A Knight at the Movies

Description

Imagining the Middle Ages is an unprecedented examination of the historical content of films depicting the medieval period from the 11th to the 15th centuries. Historians increasingly feel the need to weigh in on popular depictions of the past, since so much of the public's knowledge of history comes from popular mediums. Aberth dissects how each film interpreted the period, offering estimations of the historical accuracy of the works and demonstrating how they project their own contemporary era's obsessions and fears onto the past. Review: The author uses his opinion too much! Not very ... - The author uses his opinion too much! Not very objective. Review: useful study of medieval history on film - Aberth provides us an excellent survey of cinematic treatments of the medieval era. Each chapter opens with a survey of the history the films cover, tnen proceeds to discuss several key films. The chapters cover King Arthur films, Viking films, Crusade films, Robin Hood films, Black Death films, and Joan of Arc films. Aberth's judgments are pretty reliable, as he favors classic films such as Bergman's Seventh Seal and Dreyer's film on Joan of Arc, but he also finds value in newer films such as Navigator. A very worthwhile study by a historian of the middle ages.