History is (not) Boring: My Appeal for More Character Based Historical Films
BY ERIC CORSON
On February 23rd, the United Nations held a screening of Outside the Law (Hors la loi). Fitting to these revolutionary times (I’m talking about North Africa and the Middle East, not Wisconsin), the film presents the events of the Algerian fight for independence from the French colonial rulers during the 1950’s and 60’s. As was said before the screening, even the delegates of the United Nations “occasionally have to make time for a little culture.” So one sits down in a conference room and watches a politically themed movie while chewing on bite sized veggie dumplings.
The film, a rather dull and clunky affair, was a contender for this year’s Academy Award for best foreign language film and was the cause of much political discontent from the French right wing that claimed that the French colonists (who, in official history, taught the African natives the benefits of French culture, thus “civilizing” them) were unjustly depicted as oppressive and brutal. One of the only redeeming facets of Outside the Law, however, is its ferocious dedication to tell an uncompromising pro-Algerian story. Granted, this results in a rather one-dimensional depiction of history, but one can feel director Rachid Bouchareb’s passion to tell a story that is largely absent from French history books.
This made me think about historical films in general, a genre I have little to no use for. Growing up in Germany, I was constantly subjected to them, as Germans are very fond of revisiting their long and tumultuous national history in pompous made-for-TV movies. Naturally, the Nazi or, to a lesser extent, Stasi themed movies (which are usually the worst) are the only ones that are met with any kind of interest outside the German boarders, and some of them were even nominated for or won an Academy Award.
This brings me back to Outside the Law. The main problem of the movie is its characters, who are nothing more than blank slates, positioned strategically so as to channel the politically charged plot without having to bother with motivations, doubts or rebellion. At no point in the movie do we have any idea of who these characters actually are, except that they murder a lot of people for their cause and gaze about ominously because revolutionaries are, by Hollywood design, sourpusses. This is my main issue with a lot of historical movies that deal with (more or less) fictional characters involved with a (more or less) factual historical movement. Their sole reason of existence is to show us how history “happened.” They have to be deeply involved with it, possibly driving it, at the very least be directly affected by it. These kind of movies need a lot of historical symbols, but have no use for human drama.
Linked to that, is the fact that a lot of historical movies show us events that happened over a fairly long period of time. In the case of Outside the Law, we are talking about more than ten years. The rules of linear, goal-driven narration dictate that the “important” historical facts during that period of time are presented to us, so that we can easily follow the historical process from point A to point B to, hopefully, point Z. What about characters then? Is their trajectory as linear as history’s? Most historical films lead us to believe that that’s in fact the case, but aren’t streamlined characters rather boring? Doesn’t one want the characters to struggle, suffer and doubt, instead of victoriously spearheading a sweeping historical process that will offer them some kind of redemption? Granted, there are some scenes in Outside the Law in which the bloodshed is questioned, but it’s more a story beat every film about revolutionaries has to hit instead of a genuine character moment. After all, the killings continue without hesitation. And, nobody seems particularly bothered by it.
A more oblique entry into history is, in my mind, preferable. I could make a point about The Big Lebowski being the Coen’s commentary on the first Gulf War, but let’s observe The King’s Speech, since it beat Outside the Law at the Oscars. Someone arguing that Speech is a passionate plea for a nation’s need for a strong leader in troubled times would have a compelling case. How does the movie present this to us? Through character. Bertie tries to overcome his stutter and fear of public speech, Lionel is hired to help him. The Second World War looms at the end of the movie and the audience can go home with a feeling that Great Britain will be OK with such a competent king (let’s factor out air raids and naval battles for a second). The reason why the film is as engaging is the two main characters’ relation that drives the narrative. It’s all characters, almost no plot.
The Social Network, too, though snubbed at the Oscars, has been heralded as being somewhat of a historical document, in that it chronicles the emergence of the most popular online social platform of our time, thus commenting on a generation’s obsession with their online avatars, their crippled social lives in the real world, and the increasing sense of alienation among our days’ 20-somethings. I am not entirely sure that the movie is actually successful in doing so, but will accept it for the sake of argument. How does the movie go about “defining a generation?” Through character. Jesse Eisenberg’s fictional Mark Zuckerberg is a well-written and well-acted character that stands in for everything the film tries to say about white, rich college kids. Do we really care about how Zuckerberg came up with Facebook? Was the reason why he came up with it (and thus the terrific opening scene of The Social Network) not a lot more interesting?
What Christopher Nolan forgot with Inception, is that character is always more interesting than plot. Characters are why we connect with a certain material, why we care for a movie. Historical films often forget that. If we want to know the historical “facts,” we can read a history book. But, if you want to make a historical film, please root it in a compelling character arc. It will make us care. Outside the Law was entirely plot driven and although we should have been rooting for the Algerian cause, no one in the audience really cared – the number of glowing Blackberry displays attested to that. It’s a shame.