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The Sound of Silence: Ryan Gosling, Expressionism and the Silent Hero in 21st-Century Film
by Nancy EptonThe Sound of Silence explores how non-verbal communication in film, shown primarily through the acting of Ryan Gosling, provides an expressive space in which passive audience viewing is made more active by removing the expository signifier of dialogue. The German Expressionist era may have been brief, but the shadows cast since its end nonetheless loom large. The silhouetted, cigar-wielding men of film noir and their respectively dark, doom-laden haunts mirror the angst-inducing atmospheres of their forebearers, while also introducing the now-familiar figure of the silent hero. Considering the numerous silent hero actors in film history, there's one that stands out in the 21st century like no other: Ryan Gosling. His later career has seen some of the most iconic silent heroes of the past decade, with films such as Drive, Only God Forgives, Blade Runner 2049 and First Man cementing him as the go-to guy for a monosyllabic, taciturn and moody hero whose actions speak louder than words. This book argues that it is Gosling's expressive capabilities that keep audiences compelled by his performances. With the use of non-verbal silence – combined with its counterbalance, sound – a more active, emotive audience response can be achieved. Looking further into this idea through theorists such as Michel Chion and Susan Sontag, the book demonstrates that the sound of silence is one of the most meaningful cinematic sounds of all.
The Sound of Silence: Ryan Gosling, Expressionism and the Silent Hero in 21st-Century Film
by Nancy EptonThe Sound of Silence explores how non-verbal communication in film, shown primarily through the acting of Ryan Gosling, provides an expressive space in which passive audience viewing is made more active by removing the expository signifier of dialogue. The German Expressionist era may have been brief, but the shadows cast since its end nonetheless loom large. The silhouetted, cigar-wielding men of film noir and their respectively dark, doom-laden haunts mirror the angst-inducing atmospheres of their forebearers, while also introducing the now-familiar figure of the silent hero. Considering the numerous silent hero actors in film history, there's one that stands out in the 21st century like no other: Ryan Gosling. His later career has seen some of the most iconic silent heroes of the past decade, with films such as Drive, Only God Forgives, Blade Runner 2049 and First Man cementing him as the go-to guy for a monosyllabic, taciturn and moody hero whose actions speak louder than words. This book argues that it is Gosling's expressive capabilities that keep audiences compelled by his performances. With the use of non-verbal silence – combined with its counterbalance, sound – a more active, emotive audience response can be achieved. Looking further into this idea through theorists such as Michel Chion and Susan Sontag, the book demonstrates that the sound of silence is one of the most meaningful cinematic sounds of all.
Powell and Pressburger’s War: The Art of Propaganda, 1939-1946
by Professor Greg M. Semenza Garrett A. Sullivan Jr.A focused study on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's cinematic contributions to the war effort, arguing for the centrality of propaganda to their work as film artists.Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are widely hailed as two of the greatest filmmakers in British cinema history. The release of their first movie, The Spy in Black, barely preceded the beginning of World War Two, and a number of their early masterworks, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, and A Matter of Life and Death, were produced in the service of the war effort. Through exploring the relationship between art and propaganda, this book shows that Powell and Pressburger saw no contradiction between their aesthetic ambitions and their cinematic war work: propaganda imperatives were highly conducive to their objectives as both commercial cinema practitioners and artists.Drawing on production materials from the archives of the British Film Institute, this book charts three phases in Powell and Pressburger's wartime career: from first-time collaborators who strive to reconcile popular cinematic forms with developing notions of what constitutes effective propaganda; to accomplished, and sometimes controversial, propagandists whose movies center upon Britain's relations with its enemies and allies; to filmmakers whose responsiveness to the propaganda requirements of the late war is matched by a focus, shared by the Ministry of Information, on what the post-war future would bring.
