Description based upon print version of record

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: medieval history on the screen
Sex and nationalism: Bravehart (1995)
From page to screen: The name of the rose (1986)
Now for something completely different: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The artist and the state: Andrei Rublev (1966)
Playing chess with death: The seventh seal (1957)
Heroic leadership: Alexander Nevsky (1938)
A silent epic: Die Nibelungen I: Siegfried (1925)
Wrapping up.

In The Middle Ages and the Movies eminent historian Robert Bartlett takes a fresh, cogent look at how our view of medieval history has been shaped by eight significant films of the twentieth century. The book ranges from the concoction of sex and nationalism in Mel Gibson's Braveheart, to Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece Siegfried, the art-house classic The Seventh Seal to Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev and the epic historical drama El Cid. The historical accuracy of these films is examined, as well as other salient aspects - how was Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose translated from page to screen? Why is Monty Python and the Holy Grail funny? And how was Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky shaped by the Stalinist tyranny under which it was filmed?