World History: The Hollywood Version by Andy Rohmer – Review

Andy Rohmer is the author of the highly entertaining Writers on Film series. So far, he has produced three books in this series which focuses on crime writers work and how the adaptations have fared on the small and silver screen. Now Rohmer has started a new series and it promises to be just as good, exploring his fascination of how cinema provides a unique perspective on knowledge we have already acquired through text.

World History – the Hollywood Version analyses, film by film, how history has been shaped, rendered and distorted onscreen. Rohmer isn’t the first author to make this study. He acknowledges the work of George MacDonald Fraser but argues convincingly that the Flashman author was too soft on his Hollywood paymasters when he claimed that the big screen gets most of the historical details right. Rohmer doesn’t go so easy on them. Indeed, as the first volume is on pre-history, roughly 3 million years to 10,000 BC, relatively few filmmakers have had the courage to translate this period into a celluloid narrative. But Rohmer finds the films and covers them forensically one by one. His writing style is witty and engaging, and film-lovers will find much to admire here. Even the most seasoned cinephile will be surprised at the depths of knowledge that can be found in the book. Highly recommended.