In Honor of the Space Race

One of our members requested information about good family friendly films that could bring the Space Race alive. We whole heartily recommend the following award-winning, entertaining, and wonderfully accurate films...

Apollo 13 tells the story of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise, who launched from earth on April 11, 1970 in the ill-fated Apollo 13. Two days after the launch, an explosion caused by an electrical fault in an oxygen tank crippled the Apollo spacecraft. Despite great hardship caused by severe constraints on power, the crew successfully returned to Earth. The mission was thus called a "Successful Failure." This wonderful film certainly brings that moment to life.

The Right Stuff tells the story of NASA’s Mercury Program, and the seven men chosen to lead the missions, Malcolm Scott Carpenter, “Gordo” Cooper, Jr., John Glenn, “Gus” Grissom, “Wally” Schirra, Alan Shepard, and “Deke” Slayton. Full of brilliant performances, this film will keep you riveted while it educates.

 

Wonderfully kid friendly, October Sky tells the story of Homer Hickam, son of a West Virginia coal miner who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry, eventually becoming a NASA engineer. While attending Big Creek High School in 1960, he led a group of boys who built rockets. They called themselves the Big Creek Missile Agency and went on to win the National Science Fair and full college scholarships. Perhaps the best historical element of this film is its combination of Space Race dreams with West Virginia coal town reality. This film introduces kids to the concept of company towns in which everyone lived in a company house, sent their kids to a company school, and shopped in a company store. It also gently introduces them to the union movements who objected to so much company contol, and the powerful draw space flight had on everyday Americans at the time.

From Earth to the Moon is a Golden Globe winning twelve episode miniseries that relates the entire space race, from the Mercury and Gemini projects to the legendary Apollo missions. It may not be star studded, but it tells the full story and entertains at the same time.

In the Shadow of the Moon is a wonderful award-winning documentary that brought together the surviving members of NASA's Apollo missions and allowed them to tell their story in their own words. Mixed with archival footage, we get to meet the men who lived the experience and actually walked on the moon.

All of these films are family friendly, and Historybusters Members may download a Historybusters curriculum full of background and fun facts from their members' drop box to make the Space Race Story even more accessible.

For information about Iraq, Al-Qaeda, and the War on Terror

A Historybusters Top Video Recommendation: Frontline

Historybusters would like to recommend the following 23 Frontline episodes about the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Afganistan, Al Qaeda, and the War on Terror. Spying on the Home Front, Endgame, Cheney’s Law, Showdown with Iran, Rules of Engagement, Bush’s war, Bad Voodoo’s War, The Torture Question, The Insurgency, The Dark Side, Return of the Taliban, The Lost Year in Iraq, The Enemy Within, Gangs of Iraq, Truth War and Consequences, Beyond Baghdad, Son of Al Qaeda, Rumsfeld’s War, New Al Qaeda Front, The Soldier’s Heart, Private Warriors, The Man Who Knew, The War Behind Closed Doors. You may view all of these episode free on-line by clicking on this link. You may also find many of them at your local library, or purchase them from this site. If you download the drop box curriculums for either Turtles Can Fly or The Iraq War, you will find useful background information before watching the programs. Finally, Frontline has a fantastic teacher's center with images, discussion topics, activities, maps, and more. Click here to check it out with your kids.

Three new curriculums for members to download...

Vist your member's drop box to download these curriculums...

Turtles Can Fly Rich with humor, ambition, and courage, this remarkable award-winning film puts a human face on the Iraqi conflict by telling the story of the US invasion of Iraq through the eyes of a young Kurdish boy named Satellite. You will laugh and cry, so be sure to have Kleenex handy. Subtitled, it contains deeply mature content. This curriculum is similar to our Iraq War Curriculum, but includes a special emphasis on Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish history, including a brief explanation of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. It is designed for Turtles Can Fly, but you will find it useful for any film about Iraq.

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Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare An award winning production of a literary classic, which is also based on Plutarch and therefore quite historically accurate. Historybusters recommends this production as a great way to introduce your kids to history and Shakespeare at the same time.

