Blockbusters And The Ancient World

Author : Chris Davies
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350105015
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Blockbusters and the Ancient World written by Chris Davies and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the release of Ridley Scott's Gladiator in 2000 the ancient world epic has experienced a revival in studio and audience interest. Building on existing scholarship on the Cold War epics of the 1950s-60s, including Ben-Hur, Spartacus and The Robe, this original study explores the current cycle of ancient world epics in cinema within the social and political climate created by September 11th 2001. Examining films produced against the backdrop of the War on Terror and subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, this book assesses the relationship between mainstream cinema and American society through depictions of the ancient world, conflict and faith. Davies explores how these films evoke depictions of the Second World War, the Vietnam War and the Western in portraying warfare in the ancient world, as well as discussing the influence of genre hybridisation, narration and reception theory. He questions the extent to which ancient world epics utilise allegory, analogy and allusion to parallel past and present in an industry often dictated by market forces. Featuring analysis of Alexander, Troy, 300, Centurion, The Eagle, The Passion of the Christ and more, this book offers new insight on the continued evolution of the ancient world epic in cinema.

Author : Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Publisher : Screening Antiquity
ISBN 13 : 9780748675630
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Designs on the Past written by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and published by Screening Antiquity. This book was released on 2018 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the period 1916-1966, during its so-called Golden Age, Hollywood developed a passion for the ancient world and produced many epic movie blockbusters. The studios used every device they could find to wow audiences with the spectacle of antiquity. In this unique study, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones shows how Hollywood carefully and skilfully created the popular modern perception of the ancient world. He analyses how producers, art directors, costumiers, publicity agents, movie stars, and inevitably, 'a cast of thousands' literally designed and crafted the ancient world from scratch. This lively book offers a technical as well as a theoretical guide to a much-neglected area of film studies and reception studies that will appeal to anyone working in these disciplines.

Author : Jon Solomon
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300083378
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Ancient World in the Cinema written by Jon Solomon and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This entertaining and useful book provides a comprehensive survey of films about the ancient world, from The Last Days of Pompeii to Gladiator. Jon Solomon catalogues, describes, and evaluates films set in ancient Greece and Rome, films about Greek and Roman history and mythology, films of the Old and New Testaments, films set in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Persia, films of ancient tragedies, comic films set in the ancient world, and more. The book has been updated to include feature films and made-for-television movies produced in the past two decades. More than two hundred photographs illustrate both the films themselves and the ancient sources from which their imagery derives.

Author : Pantelis Michelakis
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107292344
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Ancient World in Silent Cinema written by Pantelis Michelakis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first four decades of cinema, hundreds of films were made that drew their inspiration from ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt and the Bible. Few of these films have been studied, and even fewer have received the critical attention they deserve. The films in question, ranging from historical and mythological epics to adaptations of ancient drama, burlesques, cartoons and documentaries, suggest a fascination with the ancient world that competes in intensity and breadth with that of Hollywood's classical era. What contribution did antiquity make to the development of early cinema? How did early cinema's representations affect modern understanding of antiquity? Existing prints as well as ephemera scattered in film archives and libraries around the world constitute an enormous field of research. This extensively illustrated edited collection is a first systematic attempt to focus on the instrumental role of silent cinema in twentieth-century conceptions of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.

Author : Stephen M. Norris
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253007089
Total Pages : 406 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Blockbuster History in the New Russia written by Stephen M. Norris and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-19 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking to rebuild the Russian film industry after its post-Soviet collapse, directors and producers sparked a revival of nationalist and patriotic sentiment by applying Hollywood techniques to themes drawn from Russian history. Unsettled by the government's move toward market capitalism, Russians embraced these historical blockbusters, packing the American-style multiplexes that sprouted across the country. Stephen M. Norris examines the connections among cinema, politics, economics, history, and patriotism in the creation of "blockbuster history"—the adaptation of an American cinematic style to Russian historical epics.

Author : T. R. Glover
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107695635
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Ancient World written by T. R. Glover and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-09 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1935, this book presents an introductory guide to the ancient Mediterranean and its history. Glover covers the history of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, as well as the art of both civilizations and a brief view into the everyday life of the people living under the Roman Empire's dominion. Maps, illustrations and photographs of relevant artefacts and locations are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the ancient world or the history of classical education.

Author : Gregory S. Aldrete
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 153815952X
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen written by Gregory S. Aldrete and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-05-15 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unparalleled exploration of films set in Ancient Rome, from the silent Cleopatra to the modern rendition of Ben-Hur. No sooner had the dazzling new technology of cinema been invented near the end of the 19th century than filmmakers immediately turned to ancient history for inspiration. Nero, Cleopatra, Caesar, and more all found their way to the silver screen and would return again and again in the decades that followed. But just how accurate were these depictions of Ancient Rome? In Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen: Myth versus Reality, Gregory S. Aldrete and Graham Sumner provide a fascinating examination of 50 films set in Ancient Rome, analyzing each for its historical accuracy of plot, characters, costumes and sets. They also divulge insights into the process of making each movie and the challenges the filmmakers faced in bringing the Roman world to vivid cinematic life. Beginning with the classics from the dawn of cinema, through the great golden age of sword-and-sandals flicks in the 1950s, to the dramatic epics of the modern day, Aldrete and Sumner test the authenticity of Hollywood’s version of history. Featuring remarkable custom-made paintings depicting characters as they appeared in film and how they should have appeared if they were historically correct, Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen delivers an invaluable perspective of film and history. This unique collaboration between professional illustrator and award-winning Roman historian offers a deeper understanding of modern cinema and brings Roman history to life.

Author : Michael Ivanovitch Rostovtzeff
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 664 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A History of the Ancient World written by Michael Ivanovitch Rostovtzeff and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Daniel Smith-Rowsey
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137518790
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Blockbuster Performances written by Daniel Smith-Rowsey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines performances in the American film industry’s highest-earning and most influential films. Countering decades of discourse and the conventional notion that special effects are the real stars of Hollywood blockbusters, this book finds that the acting performances in these big-budget action movies are actually better, and more genre-appropriate, than reputed. It argues that while blockbusters are often edited for speed, thrills, and simplicity, and performances are sometimes tailored to this style, most major productions feature more scenes of stage-like acting than hyper-kinetic action. Knowing this, producers of the world’s highest-budgeted motion pictures usually cast strong or generically appropriate actors. With chapters offering unique readings of some of cinema’s biggest hits, such as The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Iron Man and The Hunger Games, this unprecedented study sheds new light on the importance of performance in the Hollywood blockbuster.

Author : Irene Berti
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350075396
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ancient Violence in the Modern Imagination written by Irene Berti and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collected essays in this volume focus on the presentation, representation and interpretation of ancient violence – from war to slavery, rape and murder – in the modern visual and performing arts, with special attention to videogames and dance as well as the more usual media of film, literature and theatre. Violence, fury and the dread that they provoke are factors that appear frequently in the ancient sources. The dark side of antiquity, so distant from the ideal of purity and harmony that the classical heritage until recently usually called forth, has repeatedly struck the imagination of artists, writers and scholars across ages and cultures. A global assembly of contributors, from Europe to Brazil and from the US to New Zealand, consider historical and mythical violence in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and the 2010 TV series of the same name, in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, in the work of Lars von Trier, and in Soviet ballet and the choreography of Martha Graham and Anita Berber. Representations of Roman warfare appear in videogames such as Ryse: Son of Rome and Total War, as well as recent comics, and examples from both these media are analysed in the volume. Finally, interviews with two artists offer insight into the ways in which practitioners understand and engage with the complex reception of these themes.