If people seem to like films as a whole, and they seem to like the Middle Ages in general, why are they so frequently dissatisfied with films made about the Middle Ages in particular?
Movie Review: Ironclad
July 6, 2013 By
The movie was made entirely in Wales and it has a gritty and raw edge to it that I really enjoyed. The film is fairly fast paced and violent, but not to the point where it’s just swords and flash.
Black in Camelot (Africans in Arthurian Legend)
May 16, 2013 By
Examining depictions of Africans in medieval and contemporary Arthurian literature, television and film.
Human Monstrosity in Terminator II: Judgement Day, Beowulf and The Passion of St Christopher
May 6, 2013 By
The idea of a humanoid monster that can be reluctantly empathized with can be traced back to various source texts. For example, Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is a bloodthirsty savage, however upon a close reading of the poem he appears more human.
“One Woman with Many Faces”: Imaginings of Mary Magdalen in Medieval and Contemporary Texts
March 31, 2013 By
This project explores these contradictory and myriad imaginings of Mary Magdalen, emphasizing particularly the connections to be made between those emerging from the later Middle Ages and in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.
Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
December 14, 2012 By
I’m here not to pander to the fandom, but be brutally honest as a Tolkien lover: The Hobbit was just not that good. In fact, dare I say it, *gasps!*, it wasn’t good at all.
Character-Assassination: Conrad de Monferrat in English-language Fiction and Popular Histories
October 7, 2012 By
It is a story will all the ingredients of epic tragedy: a brilliant, courageous and handsome nobleman travels to distant lands, fights battles, marries princesses, is elected King but is slain by treachery, still relatively young, just before he is crowned.
Collectivism in Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai
September 26, 2012 By
Japanese tradition has revolved for centuries around the concept that groups of people must work together to accomplish goals.
Got Medieval?
September 25, 2012 By
Developing queer history through the concept of affective connection—a touch across time—and through the intentional collapse of conventional historical time, I wanted in Getting Medieval to help queer studies re- spond to such desire.
The Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on Popular Culture
September 20, 2012 By
This paper will trace the history of the
Middle Earth mythology and its popularity. By studying the example of The Lord ofthe Rings I hope to demonstrate how art not only gets pulled into the system of popular and mass culture, but also how art has an influence on the system. An interesting question comes up when studying this topic. Why did Tolkien become popular?
Medieval Movie Review: Arn: The Knight Templar
September 4, 2012 By
This was a good movie, solid, and understated but well worth watching. It doesn’t shout it’s story at you, but tells it in a captivating and engaging manner.
Movie Review: Mongol
August 27, 2012 By
Set in 1192, Mongol tells the tale of the Mongolian Steppe and the rise of Temüjin, who would later become Genghis Khan, one of the most feared and respected warriors of the medieval world.
Medieval Movie Review: Valhalla Rising
August 4, 2012 By
It’s intelligent, interesting and beautiful to watch even at it’s bloodiest. If you’re looking for action beyond the usual hack-n’-slash Hollywood film, this quiet little movie will do the trick.
Review: Black Death
July 30, 2012 By
Black Death bills itself as a “Journey into Hell” and the film does a good job of portraying a dark and fearful world, where death is omnipresent.
Tears of the Fallen – short film examines the effects of war from medieval times
July 27, 2012 By
Tears of the Fallen is currently in production, and tells the story of a aftermath of a 15th century battle, a war ravaged soldier meets a peasant woman searching for her warrior son.
The verity of facts depicted in Braveheart
July 15, 2012 By
So our basic aim was to bring only true facts about the life of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and the Scottish War of Independence, to compare all these facts with the film version and to enlight the mind of readers and film spectators.
Review of Brave – Girl power in the 10th century
June 22, 2012 By
Pixar has a track record of making some of the best animated films over the last fifteen years – Toys, The Incredibles, Cars, Monsters, Inc. – and now they try their skills on a quasi-fairytale set in the Middle Ages.
Brave
June 21, 2012 By
Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.
Byte-Sized Middle Ages: Tolkien, Film, and the Digital Imagination
June 5, 2012 By
I wish to examine in historical perspective how and why this modern visual/cinematic understanding of Tolkien’s Middle-earth in particular, and consequently of the Middle Ages in general, has come to rely upon and be shaped by a shared stock of stylized referents related to the virtual reality of computers
Review: Snow White and the Huntsman
June 3, 2012 By
The movie is sure to delight those who see it with it’s sweeping imagery, epic battle scenes and jaw-dropping visuals.
Snow White and the Huntsman
June 1, 2012 By
In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.
Medieval Community: Lessons from the Film Black Knight
April 24, 2012 By
In the film Black Knight, a star vehicle for comedian Martin Lawrence, the filmmakers present an up-to-the-moment hipster from Compton who learns a valuable lesson in the context of medieval moral clarity
Filmmaker to bring the Middle Ages and Rap together in ‘The Quickener’
March 30, 2012 By
A British filmmaker is seeking to raise $8000 to produce a medieval rap movie. The Quickener is described as “a fast-paced medieval drama, set during the year the Black Death struck England…”
Coconuts in Camelot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the Arthurian Literature Course
February 20, 2012 By
Student enthusiasm for Monty Python’s film contrasts with the noticeably more restrained stance of scholarly opinion which, while rarely omitting to mention the film’s existence in discussions of cinematic Arthuriana, has relatively little to say about the actual film.
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