If you are in our first period USHAP class, then you may have heard a few comments from Mr. Stewart or me talking about the movie X-Men: First Class. First Class starts out during World War Two, with young Magneto in a death camp. There he befriends a character named Sebastian Shaw, based off the Nazi scientist, Josef Mengele. Both the character and Mengele fled to Argentina after the war, like many Nazis did, to escape any war crimes that they may be charged with.
The United States placing nuclear missiles in Turkey is a major part of the movie, because it in turn prompted the Soviets to put their own missiles and Cuba. All of this was a part of Shaw's plan to start a nuclear holocaust. The movie also includes one of JFK's speeches concerning the potential placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the U.S.S.R.
Up until this point, the movie was about as realistic as one could make it when trying to include mutant heroes in the plot line. The climax was a little less than historically accurate. It takes place at the blockade in the Cuban Missile Crisis where the ships are all lined up and the Soviet nukes are prominently displayed on the ship's deck and Cuba is only a few hundred yards away. Then the X-Men fly in on an SR-71 Blackbird (for those who may not know, that is a real Cold War spy plane) and save the day with their mutant powers.
Despite the many historical references to the Cold War, The Guardian (the website where I got this article) only gave it a D+ for its "history grade."
I love this movie.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/16/reel-history-x-men-first-class
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