Students of history professor Dr. William Robison know that he is not shy about using film in his classes, and now he has taken his love of history and film to paper with his upcoming book, “The Tudors on Film and Television,” co-authored by professor emeritus of English Dr. Sue Parrill.
The book is meant to give a comprehensive look at the Tudor’s portrayal on film and television.
Robison’s initial idea for the book came from classes he taught in 2009 and 2010 on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I on film. While students enjoyed the classes, Robison realized that there was little work done on the Tudors and the film they were portrayed in.
“There were a few things written about individual films, but no one had really done a comprehensive look on everything that’s out there,” said Robison. “What I discovered when I started looking is there’s just tons of stuff that’s sort of come in phases.”
Coincidentally, Parrill, a close friend of Robison, had just finished writing a book on Horatio Nelson titled “Nelson’s Navy in Fiction and Film.” Robison shared his observations with Parrill and they decided to undertake the project together.
“I was talking about this with Sue Parrill and she was just finishing up a project on Horatio Nelson and was looking for another project and mentioned she had been thinking about doing something about the Tudors,” said Robison. “I said ‘well I’ve been thinking about the same thing, why don’t we do this together?'”
According to Robison, this partnership was great because they had known each other since Parrill’s days as department head of English at Southeastern. In the end, it became almost necessary because of the large amount of films the two uncovered while doing research for the book.
Robison described the book as being part film analysis and part historical. He said that they tried to answer what they identified as key questions.
“What we do is provide as much basic information about them as possible. We also have essays of varying length depending on the importance of the film. We really look at several questions,” said Robison. “Is it a good movie? Because it can be totally inaccurate and still be a good movie. Is it historically accurate? Regardless of how good it is or if it’s historically accurate, what does it tell us about when it was made? Another thing we try to look at is how they could be used for teaching.”
In addition to the book, Robison and Parrill have launched an interactive website that serves as a companion to the book. According to Robison, the website, www.tudorsonfilm.com, will be updated as new films are discovered or made.
“We decided a good way to keep the book from being immediately obsolete would be to have a website that goes along with it,” said Robison. “The idea is that as things come out we will write new essays and post them on there.”
On the website, users will find a blog where they can post comments about anything having to do with the Tudors on film. Additionally, the website has a subscribe button that will allow Robison and Parrill to keep fans of the book and website updated when new essays are posted.
“The Tudors on Film and Television” is expected to be released on Dec. 31, 2012. For now, people interested in the book can check out the website or the book’s Facebook and Twitter pages at www.facebook.com/TudorsOnFilm or www.twitter.com/TudorsOnFilm.