# Historical movies that haven't been done yet, that you'd like to see **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899 "2010-04-30T20:43:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Regency_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/161 "2010-05-27T17:11:21Z")
For years I had the idea of a screenplay about the music industry in the 1970s and how things morphed starting in the 80’s into what we have today, as seen through the eyes of a female record exec. Then I learned about Donna Halper, who was a music director for a radio station in Cleveland and is now a music lecturer and historian. She is credited with breaking the band Rush into the market (which led to their first record deal) and worked with Alex Harvey for a long time before becoming one of the few female radio consultants. I think it would be interesting to see a film that tackles several topics - the changing music business, the role of women in the biz, and what it took to “break” a band then vs. now. Hmm…who could play Alex Harvey? There’s a fairly short but interesting interview with her [here](http://www.rushtrader.com/interviews/halper.htm). One interesting/scary quote: “I don’t think I could discover Rush today…few stations have the power to independently break a new artist.” ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/162 "2010-05-27T18:03:14Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Sounds like a good topic for The American Experience. > Nitpick: Israel Good Nitpick — I don’t think I made that error on the paper. I caught the other spelling error on my post just after the editting time limit ran out. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/163 "2010-05-27T18:15:43Z")
The life of [Glenn Hammond Curtiss](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Curtiss). The film would start with the young Curtiss building a V8 motorcycle and setting a land speed record of 136 mph - in 1907. It would follow his work with other inventors like Alexander Graham Bell supplying engines for their airplanes, [building the Junebug and winning the Scientific American prize](http://acepilots.com/airplanes/country/american/aea-biplanes/) for a plane taking off on it’s own power, flying more than a kilometer and safely landing before the public (the Wrights launched a powered glider with a catapult in secrecy). The “3rd act” would be the battle with the Wrights over patents (they claimed to have a patent on the airplane). The climax would be his flight from Albany to New York City along the Hudson, finally landing in Battery Park after circling the Statue of Liberty. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/164 "2010-05-27T18:27:31Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > For a more low key subject I might recommend the reaction of a midwest Jewish community inside a medium-sized Midwestern city, say Kansas City, to the birth of Isreal in 1948. > > Many people don’t realize there was a great deal of disturbance within the Jewish community over the subject. It tore apart synagogues, friendships and even families. Some didn’t feel Isreal should become a state. Others felt it was their duty to go to Isreal to fight while others were willing to raise money and even buy guns for the struggle. Lecturers toured representing both sides. Fights broke out. People were arrested. I could see this as a background of a charming love story. > > If you want to make this film, it just so happens my masters thesis was: _The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle and Its Reaction to the Birth of Isreal: 1947-48_ > > What a coinsidence, right? The topic of the Jewish community (in New York, not KC) being divided over the creation of Israel was covered in [_The Chosen._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosen_(film)) ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/165 "2010-05-27T21:14:52Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The topic of the Jewish community (in New York, not KC) being divided over the creation of Israel was covered in [_The Chosen._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosen_(film)) Yeah, but you wouldn’t need my thesis if you did that one again. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/166 "2010-05-28T00:49:22Z")
> [@maplekiwi](#): > > I remember reading Maurice Shadbolt’s Season of the Jew years ago & thinking what a good movie series or movie it would make. [Season of the Jew - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season_of_the_Jew) > > Its a fictionalised account of Te Kooti & the Maori (Land) Wars in the 19th century [Utu](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086497/) was loosely based on much the same events, but isn’t as well-told as the Shadbolt novel. Still worth a watch though. [Monday’s Warriors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday%27s_Warriors) would also make a great film, with the added tie in of an American connection with [Kimball Bent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimball_Bent). ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/167 "2010-05-28T04:48:59Z")
[Pavlov’s House](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_house). A ruined apartment block manned by a dozen hard-assed Russian soldiers, holding off German attacks for three solid months. The fighting was so intense that the Russians had to go out during lulls in the battle so they could kick over the piles of bodies! Done right, this would be an action movie for the ages. I have no idea why Hollywood hasn’t tried yet. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/168 "2010-05-28T10:02:03Z")
I’d watch a movie about [Simo Hayha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4) Finnish sniper and all around badass. I could see a movie made about his life, A\*Team style. What about a good old fashioned American rebellion in the 18th Century? An unreasonable tax foisted on the poor and working class, and they rise up against the tax collectors. The army is called in to quell the rebels. I’m talking, of course, of the [Whisky Rebellion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/169 "2010-05-29T13:49:43Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The topic of the Jewish community (in New York, not KC) being divided over the creation of Israel was covered in [_The Chosen._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosen_(film)) While I didn’t like that movie (I thought Robby Benson was woefully miscast and Rod Steiger was in prime scenery chewing mode) I have to admit it was my first realization that not all Jews favored the founding of Israel. Speaking of Israel: a movie version of [bar Kokhba’s revolt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt)would be interesting. For a messianic figure who had an incomparably larger number of followers in his lifetime than Jesus, whose failure resulted in such a bloodbath and whose downfall was so important in the history of Judaism and of Israel, he’s amazingly unknown to most Christians. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/170 "2010-05-31T20:51:40Z")
The life story of Tom Dowd. I’m watching _[Tom Dowd & the Language of Music](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343107/)_ right now, and his life, if presented as fiction, would be rejected by every movie studio for being unbelievable. He’s like Zelig, at all these amazing moments of music. Look at the cast and crew list, and see all [the listings for “himself” and “herself”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343107/fullcredits#cast). And the cast list is woefully incomplete. The man worked on the Manhattan Project and _Layla_. It would be worth it just to make the best soundtrack album ever. ---
**Author:** ![Aeris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Aeris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeris)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/171 "2010-11-19T21:24:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The invention of television is long overdue for a TV movie- several interesting characters: > > -Philo Farnsworth- a Mormon farmboy and natural genius who had greatly surpassed his teachers by the time he was an adolescent. He first got the idea for electronic signals by looking at rows of freshly plowed farmland around the same time he was researching energy waves, this when he was in his early teens. > > -Pem- Mrs. Farnsworth and the first person ever to be seen on television when she was ‘broadcast’ from one side of a San Franciso lab to another. > > -David Sarnoff- Russian emigrant who wanted to be a rabbi and Talmud scholar but had to go to work as a boy to support his fatherless family. He greatly spun the real story until he was practically the only radio operator in America handling the story (there were in fact many), but it is true that he got the idea for radio when he noticed the crowds outside of his Marconi station wanting instant news of the Titanic disaster, and he really did get one of the most famous memos ever written dismissing his idea of home radio as idiotic. After becoming a radio pioneer and founding RCA and NBC he decided to add pictures. > > -Vladimir Zworykin- from a wealthy bourgeois Russian family he patented a televised image device as early as 1907 but left it and his other research behind when he refugeed to the U.S. during the Russian Revolution and hooked up with Sarnoff. > > The fighting between Team Sarnoff and Team Farnsworth is corporate intrigue and warfare that even the layman can get into. Also there are great “chaos theory” moments of history- example: when Philo’s prick of a boss at Westinghouse wouldn’t let him take off a week from work so that he could go with Pem to bury their infant in Salt Lake City it changed history because Philo wouldn’t renew his contract which set back his work which meant that by the time he had a marketable television so did Sarnoff and the patent wars began. As a result it delayed the marketing of television until after WW2; can you imagine the differences if TV had been available in 1940? > > Anyway, it’s a cool story with lots of odd and interesting characters. While Farnsworth made a good living from his other inventions the only thing he got for inventing television was a carton of cigarettes on a game show- the perfect gift for a Mormon. (Actually it was: he had taken up smoking _on doctor’s advice_ to relieve stress, and of course died of smoking related causes; his widow lived until 2006.) There is a play about this called _The Farnsworth Invention_. The script was written by Aaron Sorkin who actually did try to get it made into a movie but no one would bite so instead he adapted it for the stage. It doesn’t really work well as a stageplay because it’s so talky but I would love to see it as a film ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899/172 "2010-11-19T23:28:06Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Perhaps this may be too unPC to ever get made, but I’ve long thought that an interesting documentary might be made about the “bad guys” of the civil rights movement - sort of an anti-_Eyes On The Prize_. I don’t mean the truly evil ones, like James Earl Ray or the men who murdered Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, but the members of White Citizen’s Councils and the protesters at Central High. It would be interesting to find out why they were so afraid, and so angry, and to learn how they have accomodated the changes of the past 60 years, and if what they so feared has come to pass. I haven’t read it, but the book [There Goes My Everything](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307275507/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0307263568&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JM0GPYBEX482A2P6M77) covers some of this ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-movies-that-havent-been-done-yet-that-youd-like-to-see/537899.md?page=8)