1. “We have heard enough already about the tightrope walker, now let us see him too!” - History and Digital Memory in the Cinema of Robert Zemeckis

Shai Biderman

From the movie: The walk, 2015

Abstract

This article argues that cinematic recreations of historical events in recent years involve three major changes in the ways realism is produced and perceived. The first is related to the extensive use of new technologies (primarily that of CGI) in the formation of the “historical” image. A second shift stems from the reciprocal transition of truth and fiction, as manifested through the hybrid genres of docudrama and true crime. A third shift involves newly developed cinematic strategies and rhetorical tools during the past decades. These changes, when crafted together, evolved into a new cinematic perception of history. This new, understudied, approach to historical authenticity in film is crucial for contemporary memory culture. The article considers the threefold shift in cinematic representations of history through a close reading of Robert Zemeckis’ historical films. In these films—from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990) to Forest Gump (1994) and The Walk (2015)—Zemeckis employs all three components of the new historical image, thus serving as a polygenic case study for the aforementioned analysis.