This week’s question was suggested by reader danielm80:
What historical event needs a movie devoted to it? I’m thinking of events that haven’t already been covered on film, but if you’re aware of an unexplored angle on an event that has been seen onscreen, that’ll work, too.
As is the case with Daniel’s answer, one I agree with wholeheartedly: the tale of how the RMS Carpathia responded to the sinking of the Titanic (which has indeed had a little movie dedicated to it). The story is told particularly well by Resident Angry Queer at tumblr. It begins like this:
Carpathia received Titanic’s distress signal at 12:20am, April 15th, 1912. She was 58 miles away, a distance that absolutely could not be covered in less than four hours.
Carpathia’s Captain Rostron had, yes, rolled out of bed instantly when woken by his radio operator, ordered his ship to Titanic’s aid and confirmed the signal before he was fully dressed. The man had never in his life responded to an emergency call. His goal tonight was to make sure nobody who heard that fact would ever believe it.
Go read the rest… and have Kleenex ready. And then imagine it as a movie. It would be a very different sort of movie, because it has no clear villain except a ticking clock, and that can be tough to dramatize. But it could work, if the way everyone who reads that synopsis responds is any indication.
Your turn…
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there are events that ought to have a movie made about them, and those that likely won’t.
the tulsa race riot of may 31 and june 1, 1921. it’s been touched upon and there are documentaries about it, but it hasn’t been the subject of a movie. it also likely won’t because any movie will attract all kinds of criticism.
The Watchmen series is about, at least in part, the Tulsa riots. (I haven’t seen it yet.)
The preferred term is the Tulsa Race Massacre now, which is more accurately descriptive of what happened.
I think Watchmen handled it really well.
A couple that come to mind:
Salomon Andrée’s Arctic balloon expedition of 1897: a doomed attempt to cross the North Pole by balloon, which gradually changed in public perception from “these tragic heroes” to “they did what?” as the details came out. Lots of pressure from the public, of course, as Sweden had fallen behind in polar exploration, and there’s some suggestion that Andrée felt he couldn’t back out even though he had his own doubts. Prior art: a 1967 semi-documentary novel The Flight of the Eagle and a 1982 Swedish biopic of the same title with Max von Sydow.
The Fashoda Incident (1898): a French expedition claiming Africa from West to East runs into a British expedition claiming it from north to south. Neither side has any wish to start a fight, but they have to communicate back to their colonial masters, who may (after a communication delay of weeks) tell them to attack and die gloriously. (Nobody asked the locals of course.)
I’d kind of love it if balloon thrillers became a genre. Right now, it’s pretty much just The Aeronauts and maybe the Around the World in… movies, which, IIRC, didn’t even work in Nellie Bly.
There’s a new Around the World in 80 Days starring David Tennant. (Maybe that’s what you were referring to?) On US and UK TVs right now.
There have been some films made about the Philippine-American War, but none that have really penetrated public consciousness in a big way, so I would welcome even more. There’s much to be said about America’s imperialist adventures abroad and their connection to American oppression of minorities at home; for instance, it was veterans of the Phil-Am War who first used their experience to militarize the police when they returned to the States. There are also stories to be told about the Black American soldiers, particularly David Fagen, who recognized racism and imperialism when they saw it and defected to the Philippine side to fight against the US.
There’s apparently been a mediocre film made about Queen Liliuokalani and the annexation of Hawaii, but surely a better movie can be made about it.
I’d like to see movies about the American Revolution and the Civil War—with screenplays co-written by Michael Harriot, Bree Newsome Bass, and Nikole Hannah-Jones. :-)
It’s called Princess Kaiulani… and yeah, it’s not very good.
Seconded on those American history films!
Admiral Stark’s evacuation of the last White Russians from Vladivostok, eventually to the US in 1922.
This is a great question – a whole list of responses comes to mind –
I’ll (sort of) limit myself to some “low-hanging fruit” projects that were actually proposed but never came to pass
TOUISSANT L’OUVERTURE
Apparently, Eisenstein lobbied to make a film about Touissant L’Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution, starring Paul Robeson – as I recall, the director couldn’t secure the funds, or the US was making it difficult for the actor to leave the country, or some combination thereof – but my mind reels at the possibilities here
RUMI AND SHAMS-E TABRIZI
A more recent example is John Logan’s proposal to make a film about the legendary 13th century Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi and his mentor, the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr, respectively. I would have loved to have seen this.
RICHARD II
Another example is James Ivory’s efforts to make a film of Richard II with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role, and Kenneth Branagh as Bolingbroke, who would become Henry IV. I know I’m stretching things, since this is more a matter of adapting a Shakespeare play than depicting history per se – anyway, according to Ivory, Branagh derailed the project when he turned around and insisted on playing Richard :-(
BATTLE OF TALAS
Thinking just in terms of historical events themselves, as opposed to proposed projects, I’d be fascinated to see someone depict the Battle of Talas, a 751 AD showdown between the Chinese Tang Dynasty and the emerging Abbasid Caliphate, involving the Turks and the Tibetan Empire along the way, whose outcome likely changed the course of world history
LI PO AND DU FU
From around the same time – the two pinnacles of the Tang Renaissance, the poets Li Po and Du Fu had a famous friendship – together they’re regarded as the composite Shakespeare of China, and their opposing Chan vs Ruist outlooks on life represent the Yin and Yang of Chinese culture
DARA SHIKOH
And another topic I’d love to see filmed is the conflict between Mughal heir Dara Shikoh, son and anointed heir of Shah Jahan, who planned to continue his family’s famous legacy of bridging Muslim and Hindu cultures, and his brother Aurungzeb, backed by opposing Islamic factions, who ended up taking the throne instead – another event that raises questions about possible alternate histories
INDIAN FARMERS’ STRIKE
One more item – an item of current history – we’ve just experienced the world’s largest ever general strike in India, on behalf of farmers protesting recent corporatist economic policies, with a scale of participation nearly equal to the entire population of the US – the term is actually “Bharat Bandh”, which goes beyond a strike, to the population shutting down the whole society – like we used to see in 19th century US labor conflicts