A survey of modern cinematic and televisual responses to the concept of the golden age
This collection of fourteen essays explores how the dominant media of our time – film and television – have engaged with the golden age as formulated in the Western classical tradition.
Drawing on ancient Greek and Roman literature and culture, from Hesiod to Suetonius, these essays assess the far-reaching influence of the golden age concept on screen texts ranging from prestige projects like Gladiator and HBO's Rome, to cult classics Xanadu and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, made by auteurs including Jules Dassin and the Coen Brothers. The book also looks at fantasy (Game of Thrones), science fiction (Serenity), horror (The Walking Dead), war/combat (the 300 franchise, Centurion), and the American Western.
Draws on ancient Greek and Roman literature and culture, from Hesiod to Suetonius
Considers prestige projects, cult classics and classical influence on genre productions
Explores how the mythical past is invoked through political rhetoric and popular media
Author(s): Meredith E. Safran
Series: Screening Antiquity
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 352
City: Edinburgh
Screening the Golden Ages of the Classical Tradition
Copyright
Contents
Series Editors’ Preface
Editor’s Acknowledgments
Contributors
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction: Searching for Gold in an Age of Iron
PART I The Glory That Was Greece
1 Re-(en)gendering Heroism: Reflective Nostalgia for Peplum’s Golden Age of Heroes in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys 2.14 (1996)
2 Kissed by the Muse of Roller-Disco: Utopia versus the Golden Ages of America, Hollywood, and Classical Myth in Xanadu (1980)
3 Gilding American History through Song Culture in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
4 A Leonidas for the Golden Age of Superhero Films: The Thermopylae Tradition in 300 (2006)
5 The Dueling Greek Golden Ages of 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
6 Confronting the Ancient Greek Golden Age in Jules Dassin’s Phaedra (1962)
7 Pericles, Cincinnatus, and Zombies: Classicizing Nostalgia in The Walking Dead (2010-)
PART II The Grandeur That Was Rome
8 “All That Glitters . . .”: Problematizing Golden-Age Narratives in Vergil’s Aeneid and the Western Film Genre
9 The Golden Age and Imperial Dominance in the Aeneid and Serenity (2005)
10 Turning Gold into Lead: Sexual Pathology and the De-mythologizing of Augustus in HBO’s Rome (2005–2007)
11 The Dux Femina Ends Westeros’ Golden Age: Cersei Lannister as Agrippina the Younger in HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–)
12 The Golden Aspects of Roman Imperialism in Film, 1914-2015
13 Broken Eagles: The Iron Age of Imperial Roman Warfare in Post-9/11 Film
14 Dreaming of Rome with Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000)
Filmography
Bibliography
Index
