Peasant: (mutely points at castle behind Bill and Ted)īill: So…who shall we get for Medieval? How about that gnarly old goat dude? Ted? Ted: We are in most excellent shape for our report.īill: Yeah, all we need is one more speaker from Medieval (Addressing a nearby peasant:)Įxcuse me! Do you know where there are any personages of historic significance around here? Indeed, within seconds of their time-travelling phonebooth landing the Great Ones are posing a fundamental question: who or what counts as “historic”?īilly the Kid (to Socrates): Not bad, eh, So-Craytz? Where are we, dude? Although they fail to “bag” anyone, this is more than a pit-stop. The achievement of this “most bodacious soldier, and general” who “totally rousted the English from France, and then…turned this dude Dauphin into a King!” clearly impresses both heroes, however. Only one of the eight is female: “Miss of Arc”, initially confused with Noah’s wife. Whereas the heroes use various ruses to kidnap the other historical actors, Genghis Khan is lured away with a twinkie. The only non-European figure is the “very excellent barbarian” Genghis Khan, who is presented in orientalizing terms: violent and incontinent (as in, not in control of his urges). In many respects, it must be conceded, the Great Ones’ choice was heinously retardataire. Thirty years on, how does their choice of historical voices stand up? How “futuristic” were they as historians? Wyld Stallyns and the future of civilisation are saved. Their assignment is unapologetically presentist:Įxpress to the class how an important historical figure from each of your time periods would view the world of San Dimas, 1988.īill and Ted in turn travel back in time to “bag” a series of historical figures whose commentaries on late twentieth-century SoCal help the pair produce a most triumphant son et lumière presentation, astounding fellow students and faculty alike. Rufus’ mission: to save the future by travelling back in time to San Dimas, California, to help Bill and Ted ace their final History report. Unfortunately this civilisation is imperilled when the Great Ones’ lacklustre performance in high-school History threatens to break up Wyld Stallyns, with Ted (Reeves) facing imminent enrolment in an Alaskan military school. Bill and Ted of the heavy-metal band Wyld Stallyns. To what extent did the film represent a “Metalhead Turn” in historical thinking?īill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) opened with time-traveller Rufus (comedian George Carlin) describing a future utopia in which war and conflict have been abolished and the planets brought into alignment, all thanks to the musical genius of “the Great Ones”, a.k.a. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves). A Historiographical Analysis of Bill & TedĪs the much-anticipated third instalment in the Bill & Ted franchise arrives in theatres, Dr Jonathan Conlin turns a historian’s eye on the 1989 film that introduced us to “the Great Ones”: Bill S.
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