The Films of the Eighties: A Social HistorySouthern Illinois University Press, 1993 - 335 pages In this remarkable sequel to his Films of the Seventies: A Social History, William J. Palmer examines more than three hundred films as texts that represent, revise, parody, comment upon, and generate discussion about major events, issues, and social trends of the eighties. Palmer defines the dialectic between film art and social history, taking as his theoretical model the "holograph of history" that originated from the New Historicist theories of Hayden White and Dominick LaCapra. Combining the interests and methodologies of social history and film criticism, Palmer contends that film is a socially conscious interpreter and commentator upon the issues of contemporary social history. In the eighties, such issues included the war in Vietnam, the preservation of the American farm, terrorism, nuclear holocaust, changes in Soviet-American relations, neoconservative feminism, and yuppies. Among the films Palmer examines are Platoon, The Killing Fields, The River, Out of Africa, Little Drummer Girl, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Silkwood, The Day After, Red Dawn, Moscow on the Hudson, Troop Beverly Hills, and Fatal Attraction. Utilizing the principles of New Historicism, Palmer demonstrates that film can analyze and critique history as well as present it. |
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... city , tourists in cocktail dresses and tuxedos watch the fighting from the balcony of a fancy hotel . Finally , the ... city in northern Argentina on the border of Paraguay . He has moved from Buenos Aires to this city in order to ...
... City ( 1988 ) . Early in the film , Alex Hardy ( Jason Robards ) , a drunken writer - editor at Gotham magazine tipsily counsels Jamie Conway ( Michael J. Fox ) over a three - martini lunch : ALEX : Have you ever considered getting an ...
... City traffic . The Jewel of the Nile ( 1985 ) , the sequel , begins with Colton and Wilder living a jet set life of ... cities can chew up the unsuspecting . During his night of vicarious slum- ming , yuppie Paul is terrorized by an ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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