The Hollywood History of the World

George MacDonald Fraser, The Hollywood History of the World London: Harvill Press, 1996.
268 pp.
ISBN 0-7181-2997-0
A$35

Uploaded 16 June, 1997 | 834 words

Critics have never tired of complaining of the ways in which Hollywood has played fast and loose with history, as though the latter were somehow a fixed body of ascertainable truth which could be undermined by an anachronistic word or a costume with the 'wrong' waistline. George MacDonald Fraser, in this lively, knowledgeable and superbly illustrated volume, argues that, in fact, there is far more to praise than blame Hollywood for in this respect.

Fraser makes clear the nature of his concern: '... the purpose of this book is to compare film versions with historic truth, so far as the latter can be discovered.' Concern for the aesthetic qualities of the films is secondary, and within the parameters he has set himself he is often very illuminating. Many academics will quibble about his approach to the concept of 'historic truth'; he, on the other hand, would probably give short shrift to their revisionist views or their theories of historical representation. Of the modern, and often revealing, tendency to read films set in the past as telling us more about the period in which they were made than about the relevant historical era, he is dubious at the very least. Writing of the 1964 British film Zulu ('Hollywood' is used as a metonym for all popular film making), he praises the film's 'authenticity' but does 'have reservations about opinions being attributed to Chard and Bromhead [characters played by Stanley Baker and Michael Caine] which seem to reflect modern attitudes to war rather than the views of Victorian soldiers.'

So, you know where you stand with Fraser, and anyone familiar with his playful 'Flashman' novels will also know how wide-ranging is his grasp of what he calls 'historical truth'. In the volume under review, he divides his investigation into seven main 'Ages': The Ancient World; Knights and Barbarians: Tudors and Sea-Dogs: Romance and Royalty; Rule Britannia; New World, Old West; and The Violent Century. Of Hollywood's bringing to cinemagoers its versions of episodes from these Ages, Fraser claims: 'What is overlooked is the astonishing amount of history Hollywood has got right, and the immense unacknowledged debt which we owe to the commercial cinema as an illuminator of the story of mankind'. Further, he insists that, '... with all their faults (and they were many) they [filmmakers] took history seriously'. He praises the degree of 'painstaking research beyond the dreams of many academics', and argues that minor inaccuracies and anachronisms have led costume films to be undeservedly patronised by critics.

In writing about the films set in The Ancient World, praising The Ten Commandments (1956) as showing 'what historical films should be for, to set the legend in the mind's eye', Fraser also investigates the 'curse' on Cleopatra films and very precisely evokes The Sign Of The Cross (1932). In Tudors and Sea-Dogs, such films as The Sea Hawk (1940), 'a first-class film, almost a great one', and Lady Hamilton (1940) are rightly seen to have propaganda value as well as providing entertainment: '... a beleaguered Britain was glad to welcome a reminder that what had been done once could be done again'; i.e. repel a powerful enemy, a potent message for the early forties. He ponders the strange neglect of American history outside the brief period between the end of the Civil War and 1890, but enthuses about Westerns and their visions of the past: '... both the semi-legendary Western past which they [filmmakers] have created and perpetuated, and the real past which they have captured with a clarity and completeness beyond anything achieved in other areas of costume film-making.'

The scope of the book is wide in terms of both history and film, and Fraser is remarkably well-informed about both. His large assertions are rooted in detailed substantiation from both; he makes much and often fascinating use of portraits and other paintings to pursue his investigations into Hollywood's borrowings from history; and, above all, he has written a witty, wholly readable account of a much-debated area. Scholars may not feel themselves taxed by the book; they may indeed be irritated from time to time; but they can scarcely discount the breadth of his research and the vivacity with which he puts it before us.

Brian McFarlane, Monash University, Australia.

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