Hollywood in the Holy Land - Essays on Film Depictions of the Crusades and Christian-Muslim Clashes (Paperback)

An exciting new work in the burgeoning field of movie medieval ism, this collection of essays focuses on film representations of the Crusades, other medieval East/West encounters, and the modern inheritance of encounters between orientalist fantasy and apocalyptic conspiracy. The essays themselves make substantial contributions to our understanding of orientalist medieval ism in film. Several study the various filmic representations of popular figures such as El Cid, Roland, Richard I, and Saladin in films like Anthony Mann's El Cid and Frank Cassenti's Chanson de Roland. Other topics include the political crusade in Youssef Chahine's ""El Naser Salah Ad Din"", the redemption of history and templar romance in recent films like ""National Treasure"" and ""The Da Vinci Code"", and the role of set design, location, and landscape in setting the stage for cinematic medieval ism. A substantial introduction surveys the notion of cinematic inheritance and draws parallels between the medieval-era crusades and the modern inter-faith wars which have been thrust to the center of mass-mediated political discourse in the post-9/11 world.