When a movie that claims to be “historical” strays from an accurate portrayal, it is called “artistic license.” Sometimes the real story is more complicated than a movie can show. Always the storyteller (e.g., an author or witness to the event) brings a bias in the retelling. And—of course—movie producers’ main goal is profit: Bring in conflict! A romance! Explosions! Even if they didn’t happen.
What’s a historian to do? Jared Frederick, instructor of history at Penn State Altoona, found a solution. He lives and breathes history—he’s been a park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park, written numerous books, and participates in a lot of museum work (among many other history-related activities). He has even been a guest host on Turner Classic Movies.
Andrew Collins in the director’s chair
Frederick enjoys watching movies with friends and fellow history buffs Andrew and Tracey Collins. “They would often invite me over to their house and we would end up watching historical films,” he says. Of course, being a historian, Frederick couldn’t resist setting the record straight: “I would give impromptu commentary and critiques.”
As the pandemic ramped up, they all had time on their hands. “We had nothing to do—a lot of our hobbies had shut down or been canceled or postponed,” Frederick explains. Andrew suggested they preserve Frederick’s movie commentary: “Why don’t we just film you?” Frederick agreed and Reel History (on YouTube) was born.
While the channel has been available for a year, “it’s really taken off in the past few months,” Frederick says. “A channel like this allows me to merge my love of history and my appreciation of cinema.” He is clearly not alone. With nearly 20,000 subscribers, “we found this community of kindred souls, people who really enjoy history.”
Frederick understands the value in what he’s doing. “Humans are visual learners. We watch 10 movies for every book we read.” And, in what could be taken as a discouraging note, he says, “historians will never win. Hollywood will always win. The most unsuccessful film will reach a bigger audience than the most successful historical book.”
But he is not deterred. “We need to be using the movies as a vehicle to teach history. I think this channel serves a useful yet engaging and entertaining purpose. This is the new way that people are learning their history. It’s filling a void that used to be available on television. By adding commentary track to films that people know and love my hope is that sparks their interest to dig a little deeper. This channel is the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.”
Presently there are over 30 Reel History episodes on YouTube. To start, “we were just looking at what was available in my living room,” Frederick says. They occasionally branch out from his personal collection: “Every now and then I’ll get a movie through the University Libraries.” His commentaries on Band of Brothers, a very popular miniseries about an Army paratrooper company in Europe in World War II, “was our breakout moment. That series was so successful, it’s constantly re-airing.”
Other episodes include 1917 (World War I), The Patriot (which Frederick calls “American Braveheart”), and Gettysburg (the film he talked about on TCM). But not everything is military-oriented. He also comments on Titanic, Forrest Gump, and A League of Their Own. For some of the films Frederick brings in guests to comment on their own related experiences.
Guest host US Marine veteran Chuck Lynch and Jared Frederick on set
Frederick sometimes has guest hosts. “Don Freeburn—a former NASA engineer who worked on the Apollo programs—lives in the region. I’ve had him come into classes on a number of occasions. He was a natural fit for a film like Apollo 13. I’d like to have him back for First Man, the Neil Armstrong biopic.” Other guests include friends: “Chuck Lynch, a fellow student from my undergrad days at Penn State Altoona, is a Marine veteran and highly knowledgeable on Corps history.” Frederick is interested in recruiting others as well, especially his University colleagues. “Ideally, I would enjoying having colleagues from the History Department to come on and talk about movies pertaining to their areas of expertise. If any Penn State faculty are interested in being guest co-hosts, I welcome them to reach out to me!”
Frederick is quite sanguine about the YouTube comment section, calling it “wild and wondrous.” He notes that “there will always be detractors, trolls, and nitpickers. However, the vast majority of comments are encouraging.” Not only do people share their opinions, but they also “share family history stories and personal experiences, impart their own research, and suggest movies.” From these comments Frederick has amassed “an ongoing list of 200 movies that we could possibly analyze in the future. Reel History has no shortage of content to work with. We embrace the opportunities and conversations on the horizon.”
Presently Frederick and Collins are working on commentaries for the 10-part HBO series, The Pacific (World War II), for which Marine Corps veteran Lynch “has added so much to our commentary,” Frederick says. But they recently added Dazed and Confused (an homage to the mid-1970s) because, he says, “we wanted to have a little bit of levity. The Pacific goes to a very dark place.” The full list of Reel History videos is available here.
—Therese Boyd, ’79