In 1939, King George VI broadcast a speech across the British Empire, informing his people of Britain’s entrance into war with Germany. In 2010, this speech was respectfully used to great effect in the climactic scene of The King’s Speech. In 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences thought it would be appropriate to take that speech and use it as a dramatic audio backdrop for their Best Picture montage. A montage full of ballerinas, animated toys, pretty people skipping around with guns, rich white dudes with a lot of feelings, and relationship drama set against the very real backdrop of the outbreak of World War II. Unfortunately, it seems that the Academy has been super anal about ensuring that no copies end up online, so I can’t embed the clip for you.
This was exceedingly disrespectful to every life which was lost or affected or changed by that war, and to every living person who continues to feel its painful legacy. Being a ~millennial~, I turned to facebook to vent my very serious feelings on all of this, only to be told by two separate people that the montage had, in fact, been totally awesome and cool from an artistic perspective and that I was just taking it too seriously and expecting too much from Hollywood and needed to pick my battles.
My thoughts were simply that the legacy of WWII should be taken seriously, and that I could not give less of a crap about ~art~ if the lives of millions are disrespected in the process. Feeling vaguely annoyed and self-righteous following my lost facebook status debate, I first deleted that status because I am an imperfect person who does not like to lose comment debates in public. Then I thought to myself, “I should start a blog where I can bitch about people who use history incorrectly!”
So, welcome. This blog will not be mainly comprised of bitching. Or self-righteous ranting (though those things will probably occur from time to time); I intend to use this blog to address when the media, entertainment industry, politicians, etc use history incorrectly or irresponsibly, to debunk popular, inaccurate historical myths or perceptions of the discipline, and to geek out over random historical things.
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I wouldn’t be anywhere without the Academy
Posted on March 19, 2011 By historicitywasalreadytaken
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In 1939, King George VI broadcast a speech across the British Empire, informing his people of Britain’s entrance into war with Germany. In 2010, this speech was respectfully used to great effect in the climactic scene of The King’s Speech. In 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences thought it would be appropriate to take that speech and use it as a dramatic audio backdrop for their Best Picture montage. A montage full of ballerinas, animated toys, pretty people skipping around with guns, rich white dudes with a lot of feelings, and relationship drama set against the very real backdrop of the outbreak of World War II. Unfortunately, it seems that the Academy has been super anal about ensuring that no copies end up online, so I can’t embed the clip for you.
This was exceedingly disrespectful to every life which was lost or affected or changed by that war, and to every living person who continues to feel its painful legacy. Being a ~millennial~, I turned to facebook to vent my very serious feelings on all of this, only to be told by two separate people that the montage had, in fact, been totally awesome and cool from an artistic perspective and that I was just taking it too seriously and expecting too much from Hollywood and needed to pick my battles.
My thoughts were simply that the legacy of WWII should be taken seriously, and that I could not give less of a crap about ~art~ if the lives of millions are disrespected in the process. Feeling vaguely annoyed and self-righteous following my lost facebook status debate, I first deleted that status because I am an imperfect person who does not like to lose comment debates in public. Then I thought to myself, “I should start a blog where I can bitch about people who use history incorrectly!”
So, welcome. This blog will not be mainly comprised of bitching. Or self-righteous ranting (though those things will probably occur from time to time); I intend to use this blog to address when the media, entertainment industry, politicians, etc use history incorrectly or irresponsibly, to debunk popular, inaccurate historical myths or perceptions of the discipline, and to geek out over random historical things.
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Category: Cultural Commentary and Criticism, History of the British Isles, I Go Off, Memory Studies, Popular Culture, World War II
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