Authors: Martha W. Driver, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Sid Ray, Sid Ray (Editor), Sid Ray
ISBN-13: 9780786419265, ISBN-10: 0786419261
Format: Paperback
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Date Published: August 2004
Edition: 1st Edition
Few figures have captured Hollywood's and the public's imagination as completely as have medieval heroes. Cast as chivalric knight, warrior princess, "alpha male in tights," or an amalgamation, and as likely to appear in Hong Kong action flicks and spaghetti westerns as films set in the Middle Ages, the medieval hero on film serves many purposes. This collection of essays about the medieval hero on screen, contributed by scholars from a variety of disciplines, draws upon a wide range of movies and medieval texts. The essays are grouped into five sections, each with an introduction by the editors: an exploration of historic authenticity; heroic children and the lessons they convey to young viewers; medieval female heroes; the place of the hero's weapon in pop culture; and teaching the medieval movie in the classroom. Thirty-two film stills illustrate the work, and each essay includes notes, a filmography, and a bibliography. There is a foreword by Jonathan Rosenbaum, and an index is included.
Foreword | 1 | |
Preface : Hollywood knights | 5 | |
Pt. I | What's accuracy got to do with it? : historicity and authenticity in medieval film | 19 |
Heroism and alienation through language in The lord of the rings | 23 | |
Authenticating realism in medieval film | 38 | |
Pt. II | Kid crusaders : heroic children on film | 53 |
Shirley Temple and the guys and dolls of the round table | 57 | |
Boys to men : medievalism and masculinity in Star wars and E.T. : the extra-terrestrial | 73 | |
Pt. III | Iron maidens : medieval female heroes on film | 91 |
Girls on film : medieval virginity in the cinema | 94 | |
Chivalric virtues in female form : Crouching tiger, hidden dragon's Wudan warrior princess as medieval hero | 115 | |
Not your typical knight : the emerging on-screen defender | 133 | |
Pt. IV | Time bandits : contemporary appropriations | 147 |
The hagiography of steel : the hero's weapon and its place in pop culture | 151 | |
The way of the wizard : reflections of Merlin on film | 167 | |
Hard day's knights : First knight, A knight's tale, and Black knight | 192 | |
Pt. V | "Stond and delyver" : teaching the medieval movie | 211 |
Oh, what a lovely war! Joan of arc on screen | 217 | |
The hero in the classroom | 237 |