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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... actually participate in the making of history by motivating the mass mind of society to its own historical ... actually became historical text rather than vice versa . Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon of a mass medium ...
... actually turned social history into an illusion , scripted and acted out social history for the cameras of the media . Thus The Stunt Man is eerily prophetic in yet another way . Released in 1980 , it predicts the Reagan administration ...
... actually defends his lawn and driveway with automatic weapons . Mild - mannered yuppie Ray Peterson ( Tom Hanks ) only wants to spend his one - week vacation from urban work hanging around his own house , working on the lawn , taking ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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