Posted on 08/20/2009 12:30:12 PM PDT by JoeProBono
If you thought Tom Cruise's character in "The Last Samurai" represented a real figure from history, you were wrong. But don't feel ashamed. A new study shows that even students, with facts staring them in the face, tend to substitute Hollywood fiction for historical fact in their minds.
"What we found is that there's something really special about watching a film that lets people retain information from that film, even when they had read a contradictory account in the textbook," said Andrew Butler, a psychology researcher at Washington University in St. Louis during the time he and his colleagues conducted the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Honorable mention goes to HBO's Taking Chance, which chronicles Marine Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl's journey as he escorts the remains of PFC Chance Phelps, who'd been killed in Iraq, from Dover Airbase to his home in Dubois, Wyoming. While it is technically not a "war movie", it is a wonderful film (although I do recommend having a box of tissues on standby) that shows ordinary Americans honoring one of their fallen sons.
The REAL “Cooler King” spoke at my Airborne School graduation in the summer of 1986.
Very cool guy.
Agreed.
Saw both.
Taking Chance is one of the best “docu-dramas” of this decade.
Kevin Bacon was EXCELLENT in this role, acting as an observer rather than the focus.
“Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” does it for me.
Maggie the Cat.
Meeeeoooowwwwww.
I’m really, really glad the movie toned-down the obvious mega-ghey overtones of the book.
It's only real life...
It's only real life...
It's only real life...
A grown man who spent his whole life playing “let’s pretend” has declared himself “on board” for Obamacare.
I’m safe on board.. (Roger Ebert supports socialism)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 8/21/2009 | Roger Ebert
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