History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past

This smart, instructive book on American history according to the movies announces in its preface that it favors depth over breadth. A history professor at the Univ. of North Carolina-Wilmington, Toplin discusses eight films in four sections: exercising artistic license (Mississippi Burning; JFK); drawing lessons from the past (Sergeant York, Missing); reflecting current controversy in the past (Bonnie and Clyde; Patton); and celebrating heroism (All the President's Men; Norma Rae). Each chapter surveys the inception and development of a film project, comments on the picture and assesses critical reactions. The book benefits from very real strengths--thorough research augmented by new interviews with some of the filmmakers, precise writing accompanied by an appreciation for complexity--but perhaps most refreshing is its sense of fairness. Toplin promotes a ""both/and"" rather than ""either/or"" approach in the debate between historical accuracy and artistic freedom, and this open-mindedness restrains him from rejecting entirely any film's treatment of history. Even JFK, Mississippi Burning and Missing, the films Toplin censures most, earn credit for, respectively, reexamining both Kennedy's Vietnam policy and the Warren report, recreating a grisly vision of the racist South and sounding a warning about U.S. misdeeds abroad. Readers who savored the insights of Past Imperfect, Mark C. Carnes's edited collection of commentary on 100 historical films, should now make room on their shelves for Toplin's exceptional study. Photos not seen by PW. (July)