Powell and Pressburger’s War: The Art of Propaganda, 1939-1946
by Professor Greg M. Semenza Garrett A. Sullivan Jr.A focused study on Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's cinematic contributions to the war effort, arguing for the centrality of propaganda to their work as film artists.Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are widely hailed as two of the greatest filmmakers in British cinema history. The release of their first movie, The Spy in Black, barely preceded the beginning of World War Two, and a number of their early masterworks, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, and A Matter of Life and Death, were produced in the service of the war effort. Through exploring the relationship between art and propaganda, this book shows that Powell and Pressburger saw no contradiction between their aesthetic ambitions and their cinematic war work: propaganda imperatives were highly conducive to their objectives as both commercial cinema practitioners and artists.Drawing on production materials from the archives of the British Film Institute, this book charts three phases in Powell and Pressburger's wartime career: from first-time collaborators who strive to reconcile popular cinematic forms with developing notions of what constitutes effective propaganda; to accomplished, and sometimes controversial, propagandists whose movies center upon Britain's relations with its enemies and allies; to filmmakers whose responsiveness to the propaganda requirements of the late war is matched by a focus, shared by the Ministry of Information, on what the post-war future would bring.
Cinema, Suffering and Psychoanalysis: The Mechanism of Self
by Laura StephensonCinema, Suffering and Psychoanalysis explores psychological disorder as common to the human condition using a unique three-angled approach: psychoanalysis recognises the inherent suffering encountered by each subject due to developmental phases; psychology applies specific categorisation to how this suffering manifests; cinema depicts suffering through a combination of video and aural elements. Functioning as a culturally reflexive medium, the six feature films analysed, including Black Swan (2010) and The Machinist (2004), represent some of the most common psychological disorders and lived experiences of the contemporary era. This book enters unchartered terrain in cinema scholarship by combining clinical psychology's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Five (DSM-V) to organise and diagnose each character, and psychoanalysis to track the origin, mechanism and affect of the psychological disorder within the narrative trajectory of each film. Lacan's theories on the infantile mirror phase, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic, Žižek's theories on the Real, the big Other and the Event, and Kristeva's theories on abjection and melancholia work in combination with the DSM's classification of symptoms to interpret six contemporary pieces of cinema. By taking into consideration that origin, mechanism, affect and symptomatology are part of an interconnected group, this book explores psychological disorder as part of the human condition, something which contributes to and informs personal identity. More specifically, this research refutes the notion that psychological disorder and psychological health exist as a binary, instead recognising that what has traditionally been pathologised, may instead be viewed as variations on human identity.
Cinema, Suffering and Psychoanalysis: The Mechanism of Self
by Laura StephensonCinema, Suffering and Psychoanalysis explores psychological disorder as common to the human condition using a unique three-angled approach: psychoanalysis recognises the inherent suffering encountered by each subject due to developmental phases; psychology applies specific categorisation to how this suffering manifests; cinema depicts suffering through a combination of video and aural elements. Functioning as a culturally reflexive medium, the six feature films analysed, including Black Swan (2010) and The Machinist (2004), represent some of the most common psychological disorders and lived experiences of the contemporary era. This book enters unchartered terrain in cinema scholarship by combining clinical psychology's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Five (DSM-V) to organise and diagnose each character, and psychoanalysis to track the origin, mechanism and affect of the psychological disorder within the narrative trajectory of each film. Lacan's theories on the infantile mirror phase, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic, Žižek's theories on the Real, the big Other and the Event, and Kristeva's theories on abjection and melancholia work in combination with the DSM's classification of symptoms to interpret six contemporary pieces of cinema. By taking into consideration that origin, mechanism, affect and symptomatology are part of an interconnected group, this book explores psychological disorder as part of the human condition, something which contributes to and informs personal identity. More specifically, this research refutes the notion that psychological disorder and psychological health exist as a binary, instead recognising that what has traditionally been pathologised, may instead be viewed as variations on human identity.
Film, Negation and Freedom: Capitalism and Romantic Critique
by Will KitchenFilm, Negation and Freedom: Capitalism and Romantic Critique explores cinema in relation to the critical tradition in modern philosophy and its heritage in Romantic aesthetics. Synthesising a variety of discursive fields and traditions - including Early German Romanticism, Frankfurt School critical theory and the aesthetic philosophy of Jacques Rancière - Film, Negation and Freedom outlines a radical new approach to film by re-examining the work of Arthur Penn and Lindsay Anderson. A distinction between Light and Dark Romanticism is introduced as a means of interpreting cinema's relationship with capitalism, as well as dualistic concepts such as stillness and motion, passivity and activity, pain and pleasure. Film, Negation and Freedom revitalises our understanding of modern audio-visual media, as well as the aesthetic, philosophical and political conditions of Romantic subjectivity, artistic practice and spectatorship.
