A Knight at the Movies

The author uses his opinion too much! Not very objective.

Aberth provides us an excellent survey of cinematic treatments of the medieval era. Each chapter opens with a survey of the history the films cover, tnen proceeds to discuss several key films. The chapters cover King Arthur films, Viking films, Crusade films, Robin Hood films, Black Death films, and Joan of Arc films. Aberth's judgments are pretty reliable, as he favors classic films such as Bergman's Seventh Seal and Dreyer's film on Joan of Arc, but he also finds value in newer films such as Navigator. A very worthwhile study by a historian of the middle ages.

Okay as listing of medieval themed movies but not very good in terms of discussing the films or the history of the stories they are based on. I found many of the theories in the being "background" section of the boo to be preposterous and unsupported. There is more knowledge on the origins of many of the medieval stories and legends than the author seemed aware of so it was pretty much a downhill read for me early on in the book.