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A KNIGHT AT THE MOVIES: MEDIEVAL HISTORY ON FILM John Aberth. New York: Routledge, 2003, 332 pp.
John Aberth's A Knight at the Movies: Medieval History on Film provides a cogent, broad-ranging, and entertaining overview of films portraying the Middle Ages. Aberth applies a clear methodology to the six dominant subjects of films set in the Middle Ages: the Holy Grail, Vikings, the Crusades, Robin Hood, the Black Death, and Joan of Arc. The six chapters each begin with a historical overview of the topic, then move to an evaluation of specific films. In the historical overview sections, Aberth emphasizes changing critical attitudes toward these subjects, discussing the extent to which historians of the Middle Ages are themselves impacted by contemporary culture. From the outset, Aberth clearly indicates that he does not intend to belabor the historical authenticity of films, lest he face the same gruesome fate meted out to "a famous historian" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
Indeed, his book concerns medievalism more than the medieval itself. Medievalism, defined as "the study of the many ways in which modern society and its popular culture interacts with, interprets and both influences and is influenced by the actual history of the Middle Ages" (ix), has become increasingly important for medieval studies as representations of the medieval abound in popular culture. Such representations reflect contemporary culture from the distant vantage point of a forgotten and seemingly alien period.
Aberth emphasizes the degree to which filmmakers use medieval subjects to evoke contemporary problems and concerns. His analysis of crusade films in particular marks the political usefulness of medieval subject matter. Indeed, "God (and the Studio) Wills It!" is perhaps Aberth's most politically involved chapter. He begins it by demonstrating the lingering medieval connotations of the word "crusade," using as an example George W. Bush's proclamation of a crusade against terror.
Aberth's juxtaposition of "Hollywood's muddled attempts to portray the clash of Christian and Muslim cultures during the twelfth century" (91)...