Liberty Leading the People on the Big Screen Quiz

Answer: Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner was born in Vladivostok (Russia, then the Soviet Union) in 1920. He moved to the USA in 1940, after having spent some time in China and in Paris, France.
Yul Brynner started his acting career in 1944 in the TV mini-series "Mr. Jones and His Neighbours". The first movie he acted in was "Port of New York" in 1949.
The great breakthrough for Yul Brynner was "The King and I", both in the theatre version from 1951 (for which he won a Tony Award) and in the movie version from 1956 (earning him an Oscar). For this specific role, Yul Brynner decided to shave his head. As the role of King Mongkut was a formidable success, Yul continued to shave his head for each and every next role.
In the same year, 1956, Yul Brynner also starred in "The Ten Commandments" as Rameses, the Egyptian Pharaoh who keeps denying freedom to the Jew slaves in the region of Goshen. Moses (role by Charlton Heston) keeps demanding the Pharaoh to "Let my people go", but to no avail, until the tenth and last plague: the death of each firstborn child of every family.
The further career of Yul Brynner seems concentrated on movies. Some of the more famous titles are "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "Taras Bulba" (1962) and "Westworld" (1973). He died in New York in 1985.

The other choices are also famous bald actors. Telly Savalas (1922-1994) is best known for his title role in the detective series "Kojak". Patrick Stewart (born 1940) starred as Captain Picard in "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and as Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" franchise. Bruce Willis (born 1955) became world famous with the "Die Hard" movies.

Answer: Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas was born in 1916 in the state of New York, under the name Issur Danielovich. When he entered military service, he changed his name to Kirk Douglas.
Douglas started his movie career in 1946, with a role in "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers". Furthermore, he starred in "Champion" (1949), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) and "Lust for Life" (1956) - three movies for which he was nominated for the Oscar. Alas, he never won an Oscar - except an honorary one in 1996 for his entire career (which wasn't over at the time).
"Paths of Glory" (1957) and "Spartacus" (1960) are perhaps the two movies for which Douglas is best remembered.
"Spartacus" was directed by Stanley Kubrick.
I'll give you a quote to sketch the reason why this movie was included in this quiz: "When a free man dies, he loses the pleasure of life. A slave loses his pain. Death is the only freedom a slave knows. That's why he's not afraid of it. That's why we'll win." (said by Spartacus just before the decisive battle).

The red herrings I gave all were part of the cast for "Spartacus": Peter Ustinov played the gladiator school owner Batiatus; Herbert Lom played the pirate diplomat Tigranes Levantus (willing to sail the revolting slaves back home, at the right prize); John Gavin featured in the minor role Julius Caesar.

Answer: Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston (1923-2008, born John Charles Carter) started his career with the title role in "Peer Gynt" (1941). He rose to success with the Cecil B. DeMille productions "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952) and "The Ten Commandments" (1956). "Ben Hur" gained him his only Oscar.
Heston would also star in "El Cid" (1961), "55 Days at Peking" (1963) and "Planet of the Apes" (1968).

Those of you who wonder why "Ben Hur" is used in this "liberty movies" quiz, I'll give a longer text quote. "In the Year of our Lord, Judea - for nearly a century - had lain under the mastery of Rome. In the seventh year of the reign of Augustus Caesar, an imperial decree ordered every Judean each to return to his place of birth to be counted and taxed. The converging ways of many of them led to the gates of their capital city, Jerusalem, the troubled heart of their land. The old city was dominated by the fortress of Antonia, the seat of Roman power, and by the great golden temple, the outward sign of an inward and imperishable faith. Even while they obeyed the will of Caesar, the people clung proudly to their ancient heritage, always remembering the promise of their prophets that one day there would be born among them a redeemer to bring them salvation and perfect freedom. " These opening lines refer to the presence of the adult Christ (an uncredited role by Claude Heater) and the ideas Ben Hur embraces only at the end of the movie.

The false options all played in "Ben Hur". Jack Hawkins (1910-1973) played Quintus Arrius. Stephen Boyd (1931-1977) played the role of Messala. And Finlay Currie (1878-1968) was the narrator, and played also as the old wise man Balthasar.

Answer: Braveheart

The movie is set during the Scottish fight for independence at the end of the thirteenth and debut of the fourteenth century. It includes the battle of Stirling Bridge (1297) and the battle of Falkirk (1298).
"Braveheart" is full of historical fallacies. The movie title is already a first historical fallacy. The nickname Braveheart was probably used for Robert the Bruce, another Scotsman portrayed in this movie.
Furthermore, the movie uses the theme of the right "prima nocte" - a feudal right in which a landlord may spend the first night with a serf bride when she marries. This right was commonly known in continental Europe, but never practised in England.
One flagrant fallacy is the battle of Stirling Bridge. While the bridge has played a predominant role in the outcome of the historic battle, it is not featured in the movie.
Other fallacies include the painting of the face before going into battle (a practice the Scots abandoned about 800 years before the battles described in this movie) and a romantic affair between the commoner William Wallace and the French princess Isabella (who at that time was only three years old, in real history).

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) was an American actress, the first to win the Oscar for best actress in a leading role four times. She played some historic women (for instance Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter" (1968), for which role she won an Oscar), but never Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who claimed to hear angelic voices. She convinced the French king, Charles VII, to let her inspire an army against the English king Henry VI. (Popular history shows her in full armour leading a cavalry charge, but this is an embellishment of what really happened.)
After being betrayed by the Burgundians, Joan of Arc was condemned by the English on grounds of heresy. So she was burnt at the stake in Rouen in 1431.

