Hollywood's ancient worlds
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Hollywood's ancient worlds
Continuum, 2008
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-211) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book offers a new, full analysis of the Ancient World epic and how this film genre continues to comment on modern-day issues.Few genres have been subject to such critical scorn as the Ancient World epic. Yet they have regularly achieved huge box office success. This book tells the history of the Ancient World epic from the silent screen successes of "Intolerance" and "The King of Kings" through the 'golden age of the epic' in the 1950s (Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra etc) through to the 1990s revival with "Gladiator", its successors in cinema (Alexander, Troy, 300) and on television (Rome).Geoffrey Richards examines the cultural, social, economical and technological circumstances that dictated the rise and decline of each successive cycle of Ancient World epics, analysing each of the great films and assessing their critical and box office success or failure. He also seeks to tease out the hidden messages concealed in the narrative. For historical films are always as much about the time in which they are made as they are about the time in which they are set.
Close examination reveals the recurrent use of the Ancient World to deliver messages to the contemporary audience about the present: messages such as hostility to totalitarian regimes both Fascist and Communist, concern at the decline of Christianity, support for the new state of Israel, celebrations of equality and democracy, and concern about changing gender roles. The whole adds up to a fresh look at a body of films that people think they know, but about which they will learn a good deal more.
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- The Ancient World: the Nineteenth Century Context
- The Birth of the Ancient World epic in the Cinema
- The 1950s and 1960s: i) the Roman Empire
- The 1950s and 1960s: ii) the Bible
- The 1950s and 1960s: iii) Greece and Egypt
- The Ancient World Revival
- Bibliography
- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"