The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Adventure Movies by Brian Taves PUBLISHER: University Press of Mississippi YEAR: 1993 SUMMARY: The historical adventure movie is one of the most enduring and mythically significant American film genres. Despite the popularity of historical adven ture since the early days of filmmaking, never before has this Hollywood genre b een analyzed in a comprehensive manner. The book explores adventure's subgenres --swashbucklers, tales of pirates, the sea, exploration, and the building of emp ires, in films as diverse as "Robin Hood," "The Three Musketeers," "Zorro," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "The Buccaneer," "Mutiny on the Bounty," "Captain Horat io Hornblower," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Gunga Din," and many more. Whatever the time or place, from Sherwood Forest to colonial Asia, such movies d epict the universal fight for liberty or justice. "To paraphrase Caesar, Taves chooses a genre of obvious personal as well as prof essional interest. He thoroughly examined numerous exampels of the genre, and h e thereby conquered its essence." -- Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Tele vision "A coherent, clear, and comprehensive book ... done exceptionally well." -- Ame rican Studies "Taves has created a dual triumph--a book that not only captures our interest as film buffs reliving all those wonderful memories of pirates, knights in armor, and Arabian princes with magic carpets, but he also places these often neglected films within the structure of American popular culture." -- Garth Jowett, University of Houston

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