The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy edited by Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray (review)

Abstract

MARTHA W. DRIVER and SID RAY, eds., The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy. North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2004. Pp. 268. ISBN: 0-7864-1926-1. $35. In the Medieval Hero on Screen, Martha Driver and Sid Ray have assembled a collection that persuasively 'present(s) medieval film as both a complement to the study of the medieval period and as a field worth studying on its own.' Drawing from sources that range from 'serious' medieval cinema to unabashedly popular offerings, this collection discusses the appropriation of the medieval past as a vehicle for modern ideologies, an appropriation that fabricates a Middle Ages that has, for many viewers, displaced the more historical and philological one of the academy. Part I examines how this displacement takes place. William Woods asserts that medieval films convince us of their 'authenticity' by first conforming to our preconceptions about the medieval past and then telling tales, focused on a suffering hero, that confirm their audiences' sense of'universal human experience.' While the 'historical' medieval films that Woods discusses seem 'real' because they participate in a larger fantasy about the Middle Ages, the fantasy of Middle Earth, as David SaIo argues, 'borrows' authenticity from Our world' through Tolkien's use of real languages and histories. Part II moves from film's creation of the medieval past to the translation of medieval narratives into the present, examining how 'the Arthur legends were used, and continue to be used, as models for specific types of or heroic behaviors for children to emulate.' Kevin Harty convincingly argues that the introduction of Lanier's A Boy's Arthur into the Shirley Temple version of Damon Runyon's short story, 'Little Miss Marker,' is central to the film's conversion narratives. Lanier also provides the subtext to Tom Henthorne's discussion of 'boys to men' in Star Wars and E. T., which traces the conversions of Luke and Elliot from unhappy youth into chivalric knights-from Carter liberals to Reaganite heroes. Part III focuses on female heroes; Anke Bernau discusses the problem of representing heroic virginity (Joan of Arc) on the screen in the context of an examination of contemporary culture's renewed obsession with virginity. Diana Slampyak moves from problematic virgins to equally problematic warriors as she analyzes Jen's unhappy end in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, arguing that Jen's fate is sealed the moment she steps outside of the confines of both her society and her dual genres (Chinese wuxia and medieval romance). …