This course will explore how Hollywood approaches and explores historical periods, topics, or themes through film. In researching this, students will build an understanding of how Hollywood uses historical periods or backdrops to tell stories about the period or the culture the film is based on. Sometimes, these films are a deep exploration of the culture or period, and other times, they are used simply to enforce the themes of the story the filmmakers want to tell. This will also illustrate how reliant human understanding of history is on narrative. Film is a storytelling language, and through the dramatic rendering and interpretations of the subjects in history, Hollywood informs the public conscious and perspective on the topics presented in films and television.  Historians also use narrative to present findings and educate the public on historical topics to make the material more engaging. While both Hollywood and historians use narrative to present historical topics and deepen understanding of the cultures and peoples in history, they have very different goals and approach it in very different ways.  This difference of goal and approach results in interesting divergence of perspective and levels of understanding of historical topics and themes.

Guests will be exposed to these differences and explore them in great detail by viewing various historical films. These topics will range through different historical periods and themes through different genres of films, such as period drama pieces, historical epics, and war films. For each film, guests will be introduced to the film genre, background information on said genre, and why the historical topic was selected for the project. The viewing of each film will be followed by a detailed exploration of the film's production, which will be compared and concentrated on the history of the film's subject.

Through this exploration, guests will have a deepened understanding of how storytelling through film can amplify specific themes and historical topics and the medium's shortcomings in creating an accurate or authentic representation of the historical events and or characters it portrays in the narrative. In this exploration, the goal of this course is also to illustrate how reliant human understanding of history is on storytelling and the critical role filmmaking plays in telling said stories in the modern world.