ABSTRACT
Scholars can fault Hollywood for showing only selected aspects of the past, however, it also deserves one's praise for exhibiting certain universal qualities of humanity that neither history nor archaeology can effectively address. Negative cultural stereotypes can be hurtful, to be sure, but there is nothing inherently wrong with a little mythic imagery and fanciful history. Movies set in the past have been popular since motion pictures were in their infancy, and many of those movies are among the greatest artistic achievements ever captured on film. Edwin Porter's pioneering production of The Great Train Robbery, made only a decade after Thomas Alva Edison established the first commercial motion picture studio, foreshadowed what would eventually become the classic Western movie genre and promised great things for the fledgling movie industry. Notable foreign films dealing with historical themes have been redone with settings more familiar to American audiences substituted for the more obscure originals.
