Chapter 24
Many of us got our first taste of U.S. history at the movies, where we learned that cowboys were all crack shots with six-guns and John Wayne won World War II. Only it turns out that most cowboys rarely had use for a pistol, and John Wayne never served in the military.
Hollywood has always found certain historical events and figures too interesting and/or romantic to let the facts get in the way of a good film. Or even a bad one. Here, in the order in which they occurred, are ten examples of topics in American history that filmmakers have turned their cameras on more than once.
The Alamo (1836)
Many Americans who grew up in the 1950s, at least those who grew up outside of Texas, could be forgiven for not knowing how the battle turned out. That’s because the 1955 Walt Disney television movie Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier ended with its hero still swinging his rifle butt at Mexican troops. (Turns out the Mexicans won.) A more complete version, though hardly more accurate, was The Alamo (1960), a labor of love by the aforementioned John Wayne. A 2004 version kept the name, but tried to be a little more reflective of what actually happened. (See Chapter 8 for more information on the Alamo.)
The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
A lot of presidents have had movies made about them, but Lincoln enjoys the distinction of having whole films made about just parts of his life. For example, there was Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), starring Henry Fonda, and Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), starring Raymond Massey. Heck, there was even a movie made about his facial features — The Great Man’s Whiskers (1972), starring Dennis Weaver. And they just keep coming. In 2008, famed director Steven Spielberg was working on a biopic called Lincoln, apparently about the whole man. (Lincoln is covered in Chapter 10.)
The Life of Billy the Kid (~1859-1881)
The infamous outlaw only lived to be 21 or so, but in that span he did enough living to spark the imaginations of moviemakers over and over. The Kid has been portrayed by
● Famous actors: Paul Newman in The Left Handed Gun (1958)
● Elf-faced actors: Michael J. Pollard in Dirty Little Billy (1972)
● Beefy actors: Kris Kristofferson in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
● Really forgettable actors: Chuck Courtney in Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966)
Custer's Last Stand (1876)
Even Hollywood would have had a hard time coming up with a plausible way to reverse the outcome of this battle, in which Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and all his men were killed. But most of the other known facts about the battle (better known among Native Americans as the Battle of the Little Big Horn) have been fuzzed up or obliterated in films. The better-known movies include
● They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
● The Great Sioux Massacre (1965)
● Custer of the West (1967)
● Little Big Man (1970)
The Gunfight at the OK Corral (1881)
The actual fight took about 30 seconds, but Hollywood has built several two-hour movies around it. Some of them, such as Tombstone (1993), got much of the fight right. Others, such as My Darling Clementine (1946), didn’t even come close, except for the fact that the side with the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday won. Other notable versions of the fight include
● Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
● Hour of the Gun (1967)
● Wyatt Earp (1994)
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929)
The murders of seven people in a North Side Chicago garage — or variations on the theme — have actually been depicted more often as just a scene in movies than as the main subject of a film. For example:
● The massacre is part of Scarface (1932), a film based on the life of gangster Al Capone (who is believed to have ordered the murders).
● Witnessing the massacre is what drives Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon into disguising themselves as women in Some Like It Hot (1959).
● The massacre is at the climax of The Untouchables: Capone Rising (2008).
But it was the main event in a 1967 film by famed B-movie director Roger Corman. It was called, right, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. (There’s more on the Chicago crime scene in Chapter 14.)
Pearl Harbor (1941)
Like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval installation at Pearl Harbor has served more often as part of the backdrop of films than the main subject. Examples include From Here to Eternity (1953) and In Harm’s Way (1965). But it does have the distinction of being a historical event that has been depicted from the perspectives of both sides, thanks to Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). (Let’s not mention the maudlin and melodramatic Pearl Harbor in 2001.) And you gotta admire an event that inspires a science fiction film like The Final Countdown (1980), in which a modern aircraft carrier is caught in a time vortex and carried back to the Pacific just before the Pearl Harbor attack. (America goes to war in Chapter 16.)
The Assassination of JFK (1963)
Filmmakers have nibbled at nearly every angle of the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy while he was riding in a Dallas motorcade. They’ve ranged from the conspiracy-themed (1991’s JFK) to documentaries (1964’s Four Days in November). Others have been purely fictional plots-against-the-president efforts, such as Executive Action (1973). Then there are the films that focus on supporting characters in the tragedy, such as Ruby (1992), about Jack Ruby, the man who killed JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. And there have even been films about films: A 26-second, 8-millimeter silent film taken at the time of the shooting by a women’s clothing manufacturer named Abraham Zapruder was the subject of Image of an Assassination — A New Look at the Zapruder Film (1998). (The Kennedy presidency is covered in Chapter 18.)
The Nixon Presidency (1969-1974)
When the 37th president shows up in films, it’s usually as the butt of a joke or as an Orwellian omen of malevolent governance. But Nixon, or his presence, is felt in other interesting ways in movies. Consider the following:
● Secret Honor (1984), in which a fictionalized Nixon delivers a 90-minute soliloquy on his life and career
● All the President’s Men (1976), a movie centered on the Watergate scandal but in which Nixon is not portrayed on-screen
● Nixon (1995), in which the president is played by Welsh-born actor Sir Anthony Hopkins
Singers Who Died in Plane Crashes
Okay, strictly speaking, this isn’t a single historical event or character.
But you have to admit a pretty fair number of major motion pictures have revolved around crooners, warblers, and wailers who’ve had their careers nipped mid-note by a plane crash. The list includes
● Buddy Holly Story (1978), starring Gary Busey
● Sweet Dreams (1985), starring Patsy Lange as singer Patsy Cline
● La Bamba (1987), starring Lou Diamond Phillips as singer Richie Valens
● Rick Nelson: Original Teen Idol (1999), starring Greg Calpakis
● Take Me Home (2000), starring Chad Lowe as singer John Denver