Question about Robespierre and The Terror

[fromrequired.livejournal.com]

 I don't have much knowledge about the French Revolution (as you can tell by looking at my userpic, I'm more of a WWII fangirl) but I'm greatly interested in it. 

So in my AP Euro History class, we had to watch this documentary about the French Revolution. I'll post a part of it below:

I'm sort of lost because I thought Robespierre originally was for the rights of the poor and the ordinary people? It doesn't seem plausible to me that he can just turn into a sanguinary dictator overnight. Even in my textbook it says that Robespierre killed everyone whom he deemed unfit for his "Republic of Virtue," but history is never that simple. I know, I study WWII ;)

Anyways, can y'all people enlighten me about the cause of The Terror and Robespierre's role in it? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions.


EDIT: Here's the part that succeeds it. It basically describes the fall of Robespierre and says he inspired later dictatorships and revolutions. 

Comments

[gwynplainee.livejournal.com]

I don't live in the USA, (see my awful grammatical mistakes) so, I can't say nothing about the universities there.
Talking about Schama, I think that he is just a neoliberal propagandist, but not a serious historian. If you read his Citizens you'll see that he is the opposite of a serious historian.
Also, you'll notice that even more when you watch the Other-Documentary-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Because-Is-Much-Worse-Than-The-History-Channel-Documentary (But I'll name it): Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution (Please, don't do that! I watched it a week ago and I'm sick in my bed right now xP And I found this community looking for bad reviews of it). My problem with it is not their comments, because they have the right of liberty of speech -And what gave then that right? Oh yes! The French Revolution!-, my problem is that they don't have real arguments to say that, they changed phrases and statistics, compared Robespierre to Hitler and Stalin, and just to destroy the souls of the members of the CSP, specially the ones of Robespierre and Saint-Just.
Ups... I think I changed the subject ^-^; but I couldn't avoid to talk about that documentary That-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Too >.>

[fromrequired.livejournal.com]

Your English is quite good!

I haven't read any of his works yet, and by the sounds of it, I don't think I want to.
As for the forbidden documentary, I got curious and watched the first 2 minutes of it on Youtube; I think I'm traumatized for the rest of my life. I don't know much about the French Revolution, but it's a common sense that there were no emos during the 18th century (referring to the guy with the emo hair; think he might be Robespierre's secretary or something?).

But yeah, I probably shouldn't have watched it...

[gwynplainee.livejournal.com]

Oh, seriously? Thanks! :3 but it take to me forever to write a comment: I translate some words, revise the conjugation of some verbs and reread it ten times before post it.
And the emo guy supposedly is... Saint-Just! ;___; He was a very prominent revolutionary like Robespierre, but this documentary make you think that he was Robespierre's valet. That is how they are destroying him.
There is an essay (http://community.livejournal.com/revolution_fr/88673.html) here about this. I found this community googling for something like it.

[fromrequired.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! And I also preview my comments before I post them, as I tend to make the stupidest grammar and spelling mistakes. Haha, you're not alone.

But how does one go from this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Saint_Just.jpg/200px-Saint_Just.jpg to this: http://content2.myyearbook.com/zenhex/images/quiz47/231395/231395_res1_sexy.jpg
? I don't know much about this Saint-Just person, but if he was a prominent Revolutionary, I doubt that he would have acted like Robespierre's valet... Thank you for the link, by the way!

[gwynplainee.livejournal.com]

That's a very big difference ._. my theory is that they though that was cheaper to make him an emo hairstyle >.>
Or maybe... *inserts a paranoid theory here*

[fromrequired.livejournal.com]

I have nothing against "emo" people per se (heck, I myself used to dabble in the "scene" subculture when I was younger D:), but seeing a French revolutionary depicted with the hairstyle of my douche ex-boyfriend from 9th grade is cringeworthy. Not to mention that the actor playing Robespierre doesn't resemble him at all.

Or maybe... they're trying to depict Saint-Just as a pissed-off teenager in a deliberate attempt to discredit him. I don't know. Either way, the documentary sucks.