List of Illustrations Acknowledgement Introduction: Film and the Invention of History Chapter One: What is Historical Cinema? Chapter Two: Detail, Authenticity and the Uses of the Past Chapter Three: Hollywood Historical Cinema up to WWII Chapter Four: The Age of Epics Chapter Five: New Hollywood, New Histories Chapter Six: Spectacle, Technology and Aesthetics Chapter Seven: Prestige, Education and Cultural Value Conclusion: The Role of the Historian Annotated Guide to Further Reading Bibliography Filmography Index
This book combines a critical analysis of the Hollywood historical film with an examination of its generic dimensions and a history of its development since the silent period.
Jonathan Stubbs is Associate Professor in the Communication Faculty at Cyprus International University.
At the intersection of film and history, no topic has attracted as
much scholarly attention in recent years as the genre of historical
film. Jonathan Stubbs’ book is not only an authoritative guide to
the on-going debates about this genre, but also a major new
contribution to them, demonstrating that historical films have been
at the very heart of Hollywood’s operations for much of the
industry’s history. The book draws on an immense amount of original
research and combines wonderfully perceptive, detailed film
analyses with surveys of major developments and discussions of key
themes. It will be of great interest both to film scholars and to
historians.
*Peter Krämer, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of East
Anglia, UK*
A hugely insightful and valuable book, which should be required
reading for anyone with an interest in the ways that history has
been used as a subject and setting for popular cinema. Stubbs
provides an outstanding well researched account of the ways that
historical film developed as a genre over the last century, which
never loses sight of the ways that movies are shaped by cultural,
economic and social factors. What’s particularly impressive is that
this story is told using almost entirely new research into the
production and reception of a hugely diverse range of movies. As a
result, the book is easily the most thorough account of Hollywood’s
historical films ever produced. However, the greatest strength of
Stubbs’ book is that it combines rigorous research with a truly
challenging and convincing exploration of the debates which
surround historical film. Too often, historians and scholars become
fixated on questions of historical accuracy, and this means that
they can assess movies about the past in relatively narrow terms.
Stubbs goes far beyond these issues, and instead focuses his
attention on how history films provide pleasure through spectacle,
as well as how they seek to (or at least claim to) educate viewers.
In the final section, he turns his attention to critical debates
around historical films and explains how history itself has come to
be understood in contemporary culture. This is, then, a book about
historical films, but it is also an account of how historians,
filmmakers and ordinary viewers have used cinema to make sense of
the past, and the present. It is, quite simply, remarkable.
*James Russell, Principal Lecturer in Film Studies, De Montfort
University, Leicester, UK and author of The Historical Epic and
Contemporary Hollywood*
When reflecting on known theories within the field, and in offering
his own, Stubbs' writing is well informed and innovative
*Historical Journal of Film, Television and Radio, vol. 32*
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