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Episode 84: Just Mercy. This powerful but very entertaining movie depicts the efforts of lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative to force a retrial of Walter “Johnny D” McMillian in 1990s Alabama. Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx lead a strong cast in this quest for justice in the face of deep-rooted bigotry and bias. We examine the degree of their success as portrayed in the movie and, of course, how much of the depiction is true to the real events as known.

In this, the final episode of 2020, Martin flies solo as he embarks on T&T 3, looking at common misconceptions through the medium of lemmings and trying to approach some complex societal issues from a fresh perspective. With a review and listener feedback at the end of the show along with festive greetings from the HbH crew, it’s a short farewell to an interesting year. https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s894/BILLS-116s894is.xml

This week sees Martin joined by Sean Munger and Cody Climer from the Green Screen podcast as they join forces to examine this 1988 movie about primatologist Dian Fossey and her efforts to study and protect mountain gorillas in Rwanda. It’s a wide-ranging show and with due apologies for the length of time you’ve all had to wait for this episode, we do hope it’s worth it.

Episode 81 Battle of the Sexes. 11th October 2020. In 1973, former men’s tennis No1 Bobby Riggs challenged women’s champion Billy Jean King to a $100k exhibition match. Riggs, an unapologetic chauvinist, gambler and hustler was 55 years old but still confident he could beat the best of the current female players. This week’s movie looks at the depiction of the lead-up and the match itself in this 2017 movie, starring Emily Stone as Billy Jean King and Steve Carrel as Bobby Riggs. Join us as we examine how accurate this portrayal proves to be. Note: There are no clips this week due to the lack of available material which works in an audio format. Except right at the very end, featuring a comment by the real Billy Jean King https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/81-battle-of-the-sexes.mp3

This week sees the welcome return of Ray Harris Jr from the long-running History of WWII Podcast as he joins Martin to examine 2019’s Midway, derided by critics yet loved by audiences. Not for the first time, we side very much with the audience and find ourselves surprised by director Roland Emmerich and writer Wes Tooke’s efforts to be as accurate as possible. Naturally, for an HbH featured movie, it stars Woody Harrelson too. It’s a long episode but we hope it’s worthy of your time. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/80-midway.mp3 Ray Harris’ WWII Podcast https://worldwariipodcast.net/   Last Mission to Tokyo by Michel Paradis on James Doolittle’s raid: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Mission-Tokyo-Extraordinary-Doolittle/dp/1501104713/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=last+mission+to+tokyo&qid=1600525290&sr=8-1   Rear-Admiral Edwin Layton’s book on being Nimitz’s intelligence officer: https://www.amazon.com/Was-There-Breaking-Secrets-Harbor/dp/1568523475/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=edwin+layton&qid=1600525159&sr=8-3  

This week sees the second outing of the T&T supplementary. Join Martin as he examines the multiple issues involving the African American community in the US and how this has been depicted in a number of movies already covered by HbH including Glory, Selma and Hidden Figures, attempting to interpret the meanings, both obvious and subtle that these movies have brought to light. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/79-tt-2-race-through-time.mp3 The New York Theremin Society: https://www.nythereminsociety.org/   The Theremin 100 record can be found at: https://nythereminsociety.bandcamp.com/music  

This week we are joined by Des Latham, regular guest host, this time in his capacity as the host of Plane Crash Diaries, Des being a keen aviator and student of aviation safety. We look at 2016’s Sully, detailing the incredible landing on the Hudson River in mid-New York by Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger in January 2009 after his Airbus A320 airliner suffered a double engine failure after hitting a flock of geese. We hope you join us for this episode as two pilots, one fixed-wing (Des) and one helicopter (Martin) pick apart the fabric of this movie to see if director Clint Eastwood has been true to the real events of that remarkable day. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/78-sully.mp3

Episode 77 Thoughts & Themes 1: Hidden Meanings. Sunday 26th July 2020. Welcome to the first episode of Thoughts & Themes in which Martin will look for the themes and deeper meanings within Braveheart and Gladiator plus references to Kingdom of Heaven and 300. We look beyond the factual errors which all of the featured movies contain and ask whether there is a deeper truth concealed beneath the surface. The result may be…. unexpected….. or it would have been until I said that. Do join us and let us know your thoughts through: Website: www.historybyhollywood.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/historybyhollywood Twitter: @historybyhwood Or by email hosts@historybyhollywood.com https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/77-thoughts-themes-1-hidden-meanings.mp3 bENwcTbFU8U2YRzJUYAF

We dive into the 2019 Netflix movie starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as the two ex-Texas Rangers who led the pursuit of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, seeking to bring to an end their murderous crime spree. The movie takes a very different perspective to the 1967 Bonnie & Clyde film and we will attempt to both fact-check this recent release and also highlight the differences in focus, after we covered the original movie in Episode 51. We like the movie a lot and strongly urge anyone who hasn’t seen it to track it down before we splatter you in spoilers. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/76-the-highwaymen.mp3 John Boessenecker’s biography of Frank Hamer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/125006998X?pf_rd_r=Z1ZMJSSD5WG9HE2EPF95&pf_rd_p=6fc81c8c-2a38-41c6-a68a-f78c79e7253f

News of the amended planned episodes plus a new addition to the HbH library; Thoughts and Themes will launch towards the end of July 2020, complete with a new variation of our theme music. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/99-the-tt-update-snippet.mp3