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Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
A star-studded production of a literary classic, which also happens to be based on Plutarch and quite historically accurate. For those members who are bored by Shakespeare, we can only add, perhaps you were introduced to him incorrectly. He wrote plays not novel. He is meant to be seen, not read. This production may get your kids hooked on him before they have to read his plays in class.
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Curriculum Update

We have updated the look of our curriculums. Please take a look and tell us what you think...Here is a sample of the new 300 curriculum.

http://www.navigatinglife.org/historybusters/id73.html

This years' Movie Curriculums

I’ve been asked to provide a list of the movie curriculums that Historybusters will be providing this year. We will be focusing this year primarily on European and American History.

September will feature classical World History focusing on Greece and Egypt.
October will feature Roman History.
November will deal with the Dark ages and the Crusades.
December will look at the Renaissance.
January will explore the Reformation.
February will focus on the Age of Expansion and Exploration.
March will look at the American Revolution.
April will deal with the French Revolution and Napoleon.
May will focus on the Industrial Revolution and Colonialism.
June will focus on the Build up to WWI.
July will introduce the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.
August will deal with WWII.
September will deal with the Cold War.

World History will be our focus next year…

Hope that gives you some idea of what to expect. By the way, each curriculum will recommend more than one movie from the period to be watched either independently or as a set. For example: the complete Greek curriculum will provide background for several Greek myths, 300, Alexander the Great, a few Greek plays, and several documentaries, while the Roman curriculum will provide background on Julius Caesar, Caesar and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Anthony and Cleopatra, I Claudius, The Warrior Queen, Attila, and several documentaries. Obviously, you won’t have time to get to them all, so pick and choose as you see fit.

Take care and happy historybusting...

Turn watching 300 into a fun lesson about the Greco-Persian Wars

Here is a link to Historybusters' newest curriculum for the movie 300

http://www.navigatinglife.org/historybusters/id70.html

Have fun...

Ryan asked for some pictures

Thirteen year old, Ryan G. sent a message after going through out 300 movie curriculum. He asked to see more about the types of weapons the Spartans used at the Battle of Thermopylae. Here you go. All these images are from Wikipedia Commons, and Historybusters thanks them for the use.

A map of the city states involved in the Greco-Persian Wars

A Corinthian helmet
The skull of the warrior was actually found inside


A picture of a Greek Phalanx


Bronze swords from the period




Urns depicting Greek Hopilite Warriors

Greek hopilite armour

Corinthian Helmet



There you go Ryan...hope it helps

If anyone else has found great images about either the Persians or the Spartans, please let us know in a comment

Lynn

P. S.

Here are a few excellent websites that feature Thermopylae

http://edsitement.neh.gov/persiagreecewars01.asp
http://www.livius.org/th/thermopylae/thermopylae2.html
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~jujutsu/progress.html
http://www.300spartanwarriors.com/battleofthermopylae/thermopylae480bc.html

How Accurate was Alexander, the recent Oliver Stone movie?

Hey Eric,

Regarding your question about the accuracy of Alexander. I finally got around to seeing it, and I here is my review.

Alexander, Oliver Stone’s 150 million dollar epic, is actually pretty accurate. Not perfect, no retelling ever is, however Oliver Stone does faithfully recreates what little we know about the look and feel of the period. His battle scenes are pretty dead on. He even manages to provide a clear picture of Alexander’s upbringing, including his conniving, murdering, snake-charming mother, although I sincerely doubt that Olympias really had snakes with her all the time even though she was a practitioner of the old religions. That being said, I feel compelled to add that Stone’s epic seemed high in gloss and low on humanity. We never really understand what made Alexander great. We are shown a lot of the “what happened,” but never the “why.” This movie is a fine introduction into the world of Alexander, but if you want to learn more about Alexander and enjoy historical fiction, I recommend reading The Persian Boy and Funeral Games by Mary Renault. They are an easy read, and both are wonderful. If you prefer a biography, Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher's Alexander the Great is excellent. If you are allergic to reading, you can check out the documentary, In The Footsteps of Alexander. We have a link to it in our Store of Knowledge. Now, about the gay question…Alexander, like many men of his times, did have liaisons with both sexes. He lived in a society that considered intimate relationships between men natural; he also lived in a society that believed world conquest was a good thing. It’s foolish to judge him by “modern” standards. This film contains mature content.

Hope my review helps...Lynn