Film, Negation and Freedom: Capitalism and Romantic Critique
by Will KitchenFilm, Negation and Freedom: Capitalism and Romantic Critique explores cinema in relation to the critical tradition in modern philosophy and its heritage in Romantic aesthetics. Synthesising a variety of discursive fields and traditions - including Early German Romanticism, Frankfurt School critical theory and the aesthetic philosophy of Jacques Rancière - Film, Negation and Freedom outlines a radical new approach to film by re-examining the work of Arthur Penn and Lindsay Anderson. A distinction between Light and Dark Romanticism is introduced as a means of interpreting cinema's relationship with capitalism, as well as dualistic concepts such as stillness and motion, passivity and activity, pain and pleasure. Film, Negation and Freedom revitalises our understanding of modern audio-visual media, as well as the aesthetic, philosophical and political conditions of Romantic subjectivity, artistic practice and spectatorship.
Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach
by Professor Paul Joseph GulinoA substantial update of the previous edition, Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach deconstructs recent feature films and offers a new section analysing popular television series.A proven screenwriting method in emotionally engaging an audience, the sequence approach emphasises the underlying motives of each story plot to better convey its relation to the work as a whole. In this expanded second edition, Paul Gulino includes analyses of recent noteworthy films and serial dramas, such as Parasite, Barry and Breaking Bad, with an eye to how they manage audience attention, convey vital information and deliver their emotional payloads. The aim of the book is to help writers move readily from the feature film to the serial form, mastering both. It is perfect for both beginning writers and those with experience in the feature screenplay form.
Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach
by Professor Paul Joseph GulinoA substantial update of the previous edition, Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach deconstructs recent feature films and offers a new section analysing popular television series.A proven screenwriting method in emotionally engaging an audience, the sequence approach emphasises the underlying motives of each story plot to better convey its relation to the work as a whole. In this expanded second edition, Paul Gulino includes analyses of recent noteworthy films and serial dramas, such as Parasite, Barry and Breaking Bad, with an eye to how they manage audience attention, convey vital information and deliver their emotional payloads. The aim of the book is to help writers move readily from the feature film to the serial form, mastering both. It is perfect for both beginning writers and those with experience in the feature screenplay form.
Feature Film Budgeting: A Step-by-Step Manual
by Ken GoldbergFeature Film Budgeting: A Step-by-Step Manual is a step-by-step guide to film budgeting in the $600k to $6.5 Million range. Be it the film student, Line Producer, 1st Assistant Director, or script writer, all will benefit from the easy-to-follow steps on how to create a film budget. This book walks the reader through how to:- find current and future salary rates for every Hollywood Guild- determine Prep and Wrap periods for all crew members- navigate the Guild contracts for easy understanding- analyze salary rates and how they were arrived at- simplify the application of fringe rates (tax percentages). Additionally, sample budgets are presented to reinforce knowledge gained in each chapter through a comprehensive breakdown. Notably, this manual covers films budgeted in the $600,000 to $6.5 Million range. This allows the reader to focus and excel at those budget levels before moving on to higher budget levels.
Feature Film Budgeting: A Step-by-Step Manual
by Ken GoldbergFeature Film Budgeting: A Step-by-Step Manual is a step-by-step guide to film budgeting in the $600k to $6.5 Million range. Be it the film student, Line Producer, 1st Assistant Director, or script writer, all will benefit from the easy-to-follow steps on how to create a film budget. This book walks the reader through how to:- find current and future salary rates for every Hollywood Guild- determine Prep and Wrap periods for all crew members- navigate the Guild contracts for easy understanding- analyze salary rates and how they were arrived at- simplify the application of fringe rates (tax percentages). Additionally, sample budgets are presented to reinforce knowledge gained in each chapter through a comprehensive breakdown. Notably, this manual covers films budgeted in the $600,000 to $6.5 Million range. This allows the reader to focus and excel at those budget levels before moving on to higher budget levels.
