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Students Recall More Hollywood than History
livescience ^ | 12 August 2009 | Jeremy Hsu

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 ...


TOPICS: Education; Music/Entertainment; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: culturewars; godsgravesglyphs; history; historyeducation; hollywood; movies
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1 posted on 08/20/2009 12:30:13 PM PDT by JoeProBono
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To: JoeProBono

It was a really good movie, though.


2 posted on 08/20/2009 12:31:15 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: JoeProBono
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

Its called stupidity

3 posted on 08/20/2009 12:40:13 PM PDT by GeronL (Pro-Freedom Fiction Writers Unite! - http://libertyfic.proboards.com)
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To: JoeProBono
they should take WesternCiv from my professor, after the first test you realize, short of actually being there, the only way to pass the class is to memorize the text book.

No room for Hollywood left in your brain.

4 posted on 08/20/2009 12:40:45 PM PDT by txroadkill (I already told on all of you!)
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To: SJSAMPLE

I will never see it. How can a white guy be the last samurai?

This kind of Hollyweird pretension drives me nuts. If we meet an alien race there will be Tom Cruise playing the Last Gulkinek.

That movie should have caused Japan to declare war.

Tom Cruise is.... the Last Zulu!


5 posted on 08/20/2009 12:42:06 PM PDT by GeronL (Pro-Freedom Fiction Writers Unite! - http://libertyfic.proboards.com)
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To: JoeProBono

Hollywood and the teachers unions/left wing education establishment has done this deliberately. They have produced nearly 2 generations of idiots since the 1960’s. Idiots addicted to American Idol are easier to control than people capable of critical thinking. All part of the left’s master plan.


6 posted on 08/20/2009 12:43:50 PM PDT by Astronaut
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To: GeronL

7 posted on 08/20/2009 12:46:58 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: GeronL

No.
It was Ken Watanabi who was the “last” Samurai.

Cruise played a disallusioned Civil War hero/drunk who’s hired to train the Japanese Emperor’s soldiers in modern warfare.

He goes to Japan, trains the Japanses Imperial Army, and escorts them into battle. The soldiersa are ROUTED by the revolting samurai, and Cruise is taken prisoner and spared.

Ken Watanabi is the samurai clan leader who’s trying to retain the tradition and honor of his samurai during a time of technological evolution (rifles, gatling guns, etc.).

Cruise is spared so the clan leader can converse with him and study.

I’ll leave the rest for you to see, but it’s a pretty good movie.


8 posted on 08/20/2009 12:48:11 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: JoeProBono

Students aren’t the only fools. Many Americans think that the “Boxers or Briefs” question was a spontaneous moment.


9 posted on 08/20/2009 12:48:16 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Barry Falsewitness is proud of his "healthy skepticism" of organized religion. He's a deceiver.)
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To: JoeProBono
Roots was plagiarized.

Short answer, don't turn to Hollywood for history.

10 posted on 08/20/2009 12:49:04 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Barry Falsewitness is proud of his "healthy skepticism" of organized religion. He's a deceiver.)
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To: SJSAMPLE
It was a really good movie, though.

It's only a movie...

It's only a movie...

It's only a movie...

It's only a movie...

11 posted on 08/20/2009 12:50:00 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Barry Falsewitness is proud of his "healthy skepticism" of organized religion. He's a deceiver.)
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To: JoeProBono

Actually, I thought the move was silly, but I knew it was set during the Satsuma Rebellion.


12 posted on 08/20/2009 12:54:26 PM PDT by Little Ray (Do we have a Plan B?)
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To: JoeProBono

It’s not just the libs who are guilty of this. Most people who think of Patton think of George C. Scott. I know that I do. From what I’ve read, however, I’m pretty sure that the man himself was quite different.


13 posted on 08/20/2009 12:55:13 PM PDT by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: a fool in paradise

14 posted on 08/20/2009 12:55:53 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: a fool in paradise

That is one of the reasons I’m tired of people telling me “Its only a movie...”
Crap movies have more influence on the ignorant and weak minded than is safe.


15 posted on 08/20/2009 12:56:42 PM PDT by Little Ray (Do we have a Plan B?)
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To: B-Chan

16 posted on 08/20/2009 12:58:04 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: a fool in paradise

Which goes to the state of teaching these days... students cannot tell fact from fiction... G-d help this country, please!


17 posted on 08/20/2009 12:58:41 PM PDT by PIF
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To: Little Ray
I was referring to the ad campaign from the "shocking" pseudo snuff film from the 1970s "Last House On The Left" - Keep repeating to yourself "It's only a movie... it's only a movie..."

An Inconvenient Truth IS ALSO only a movie. Despite special defects portraying floods.

18 posted on 08/20/2009 12:59:01 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Barry Falsewitness is proud of his "healthy skepticism" of organized religion. He's a deceiver.)
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To: SJSAMPLE

The film has a very, very loose historical precedent in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, in which the last samurai resisting westernization were in fact, brought to heel with gatling guns.


19 posted on 08/20/2009 1:03:30 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

I know that part.
The Cruise character was the biggest fabrication.


20 posted on 08/20/2009 1:05:16 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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