Something that I bring up every once in a while when I write these posts is that originality doesn’t come from a story, but from the way someone tells a story. Two movies could have a story that follows the same beats, features similar characters, and has the same overall message. None of that stuff would be original since they’re the same in both movies. But when the visuals, music, dialogue, and tone are different, the two movies feel much more original. Even though they tell the same story.
The same could be said about people who pull from historic elements, whether in stories or in real life. People revel in past events and like to use those past events as inspiration for the present or the future. Boats, bridges, streets, buildings, and towns get named after people. Movies get made based directly on historical events. So do television shows, books, and songs. History has a way of being real life stories that people like to retell, thanks to familiarity.
The other way that history seeps into the stories people tell is as a jumping off point to tell a semi-original story. Again, originality comes from the way a story is told. Think about the movies of the latter half of Quentin Tarantino’s career. Inglourious Basterds took elements from World War II and built a story about Jewish people getting revenge on the Nazis. Django Unchained spun the slave trade of the South into a revenge story where a freed slave fought back against plantation owners. Then there was Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, which changed up the Lancer pilot and the Manson Family’s Helter Skelter plans. Tarantino frequently takes historical points of reference and builds out his own story from that point.
Other movies use history in different ways. Surf Nazis Must Die wasn’t so much about a specific historical event or historical time. In fact, it took place in a semi-dystopian future. The historical aspect that found its way into the story was the names of the characters. Eleanor Washington (Gail Neely) was an angry mother out for revenge after the murder of her son, Leroy (Robert Harden), at the hands of the Surf Nazi gang. Adolf (Barry Brenner), Eva (Dawn Wildsmith), and Mengele (Michael Sonye) led the gang of neo-Nazis who liked to surf. Death, violence, and racism followed them wherever they went. Eleanor set out to put an end to their actions.
The main thing that Surf Nazis Must Die took from history was names. The leader of the Surf Nazis took on the name Adolf. Obviously, he took that name from Adolf Hitler. His girlfriend was Eva, clearly taken from Hitler’s girlfriend and final days wife Eva Braun. Mengele was named after Josef Mengele, one of the Nazis who oversaw Auschwitz, the most notorious death camp of the Holocaust. In this future dystopian world, they became the leader, the leader’s girlfriend, and a crazy murderer working under the leader. It was a story that basically created newer versions of the evil historical figures for a b-movie revenge plot.
Nazis are a frequent source of inspiration when movies want to put a bit of history into their stories. Nazis at the Center of the Earth, Iron Sky, and Iron Sky: The Coming Race each took inspiration from conspiracy theories about the Nazi regime surviving in secrecy following the end of World War II. Iron Sky built a story around the idea that Nazis had survived on The Moon. Iron Sky: The Coming Race and Nazis at the Center of the Earth each involved Nazis and other historical figures surviving within a Hollow Earth. Things went from there to Nazis trying to take control of the world once again. The movies took from the end of World War II and built out present day or near future stories from it.
Stories that reference history don’t only pull from World War II and the Nazis. Other historical elements are frequently used to influence the stories people tell. Mythological stories from ancient cultures inspire stories all the time. Numerous movies and television shows have been made based on the ancient Greek legend of Heracles, and the Roman equivalent of Hercules. Many of them take some liberties with the source material. The Legend of Hercules, for example, only featured one of the twelve labours associated with Hercules. He slew the Nemean Lion. The rest of the movie was an action flick in the style of 300 or the Spartacus television show. It was one of many ways that the story could be told.
The Legend of Hercules was one of the more straight-forward adaptations of the Herculean legend. It might not have followed the legend in a completely faithful way, but it featured a strong demigod in ancient times. Not all of them stuck even that close to the story, however. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a movie called Hercules in New York back in 1970. The movie wasn’t a period piece like most of the Hercules adaptations. It took the mythological figure and placed him in modern day New York City. It showed Hercules as, essentially, an angsty teen who was sent to New York and stripped of his divinity. Wild, comedic antics ensued. It was a swing and a miss, but at least it was a different, semi-original take on a tale we have seen and heard numerous times before and since.
Mythological tales and Biblical stories are historical, though people might not consider them to be non-fiction. I mean, it might be tough to believe that gods like Zeus, Jupiter, Hera, or Juno existed at any point. You might think that I just wrote a couple paragraphs about fictional tales from older cultures. You might be right in saying that. I’m just going to say that I think the fact that if people believed these stories to be true, much like some people believe that Nazis actually survived on the moon or in a Hollow Earth, they count as somewhat historical.
