Sheldon Hall (film historian)

Sheldon Hall is a film historian based in the Humanities department of Sheffield Hallam University. ^[1]

His books include Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters (co-written with Steve Neale) which Jim Whalley called "an important addition to work considering popular film and film industries". ^{[2] [3]} He also wrote Zulu: With Some Guts Behind It about the 1964 film. ^[4] His latest book, Armchair Cinema: A History of Feature Films on British Television, 1929-1981, was published in June 2024.

Biography

Sheldon teaches in the Film Studies department at Sheffield Hallam University, where he has taught since 1997. He was previously a lecturer at the University of Northumbria. He had been a freelance journalist and lecturer based in the North East of England, and was for eleven years the film and theatre critic of the major regional newspaper, the Northern Echo . ^[1] Sheldon has also recorded audio commentaries for DVDs and contributed to Channel 4 and BBC Four documentaries. ^[5]

Published works

Books

• Zulu: With Some Guts Behind It (Tomahawk Press (GA), 2005, ISBN   0-9531926-6-0) ^[6]
• Epics, Spectacles and Blockbusters (co-authored with Steve Neale; Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010, ISBN   978-0-8143-3008-1)
• Widescreen Worldwide (co-edited with Steve Neale and John Belton; John Libbey Publishing, 2010, ISBN   978-0-8619-6694-3) ^[7]
• Armchair Cinema: A History of Feature Films on British Television, 1929-1981 (Edinburgh University Press, 2025). ISBN 9781399520140.

Chapters in books

• How the West Was Won: History, Spectacle and the American Mountains’, in Ian Cameron and Douglas Pye (eds.), The Movie Book of the Western (London: Studio Vista, 1996)
• "The Wrong Sort of Cinema: Refashioning the Heritage Film Debate", in Robert Murphy (ed.), The British Cinema Book (Second Edition, BFI Publishing, 2001), ISBN   0-85170-851-X, pp. 191–99. (To be revised and expanded in 2007.)
• "Monkey Feathers: Defending Zulu", in Claire Monk and Amy Sargeant (eds), British Historical Cinema (Routledge, 2002) ISBN   0-415-23810-2, pp. 110–28.
• "Tall Revenue Features: The Genealogy of the Contemporary Blockbuster", in Steve Neale (ed.), Genre and Contemporary Hollywood (BFI Publishing, 2002), ISBN   0-85170-887-0, pp. 11–26.
• "Carpenter’s Widescreen Style", in Ian Conrich and David Woods (eds), The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror (Wallflower Press, 2004), ISBN   1-904764-14-2, pp. 66–77.
• "Twentieth Century Fox in the 1960s", "Blockbusters in the 1970s" and "The Sound of Music", in Linda Ruth Williams and Michael Hammond (eds), Contemporary American Cinema (McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press, 2006), ISBN   0-335-21831-8, pp. 26–28, 46-49, 164-81.
• Six entries in Alastair Phillips and Ginette Vincendeau (eds), Journeys of Desire: European Actors in Hollywood (BFI Publishing, 2006), ISBN   1-84457-124-6, pp. 170, 196-98, 240, 276-77, 336-37, 469.
• Thirty-nine entries in Robert Murphy (ed.), Directors in British and Irish Cinema: A Reference Guide (BFI Publishing, 2006), ISBN   1-84457-126-2.
• Three chapters in Ian Cameron (ed.), Unexplored Hitchcock (Moffat: Cameron and Hollis, forthcoming).

Journal articles

• "Selling Religion: How to Market a Biblical Epic", Film History, 14: 2 (2002), pp. 170–85.
• "Dial M for Murder", Film History, 16: 2 (2004), pp. 243–55.
• "Rodoslovlje modernog blockbustera", Hrvatski filmski Ljetopis, 40 (2004) pp. 5–16 (Croatian translation of ‘Tall Revenue Features’ [see above] in Neale, Genre and Contemporary Hollywood).
• Review article, "British Social Realism: In Print and on DVD", in Viewfinder, no. 54 (March 2004), pp. 8–10.
• Book reviews, "British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit Grit" and "J. Lee Thompson", both in Journal of British Cinema and Television, 1:2 (2004), pp. 306–09, 321-24.
• "The Hills Are Alive in East Anglia: The Sound of Music Comes to Norwich", Picture House, no. 30 (2005), pp. 34–39.
• Book review, "ABC: The First Name in Entertainment", et al., Journal of British Cinema and Television, 3:1 (2006), pp. 188–91.
• Internet Article: "Size Still Matters! The 2004 Oslo 70mm Film Festival", posted 1 October 2004, in70mm.com: The 70mm Newsletter (http://www.in70mm.com/news/2004/oslo/oslo_2004.htm)

Other writings

• An Opera of Violence - Documentary on Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West
• Something to Do with Death - Further documentary on Once Upon a Time in the West
• The Wages of Sin - Further documentary on Once Upon a Time in the West

The above three titles are featured on the 2003 special edition DVD release of Once Upon a Time in the West

• The Making of 'Zulu': ...and Snappeth the Spear in Sunder - Documentary available on the 2002 special edition DVD release of Cy Endfield's Zulu

References

1. "Staff Profiles: Dr Sheldon Hall". Sheffield Hallam University. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
2. Whalley, Jim (2011). "Review of Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale, Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History". New Review of Film and Television Studies. 9 (2): 241–245. doi:10.1080/17400309.2011.556952. S2CID   191624887.
3. Smith, Roslin (2013). "Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: a Hollywood History by Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale (review)". Journal of Film and Video. 65 (1): 100–101. doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.65.1-2.0100.
4. "Film expert set for second Zulu dawn". The Sheffield Star. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
5. "Sheldon Hall". 26 November 2018.
6. "Sheldon Hall | Sheffield Hallam University".
7. Krukones, James H. (2014). "Widescreen Worldwide edited by John Belton, Sheldon Hall, and Steve Neale (review)". Film & History. 44 (1): 101–103.

External links

• Sheldon Hall at IMDb
• Sheldon Hall Times blog
• Sheldon Hall on film studies at YouTube