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Russian War Films: On the Cinema Front, 1914-2005. By Denise J. Youngblood. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. ISBN 0-7006-1489-3. Photographs. Notes. Filmography. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvi, 319. $34.95.
Denise Youngblood employs a multidisciplinary approach to explore topics in Soviet history through the medium of fiction mainstream films about combat and wartime. She bases this "filmic history" of wars on a selection of 160 titles that met the criteria of simultaneously engaging "in key issues of war and wartime" and having been popular with general audiences or garnering critical acclaim. Youngblood's approach is indebted to Hayden White's argument that film is "a distinctive form of historical discourse" (p. 3) and much can be gained by judging films by standards such as their effectiveness in capturing Russian experiences during wars, whether and how such films kept to the official version of events and inspired patriotism, and how well they facilitated...