If you want more stories that take real historical figures or events and build from them, I’ve got some more for you. Iron Eagle II took the very real conflict between 1980s USA and 1980s USSR and built a story around that. When an unnamed Middle Eastern nation threatened both USA and USSR, the two nations had to work together to plan some defence. The movie very much played on the Cold War tension of the time. The Cold War was the inspiration for many a thriller from the 1950s through the 1980s and beyond. Few movies tried to have the two sides working together in the way that Iron Eagle II depicted.
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! featured a few nods to historical moments as the newest sharknado wreaked havoc on the East Coast of the USA. The most glaring of the historical references happened in the opening of the film. A few characters gathered on the front lawn of the White House to raise a pole and skewer a shark. The visual was the same as the visual of the Iwo Jima flag raising. Later in the movie, a few characters went to space to take down the sharknado. One of the characters ended up on the moon, in an image reminiscent of the moon landings from the late 1960s. The SyFy b-movie was playing into historical visuals and re-imagining them for a storm of fishy proportions.
Timeline was historical fiction, so it of course used historical events as a catalyst to tell a story. It involved a group of archaeologists who were given access to a time machine that transported them back to the medieval time of the ruins they were exploring. Specifically, the modern day characters ended up interacting with Arnaud de Cervole, a historical figure from the Hundred Years War. The novel, and later the movie, took a historical time and one of the people involved in that time, and built a story out from there. It was a modern day science fiction story based in middle ages France.
Finally, I want to bring up the God’s Not Dead movies. There have, so far, been four movies in the franchise. Each of them tackled different Christian conflicts. Each was loosely based on real conflicts within the Christian faith world. God’s Not Dead was about a college student sticking up for his faith after a professor told him he couldn’t believe during a philosophy class. It wasn’t directly based on anything, but instead was a very loose interpretation of debates going on in real classrooms. At least, that’s what the people behind the movie said. Each of the sequels pulled from real court cases. God’s Not Dead 2 pulled from actual court cases about separation of church and state within the classroom. God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness had elements inspired by court cases about pastors revealing their sermons to authorities. And then there was the whole home-schooling inspiration for God’s Not Dead: We the People. They were movies where Christians put their persecution complex front and center, but they used real court cases as the basis for their complexes.
Different pieces of history have been used to influence different elements in different movies. Sometimes, like in the case of the God’s Not Dead movies, or Iron Eagle II, a general historical moment could be the inspiration to tell an original story. In the case of movies like Timeline, or the Iron Sky movies, the story could be based around a specific historical event or character, with that playing into the story. The Legend of Hercules, Hercules in New York, and, I guess, the Iron Sky movies, used mythology as a major story element. Then there are movies like Surf Nazis Must Die, where the characters thought about history in their actions.
History repeats itself. I’ve heard that phrase many times. Most of the time, people are talking about the real world. Something that happened once will happen again. World War I happened, and World War II happened twenty years later. Things like that. But sometimes that comes to movies. Certain stories will get told time and time again. Hercules is a testament to that. That could be history repeating itself. As could the pulling of historical elements to tell stories. History repeating itself in movies, using history. It’s all just a little bit of history repeating.
History might also be repeating itself through these notes:
- I mentioned a few movies in this post that have been covered in Sunday “Bad” Movies. They were Iron Sky (week 440), Iron Sky: The Coming Race (week 440), Nazis at the Center of the Earth (week 73), The Legend of Hercules (week 77), Hercules in New York (week 68), Iron Eagle II (week 90), Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (week 190), Timeline (week 222), God’s Not Dead (week 230), God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230), God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319), and God’s Not Dead: We the People (week 477).
- Barry Brenner appeared in Surf Nazis Must Die as the evil Adolf. He previously appeared in Maniac Cop (week 480) and Maniac Cop 2 (week 480).
- Gary J. Levinson returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Surf Nazis Must Die, after previously showing up in Shock Waves (week 299).
- Surf Nazis Must Die featured Kimberly Spak, from Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (week 350).
- Finally, Dawn Wildsmith was in both Surf Nazis Must Die and Jack-O (week 466).
- Have you seen Surf Nazis Must Die? Do you like movies that include historical references without just being depictions of a historical event or person’s life? Which ones are your favourites? Hit up the comments or my Twitter feed to share your thoughts.
- If there are any movies you think should be covered in Sunday “Bad” Movies, let me know about them. Drop the title in the comments or on Twitter.
- Make sure to check out Instagram and see what Sunday “Bad” Movies has cooking.
- Next week, I’ll hopefully get back on track. I had a slight setback of being sick for the first half of the past week, which delayed last week’s post and gave a slight one-day delay to this one. I think I’m beyond that now. If all goes well, I’ll have a post up for The Atomic Brain next week. So, see you then with a brand new post.
- Final note: keep an eye out for the Cybermutt post. It got delayed because I got sick, but I'm planning to have it up this week as well.
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