Talk:Historical drama/Archive 1

Archive 1

Changes

Made some changes to the definition since it is fairly nuanced and tricky depending how it's used. Blooms usage for example applies the objective definition #2 about prior eras to his opinion of how future eras will view works published in our own era. One can't easily call a work of art published in our own era a "period piece" without the label having a high degree of subjectivity. However one can label a work from prior eras a period piece with a lot more certainty and objective measurement.

Also regarding this section which I moved here:

When used in the context of cinema, "period" refers to a picture that is set in a past time. Examples would be such diverse films as Gladiator, Quo Vadis, and Ben Hur (Classical Rome) or Al Capone, The Untouchables, and Road to Perdition (Prohibition-era). Generally, a period film will make efforts to accurately reflect the time period in which it occurs, as opposed to works such as the Western, sword and sandal, or some Kung Fu Movies which are set in times long past but merely use this device as a backdrop. Seven Samurai could be considered a period film, while a Jackie Chan film taking place in medieval China would likely not be. Most John Wayne movies are considered Westerns, but The Alamo is a period film.

This is just a re-hash of the first definition and so much trivia - why movies, we could do the same with any dozens of art forms and make a lengthy list of "examples". It doesn't add anything to the article and encourages adding trivia for everyones favorite historical film. -- 71.191.47.120 03:39, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Costume drama

Similar concepts. Articles should be merged and sourced. Also consider merging with Historical fiction. Osubuckeyeguy (talk) 01:44, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

@Osubuckeyeguy: Similar does not mean identical. Nuance is needed. If you read the descriptions, there is only an overlap, that doesn't mean that a merger is justified. The merger was premature and should be undone. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 17:01, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

@Mad Hatter: Note that the terms costume drama and costume film are not even mentioned in the article, so the sentence "The implication is that the audience is attracted as much by the lavish costumes as by the content" introduced into this article as part of the merger does not even make sense. Shoddy work like this is a disgrace for Wikipedia. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 17:07, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Classification of Old Heidelberg (1959 film)

Would the film Old Heidelberg be classified as a historical period drama? --Lo Ximiendo (talk) 03:02, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

Hard to say since A) this article cites no sources so the definition of "historical drama" is original research, and B) there is no synopsis of "Alt Heidelberg" so it's hard to say when it is set. Based on the google image search results, it looks like a costume drama, but I'd find a source. To me, if it's set in a "period" (like, at least one generation) before its production date, then it probably fits. But I think a more important task is to start finding sources for the basic definitions at this page and at List_of_historical_period_drama_films_and_series.Henry chianski (talk) 15:57, 22 January 2017 (UTC)