It Happened Here and Alternative History on Film

One of the most fascinating movies of the last four decades is It Happened Here , an alternative history set in a Britain which the Nazis successfully invaded. It Happened Here is significant in that the film does not pretend that the Brits would have acted particularly nobly under German occupation. The main character is in fact a collaborator, who is portrayed as no worse or better than the British partisans who are fighting the Nazi occupation. The movie was somewhat controversial when it came out, and some scenes had been removed until quite recently, because they were thought to encourage fascists.
Alternative history rarely appears on the silver screen. Watchmen, Fatherland, C.S.A., Death of a President (an alternate history in which George Bush was assassinated), and It Happened Here are the only cinematic alternative histories I know about. On television, Sliders portrayed alternative histories quite frequently, but not particularly persuasively. It Happened Here, along with C.S.A., remains the definitive classic of the genre, though Watchmen had its moments. But this genre is hugely underexploited and hopefully in the future Hollywood will see the potential for both entertainment and education in the alternative history style.

Bring the Jubilee

I am about halfway through one of the best alternative histories I've encountered so far, Bring the Jubilee. The novel portrays an alternate history in which the South won the civil war. Two elements of Bring the Jubilee make it exceptional: One is the philosophizing about time and free will. The novel delightfully explores the differences between predeterminism and free will, exploring the circular nature of time. The second aspect of the novel that makes it exciting is that it shows how a Union loss during the Civil War might have very well ended up creating a new form of slavery in the North using indentured servants. In many ways, Bring the Jubilee anticipates the daring anti-racist critiques of the recent film C.S.A. (itself an alternate history), but in a more science fiction, and less counterfactual manner. Bring the Jubilee also, unlike so much Civil War alternative fiction, does not subscribe to the cult of victimization that engulfs Southern narratives of alternative fiction. It's a great read, and I encourage you all to pick it up. I can't wait to finish it.