Questions tagged [movies]
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28
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6
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Which British town or city is recorded in this 1890's YouTube video?
I have came across a YouTube video titled "The 1890's ~ Amazing Rare Footage of Cities Around the World". (2 mins)
Now at 2 mins of this video there is footage of people sitting on a ...
2
votes
0
answers
173
views
How accurately did Victory Through Air Power portray the state of the war at the time?
I have just watched Disney's 1943 wartime propaganda film, Victory Through Air Power. The film (which was based on Alexander P. de Seversky's book by the same name) was intended to convince government ...
30
votes
2
answers
5k
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Was there a tax in the fifties for British citizens traveling abroad?
I have found a dialog in Roberto Rossellini's 1954 film Journey to Italy where the character played by George Sanders says it's expensive to stay abroad too much. That would seem natural, only the ...
2
votes
0
answers
219
views
When were age ratings first thought of?
The Hays Code was a censorship code in the United States which was eventualy replaced by actual age ratings. The code was not an age rating system, basically, all films had to be basically no more ...
7
votes
2
answers
753
views
Was Zhukov's wit portrayed accurately in The Death of Stalin?
The Death of Stalin is a black comedy about a period of Soviet history running from the event from which the title is taken to the execution of Beria near the end of the film.
I am perfectly aware ...
8
votes
1
answer
468
views
Help identify this poster of early 1900's movie with a woman sitting on a bench and a man behind holding her arm
I'm trying to identify the movie of this poster in the front of a movie theater from a picture dated 1904 1917.
It depicts what looks like a woman sitting on a bench in a white dress, and a man ...
4
votes
0
answers
166
views
Was the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay actually important in 1985? And was it in any danger?
In the real world case that A Few Good Men is based on, in 1985 part of the guard for the base was a group called "The Ten" that went through grueling physical training in order to guard a ...
2
votes
1
answer
275
views
How were ship kills accounted in WWII?
In the movie Greyhound, at the end, the fleet requests an oral report of the incidents in which the captain says "My escort group sank three others...".
But in the movie it is seen that ...
26
votes
8
answers
6k
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Before television sets became commonplace, did people generally watch movies only once?
As I understand it, home television sets first became commercially available in the US in 1938 and grew in popularity throughout the 40s and 50s. Before people had televisions, did they have a way of ...
21
votes
3
answers
5k
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Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
I'm reading Stephen E. Ambrose's book "Citizen Soldiers" and he says that the allies had no intelligence about the high hedgerows in Normandy.
This shocked me, because I remember clearly the scene in ...
34
votes
4
answers
15k
views
Why, in old movies and TV series, do they always use such extremely exaggerated wheel turns when driving a car?
In old movies and TV episodes from the 1950s (for instance), they would frequently have a car in a studio with a background consisting of a screen showing a pre-recorded sequence of somebody driving a ...
3
votes
1
answer
2k
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Did Cao Cao really say the greatest traitor resembled an honest man?
The greatest traitor has always resembled an honest man and the
greatest falsehood comes across as truth.
Righteousness and evil cannot be discerned by their appearance.
People have decided wrongly ...
52
votes
8
answers
12k
views
Are there historical examples of audiences drawn to a work that was "so bad it's good"?
The concept of media that is enjoyable because it's incompetently executed is a big market nowadays. Movies probably have the biggest examples (Plan 9 From Outer Space, Troll 2, The Room, Samurai Cop, ...
5
votes
1
answer
949
views
Are these outfits of children of Nazis historically accurate, and if so, what is their meaning?
In the Spanish film the photographer of Mauthausen there is a scene of a party held to celebrate the birthday of the son of Mauthausen Concentration Camp commander (Franz Ziereis).
In the party at ...
2
votes
0
answers
132
views
Why is the Confederacy frequently depicted as heroic in film and literature? [closed]
I was watching a remastered video from The Rebel and it occurs to me that often, if not the majority of the time, it is the Confederacy before, during and after the war which is shown in a sort of ...
0
votes
1
answer
268
views
Racial Themes in Rocky Movies [closed]
Recently, I was working on a project concerning the Cold War, and cultural themes throughout the period. I mentioned in my report that popular culture often took part in shaping the conflict during ...
15
votes
1
answer
2k
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Why did the French Army melt film during WWI?
I have just watched the film Hugo which is in part a telling of the life of Georges Méliès. Part of the film is that he sold his films which were then melted down to make heels for shoes. I did some ...
0
votes
1
answer
236
views
Who attributed to King George II the quote "Will someone please remove these infernal chains?"
The quote is from Pirates of the Caribbean, but I'm certain an author from the American Revolution era wrote something very similar, and hence the irony of the King George II character's quote (...
7
votes
1
answer
798
views
Did the old-west style duels (as depicted in movies) actually occur?
Not sure whether this is better off here or on movies.se
It's a well-known movie cliché where two gunslingers stand in the middle of the street (possibly at high noon), staring intently at each other,...
7
votes
3
answers
624
views
Was Jud Suss a veiled criticism of Hitler?
In 1940, Veit Harlan directed his most controversial movie: Jud Suss. The film takes various historical liberties, but otherwise depicts the life and death of Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, Court Jew to ...
13
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Were major foreign films allowed in the USSR?
I'm thinking of really major films that came from Hollywood, like Star Wars, Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes, etc.
Were these allowed to be shown in the USSR? Did they have to wait for ...
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Medieval wall and garment patterns
To my mind Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924) is a work of absolute genius, perhaps surpassing even Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) in movie history. It is very rich, beautiful, yes tragic, and deep....
3
votes
2
answers
6k
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What were the crime rates In the American Old West?
Hollywood filmography presented a violent and morally complex vision of the American West during circa 1850 to 1900, according to which the West was a place where life was insecure and where property ...
10
votes
2
answers
4k
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How historically accurate is Les Miserables?
In essence, I'm asking about whether there are any historical inaccuracies in the movies/plays themselves. I'm pretty sure the book would have very few, due to the fact that it was written in a ...
12
votes
1
answer
34k
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How historically accurate is "Life is Beautiful" when it comes to Jewish extermination?
I want to ask about the movie Life is Beautiful
It is portrayed, in the movie, how that protagonist Jew is sent to extermination camp in Italy.
I thought Jews in Italy were not usually sent to ...
17
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is the "Katyusha" scene from Deer Hunter historically accurate?
In the movie Deer Hunter we can see Russian-Americans sing the song "Katyusha" during a wedding. One can clearly see that this song fits well into the movie's themes (the groom on this wedding is ...
4
votes
1
answer
820
views
What differences led to Technicolor becoming the dominant color filming technology in Hollywood?
Apparently another technology, Kinemacolor, was invented first in the UK, but it never caught on in Hollywood. Kinemacolor was expensive, and had some other glitches involved, but the fact that it was ...
6
votes
15
answers
12k
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What is the oldest movie theater in the US that has been in continuous use as a movie theater?
It appears from Wikipedia that the oldest theater in continuous use is in Denmark, but since so much of the film industry is dominated by Hollywood, I was wondering what is the oldest movie theater in ...