There is a difference between US and European mindsets, I think, on this, certainly at popular level. When I was there in 1999, the parochialism was very striking: the only bit of UK news I saw on TV was a news featurette on a rural cheese-rolling competition – nothing on British politics/foreign affairs. Looking at the present-day 'Tea Party' lot, the American Right regards awareness of other countries and their cultures, even knowledge of foreign languages, as 'unpatriotic'. Also see the post on a creative writing book I made over the summer.

But I think this is why the main characters in US historical films are essentially modern American bourgeois in fancy dress. It's because mass US audiences are deemed (possibly accurately) to be unable to use their imaginations to care about people much different from themselves.