Rights and Responsibility

Filmmakers—Rights and Responsibility

In modern society, the film industry is regarded as the most worldly known, paid and used form of media of the 21st Century. Films are a great source of media to convey key concepts and messages to illustrate a main idea, one that’s ideal for the vast majority. Films are used to entertain, engage and to inform others of main issues, past or present events and main ideas. They can be based upon fiction or non-fiction. Since the filmmaking industry is such a prominent, huge money maker and very demanding, when making historical films, movie producers have to make critical decisions in how they produce their films. They need their films to be entertaining, something that will make money and has historical relevance imbedded into the movie. So, this is why the issue can occur with historical movies in the sense that these films have some historical inaccuracies or flaws.

For example: In the movie, Life is Beautiful, an Italian comedic film with the main character by the name of Guido Orefice who is used to humourize and mock the Nazi’s and their work within the concentration camp that his son and him are in, Guido uses comedy to formulate a game for his son so that he can withhold the truth of the Nazi’s and the regime. Even though this particular film makes the experience of the German Concentration camps comedic and mostly historically inaccurate, it illustrates a key point that still represents the historical events that took place. Through Guido’s story we see the ultimate sacrifice and willingness to save his son from harm. And that’s one of the main characteristics that many Jews demonstrated to fight for a greater cause or to save loved ones. When rewriting history in film, does it have to be historically accurate? It all comes back to the one issue. Is the film that is based on the particular historical event being misrepresented and misperceived? By the evidence shown we see that if it provides us with a baseline representation or idea of the events that took place relating to the topic, it doesn’t necessarily have to be precisely, historically accurate. As long as the key message that we need to take from history is perceived in a way that plays on our lives by impacting us, educating us, while still being engaging and informing others of the events that took place.

Another example is The Zookeeper's Wife, a World War II film set in Poland during the time of the Nazi regime. It is based on a true story. It’s about a zookeeper and his wife who has their prosperous zoo bombed by the Nazis and then taken over by them. So, the whole film is revolved around the idea that the zookeeper and his wife collect garbage waste for their pigs from the ghettos, in order to sneak in Jews so they can save and hide Jews a couple at a time at their zoo. While the film was made mostly historically accurate it was still made entertaining and engaging while still conveying the key message we can take from history and be educated of how we can move on from that. It shows the ultimate risks and sacrifices both the participating Polish couple and Jews had made.  

In conclusion, filmmakers don’t need to take full responsibility in the historical relevance to films. But it is important that they make critical decisions and expect criticism from it. But the thing is, humans(audiences) do not mindlessly absorb everything that they view. They are able to understand fiction and debate against or for it. While in some aspects it may be considered that historical films are seen as a threat to history, but it can also be seen as an opportunity to engage audiences, convey the message in a proper, easy way for them to understand. For even the most inaccurate films, it can prompt the audience questions, spark debate and sharpen our ability to assess and analyse. These skills of analysis are not only critical in understanding history, but to also understand the world that we live in today.