Not just rewriting, as they say, but changing it physically through new media methods. Honest.
We viewed a most interesting BBC documentary on World War I in class tonight that consisted of some original film footage interspersed with the usual still photography and footage of the narrator filling in the background story. We were offered two warnings by our professor, and watching him watch the film was a lesson in zeal and dedication to history as factual information. What upset him was 1) the voiceover during original footage that was, for example, badly done Germanized English–to the point of Hogan’s Heroes’ Schultz; and 2) the new media addition of sound to the original early 1900’s film clips (to the point of Monty Python’s coconuts for clopping horses).
You saw and heard the bombs. You saw and heard the people cheering the European troops as they paraded off to war. You saw and heard World War I. All this, in a time of silent film only.
Enhanced for interest and entertainment, drawing the audience in, and it works. Unless you happen to be a history professor who loves history. Then, it must be an affront to your senses and intellect. It is changing history–the film being shown is then not true. Doesn’t sound (no pun meant) like a big deal to most people, probably sounds like the greatest thing going to newmediaheads and techies, but it does have an impact on the future as to how history is being presented. Interesting arguments from both sides here, to be sure.
But for our knowledgeable and devoted professor, it made him more intense than ever, and I can well see and sympathize with his frustration. I am just very glad that this particular film was not colorized as well.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology