Using Film to Convey Truth and Understanding: Commemorating October 7

Most history teachers agree that the use of popular films and hit shows within a classroom can enhance the learning process, sometimes even more than a brilliant lecture.

First, it gets students’ attention by distracting them from their ever-present cell phone appendages. Then it takes them away to another place and time, where characters and events, sometimes fictional and sometimes not, transcend space and time and come alive, albeit virtually.

By simply pulling down the old-fashioned big screen, the teacher can set characters and events into motion and give students a sense of their presence.

For example, through films about the devastating attack on America on December 7, 1941, generations of students from widely varying backgrounds have gained a greater understanding of the surprise, shock, and horror experienced by the victims of Pearl Harbor. Films can “humanize” history, giving viewers perspective and sensitivity even decades after the events themselves.

Films like Tora! Tora! Tora! portray the massive, coordinated surprise attack on American naval ships and airfields at Pearl Harbor. The film, along with others made through the years, vividly portrayed the devastation and deaths of approximately 2,400 victims and helped later generations understand why the attack prompted the United States to enter the Second World War.

Now, tragically, another historic attack is being portrayed on the screen.

Season Five of the popular Israeli series Fauda includes graphic dramatizations of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The response to those episodes suggests that some viewers have come away with greater sympathy for the victims and a deeper understanding of the shock and horror Israelis experienced that day.

That is the extraordinary power of telling stories to tell the truth.

Kudos, too, to Netflix, a highly commercial enterprise, for airing the fifth season of the series this fall despite the risk that it could provoke a significant backlash. And as the ratings were strong, clearly the controversy did little to negatively affect the network, demonstrating that audiences are willing to confront difficult and painful material when it is presented through compelling storytelling.

But will the hearts and minds of viewers throughout the world be changed as a result?

For the past three years, audiences have also been bombarded with competing images and narratives about the war that followed October 7. Organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have leveled grave accusations against Israel, while images of the suffering of the Gazan people have made their mark throughout the world. Charges of genocide, mass starvation, murder of civilians, apartheid, forced displacement, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid have become part of the international conversation about the war.

Whether viewers accept or reject those accusations, the power of the images and stories themselves cannot be denied.

Apparently, “telling a story to tell the truth” works conversely as well. Stories and images can inform, but they can also mislead and manipulate. One need only look at the convincing productions of Leni Riefenstahl and the positive image of Nazi Germany they were designed to create.

What is not yet clear, as we mark the third anniversary of October 7, is how public opinion and historical memory will ultimately be shaped by the popular media’s portrayals of the atrocities of that day. Will these stories, together with documentary film and eyewitness accounts, become vital teaching tools that enhance understanding of horrific events?

That has been my aim as a Holocaust historian and public-school teacher for the past 35 years. I have long used film to help students understand events that might otherwise seem remote, unimaginable, or reduced to names, dates, and statistics.

Now, tragically, that material includes the devastation of October 7, 2023.

The events of Pearl Harbor and October 7 are very different historical moments, separated by more than 80 years. But both demonstrate why it is so important that future generations understand not only what happened, but what it meant to the people who lived through it.

Facts and historical documentation must remain at the center of that understanding. But sometimes a story, vividly told, can help bring those facts to life, including how both the United States after Pearl Harbor and Israel after October 7 responded to devastating surprise attacks with renewed strength, solidarity, and determination.