A host of fine actresses have portrayed Joan of Arc, from Bleuette Bernon in the 1900 production "Jeanne d'Arc" by Georges Méliès to Marion Cotillard in the 2012 TV movie "Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher", directed by Jean-Pierre Loisil.
Maria Falconetti played Jeanne d'Arc in 1928 ("La passion de Jeanne d'Arc", directed by Carl Theodor Dryer). Leelee Sobieski starred in the 1999 TV movie "Joan of Arc", directed by Christian Dugaye, and Milla Jovovich was directed by her husband Luc Besson in the 1999 movie "Joan of Arc".
Some other famous actresses who played this role are Ingrid Bergman ("Joan of Arc", 1948) and Mira Sorvino ("Joan of Arc, the Virgin Warrior", 2001).

Answer: Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson (born 1956 in the state of New York) started his acting career in 1976 with a role in the TV series "The Sullivans". His first major movie role was Max Rockatansky in the "Mad Max" franchise (1979, 1981 and 1985). Other major roles were Martin Riggs in the "Lethal Weapon" series (1987, 1989, 1992 and 1998) and William Wallace in "Braveheart" (1995).
In "The Patriot", Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, farmer and father of seven children. Two of his sons take up arms against the British and are killed by Colonel Tavington's company. So Benjamin Martin joins the militia to fight in the American Revolutionary War, and hopes to exact revenge on Colonel Tavington.

Charles Bronson is known for the "Death Wish" movies, in which he plays the architect Paul Kersey - out for vengeance when his family members or friends are threatened or molested.
Clint Eastwood scored a huge commercial success with his role as police inspector Harry Callahan in the "Dirty Harry" series.
Kevin Costner starred in "Dances With Wolves" (1990), which he directed too.

Answer: Amistad

All these ships have inspired one or more movies.
According to the real history, the Amistad was a Spanish ship transporting 49 African slaves from Havana to another Cuban harbour. The slaves freed themselves and killed most of the crew. The two sole crew members who knew how to navigate, were ordered to take the boat to Africa. Instead they anchored near New York. In the ensuing legal proceedings the US Supreme Court decided to emancipate the slaves.
Spielberg's movie is rather truthful to the real story. Only some minor points may differ from real history.
As I did with some of the other movies, I'll illustrate why this movie fits in the theme with a longer quote.
John Quincy Adams: [to the court] "Well, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South and with our President, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead - and I know this is a controversial idea - is freedom. Is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman or child will go to regain it once taken. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try, against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home."

James Cameron directed the movie "Titanic" (1997), the second movie ever to win eleven Oscars. (The first was "Ben Hur", 1959).
Sergei Eisenstein directed "Bronenosets Potemkin" (1925), about a mutiny on the Russian panzer cruiser Potemkin.
The Marie Celeste features in the 1935 detective "The Mystery of the Marie Celeste", directed by Denison Clift.

Answer: Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley was born in 1943 in a small village in Yorkshire, under the name Krishna Pandit Bhanji. He chose his stage name about 1977, when he was ready to start a movie career - up 'til then he had played in some stage productions and a few TV series. "Gandhi" was his breakthrough on the big screen, a role for which he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
"Gandhi" tells the full story. It starts with the young British lawyer Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, defending Indians in South Africa at the end of the Nineteenth Century. We then witness how Gandhi succeeds in obtaining basic rights for the Indian people in South Africa, and how he starts a new struggle in India.
As the movie clearly highlights, Gandhi (nicknamed Mahatma, which means Great Soul) condemned every form of violence. All his protests were of the non-violent character. For instance, when tackling the high taxes on salt, Gandhi set out on foot with his acolytes in his 390 km march towards the sea in order to win salt for themselves. (This is one of the memorable moments in the movie, too).

The other actors have starred in other biopic movies. F. Murray Abraham portrayed the composer Antonio Salieri in the 1984 movie "Amadeus". Liam Neeson played Oskar Schindler in the drama "Schindler's List" (1993). And George C. Scott won an Oscar for his title role in "Patton" (1970).

Answer: Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson was born in 1952 in Northern Ireland. He started his acting career as one of the pilgrims in "Pilgrim's Progress" in 1978. After the role of Gawain in "Excalibur" (1982), Liam had his breakthrough with "The Mission" (1986). He was nominated for an Oscar for "Schindler's List" (1993). In 1999 Liam Neeson played the role of Jedi Master Qui-Gonn Jin in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace". He also voiced the lines of Aslan the lion in "The Chronicles of Narnia" franchise.

All the other actors listed have an essential part in the movie "Michael Collins", too.
Alan Rickman plays Eamon de Valera. Aidan Quinn plays the role of Harry Boland, a fellow of Collins' during the Easter Rising. Stephen Rea plays the role of Ned Broy, a double agent for the British and the IRA.

Answer: Steve Biko

Steve Biko is the only of the given answers who died in 1977. The other people were still alive at least 25 years later.
The movie "Cry Freedom" tells about the friendship between the (white) journalist Donald Woods (played by Kevin Kline) and Steve Biko, the young anti-apartheid activist who was regularly imprisoned for some time. In 1977, Biko died when some (white) police officers transported him to hospital after serious beatings. He was only 30 years old.
To reveal the truth, Woods had to flee South-Africa. He published, in England, a book about this incident, and this book was made into the aforesaid movie by director Richard Attenborough.

Mandela (1918-2013) was imprisoned from 1962 until 1990. A few years after his release from prison, Mandela was elected to President of South Africa. His life inspired several movies, among which was "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" (2013).
Reverend Desmond Tutu (born 1931) was promoted to the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town in 1986. He retired from this position in 1996.
Jacob Zuma (born 1942) was elected President of South Africa in 2009. In spite of several law suits, he was re-elected in 2014.