A Companion to the Historical Film

Although it is almost a century since the 1915 release of Birth of a Nation, generally agreed to be the first true historical film, a clear definition of “historical” remains elusive. In this well-edited and scholarly anthology, described as “the first comprehensive collection in a growing field of research”, many contributors ponder this point. Each author is therefore free to establish their own definition. For Davis, it is “a genre composed of dramatic feature films in which an imagined plot utilizes historical events, making them central to the story”. For Rosenstone, what distinguishes the historical film from the costume...