Works Cited
Halsall, Paul. 2002. Myth, Epic, and Romance: Medieval History in Film. University of North Florida. <http://www.unf.edu/classes/medieval/film/thinkingabouthistoricalfilm.htm
This article discusses the legitimacy of film as a means of intellectual discussion for topics such as history. Disagreeing with the idea that film is only valuable as entertainment, the author argues that film can be either entertainment or a form of art. I will use this article to discuss how important historical accuracy should be when the audience is only seeing history in film rather than in books or other means.
Heft, S.M., James L., and Eric L. Friedland. “A Distortion of History.” CatholicExperts.org, U. of Dayton. 20 February 2005. <http://www.catholicexperts.org/PassionHistory.html>
I will use this paragraph to discuss the film The Passion of the Christ. Here the authors discuss Mel Gibson’s artistic license and try to interpret how much free reign he should really have with an epic movie. They discuss his use of the vernacular of the time and how he very much wished this movie to be viewed as historically accurate, especially given the amount of violence. The nature of the film also brings up the questions regarding the film as a sort of religious offering, rather than historical documentary.
King Arthur Promotional Website. Touchstone Pictures. <http://kingarthur.movies.go.com/main.html
I will use this source, as I did in the proposal, to exemplify how advertising represents films as the truth even when there is evidence to counter this. This will be used in conjunction with Cathy Schultz’s discussion of the biography of King Arthur and the film King Arthur. This source is important because supports my argument about advertising.
Owens, Mackubin T. “History and the Movies: The Patriot and Glory.” July 2000. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs, Ashland U. 20 February 2005. http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/owens/00/patriot.html
I plan to use this commentary to document historical inaccuracy within movies such as The Patriot. In this source, the author discusses the importance of historical accuracy to the public and the use of creative license. I especially like the quote “The Patriot is to history as Godzilla was to biology." Maybe this could be used to identify differing levels of accuracy in movies, such as those in subgroup one which only emphasize the time period rather than the characters.
Shultz, Cathy. Rev. of King Arthur. 2004. History in the Movies. St. Francis University. 11 July 2004. <http://www.stfrancis.edu/historyinthemovies/kingarthur.htm
I plan to use pieces from this article, as I did in the proposal, to discuss what is really known about King Arthur and his biography. I will use this in conjuction with advertisements from the promotional website for the movie King Arthur to show how movie producers try to mislead the public to see a movie because of its “truth factor” when there really are discrepancies in history.
Visclosky, John . 17 May 2004. An Almost Epic Troy. Montgomery Blair High School. http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=3565
I plan to use this as a discussion for the movie Troy. Here the author discusses how the epic story of Troy becomes an action movie and where audiences may be confused as to the significance of events as they relate to history. This might relate to the film The Passion of the Christ in that the purpose of the film is different; religion v. history, action film v. history.