Screening Solidarity: Neoliberalism and Transnational Cinemas
by Helga Druxes Alexandar Mihailovic Patricia Anne SimpsonWestern neoliberalism is a predatory outgrowth of late capitalism that overvalues competition, transferring the laws of the market to human relationships. This book advances the argument that anti-neoliberal cinemas of Europe, the United States, and the Russian Federation imagine and visualize alternatives to the non-sovereign realities of a neoliberal workplace that unequivocally endorses dangerous risk-taking, self-optimizing neoliberal subjects, and corporate 'entrepreneurs of self.' Always at stake in the examination of neoliberalism's consequences is a human being who is indexed by race, gender, nation, ability, and economic performance. Drawing on film theory, transnational social histories, critical race theory, and Marxist and Foucauldian interpretive models, this book rediscovers a cinema that imagines a social contract focused on the common good and ethical standards for the social state. Anti-neoliberal cinema empowers the viewer as agentive through narratives that detail resistance to Western neoliberal modes of living and working. These filmmakers dramatize the labor of making solidarity across different groups.
Screening Solidarity: Neoliberalism and Transnational Cinemas
by Helga Druxes Alexandar Mihailovic Patricia Anne SimpsonWestern neoliberalism is a predatory outgrowth of late capitalism that overvalues competition, transferring the laws of the market to human relationships. This book advances the argument that anti-neoliberal cinemas of Europe, the United States, and the Russian Federation imagine and visualize alternatives to the non-sovereign realities of a neoliberal workplace that unequivocally endorses dangerous risk-taking, self-optimizing neoliberal subjects, and corporate 'entrepreneurs of self.' Always at stake in the examination of neoliberalism's consequences is a human being who is indexed by race, gender, nation, ability, and economic performance. Drawing on film theory, transnational social histories, critical race theory, and Marxist and Foucauldian interpretive models, this book rediscovers a cinema that imagines a social contract focused on the common good and ethical standards for the social state. Anti-neoliberal cinema empowers the viewer as agentive through narratives that detail resistance to Western neoliberal modes of living and working. These filmmakers dramatize the labor of making solidarity across different groups.
Spanish Meta-Art and Contemporary Cinema: Mirrors to the Unconscious
by Guillermo Rodríguez-RomagueraCan cinema reveal its audience's most subversive thinking? Do films have the potential to project their viewers' innermost thoughts making them apparent on the screen? This book argues that cinema has precisely this power, to unveil to the spectator their own hidden thoughts. It examines case studies from various cultures in conversation with Spain, a country whose enduring masterpieces in self-reflexive or meta-art provide insight into the special dynamic between viewer and screen. Framed around critical readings of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, Diego Velázquez' Las meninas and Luis Buñuel's Un chien andalou, this book examines contemporary films by Víctor Erice, Carlos Saura, Bigas Luna, Alejandro Amenábar, Lucrecia Martel, Krzysztof Kieslowski, David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Jonze, Andrzej Zulawski, Fernando Pérez, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven and David Cronenberg to illustrate how self-reflexivity in film unbridles the mental repression of film spectators. It proposes cinema as an uncanny duplication of the workings of the brain – a doppelgänger to human thought.
Spanish Meta-Art and Contemporary Cinema: Mirrors to the Unconscious
by Guillermo Rodríguez-RomagueraCan cinema reveal its audience's most subversive thinking? Do films have the potential to project their viewers' innermost thoughts making them apparent on the screen? This book argues that cinema has precisely this power, to unveil to the spectator their own hidden thoughts. It examines case studies from various cultures in conversation with Spain, a country whose enduring masterpieces in self-reflexive or meta-art provide insight into the special dynamic between viewer and screen. Framed around critical readings of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, Diego Velázquez' Las meninas and Luis Buñuel's Un chien andalou, this book examines contemporary films by Víctor Erice, Carlos Saura, Bigas Luna, Alejandro Amenábar, Lucrecia Martel, Krzysztof Kieslowski, David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Jonze, Andrzej Zulawski, Fernando Pérez, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven and David Cronenberg to illustrate how self-reflexivity in film unbridles the mental repression of film spectators. It proposes cinema as an uncanny duplication of the workings of the brain – a doppelgänger to human thought.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Taxidermy: Fashioning Corpses
by Subarna MondalThere are numerous scholarly works on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Some of these works have explored its Gothic potentials. However, no detailed effort has yet been made to explore one of its major motifs – taxidermy. Taxidermy as an art of corporeal preservation has effectively been used in mainstream body horror films years after Psycho was released. Yet Psycho was one of the first films to explore its potentials in the Gothic genre at a time when it was relegated to a low form of art. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Taxidermy focuses on taxidermy as a cultural practice in both Victorian and modern times and how it has been employed both metaphorically and literally in Hitchcock's films, especially Psycho. It also situates Psycho as a crucial film in the filmic continuum of body horrors where death and docility share a troubled relationship.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Taxidermy: Fashioning Corpses
by Subarna MondalThere are numerous scholarly works on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Some of these works have explored its Gothic potentials. However, no detailed effort has yet been made to explore one of its major motifs – taxidermy. Taxidermy as an art of corporeal preservation has effectively been used in mainstream body horror films years after Psycho was released. Yet Psycho was one of the first films to explore its potentials in the Gothic genre at a time when it was relegated to a low form of art. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Taxidermy focuses on taxidermy as a cultural practice in both Victorian and modern times and how it has been employed both metaphorically and literally in Hitchcock's films, especially Psycho. It also situates Psycho as a crucial film in the filmic continuum of body horrors where death and docility share a troubled relationship.
