Films on American History and Culture

This episode of THE GREAT ADVENTURE, a TV series on American historical events and persons, recounts the efforts of RICHARD PRATT's now controversial efforts to assimilate Native Americans into "white" society by education and rejection of tribal traditions. He advocated for Native Americans and founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

This episode is based on a chapter of the book by John F. Kennedy. In 1861, SAM HOUSTON, who had served as a General , President of the Texas, U.S. Senator, and Governor of the State of Texas, opposed secession and supported Texas remaining in the Union, believing civil war will destroy Texas and the South. He fought a losing battle and was removed from office for trying to save the state that he worked so hard to make part of the U.S.A.

This episode is based on a chapter of the book by John F. Kennedy. In 1860 ANDREW JOHNSON is a US Senator from Tennessee. He desperately tries to keep his home state from seceding from the Union, risking his reputation, his political future, and his life.

This episode is based on a chapter of the book by John F. Kennedy. In 1850 DANIEL WEBSTER is a US Senator from Massachusetts and an outspoken abolitionist. Fearing the breaking up of the Union, he risks his reputation and his political career when he considers supporting the Missouri Compromise.

This episode is based on a chapter of the book by John F. Kennedy. In 1850 Senator THOMAS HART BENTON of Missouri hopes for California statehood. Knowing it will not be admitted as a slave state he fights Senator Calhoun's bill that would forbid Congress from voting against slavery in the Territories.

This episode is based on a chapter of the book by John F. Kennedy. I recounts the problems between Mormons and other settlers in Missouri. When ALEXANDER DONIPHAN he is ordered to suppress the Mormons, he refuses.

This episode is based on a chapter of the book by John F. Kennedy. It tells the story of U.S. Senator THOMAS CORWIN, a rising star in the Whig party in the 1840s who was one of the few political leaders to oppose the US-Mexican War initiated by the administration of President James Polk

After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer. In a German prisoner-of-war camp named Stalag 17, one of its compounds holds 630 American airmen (all of whom are sergeants) and is overseen by camp warden Colonel von Scherbach. In December 1944, the men of Barracks 4—led by appointed barracks chief "Hoffy" Hoffman and security officer Frank Price—arrange for the escape of fellow airmen Manfredi and Johnson. The two are shot dead in the attempt, and the men believe they were betrayed by an informant. Suspicion falls on an enterprising cynic who barters openly with the German guards for various luxuries. He also creates profitable ventures that distract from the mundanity of camp life, from organizing mouse races for gambling, to an improvised distillery for brewing alcohol, to a makeshift telescope to view the Russian women from a neighboring compound. Clarence "Cookie" Cook, who narrates the story, serves as Sefton's underling. The men of Barracks 4 do their best to keep sane, which includes enduring the antics of barracks clowns "Animal" Kuzawa and Harry Shapiro and smuggling in a radio to listen in on war news. Their jovial German supervisor, Sergeant Schulz, secretly retrieves hidden messages from a hollow black queen on the chessboard, and straightens the looped cord of a dangling light bulb, which serves as a signal between himself and the informant.

The story of a platoon during the Korean War in a rear guard action in the winter of 1950-51. One by one Corporal Denno's superiors are killed until it comes to the point where he must try to take command responsibility.

The spoiled rich son of a wealthy Southerner is changed by his experiences in the Pacific during World War II. Before the war, he was an arrogant southern cotton plantation owner, married to the daughter of a colonel. At the beginning of the war he was mobilized with his National Guard unit as a sergeant. Came the day when, revolted by the cowardice of his lieutenant, who had fired at his own men, he hit him. Downgraded, he was sent to a disciplinary battalion. Sam now discovers his new detachment, his new commanding officer, just another cowardly brute. While in combat, Sam will gradually become closer to the privates, working-class people he used to despise. He will become another man, a better man.

In 1944, an American Infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but tensions between Captain Cooney and Lieutenant Costa run high. During the closing months of WWII, a National Guard Infantry Company is assigned the task of setting up artillery observation posts in a strategic area. Lieutenant Costa knows that Captain Cooney is in command only because of 'connections' he had made state-side. Costa has serious doubts concerning Cooney's ability to lead the group. When Cooney sends Costa and his men out, and refuses to re-enforce them, Costa swears revenge. Their commander is a politically ambitious colonel who's national guard unit has been activated for World War II. He has to coddle and keep an eye on Cooney, whose father is a big shot in the unnamed southern state he comes from. Only Cooney is an incompetent and a coward. That's causing problems up and down the ranks.

A fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I. The soldiers bravely hold their positions, incurring terrible losses in the process while their superior officers, far from the firing line, prepare to write them off as expendable casualties.

In the Seventeenth Century, a group of British sailors lure the Patuxet tribe in the New World and kidnap an Indian called Squanto (Adam Beach) together with Epenow (Eric Schweig) from Nauset tribe. They are brought to England to become attraction of a circus, but Squanto succeeds to escape in a row boat that sinks. Squanto is found by monks and brought to the monastery where he learns English and white man behavior. Squanto misses his beloved wife Nakooma and when he has a chance, he returns to the New World with Epenow. But he discovers that his world is no longer the same with the arrival of the Pilgrims.

Seven Days in May is a 1964 American political thriller film about a military-political cabal's planned takeover of the United States government in reaction to the president's negotiation of a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. The Kennedy administration gave its full cooperation in the film's production, which was released about 2 months after the President's assassination. In the 1960s, the Cold War remained a major security and political problem. The weak and unpopular U.S. President Jordan Lyman recently signs a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, and the subsequent ratification by the U.S. Senate has produced a wave of dissatisfaction, especially among Lyman's political opposition and the military, who believe that the Russians cannot be trusted. His popularity has reached an all-time low of 29%, there is rioting about the treaty right outside the White House and he is warned of a dangerous cardiac condition by the presidential physician, which he blithely disregards, too busy and beleaguered to take a prescribed two-week vacation. United States Marine Corps colonel "Jiggs" Casey is the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He serves its chairman, four-star United States Air Force general James Mattoon Scott, a former air ace who earned six Purple Hearts, two Distinguished Service Crosses and the Medal of Honor. Casey stumbles upon evidence that Scott is leading the Joint Chiefs to stage a coup d'etat to remove Lyman in seven days. Under the plan, disguised as a training exercise, a secret army unit known as ECOMCON, training at a secret Texas base, will take control of the country's telephone, radio and television networks while the president, participating in a staged "alert," is seized. Scott, who is busy advancing his charismatic public persona through nationally televised anti-treaty rallies, is planned to head a military junta. Although personally opposed to Lyman's policies, Casey is appalled by the plot and alerts Lyman. Still somewhat skeptical, Lyman gathers a circle of trusted advisors to investigate: Secret Service White House detail chief Art Corwin, Treasury Secretary Christopher Todd, longtime advisor Paul Girard and Raymond Clark, the senior U.S. senator from Georgia and a close friend of 21 years. Casey has deduced that the heads of all branches of the U.S. military but the Navy support Scott's coup scheme, with Vice Admiral Barnswell, then aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, apparently the only invited officer to decline. Lyman cancels a previous commitment to participate in Scott's alert, offering the ruse that he will be away for a fishing weekend. He then dispatches Girard to Gibraltar to obtain Barnswell's confession, sends the alcoholic Clark to Texas to locate the secret base and tasks Casey to gather dirt on the general's private life. Meanwhile, the Secret Service surreptitiously films evidence of an attempt to kidnap the president during the phony fishing trip, removing all doubts about the existence of a plot. Girard successfully secures Barnswell's confession in w g, but it disappears during a plane crash in Spain. Clark is taken captive when he reaches the secret base and held incommunicado for a day and a half before the Sunday coup. Exploiting Casey's longtime friendship with the base's deputy commander Colonel Henderson, Clark convinces Henderson of the actual intent of the impending "alert." Henderson frees Clark and leads an escape back to Washington but is abducted and confined in a military stockade there. In a radiophone conference call with the president, Barnswell denies knowledge of any conspiracy. Knowing that he cannot prove Scott's guilt, Lyman nevertheless calls Scott to the White House to demand that he and the other conspirators resign. Scott refuses and denies the existence of any plot. Lyman argues that a coup would prompt the Soviets to launch a preemptive nuclear strike. Scott maintains that the American people are behind him. Lyman challenges him to resign and run for office in order to seek power legitimately, but Scott is unmoved. Lyman restrains himself from confronting Scott with the damning letters that Casey had obtained. Scott meets the other three Joint Chiefs and reasserts his intention to execute the coup. He plans a nighttime network broadcast, but Lyman holds an afternoon press conference to announce that he has fired the four men. As he is speaking, Barnswell's confession, recovered from the plane crash, is handed to him and he delays the conference. In the interim, copies of the confession are delivered to Scott and the other plotters. As the press conference resumes, Scott abandons the plan when Lyman announces that the other three conspirators have resigned. Lyman delivers a speech on the state of the nation and its values, declaring that the nation gains strength through peace rather than by conflict.

