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Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ...
Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

This page features links to reviews of movies, documentaries and exhibits with a historical theme. Listings are in reverse chronological order. Descriptions are taken directly from the linked publication. If you have articles you think should be listed on the Pop Culture page, please send them to the editor editor@historynewsnetwork.org.

  • Peggy Noonan: Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’
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  • Paris spreads the Louvre
  • Jon Wiener: The Trouble With Steven Spielberg’s 'Lincoln'
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  • 'The Central Park Five': This Is Why Documentaries Exist
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  • Kevin M. Levin: Historians Need to Give Steven Spielberg a Break
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  • Ron Radosh: NYT Takes on Stone for His "Untold History"
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  • Harold Holzer: What’s True and False in “Lincoln” Movie
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  • Jim Castagnera: Daniel Day-Lewis *is* Lincoln
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  • National Building Museum in DC explores history of play with building blocks in new exhibit
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  • Where Irish ‘Troubles’ Began, the Arts Heal
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  • Shooting Lincoln: How local talent and the Virginia film industry made Spielberg’s blockbuster possible
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  • David Thomson: Spielberg's "Lincoln" is a Film for our Political Moment
  • In ‘Roads of Arabia,’ dusting off ideas about a kingdom and civilization
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  • Peter Galuszka: 150 Years After the War, Richmond Embraces ‘Lincoln.’
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  • Jon Wiener: Oliver Stone's 'Untold History'
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  • Andrew Roberts: What Have They Done to James Bond?
  • What Really Drives the Rolling Stones
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  • ‘How did this happen?’: Speakeasy, saloon hatchet help tell tale of Prohibition at Pa. exhibit
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  • “Mankind: The Story of All of Us.” -- Yes, a Big Topic. Want to Fight About It?
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  • New installation in Union Square puts a face on veterans' experiences
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    NYT calls "Lincoln" "among the finest films ever made about American politics"

    SOURCE: NYT (11-9-12)

    It is something of a paradox that American movies — a great democratic art form, if ever there was one — have not done a very good job of representing American democracy. Make-believe movie presidents are usually square-jawed action heroes, stoical Solons or ineffectual eggheads, blander and more generically appealing than their complicated real-life counterparts, who tend to be treated deferentially or ignored entirely unless they are named Richard Nixon.

    The legislative process — the linchpin of our system of checks and balances — is often treated with lofty contempt masquerading as populist indignation, an attitude typified by the aw-shucks antipolitics of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Hollywood dreams of consensus, of happy endings and box office unity, but democratic government can present an interminable tale of...
    Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 11:25
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    Dueling Biopics in Works for the Beatles’ Manager

    SOURCE: NYT (11-1-12)

    Within the world of obsessive Beatles fans, a small but vocal group has long argued that the accomplishments of Brian Epstein, the band’s visionary manager, have been underplayed in the many tellings of the Beatles’ story. But suddenly, 45 years after Epstein’s death from what was ruled an accidental drug overdose, Epstein will have his moment to shine on the silver screen. Not one but two biopics – one to be based on a graphic novel – are in the works.

    So far, the starrier of them will feature the busy Benedict Cumberbatch as Epstein. Mr. Cumberbatch — whose roles have included the physicist Stephen Hawking, as well as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC’s “Sherlock” and Peter Guillam in the recent film version of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” — also has roles in Peter Jackson’s coming film version of “The Hobbit” and will be the villain in the...
    Friday, November 2, 2012 - 12:07
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    George Washington, other Founding Fathers play key roles in new Assassin’s Creed video game

    SOURCE: WaPo (10-30-12)

    McLEAN, Va. — Wars and video games seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. But those games usually involve tanks and machine guns and Tet offensives; not horses, bayonets and Bunker Hill.

    Now, though, one of the biggest game releases of the upcoming holiday season is immersing players in the Revolutionary War, with key cameos from George Washington, Ben Franklin and other Founding Fathers.

    Assassin’s Creed III is due for release Tuesday. In some ways, the game is meticulous with historical accuracy. Great attention was paid to research to recreate the cities of New York and Boston on a one-third scale. History professors were brought in as consultants....
    Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 13:57
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    Flashing lights, clacking keys welcome visitors to Seattle’s new Living Computer Museum

    SOURCE: AP (11-1-12)

    SEATTLE — For tourists with an interest in Seattle’s role as a high-tech hub, there hasn’t been much here to see, other than driving over to Microsoft headquarters in suburban Redmond to take pictures of a bunch of boring buildings.

    But Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has just opened the Living Computer Museum, with displays of old machines — all in working order — along with a geeky wish list of items he’d like to add, just in case anybody out there has an old tape drive or super-computer sitting around.

    Visitors who stop by the nondescript building in an industrial section of Seattle south of the baseball stadium are likely to see technicians in white lab coats working on the machines. But this place is not just for nerds and techies. Since the museum’s Oct. 25 opening, many visitors have been families, and their questions have not been the expected queries concerning technical specs of machines, but rather where did...
    Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 13:49
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    Library of Congress exhibit celebrates Jewish history, artifacts

    SOURCE: WaPo (10-31-12)

    WASHINGTON — A 19th century copy of the U.S. Constitution in Yiddish and Hebrew. A 15th century Hebrew book from Italy open to a page of passages that had been censored by the Catholic Church during the Inquisition. A 20th century “Curious George” children’s book translated into Yiddish.

    Spanning across the centuries and the globe, they’re all part of a new exhibit, “Words Like Sapphires,” which celebrates 100 years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress.

    The exhibit features some 60 objects, religious and lighter fare, drawn from the Library of Congress’ more than 200,000-piece Hebraica collection. The collection includes works in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino (or Judeo-Spanish), Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac and Amharic (from Ethiopia)....
    Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 13:47
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    Rethinking the Armory Show at N-YHS

    SOURCE: NYT (10-27-12)

    In 1913 — a few months short of a century ago — you are in New York City, not yet the world cultural capital. It’s a seething, manic place, with a powerful but provincial population. Wall Street is challenging London’s dominance of the international stock market, and finishing touches are being put on the highest high-rise on the planet, the Woolworth Building, in Lower Manhattan.

    But beneath the cheers and the whir of machines, there is another sound: shouting, as 10,000 women demanding the vote march down Fifth Avenue, and a mass protest by striking mill workers fills Madison Square Garden to the explosion point.

    At one time, a New Yorker rattled by noise and change could seek solace in art, in the visual smoothness and moral sureties of, say, Gilded Age painting, with its lush landscapes, classical tableaus and teatime interiors. Now, suddenly, that option was being all but closed....

    ...
    Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 13:14
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    A Collector’s Legacy of War Machines in Repose

    SOURCE: NYT (10-28-12)

    PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. — A tank museum anywhere is a strange spectacle. It documents humanity’s ingenuity and ambition, and also its desire to demolish whatever is in its path with terrifying finality.

    A tank museum tucked into the tranquil hills here is stranger still. A tiny town west of Stanford University, Portola Valley is the sort of place where breezes tinged with the scent of old money and horse manure waft through picturesque woodlands, and leaf blowers that don’t even reach the noise level of a moderately crowded Manhattan singles bar are officially prohibited.

    Yet Portola Valley is where you’ll find the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, one of the nation’s most intriguing museums. On the right day, you might find Tom Sator there, too....
    Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 13:12
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