Synopsis
Reconstructing American Historical Cinema explores Hollywood's pivotal interpretations of national history during the height of the studio system. In a radical departure from traditional studies of film and history, J. E. Smyth looks at rarely discussed production records and scripts from studio archives, arguing that certain classical Hollywood filmmakers were actively engaged in a self-conscious and often critical filmic writing of national history. Her unique approach unites the study of popular and academic historical writing, historical fiction, and screenwriting, providing a rich context for the industry's commitment to American history. Reconstructing American Historical Cinema uncovers Hollywood's diverse and conflicted attitudes toward American history in narratives including nineteenth-century frontier epics, gangster biopics, and histories of silent-era Hollywood.
Library Journal
Keeping pace with the current practice of historians to examine the problems and failures of the past, this book critically studies classical Hollywood cinema's competence in reassessing U.S. history. Smyth (history, Univ. of Warwick, U.K.) begins with the 1931 version of Cimarron, which presents an eclectic, complex, multiracial, and feminist approach unconventional to American cinema, and ends with two efforts by Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), which portray history in a disjunctive, episodic, and contradictory style. Although Hollywood is noted for its formulaic filmmaking, Smyth argues that serious historical treatment is evident in different genres in the form of "forwards, projected text insert, use of extensive research, and the employment of one dominant screenwriter." Her endorsement of certain films as honest reflections of the American past will pique readers' interest, although the book does seem a little incomplete without comparisons between the remakes Smyth considers and the original movie. Nevertheless, Smyth's work leaves us hoping for a follow-up that looks at how current Hollywood filmmakers portray history. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.-Victor Or, Vancouver & Surrey P.L., B.C. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.