Drawing upon theories from folkloristics, history, and audience studies, this thesis analyzes historical films, their reception, and the importance of history and film in everyday life. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I demonstrate how a folkloric perspective may contribute to and strengthen the study of historical films by emphasizing the attributes of narrative and belief at the vernacular level of reception. With an ethnographic and qualitative focus on the informal, common, and everyday film viewing habits of specific individuals in relation to historical belief, this project provides empirical evidence that is necessary for a more accurate understanding of the function and reception of historical films. This study also re-examines the formal aspects of historical films in relation to historical re-construction, the definition and categorization of such films, their reception, their function beyond entertainment, and the need for an integration of new research in both audience studies and folklore studies.