Swords and Cinema: Hollywood vs the Reality of Ancient Warfare

by Jeremaih McCall

The battles and sieges of the Classical world have been a rich source of inspiration to film makers since the beginning of cinema and the 60s and 70s saw the golden age of the 'swords and sandals' epic, with films such as Spartacus. Ridley Scott's Gladiator led a modern revival that has continued with the release of films like 300, The Eagle and Centurion and HBO's mini-series Rome. While Hollywood interpetations of Classical battle continue to spark interest in ancient warfare, to casual viewers and serious enthusiasts alike they also spark a host of questions about authenticity. What does Hollywood get right and wrong about weapons, organization, tactics and the experience of combat? Did the Spartans really fight clad only in their underpants and did the Persians have mysterious, silver-masked assassins in their armies? This original book discusses the merits of battle scenes in selected movies and along the way gives the reader an interesting overview of ancient battle. It should appeal to the serious student of ancient warfare, movie buffs and everyone in between.

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 14, 2015

Reviews

[Stephen Ede-Borrett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incredibly disappointing! This was no so much a discussion of or analysis of how Hollywood (a shorthand for the movie industry) handles the depiction and recreation of ancient battle as one man's diatribe against six particular movies/TV series (Masada and Rome, for example are neither 'Hollywood' nor movies) with occasional references to the HUGE number of movies that have gone before.

A great deal of the text consists of a precis of what happens in the movie (I am using movie as a shorthand here) with some references to how it compares to what we 'believe' to have been reality.

I completely agree that the movie industry plays fast and loose with reality in every period of history but I would have liked to have seen an analysis of why this is so rather than telling me that this didn't happen or this isn't how hoplites fought - incidentally including a mythological war (Troy) in the list is completely out of place and giving it an entire Chapter to itself?

A few other movies do get included, almost as a comparison, but certainly nothing comprehensive as the title appears to boast.

One of my other problems is that even the comparison to ancient warfare is contentious - When did a Roman Century ever comprise 100 men - at least in any record that we have. And the author obviously has never seen Frank Miller's (awful) '300' book on which the film is directly based (itself based on the movie 'The 300 Spartans' which was based on 'Herodotus Histories' - yes get's messy).

As a rant this is an interesting book as anything else? Don't waste your time...

(Oh, yes - I did deliberately put it on my shelf under humour - not an error)