History has been fodder for cinema from the silent era to the
blockbuster present, a fact that has seldom pleased historians
themselves. As pundits increasingly ponder "how Hollywood fails
history," Robert Toplin counters with a provocative alternative
approach to this enduring debate over the portrayal of history in
film.
Toplin focuses on movies released over the past sixteen
years--during which twelve historical films won the Oscar for Best
Picture--and argues that critics often fail to recognize the unique
ways that fictional films communicate important ideas about the
past. A trenchant extension of his highly regarded "History by
Hollywood," Toplin's new work establishes commonsense ground rules
for improving critical analysis in this area. Citing films like
"Gladiator" and "Braveheart," "Gandhi" and "Nixon," he underscores
the pressures placed on filmmakers to simplify and alter historical
fact to conform to the demands of an extraordinarily expensive mass
medium.
Toplin demonstrates how a historical epic like Glory may contain
"creative adjustments" that worry historians but shows how its
distortions communicate broader and deeper truths about the Civil
War experiences of African Americans--just as "Saving Private Ryan"
presented little factual detail about World War II and yet
effectively conveyed the experience of combat. He also shows how
other films--such as "Mississippi Burning," "Amistad," and "The
Hurricane"--contain so many elements of fictional excess and
oversimplification that they deserve the criticism they
receive.
Toplin deliberately steers a middle course between
tradition-minded critics who castigate films for artistic liberties
and cinema scholars wedded to pure aesthetics. He also draws upon
his own experiences in film production and takes direct aim at
recent writing about film dominated by jargonistic theory and empty
rhetoric. He urges film studies scholars to move beyond their
preoccupation with formal aesthetics and recognize that, in
historical films, content does matter.
In engaging prose that will appeal to any moviegoer, "Reel
History" helps build bridges between defenders and detractors of
history-by-Hollywood and enlarges our understanding of film as a
communicator of truths about the human condition.
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