This week sees Martin joined by Chris Wimmer, host of both Infamous America and Legends of the Old West podcast series’ who brings an expert eye to the examination of 1988’s Young Guns, the story of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, starring many of the so-called Brat Pack in the forms of Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips and Kiefer Sutherland. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/75-young-guns.mp3 Find Chris’ shows: Infamous America and Legends of the Old West here: www.blackbarrelmedia.com   Intro: Big Western Sky by Brett van Donsel https://incompetech.com/music/western.html Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License   Nick Parkinson provided this link to the article “Why the French think they won the Battle of Waterloo”: https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/why-french-think-won-battle-waterloo-napoleon/    

Episode 74 The Coal Miner’s Daughter. Sunday 7th June 2020. This episode examines the 1980 movie The Coal Miner’s Daughter, telling the story of the early life and subsequent early career of Loretta Lynn, one of the matriarchs of Country music, from her tough Kentucky childhood to becoming a Country legend, singing about the real life ups and downs of being a working-class, rural American woman. Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta but how close to the truth does the movie stay? We hope you’ll join us to find out. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/74-the-coal-miners-daughter.mp3

Episode 73 Zulu Dawn. Sunday 17th May 2020. This week we focus on 1979’s Zulu Dawn, a much-underrated and little-known prequel to 1964’s Zulu, concentrating on Lord Chelmsford’s advance into Zulu territory and the disastrous battle of Isandhlwana which took place the day before the action at Rorke’s Drift. For this episode we are delighted to welcome back Des Latham, the South African host of the Anglo-Boer War Podcast series who brings some wonderful local perspective to the story which is told in a refreshingly balanced and neutral style. Some big names appear, amongst them Peter O’Toole, Burt Lancaster and Bob Hoskins with a stirring score composed by Elmer Bernstein. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/73-zulu-dawn.mp3 https://www.abwarpodcast.com/

Whatever people think about Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt, he fought a number of legal battles for the right to publish, battles which effectively became a universal fight for the right to free speech. This 1996 movie resonates today as we will look at the historical accuracy of the movie and some of the points for debate that it generates. Free speech vs polite speech; are they really mutually exclusive? We will endeavour to untangle this Gordian knot. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/72-the-people-vs-larry-flynt.mp3 Larry Flynt vs Jerry Falwell on Larry King, 1997

Episode 71 Denial, 22nd March 2020. In our latest outing we examine 2016’s movie telling the story of Professor Deborah Lipstadt, an American historian and author who wrote a book about Holocaust deniers in which she named David Irving, a British amateur historian as a case in point. He sued her in 2000 in the UK’s civil courts and this movie tells the story of that court case.  Rachel Weisz stars as Prof Deborah, Timothy Spall as Irving and Tom Wilkinson as Deborah’s veteran barrister, Richard Rampton. The story the movie tells is as important today as when the trial occurred and it resonates in many areas of modern society. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/71-denial.mp3 Link to YouTube documentary on dealing with lies in the Internet age, featuring Professor Deborah Lipstadt and lawyer Anthony Julius:   Link to the article by physicist Freeman Dyson on bombing advice to the RAF in WW2: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/406789/a-failure-of-intelligence/  

Spoiler-free preview: Martin and Jules arrive at the conclusion of the movie, examine both its accuracy and entertainment but stress that despite the very high entertainment value, as far as provoking thought and discussion about wider topics, this movie is far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s been a lengthy journey, the total coverage actually exceeding the length of the movie but we believe that it’s a movie that warrants such detailed examination. We hope that you agree. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/70.4-the-social-network-part-4.mp3

Join Martin and guest-host Jules with the continuing story as the Winklevoss brothers turn up the heat on their efforts to stop Mark Zuckerberg developing his Facebook concept, still complaining that he had stolen their idea and we meet Sean Parker, portrayed by the annoyingly talented Justin Timberlake who leaps aboard the Facebook bandwagon, much to the irritation of Eduardo Saverin. As the poster says, you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.

Episode 70.2. The Social Network Part 2. This week sees us dive into the main body of the show for which we are joined by software engineer and HbH’s theme music composer Jules Cisek who has some fascinating insights into the world of IT and Silicone Valley, primed to hit us all with large dollops of factainment. Fabulously watchable though The Social Network is, we will keep our eye on any divergence from the known facts. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/70.2-the-social-network-part-2.mp3 The link to see the code written for the movie and mentioned by Jules is here: https://moviecode.tumblr.com/post/72188619673/theres-quite-a-bit-of-code-in-the-social-network

This week’s episode is 2010’s portrayal of the genesis of Facebook with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg played by Jesse Eisenberg. Directed by Fight Club’s David Fincher and written by the West Wing screen writer Aaron Sorkin the movie has been praised for bravely stark portrayals of such recent events and active protagonists and equally criticized by some of those very same protagonists but everyone agrees that it’s a very watchable movie. Sorkin has admitted that his main focus is a loyalty to storytelling rather than the dry facts but how far do they stray from what is known? We hope you join us to find out. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/70.1-the-social-network-part-1.mp3 Professor Mark DuPres’ film analysis website link is here: https://film-prof.com/ The link to Sean and Cody’s new Green Screen podcast (on the US Apple podcast site) is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/green-screen/id1498340402      

Episode 69.2 Frost/Nixon Part 2. We rejoin the action as the interviews begin, the wily veteran politician determined to retain control of the narrative and to try and rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the American people. Frost’s research team, serious journalists, are desperate for their man to pin the ex-President down, ask some tough questions and elicit some form of admission of guilt but Frost himself seems more concerned about viewer numbers and attending celebrity parties. https://historybyhollywood.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/69.2-frost-nixon-part-2-1.mp3