A Knight at the Movies: Medieval History on Film
2004; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 56; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1934-6018
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval Literature and History
ResumoA KNIGHT AT THE MOVIES: MEDIEVAL HISTORY ON FILM John Aberth. New York: Routledge, 2003, 332 pp. John Aberth's A Knight at Movies: Medieval History on Film provides cogent, broad-ranging, and entertaining overview of films portraying Middle Ages. Aberth applies clear methodology six dominant subjects of films set in Middle Ages: Holy Grail, Vikings, Crusades, Robin Hood, Black Death, and Joan of Arc. The six chapters each begin with historical overview of topic, then move an evaluation of specific films. In historical overview sections, Aberth emphasizes changing critical attitudes toward these subjects, discussing extent which historians of Middle are themselves impacted by contemporary culture. From outset, Aberth clearly indicates that he does not intend belabor historical authenticity of films, lest he face same gruesome fate meted out a famous historian in Monty Python and Holy Grail (1975). Indeed, his book concerns medievalism more than medieval itself. Medievalism, defined the study of many ways in which modern society and its popular culture interacts with, interprets and both influences and is influenced by actual history of Middle Ages (ix), has become increasingly important for medieval studies representations of medieval abound in popular culture. Such representations reflect contemporary culture from distant vantage point of forgotten and seemingly alien period. Aberth emphasizes degree which filmmakers use medieval subjects evoke contemporary problems and concerns. His analysis of crusade films in particular marks political usefulness of medieval subject matter. Indeed, God (and Studio) Wills It! is perhaps Aberth's most politically involved chapter. He begins it by demonstrating lingering medieval connotations of word crusade, using an example George W. Bush's proclamation of crusade against terror. Aberth's juxtaposition of Hollywood's muddled attempts portray clash of Christian and Muslim cultures during twelfth century (91) and Egyptian director Youssef Chahine's Saladin (1963) points contemporary political situations influencing cinematic portrayal of medieval history. The crusades allow Chahine portray Arabs, medieval and modern alike, as peace-loving people who fight only when attacked by aggressively warlike Christians of West (102). Indeed, because of its political message, Aberth posits Saladin mirror image of Cecil B. DeMille's The Crusades (1935). Aberth notes political motives of DeMille's films, referring Joan Woman (1917), a propaganda appeal for America enter World War I (86), and The Ten Commandments (1956), into which film scholars have read Cold War subtext (91). Chahine, correspondingly, relies on Muslim accounts of crusades in his film present Templars the implacable military and ideological foes of Islam (98). But Aberth points out that Chahine's cinematic techniques also emphasize his own aesthetic distance from Hollywood. Thus, Chahine's desire to demonstrate that Egyptian filmmaking can be independent of West (97) results in an unconventional (92) reliance on discontinuity editing. Aberth aligns Chahine's techniques with Soviet montage style pioneered by Sergei Eisenstein, whose Alexander Nevsky (1938) also documents inhuman evil of warriors from West. In Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein creates hagiographie tale of champion who, with peasant army, saves Russia from aggression of Teutonic Knights. This film, historically inaccurate and the most blatantly politicized film ever set in Middle Ages (107), demonstrates Eisenstein's enforced commitment Socialist Realism and helped exonerate him from charges leveled against his earlier, more abstract approach filmmaking. …
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