A great one man show of James Whitmore portraying President Harry S Truman.

A docudrama made in the wake of the end of the war in Korea. A military action during the last year of the Korean War is re-enacted on the spot with real soldiers.

In this film, a soldier with PTSD (known then as "combat fatigue") develops a penchant for infiltrating enemy lines and killing victims with a knife. This becomes a liability when a cease fire is signed.

This film dramatizes the real-life story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was composed of Nisei second-generation Japanese-American soldiers, 2/3 from Hawaii and 1/3 from the interment camps on the U.S. mainland . Fighting in Italy, France , and Germany in the European Theater of Operations, this unit became the most heavily decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the United States Army, as well as one of the units with the highest casualty rates. GO FOR BROKE! features Asian Americans in a positive light, highlighting the wartime efforts of Japanese Americans. They received eight presidential unit citations.

This film is about an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes a friend of two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.

This is an outstanding retelling of the Japanese attack on Pearl by both American and Japanese film crews. In August 1939, the United States imposes a trade embargo on a belligerent Japan, severely limiting raw materials. Influential Japanese army figures and politicians push through an alliance with Germany and Italy in September 1940 despite opposition from the Japanese navy and prepare for war. The newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, reluctantly plans a pre-emptive strike on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, believing that Japan's best hope of controlling the Pacific Ocean is to quickly annihilate the American fleet. Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda is chosen to mastermind the operation while his old Naval Academy classmate Mitsuo Fuchida is selected to lead the attack. Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. military intelligence has broken the Japanese Purple Code, allowing them to intercept secret Japanese radio transmissions indicating increased Japanese naval activity. Monitoring the transmissions are U.S. Army Col. Bratton and U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Kramer. At Pearl Harbor itself, Admiral Kimmel increases defensive naval and air patrols around Hawaii which could provide early warning of enemy presence. General Short recommends concentrating aircraft at the base on the runways to avoid sabotage by enemy agents in Hawaii, so General Howard Davidson of the 14th Pursuit Wing tries dispersing some of the planes to other airfields on Oahu to maintain air readiness. Several months pass while diplomatic tensions escalate. As the Japanese ambassador to Washington continues negotiations to stall for time, the large Japanese fleet sorties into the Pacific. On the day of the attack, Bratton and Kramer learn from intercepts that the Japanese plan a series of 14 radio messages from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington. They are also directed to destroy their code machines after receiving the final message. Deducing the Japanese intention to launch a surprise attack immediately after the messages are delivered, Bratton tries warning his superiors of his suspicions but encounters several obstacles: Chief of Naval Operations Harold R. Stark is indecisive over notifying Hawaii without first alerting the President while Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall's order that Pearl Harbor be alerted of an impending attack is stymied by poor atmospherics that prevent radio transmission and by bungling when a warning sent by telegram is not marked urgent. At dawn on December 7, the Japanese fleet launches its aircraft. Their approach to Hawaii is detected by two radar operators but their concerns are dismissed by the duty officer. Similarly the claim by the destroyer USS Ward to have sunk a Japanese miniature submarine off the entrance to Pearl Harbor is dismissed as unimportant. The Japanese thus achieve complete and total surprise, which Commander Fuchida indicates with the signal "Tora! Tora! Tora!" The damage to the naval base is catastrophic and casualties are severe. Seven battleships are either sunk or heavily damaged. General Short's anti-sabotage precautions prove a disastrous mistake that allows the Japanese aerial forces to destroy aircraft on the ground easily. Hours after the attack ends, General Short and Admiral Kimmel receive Marshall's telegram warning of impending danger. In Washington, Secretary of State Cordell Hull is stunned to learn of the attack and urgently requests confirmation before receiving the Japanese ambassador. The message that was transmitted to the Japanese embassy in 14 parts – including a declaration that peace negotiations were at an end – was meant to be delivered to the Americans at 1:00 pm in Washington, 30 minutes before the attack. However, it was not decoded and transcribed in time, meaning the attack started while the two nations were technically still at peace. The distraught Japanese ambassador, helpless to explain the late ultimatum and unaware of the ongoing attack, is bluntly rebuffed by Hull. Back in the Pacific, the Japanese fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, refuses to launch a scheduled third wave of aircraft for fear of exposing his force to U.S. submarines. Aboard his flagship, Admiral Yamamoto solemnly informs his staff that their primary target – the American aircraft carriers – were not at Pearl Harbor, having departed days previously to search for Japanese vessels. Lamenting that the declaration of war arrived after the attack began, Yamamoto notes that nothing would infuriate the U.S. more and ominously concludes: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

