New online course takes on the stars, the Academy awards,
and the creation of history.
Hollywood needs heroes and England’s early Angevin kings—Henry II, Richard I, and Edward I—wreaked enough havoc for a zillion blockbusters.
David Bachrach
This coming year, during the new online January Term, aka “J-term,” Associate Professor David Bachrach will teach Medieval History in Film: Explorations in Historical Perspectives. This four-credit course, taught in three weeks, fulfills a general education requirement in historical thinking. Bachrach, a demanding and passionate teacher, has wanted to teach this course for some time.
The course involves two “firsts” for Bachrach. "I haven't taught film before, but I'm optimistic about using film to understand how historians think," says Bachrach, who plans to analyze several films, including The Lion in Winter, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven, and Braveheart.
"I think we can ask what was the film maker trying to say? I'm optimistic that we can understand about the choices that were made.”
Most historians go ballistic when they think about Mel Gibson and Braveheart, a film that won five Academy Awards. For example, in the key strategic battle that William Wallace fought at the Bridge of Stirling where the bridge collapsed under King Edward’s English army—the movie battle doesn’t even feature the bridge.
The author of the Braveheart screenplay, Randall Wallace, used as his source a poem by Blind Harry, a fifteenth-century minstrel, because it “spoke to his heart.”
As Bachrach is quick to point out, history is all about who's telling the story. Braveheart, notes Bachrach, is informed by the Scottish nationalist tradition. He would query students as to why the English were so ready to fight the Scots? What sort of propaganda had Edward disseminated and how? Why from the English point of view, is Wallace so unimportant?
“When I teach, I always ask: how do historians come to know about the past? The past is what we say it is. If history is broadly what happened in the past, then the process of selection and creating a narrative is very important,” says Bachrach. "When we read contemporary twelfth-century sources, those authors are considering an audience, defending a bias, and trying to influence their own time."
Modern historians certainly know more about the past than contemporary historians. They have access to a range of materials from government documents, to archeological materials—even down to pollen records that show what was being grown for crops at the time. "We have a much broader picture," says Bachrach, who will provide students with articles—online—that provide just such historical context.
"My job," emphasizes Bachrach, "is to guide students down a path they can't get to on their own, which is an understanding of how history comes to exist." And he is an amazing guide.
Bachrach is known both as a medieval historian who has authored Religion and the Conduct of War c. 300-c. 1215—the first comprehensive analysis of the dynamic interpenetration of religion and war in the West during almost a thousand years—and as a translator. Recently, Bachrach translated a biography, Saladin: The Sultan and His Times, 1138-1193, by the modern German author Hannes Möhring. In 1187, Saladin led Muslim forces in the reconquest of Crusader kingdoms and captured Jerusalem.
Teaching the “J-term” course presents this most experienced of classroom-based scholars with a second major challenge—teaching online. “I like interaction with students. I like seeing them and their faces,” says Bachrach. “I’ve never been a big one on technology being very important. I’m sure the students will be a lot better at that than I am.”
During the “J-term,” Bachrach expects that his students will do the same kind of work as in his regular semester classes, but at a faster, more intense pace. They’ll write three papers along with short response papers every day, view films, and read books and articles. Bachrach also plans to have an hour of synchronous online discussion, Monday through Friday.
“In my courses, if you fall behind, it’s difficult. But, if students do all of the assignments—read carefully, take notes, and show diligence about producing multiple drafts—they’ll succeed.”
—Carrie Sherman
‹‹ back to top
