What and how do students learn from motion pictures, and how does this knowledge interact with the history they learn in school? This is a complex problem-space and one that has seen little empirical research. To lay the groundwork for exploring these questions, a pilot study utilized a qualitative methodology in which high school students viewed excerpts from two Hollywood/commercial movies portraying an historical event from differing perspectives. The historical event was westward expansion in 19th century United States. The films selected were "Dances with Wolves" and "Far and Away." Students thought-aloud while reading a textbook excerpt and answered an historical problem-solving question. Semi-structured interviews conducted with six Wisconsin high school students sought to probe participants' approaches to answering the question, their attitude toward historical films, and how the history they learn from movies interacts with what they learn in school. Includes six figures. Historical information is appended. (Contains 13 references.) (BT)