This is an anti-war film with contradictory themes in portraying an American platoon from England, Italy, and France, ending with one involved in the allied occupation of Berlin. It does not emphasize combat, Instead it juxtaposes victory marches, newsreels, and sentimental scenes with ones of degradation and horror, ending with an American and a Russian killing one another over a misunderstanding. While overdone and uneven in its treatment, THE VICTORS does make an impact on the viewer. The story is told in a series of short vignettes, each having a beginning and an ending in itself, though all are connected to the others A U.S. infantry squad is sent to Italy, including Sergeant Craig, and Corporals Trower and Chase, and GI Baker. The squad take possession of a small town in Sicily. Craig has to stop his men from looting. Baker strikes up a relationship with Maria, a young mother whose soldier husband is missing. They talk to a Sikh soldier who is lonely and misses his children. A group of white American soldiers find two black American soldiers in a bar and beat them until the MPs (Military Police) arrive; an Italian onlooker asks why Americans attack each other and gets no reply. The squad are then sent to France. Craig spends the evening with a Frenchwoman who is terrified by bombing raids. The men help liberate a concentration camp. In Belgium, Trower meets Regine, a violinist, and falls in love with her. However, when he sees her later she is working for a pimp, Eldridge, who tells Trower that she rents by the hour. One truckload of GIs is chosen out of a convoy to supply witnesses to the execution by firing squad of a GI deserter in a huge, otherwise empty, snow-covered field near a chateau at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines on Christmas Eve. Chase has a relationship with Magda, who suggests he desert and join her in the black market. He refuses just as he learns that his unit is marching out of town in the rain. Some of his friends hide his gear under their rain ponchos, and he slips into formation. Back at the front he is wounded in the leg. A newcomer to the squad, a misfit named Weaver, adopts a dog even though another man in the unit tells him that it is against regulations ("They're dirty and they make dirt"), and they can't take dogs with them when they redeploy at the front. Weaver keeps feeding the dog anyway, even after the other men kick him and his dog out of the tent. When the unit moves out, one of the other men in the unit, Grogan, tells Weaver to call his dog. Weaver thinks that the others have changed their minds and are letting him bring his dog with them, but Grover shoots the dog as it runs after the truck. When Chase gets out of hospital in England, he is stuck at a bus stop in the rain. A man, Dennis, invites him to have tea with his family. He has a pleasant time, but when he visits Craig in the hospital, he discovers that most of Craig's face has been blown off. The war in Europe ends. In 1946 Trower is still in the Army and stationed in Berlin. He is in love with Helga, a young German woman who was raped by the Russians during and after the Battle of Berlin. Trower brings her parents imported goods from the PX when he visits their apartment and has sex with Helga in their bedroom. Helga's sister has been sleeping with Russians; her current lover, a Russian officer, has given her an expensive fur coat that she flaunts in front of Helga, their parents, and Trower. Trower is returning to his base when he meets a drunken Russian soldier. He thinks of Russians raping Helga and provokes a fight with the ally. The two men pull knives and stab each other to death. As the camera pulls back to show seemingly endless ruins, we see that the position of the allies' bodies suggests the letter 'V' for Victory.

An ex-convict returns to his home farm in Oklahoma, but he finds that the affects of the Depression and draught ("dustbowl") have forced his family off the land and farm. He joins them on their journey to California in search of work and a new home. It is based upon the novel by John Steinbeck.

In this political fantasy, an ordinarily corrupt businessman/politician elected president has a religious experience and is transformed into a great reformer that tries to solve the crime epidemic, the great Depression, disarmament, as well as other problems.