This blog is about exploring historical films (and TV shows). My goal is to look at films the way a professional historian does, not the way an average film-goer or fan does. I intend to examine issues such as historical accuracy, the relationship between film and scholarship, how films use their historical sources, and so on. While I’m a trained historian, I can’t be an expert on every possible historical subject, so although I make a serious effort to get the historical facts rights, I’m sure I’ll make occasional errors, and sometimes I’ll have to omit details simply for the sake of brevity and readability. I’m a medievalist, so I’m going to tend to focus on films about the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern periods in Europe, simply because I know most about those. But I’ll periodically cover other historical periods as well.
As a general warning, my posts will include a lot of spoilers. I’m discussing all parts of the film that I think are relevant to the theme of the blog, so that includes plot twists, and endings. If I review a film that is still in the theaters, I’ll include a spoiler warning, but otherwise not. So if you want to avoid spoilers, I recommend watching the film before reading my posts on it.
Also, since this blog is aimed more at general readers and students than professional scholars, I will generally avoid getting too far into the scholarship itself, unless I think it’s necessary. So I don’t apply the same standards that I apply to my scholarship, such as footnotes and extensive documentation.
Please consider using the Donate button to support this blog. Watching movies and reviewing them takes time and money, and the more money I have, the more easily I can do my reviews. If there is a movie or tv show you want me to review, please make a generous donation to the blog and tell me what movie or show you’d like me to tackle. Assuming I can get access to it and think it’s appropriate for the blog, I’ll give it at least one post and possibly more, if there’s enough to talk about.
An Historian Goes to the Movies 