Screening History (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

Vidal confesses that “the only thing I ever really liked to do was go to the movies,” and some seminal films had a lifelong impact. Thus Vidal examines “the way in which one’s perceptions of history were—and are—dominated by illustrated fictions of great power, particularly those screened in childhood.” Especially influential on Vidal were THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER and FIRE OVER ENGLAND (both 1937). The first made an appeal to altruism in teaching the prince that there are others in the world besides himself to whom he must be responsible. Vidal’s awareness of the need to resist despotism was heightened by films about the French Revolution. FIRE OVER ENGLAND and THAT HAMILTON WOMAN were two in a series of films that caused American audiences to identify with England during the years in which war with Germany was looming. Films celebrating the British Empire or Britain’s resistance to tyranny were effective propaganda against isolationists who opposed supporting Britain against the Nazis.

In SCREENING HISTORY, Vidal reveals a good deal about his family and his private life. William Randolph Hearst, an ally of his grandfather and antagonist of his father, was not really understandable until CITIZEN KANE. After seeing Huey Long and “Uncle Harry” Luce declaim at the family table, Vidal could appreciate the degree to which their public performances were calculated.

The difference between real politics and reel politics was often blurred, for he who screens the history makes the history. Thus the Gulf War on CNN television was manipulated as if it were a movie directed by the Bush Administration. Our loss in Vietnam was changed to victory by the Rambo movies. For Vidal, politics is performance, and presidential elections are “simply fast-moving fictions.”

Vidal looks at the cinematic and political scenes with urbane wit and melancholy irony. He cares passionately about literature and worries that it is an endangered species. Lamenting the fact that the United States now ranks twenty-third worldwide in literacy, he argues that perhaps the best way to teach history in an electronic age is to show films about the lives of great historical figures. Vidal’s observations are filled with nostalgia, but they are not yet a requiem for Hollywood and history. SCREENING HISTORY is a thoughtful and elegant tribute to the Tenth Muse.

Sources for Further Study

Chicago Tribune. September 20, 1992, XIV, p. 5.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. September 13, 1992, p. 2.

National Review. XLIV, November 30, 1992, p. 50.

The New York Times Book Review. XCVII, August 30, 1992, p. 1.

The New Yorker. LXVIII, October 26, 1992, p. 130.

Newsweek. CXX, August 31, 1992, p. 69.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXIX, June 29, 1992, p. 47.

Variety. CCCXLVIII, September 21, 1992, p. 103.

The Wall Street Journal. September 28, 1992, p. A10.

The Washington Post. August 26, 1992, p. C2.