A comprehensive analysis of the historical film—a popular and controversial genre that’s been with us since the early days of cinema—and Hollywood’s unique ability to reshape our viewpoints while it sensually recreates the past.

• Provides a complete guide to the unique characteristics of historical film, distinguishing among sub-genres such as historical epics, war films, biographies, topical films, and meta-historic works like Nixon and JFK
• Offers detailed analyses of groundbreaking films such as Spartacus, Schindler’s List, and United 93
• Examines the dual role of the historical film to entertain and educate, with its tendency to arouse critical and popular controversy
• Stimulates discussion about Hollywood’s power to persuade and reshape our views of the past

Robert Burgoyne is Professor of English and Film Studies at Wayne State University. He is the author of Bertolucci’s 1900: A Narrative and Historical Analysis; Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History; and coauthor, with Robert Stam and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, of New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics.