Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision
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Here, slavery itself serves as a springboard for a larger consideration: respect for the historical record vs. a need for dramatic effect. Davis argues convincingly for the historical film as a source of 'thought experiments' about the past rather than pure presentation of fact. -- Anthony J. Adam Library Journal Davis, a historian with a concentration on people outside traditional power centers, explores the treatment of slaves on film from a historical perspective...[and] sets up the complex interplay between historically supportable fiction and imagination...The historical alterations that take place, Davis advocates, should be acknowledged to film viewers so that they may distinguish between historical fact and fiction...Very informative. -- Vernon Ford Booklist [Davis] addresses Hollywood's treatment of African-American history squarely, showing how the images have changed from Spartacus to Beloved. Washington Post 20000910 Her subject is always worth considering...[Davis] considers how slavery is portrayed and how its history is treated. She compares the writing of history (which has been around for 2,500 years) with feature filmmaking about history (which has been around for 100 years) and concludes, 'Historical films should let the past be the past.'" -- Susan Salter Reynolds Los Angeles Times Book Review This book is filled with valuable lessons for students of both the past itself and the various media through which history can be told. -- John E. O'Connor Phi Beta Kappa Journal 20010601
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The written word and what the eye can see are brought together in this fascinating foray into the depiction of resistance to slavery through the modern medium of film. Davis, whose book "The Return of Martin Guerre" was written while she served as consultant to the French film of the same name, now tackles the large issue of how the moving picture industry has portrayed slaves in five major motion pictures spanning four generations. The potential of film to narrate the historical past in an effective and meaningful way, with insistence on loyalty to the evidence, is assessed in five films: "Spartacus" (1960), "Burn!" (1969), "The Last Supper" (1976), "Amistad" (1997), and "Beloved" (1998).
Davis shows how shifts in the viewpoints of screenwriters and directors parallel those of historians. Spartacus is polarized social history; the films on the Caribbean bring ceremony and carnival to bear on the origins of revolt; "Amistad" and "Beloved "draw upon the traumatic wounds in the memory of slavery and the resources for healing them. In each case Davis considers the intentions of filmmakers and evaluates the film and its techniques through historical evidence and interpretation. Family continuity emerges as a major element in the struggle against slavery.
"Slaves on Screen" is based in part on interviews with the Nobel prize-winning author of "Beloved," Toni Morrison, and with Manuel Moreno Fraginals, the historical consultant for "The Last Supper." Davis brings a new approach to historical film as a source of "thought experiments" about the past. While the five motion pictures are sometimes cinematic triumphs, with sound history inspiring the imagination, Davis is critical of fictive scenes and characters when they mislead viewers in important ways. Good history makes good films. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Excellent analysis
8 April 2002
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But chosing five mainstream feature films, Davis has allowed the average reader into the rather closed world of film criticism and historical analysis. A historian herself, Davis applies performance theory to examining how feature films do and can be an educational vehicle for history. Five films are examined: Spartacus, Burn!, The Last Supper, Amistad, and Beloved. The last four all deal with slavery in the "new world" of the Americas. Davis points out incidents where historical fact has been replaced with fiction, where events have taken on a modern twist, and how film-making has hindered or aided in connecting the past to the modern audience. None of the five films are perfect but Davis feels they are good overall because their goals are all to make the audience feel what the slaves or freed felt so that we can form a better understanding of a social institution that currently is frowned upon in most of the developed world. It would have been better if she spent more time on the history of the period and events each movie covered but for an early attempt at using performance theory in history, it is an excellent start.
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