THE APPROPRIATENESS OF HISTORIC COSTUMING OF MALE PROTAGONISTS IN HISTORIC EPIC MOVIES by CLARISSA M. ESGUERRA (Under the Direction of Patricia Hunt-Hurst) ABSTRACT Costuming functions as a tool to nonverbally communicate and manipulate visual identities, especially gender identity; applied to the costuming of characters in movies, the visual identity of a character is broadly amplified to the movie-going audience. The purpose of this study was to examine the costuming of male protagonists in historic epic movies for historical accuracy and how the era in which the movie was produced may have affected the level of accuracy. The Ten Commandments (1956) and Spartacus (1960) from the Cold War era and Gladiator (2000) and Troy (2004) from the turn of the millennia were viewed and comparatively analyzed in light of the American social dynamics of each era INDEX WORDS: historic costume, men’s wear, Ancient Egyptian costume, Ancient Greek costume, Ancient Roman costume, historic epic genre, movies, Cold War, post-World War II, America, turn of the millennia, gender dynamics THE APPROPRIATENESS OF HISTORIC COSTUMING OF MALE PROTAGONISTS IN HISTORIC EPIC MOVIES by CLARISSA M. ESGUERRA B.F.A., Brenau University, Women’s College, 2003 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE ATHENS, GEORGIA 2005 © 2005 Clarissa M. Esguerra All Rights Reserved THE APPROPRIATENESS OF HISTORIC COSTUMING OF MALE PROTAGONISTS IN HISTORIC EPIC MOVIES by CLARISSA M. ESGUERRA Major Professor: Patricia Hunt-Hurst Committee: April Allen Soyoung Kim Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have experienced a substantial amount of intellectual and personal growth during my time in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors at the University of Georgia, and I credit much of this growth to my major advisor Dr. Patricia Hunt-Hurst. Like all gifted teachers, she harnessed the burgeoning woman inside of me and led me towards paths and opportunities that I may not have found on my own. I hope that one day I may be able to take what I have learned from you and do this for others. In addition, a great thank you to my committee members. Thank you to Dr. April Allen for your support and meticulous attention to detail and to Dr. Soyoung Kim for your encouragement and for the much needed help with my methodology. I appreciate all of the insights, time, and faith that you have both given me. I also thank the TMI staff for their warmth and welcoming attitudes, as well as all of the TMI graduate students who I have had the pleasure to meet, learn from, and befriend. Also, thank you to my previous educators who have laid the foundation of what would become an intellectual passion for me, especially Janet Morley at Brenau Women’s College and Susan Neill at the Atlanta History Center. I have not and will not forget all that you have taught me and done for me. To all of those who have made my experience in Athens memorable, thank you, especially Lenny, Becca, Melody, Micki, and Jaime. Your enduring friendships and iv loving support through everything will stay with me always. Also, thank you to the group for teaching me that life is worth living a little. Most importantly, thank you to Mom, Dad, Ate Maria, Patricia, and Emily, my family and source of unconditional love and encouragement. I am proud to be a daughter and sister to you. Thank you Mom and Dad for all of your sacrifices and sagacious knowledge; you are exemplary models of love, ambition, and happiness. And thank you to my sisters, my best friends until the end. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1 Statement of the Problem.............................................................................. 3 Objectives ..................................................................................................... 5 Justification................................................................................................... 6 Limitations.................................................................................................... 8 Definition of Terms ...................................................................................... 8 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE.......................................................................... 11 Cold War Paranoia and Conservatism in Post-WWII American Culture... 11 Cold War Paranoia and Conservatism in Post-WWII American Cinema .. 18 The Rise of Historic Epic Movies in the 1950s and Early 1960s............... 20 New Millennium Politics and Society in America, 1990s to 2000s........... 25 Opulence in 1990s Movies: Megapictures, Mega Spending, and the Come Back of Historic Epic Movies............................................................... 28 General Background of Chosen Historic Epic Movies............................... 31 Unbifurcated Men’s Costume: Historic Accuracies of Ancient Egyptian, Greece, and Roman Dress..................................................................... 40 vi Understanding Visual Culture .................................................................... 72 3 METHODOLOGY.......................................................................................... 82 Application of Qualitative Research to the Collection of Data .................. 83 Procedure .................................................................................................... 87 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................... 90 Additional Limitations................................................................................ 90 Found Accuracies and Inaccuracies of the Historic Costuming of the Male Protagonists........................................................................................... 91 Comparative Analysis of Findings ........................................................... 115 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 120 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................... 123 Major Findings.......................................................................................... 124 Objectives Examined................................................................................ 125 Implications .............................................................................................. 127 Recommendations for Further Research .................................................. 129 REFERENCES................................................................................................................ 131 APPENDICES................................................................................................................. 138 A Checklist of Accuracy in the Male Protagonist’s Historic Costume: The Ten Commandments (1956)............................................................... 138 B Checklist of Accuracy in the Male Protagonist’s Historic Costume: Spartacus (1960)....................................................................................... 141 C Checklist of Accuracy in the Male Protagonist’s Historic Costume: Gladiator (2000)....................................................................................... 146 vii D Checklist of Accuracy in the Male Protagonist’s Historic Costume: Troy (2004) ............................................................................................... 152 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Illustration of Ancient Egyptian short schenti................................................... 44 Figure 2: Illustration of Ancient Egyptian schenti with decorative triangular panel ........ 44 Figure 3: Illustration of Ancient Egyptian draped kalasiris, style 1.................................. 46 Figure 4: Illustration of Ancient Egyptian kalasiris, style 2 over a schenti ...................... 46 Figure 5: Ancient Egyptian relief, Eighteenth Dynasty.................................................... 48 Figure 6: Illustration of Ancient Egyptian military officer and pharaoh .......................... 50 Figure 7: Mycenaean fresco of Minos, Knossos............................................................... 53 Figure 8: Line drawing of Mycenaean long skirt.............................................................. 54 Figure 9: Line drawing of Mycenaean poncho-like cape.................................................. 54 Figure 10: Mycenaean perizoma and codpiece................................................................. 55 Figure 11: Illustration of long sleeve Mycenae tunic........................................................ 57 Figure 12: Illustration of short sleeve Mycenae tunic....................................................... 57 Figure 13: Mycenaean military dress................................................................................ 58 Figure 14: Roman Republic colobium and toga illustrations............................................ 63 Figure 15: Line drawing of Ancient Roman subligar ....................................................... 65 Figure