Neon Knight Forever: The Legacy of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Duology
by Tomasz ZaglewskiNeon Knight Forever is a detailed study of one of the most misunderstood superhero series that dares to ask the most heretical question for all Bat-fans: what if Batman & Robin is actually a valuable achievement in big-budget superhero cinema? The Batman franchise has remained one of the most lucrative and varied lines of superhero-based titles outside its original comic book, with adaptations from filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton, and Zack Snyder. However, among the many facets of Batman, there is one which remains on the margins of Bat-history, being treated as the most obscure or misconceived: the Batman duology directed by Joel Schumacher between 1995 and 1997, a creation which is seen by many fans as the "wrong" approach to the Batman mythos. Neon Knight Forever accounts for the initial rejection of Schumacher's version and explores modern attempts to rehabilitate Schumacher's vision of the infamous Neon Knight. Through discussing the formal foundations underlying both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin and featuring claims from the Schumacher online fandom, Zaglewski embraces the adaptation as a valuable addition to the Batman universe.
Neon Knight Forever: The Legacy of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Duology
by Tomasz ZaglewskiNeon Knight Forever is a detailed study of one of the most misunderstood superhero series that dares to ask the most heretical question for all Bat-fans: what if Batman & Robin is actually a valuable achievement in big-budget superhero cinema? The Batman franchise has remained one of the most lucrative and varied lines of superhero-based titles outside its original comic book, with adaptations from filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton, and Zack Snyder. However, among the many facets of Batman, there is one which remains on the margins of Bat-history, being treated as the most obscure or misconceived: the Batman duology directed by Joel Schumacher between 1995 and 1997, a creation which is seen by many fans as the "wrong" approach to the Batman mythos. Neon Knight Forever accounts for the initial rejection of Schumacher's version and explores modern attempts to rehabilitate Schumacher's vision of the infamous Neon Knight. Through discussing the formal foundations underlying both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin and featuring claims from the Schumacher online fandom, Zaglewski embraces the adaptation as a valuable addition to the Batman universe.
The British Trauma Film: Psychoanalysis and Popular British Cinema in the Immediate Aftermath of the Second World War
by Adam PlummerWhile the historical influence of psychoanalysis on Hollywood cinema has received considerable attention, the same cannot be said for its influence on British cinema. This book examines the central position that psychoanalysis occupies in British cinema in the years immediately following the Second World War. Plummer uses a critical theory framework to understand the role that psychoanalysis plays in British culture at this time as an historical discourse, and in British cinema as a narrative, a cultural, and an ideological discourse. He defines these as arising within various areas of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking related to traumatic wartime experience, sexual difference, and the interplay between subjectivity and objectivity. He analyzes six British films of the period: The Halfway House, Dead of Night, The Seventh Veil, Madonna of the Seven Moons, They Made Me a Fugitive, and Mine Own Executioner and demonstrates how psychoanalysis operates within them as a narrative and formal structuring mechanism. He argues that this engagement enables these films to begin to address the emotional fallout of the war by creating safe representational spaces where contemporary audiences could engage with their own traumatic experiences. While The British Trauma Film defines psychoanalysis as providing a language for British cinema at this time to confront the effects of wartime trauma, it finds that it also operates within a normalizing ideological system designed to reproduce dominant pre-war relations of political, social, and sexual power. However, in this group of films, this system is often countered by subversive discursive forces that seem to be immanent to the films themselves.
