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The Use of the Past to Shape the Present: Shifting Depictions of the Ancient World in Twentieth-Century American Cinema

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Abstract

The ancient film epic has its roots at the very dawn of cinema as a form of popular art and entertainment, with a number of early silent films drawing their plots from ancient Biblical and Classical sources, and the genre remains relevant in the early twenty-first century. Ancient film epics thus provide a useful lens through which to trace evolutions in film history and in western culture more broadly. This paper analyzes seven American films spanning the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first century (Intolerance, Quo Vadis, The Egyptian, The Ten Commandments, Spartacus, Gladiator, 300), identifying specific ways each film mirrors or challenges the time period in which it was produced.

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Notes

  1. This paper has its roots in an interdisciplinary seminar developed for the Eastern Kentucky University Honors Program entitled “Ancient World, Modern Cinema,” first taught in fall 2017. As a result, I owe a great debt to my team-teaching partner, Todd Gooch, of EKU’s Department of Philosophy and Religion, and to the enthusiastic participation of the students in our class, for we worked through many of these ideas together.

  2. Telegraph Reporters, “‘Dirty, bloody and lots of sex’: How Denis Villeneuve's Cleopatra will rip up Hollywood's rule book,” The Telegraph, January 2, 2018. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2018/01/02/dirty-bloody-lots-sex-denis-villeneuves-cleopatra-will-rip-hollywoods/.

  3. For a discussion of the influence of the Progressive Movement on the Modern Story, and on Griffith himself, see Drew (1986).

  4. Frank Beaver, “A century after ‘Intolerance’,” The University of Michigan: Michigan Today, March 21, 2016. http://michigantoday.umich.edu/a-century-after-intolerance/.

  5. In this way, Griffith incorporated the siege scene he desired while at the same time staying relatively true to the way the conquest is described by the ancient Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon. According to them, the Persians diverted the course of the Euphrates River so that it no longer abutted the city’s defensive wall, allowing the Persian forces to bypass the wall by walking through the dry riverbed (Drew 1986, 47).

  6. For a concise overview of the Cyrus Cylinder’s reception across the centuries, see Neil MacGregor, “2600 years of history in one object,” July 2011 [Video file]. https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_macgregor_2600_years_of_history_in_one_object.

  7. Griffith never addresses in the film his decision to portray Cyrus as an “intolerant” king. In contrast, he does acknowledge several obvious differences between his plot and the Hebrew Bible Book of Daniel; in the latter, Belshazzar was the son of Nebuchadnezzar, not Nabonidus, and it was Darius who conquered Babylon. Griffith opted to follow the more historically accurate Mesopotamian sources on these matters and, “not wanting to alienate his audience, he explained his deviation from Daniel in a note” (Solomon 2001, 236).

  8. In the film’s edited version, the actual crucifixion of Christ is not included, just a shot of the three crosses on the hill of crucifixion from a distance, at night. This scene interrupts the Modern Story as the young husband is being led to the gallows, highlighting his identity as Christ figure.

  9. Nero’s imagery in the film also invokes America’s still-fresh memory of its enemies of World War II, the fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini. For specific details, see Cyrino (2005), 28–29.

  10. While there is no historic connection between the Christian cross and the ankh hieroglyph, the Coptic Church of Egypt has also emphasized the resemblance.

  11. Cleopatra’s flaws led to early struggles at the box office. Eventually, however, the film “broke even” and went on to become one of the top earners of the mid-twentieth century (Solomon 2001, 33 and 75).

  12. Despite this slump in the production of feature films set in the ancient world, the genre continued to have popularity through the 1970s and 1980s in the form of television miniseries (Solomon 2001, 17–21).

  13. Roger Ebert, “300,” RogerEbert.com, August 4, 2008. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/300-2006.

  14. Robert Ito, “The Gore of Greece, Torn From a Comic,” The New York Times, November 26, 2006. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/movies/the-gore-of-greece-torn-from-a-comic.html.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Susan Wloszczyna, “An epic tale, told 300 strong,” USA Today, March 3, 2007. https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-03-06-the300-cover_N.htm.

  17. Michael Cieply, “That Film’s Real Message? It Could Be: ‘Buy a Ticket’,” The New York Times, March 5, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/movies/05spartans.html.

  18. Michael White, “300 is a dangerous piece of fantasy,” The Guardian, March 27, 2007. https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/mar/27/300isadangerouspieceoffa.

    It should also be noted that most reviews of the film did not focus on its potential politics, but rather the merits (or demerits) of its cinematography and storytelling. As of February 2018, there were 42 reviews posted on the Web site Metacritic.com, which awarded the film an aggregate rating of 52/100.

  19. I owe this observation to Todd Gooch, my team-teaching partner for the EKU course “Ancient World, Modern Cinema.” Of course, in the context of the Cold War, it was also logical to see parallels between the struggle of the free Greeks against the “slave empire” of the Persians and the contemporary conflict between America and the Soviet Union, as was done by reviewers of 1962’s film The 300 Spartans.

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Films

  • The Egyptian. 1954. Directed by Michael Curtiz, 20th Century Fox.

  • Gladiator. 2000. Directed by Ridley Scott, DreamWorks and Universal.

  • Intolerance. 1916. Directed by D.W. Griffith, Triangle Distributing Corporation.

  • Quo Vadis. 1951. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

  • Spartacus. 1960. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Universal International.

  • The Ten Commandments. 1956. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Paramount Pictures.

  • 300. 2006. Directed by Zach Snyder, Warner Bros. Pictures.

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Correspondence to Jacqueline E. Jay.

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Jay, J.E. The Use of the Past to Shape the Present: Shifting Depictions of the Ancient World in Twentieth-Century American Cinema. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 12, 61–78 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-018-0225-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-018-0225-z

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