Historical films have been subject to controversy and criticism within the discipline of history upon the rise of popular interest in new and innovative forms of historical representation. The five to seven years between the release of Gladiator (2000) and Rome (2005-2007) saw an upsurge of historical films focusing on the ‘epic’: the spectacular, monumental and immersive periods of history that exude a mix of historical reality and speculative fiction. This paper argues that it is not historical accuracy or film as historical evidence that matters, but the historical questions and debates that film raises for its audience and the historical profession regarding the past it presents and its implication on history. Such questions and debates base themselves around the extent to which filmmakers are able to interpret history through images and what kind of historical understandings it hopes to achieve. This paper analyses the complexity of public history through a comparative study of reviews on five online message boards, such as IMBD, Amazon, TV.com and Metacritic, relating to HBO’s Rome – chosen due to its unique ability of igniting historiographical debate by presenting history as an accident, thus allowing audiences to question and reinterpret the outcome of historical events. KEYWORDSHBO; Rome; Film; Historiography; Public History; Popular Imagination

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大众想象与历史现实

随着人们对新型和创新形式的历史表现形式的兴趣日益浓厚，历史电影在历史学科中受到了争议和批评。在《角斗士》（2000年）和罗马（2005-2007年）发行之间的五到七年间，以“史诗”为重点的历史电影高涨：壮观，丰碑和沉浸式的历史时期散发着历史现实与现实的融合。投机小说。本文认为，重要的不是历史准确性或电影作为历史证据，而是电影给观众和历史专业带来的关于电影所呈现的过去及其对历史的影响的历史问题和辩论。这些问题和辩论的依据是电影制作人能够在多大程度上通过图像解释历史，以及电影希望获得什么样的历史理解。本文通过对五个有关HBO罗马的在线留言板（如IMBD，亚马逊，TV.com和Metacritic）的评论进行比较研究，分析了公共历史的复杂性，这是由于其通过呈现历史来激发史学辩论的独特能力这是一次意外，因此观众可以质疑和重新解释历史事件的结果。关键字：SHBO; 罗马; 电影; 史学; 公共历史；大众想象力 com和Metacritic，与HBO的罗马有关-之所以被选中，是因为它具有独特的能力，可以通过将历史呈现为偶然事件来引发史学辩论，从而使观众可以质疑和重新解释历史事件的结果。关键字：SHBO; 罗马; 电影; 史学; 公共历史；大众想象力 com和Metacritic，与HBO的罗马有关-之所以被选中，是因为它具有独特的能力，可以通过将历史呈现为偶然事件来引发史学辩论，从而使观众可以质疑和重新解释历史事件的结果。关键字：SHBO; 罗马; 电影; 史学; 公共历史；大众想象力