History Girls

I kind of wish I'd paid more attention in history class, because in the past few years I've really developed an interest in American History. Movies are a great way to fuel this interest, even if most of them are not historically accurate.

Two examples, both from Westerns:
When I saw Two Mules for Sister Sara, I had no idea what the French were doing in Mexico. Because of the movie, I looked it up and learned about the Monroe Doctrine, which basically asserted that North America was now closed to new European conquests. But in the 1860s, when America was distracted by that pesky Civil War, Napoleon invaded Mexico. The invasion lasted until 1866, when the Civil War was over and Napoleon had other problems to deal with across the pond.

Most recently, I watched the movie Cimarron, a story built around the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. The land rush has always interested me, and the movie movitivated me to learn more. Here is a fabulous first-hand account of the event.

Did you know that the Oklahoma Sooners were named after land-rush participants who snuck across the border to claim their land before the actual rush started?

For the record, the film didn't really make me want to eat a Cinnabon. I don't really like Cinnabon.