The war that won't die

The research is rich in specifics, and makes abundantly clear why the conflict presents a particularly fruitful subject of analysis in relation to these issues.

In one of Archibald's aforementioned first-hand interviews, Guillermo Del Toro is quoted as saying that "every real event....needs an imaginary re-telling," and The War That Won't Die seems to concur, demonstrating the diverse ways that cinema can contribute meaningfully to debates about the past and its influence on the present.

'Archibald successfully demonstrates through his detailed and wide-ranging analysis, the 'elasticity of cinematic depictions' (p. 184) of the war and its unresolved political, emotional and social legacy. He emphasizes the importance of these contributions in helping understand both events of the Civil War and the difficulties of representing the past, from the point of view of the artist and the historian. The book demonstrates the appositeness of its title, 'The War that Won't Die' in that recent artistic depictions help us understand why the war's legacy is still so contested. While the book's lengthy and often unnecessarily detailed synopses of the films can at times create burdensome readerly headwinds it is a masterful case study on film's contribution to understanding historical events. Its accessible style will benefit students and more advanced scholars of film and the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath.'
Sarah Lonsdale, CINEJ Cinema Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2018)