The British Trauma Film: Psychoanalysis and Popular British Cinema in the Immediate Aftermath of the Second World War
by Adam PlummerWhile the historical influence of psychoanalysis on Hollywood cinema has received considerable attention, the same cannot be said for its influence on British cinema. This book examines the central position that psychoanalysis occupies in British cinema in the years immediately following the Second World War. Plummer uses a critical theory framework to understand the role that psychoanalysis plays in British culture at this time as an historical discourse, and in British cinema as a narrative, a cultural, and an ideological discourse. He defines these as arising within various areas of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking related to traumatic wartime experience, sexual difference, and the interplay between subjectivity and objectivity. He analyzes six British films of the period: The Halfway House, Dead of Night, The Seventh Veil, Madonna of the Seven Moons, They Made Me a Fugitive, and Mine Own Executioner and demonstrates how psychoanalysis operates within them as a narrative and formal structuring mechanism. He argues that this engagement enables these films to begin to address the emotional fallout of the war by creating safe representational spaces where contemporary audiences could engage with their own traumatic experiences. While The British Trauma Film defines psychoanalysis as providing a language for British cinema at this time to confront the effects of wartime trauma, it finds that it also operates within a normalizing ideological system designed to reproduce dominant pre-war relations of political, social, and sexual power. However, in this group of films, this system is often countered by subversive discursive forces that seem to be immanent to the films themselves.
American Slavery on Film (Hollywood History)
by Caron KnauerA comprehensive and timely resource on the depictions in film of enslaved African Americans and slavery from the Antebellum Period to Emancipation.American Slavery on Film highlights historical and contemporary depictions in film of the resistance, rebellion, and resilience of enslaved African Americans in the United States from the Antebellum period to Emancipation. In her study of such films as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914), a silent movie adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel; the groundbreaking and successful television miniseries Roots (1977); and the Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet (2019), Caron Knauer analyzes how African American slavery has been and continues to be portrayed in major studio blockbusters and independent films alike. Separating the romanticized and unrealistic depictions of slavery from the more accurate but often unflinching portrayals of its horrors, the author covers a wide range of topics, including the impact of slavery on popular culture, the Underground Railroad, Maroon communities, and the Los Angeles Film Rebellion of the 1960s. As a result, this book delivers a comprehensive, readable, and timely examination of enslaved African Americans and slavery in America's film history.
The American Blockbuster: Movies That Defined Their Generations
by Benjamin CraceProviding an indispensable resource for students and general readers, this book serves as an entry point for a conversation on America's favorite pastime, focusing in on generational differences and the evolution of American identity.In an age marked by tension and division, Americans of all ages and backgrounds have turned to film to escape the pressures of everyday life. Yet, beyond escapism, popular cinema is both a mirror and microscope for our collective psyche. Examining the films that have made billions of dollars through a new lens reveals that popular culture is a vital source for understanding what it means to be an American.This book is divided into four sections, each associated with a different generation. Featuring such era-defining hits as Jaws, Back to the Future, Avatar, and The Avengers, each section presents detailed film analyses that showcase the consistency of certain American values throughout generations as well as the constant renegotiation of others. Ideal for any cinephile, The American Blockbuster demonstrates how complex and meaningful even the summer blockbuster can be.
American Women's History on Film (Hollywood History)
by Rosanne Welch Peg A. LamphierBy exploring a range of films about American women, this book offers readers an opportunity to engage in both history and film in a new way, embracing representation, diversity, and historical context.Throughout film history, stories of women achieving in American history appear few and far between compared to the many epic tales of male achievement. This book focuses largely on films written by women and about women who tackled the humanist issues of their day and mostly won.Films about women are important for all viewers of all genders because they remind us that the American Experience is not just male and white. This book examines 10 films, featuring diverse depictions of women and women's history, and encourages readers to discern how and where these films deviate from historical accuracy. Covering films from the 1950s all the way to the 2010s, this text is invaluable for students and general readers who wish to interrogate the way women's history appears on the big screen.