirations as ourselves, our present period will stand exactly in a
similar relationship,--in regard to time at least.
What could present a more magnificent visual panorama than the
procession of events of the Elizabethan period to the eighteenth
century, laying open to our view their lives, the arts and crafts of
their time, and our progress is then made over the stepping-stones of
the past? Imagine the royal events of history, the gorgeous scenes of
the coronations of English kings, as they succeeded each other.
Supposing an authoritative film could have been produced of the Great
War, showing the whole of Europe in conflict, from the invasion of
Belgium to the Armistice. The whole of the incidents--the devastation
of property by the mighty engines of war; refugees in flight from the
oncoming enemy; the heroic attacks and defence by the British soldiers
in spite of tremendous odds; the want, misery and suffering following
in the train.
The scope of the cinematograph for educational purposes could be
considerably widened by children and adults being shown how things
have been and are being done. The use of colour films for explaining
history would enable the teacher to demonstrate the growth of British
Dominion in India--for instance, Bombay could be represented by a tiny
red speck, which would expand in correct historical sequence until the
whole of the peninsula was covered. The development of the colouring,
as this or that successful campaign was completed, would explain to
observers, more explicitly than any printed list, the political effects
of history. The scenes would thus be indelibly impressed upon the minds
of children. And the same idea might be extended to the other colonies,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc., depicting their
history from the first settlement to the complete establishment of the
Overseas dominions and their activities of to-day. The film, in short,
is a fine medium for political propaganda if wisely used.
The following subjects lend themselves to effective treatment as film
productions for educational purposes: the growth of the European
Colonies, the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, the decline and
renaissance of Poland, the historical groupings of the various States
of Europe in the wars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to
name but a few.