Film Archives

Battleship Potemkin at 100: how the Soviet film redrew the boundaries of cinema

by History Guild | Mar 30, 2026 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
Eisenstein’s growing international status did little to protect him at home. As the 1920s gave way to the 1930s, the tides of Stalinist cultural policy began to turn sharply against him. Eisenstein’s approach was profoundly out of step with the new aesthetic of Socialist Realism, which demanded clear narratives, heroic characters and unambiguous political messaging. Where his signature technique, montage, was dynamic and dialectical, Socialist Realism insisted on straightforward storytelling and easily digestible moral lessons. As a result, Eisenstein found himself accused of obscurity, excess and political unreliability.

How historically accurate is the film High Ground? The violence it depicts is uncomfortably close to the truth

by History Guild | May 26, 2025 | Military History, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes The Australian film High Ground, set mostly at a mission in Arnhem Land in...

The Myth of the Fall of the Roman Republic: A Misconception You (Probably) Share with Ridley Scott

by History Guild | Dec 30, 2024 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 10 minutes
The Roman Republic had an empire long before it had an emperor, and even after it gained an emperor, it did not cease to be a republic. The changes that occurred in the Roman state and the roles of its institutions over the centuries were not the result of sudden political upheaval. Instead, they reflected a gradual process of adjustment and evolution – sometimes influenced by the needs of the elites, sometimes by the demands of the people, and often by external factors.

How Star Wars’ Jedi were inspired by the Knights Templar

by History Guild | Jul 23, 2024 | Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
Star Wars is once again in the spotlight and pulling on nostalgic heartstrings in the new Disney+ limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. The series follows members of the knightly order of Jedi as they are persecuted across the galaxy. What many might not know is the idea of the Jedi was heavily influenced by the real history of the Knights Templar.

Schindler’s List at 30: a look back at Steven Spielberg’s shattering masterpiece

by History Guild | Mar 20, 2024 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes

Schindler’s List, released 30 years ago, remains Steven Spielberg’s most highly acclaimed and emotionally sapping film. Winning seven Academy Awards, including best picture and best director, it was widely praised for its portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust.

THE POWER OF FRIGHT COMPELS: THE EXORCIST AT 50

by History Guild | Dec 18, 2023 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes
The horror film genre has a long and celebrated history which now dates some 100 plus years yet for one film in particular has created a lasting legacy of genuine fright, unease, disturbance, controversy, and haunting imagery that has never been replicated.

On the screen: Cold warriors

by History Guild | Apr 6, 2023 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 4 minutes
The Courier, directed by Dominic Cooke, is a film of the Cold War with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 as backdrop. The central characters, British salesman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) and GRU (Soviet military intelligence) Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), are centre stage, but the real dynamic is the challenge issued by the Soviet Union and its empire to the United States and its Western allies. Infamously, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had boasted that the USSR would bury the West and this claim features in the opening of the movie. A nuclear war between the two superpowers of the time emerges as possible as the Soviet presence in Cuba is revealed to be more threatening than originally thought.

A TALE OF REMEMBRANCE, ADMONITION, AND DESPAIR: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

by History Guild | Nov 10, 2022 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
The vivid and graphic imagery of the First World War has indeed become a potent symbol of the need for everlasting commemoration, and a continuous reminder of armed conflict’s futility. Yet with the inevitable passing of time, direct links to the “War to end all Wars” have regretfully vanished, with all veterans who served in the trenches now gone. This most special group of soldiers may now be physically silent, but their haunting messages of warning remain.

The Mafia, The Godfather, and the Hollywood romance

by History Guild | Mar 24, 2022 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes
The Godfather. Perhaps one of the greatest films and franchises of all time; March 24, 2022, will mark the 50th anniversary of the film’s theatrical release, which is a number that in ways seems both large and small. Large from the perspective that it has already been five decades since it shook the cinematic world, yet small in that a film of such importance and influence was released in the backyard of our modern history: 1972.