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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... deal featuring two recurring metaphors : of war and of sex . The rhetoric of Gordon Gekko's deal making is violent and bloodthirsty and seems to emanate more appropriately from the grunts in director Oliver Stone's previous film Platoon ...
... deal , 23 on the Imperial deal . The guy makes twenty times what Dave Winfield does in a year . " It is the numbers that fascinate Bud Fox , that render the yuppie dream , give it the color of money . Like The Big Chill and Bright ...
... deals , symbolically represents what is wrong with the yuppie lifestyle . In the age of Donald Trump , " the art of the deal " is the shortcut away from social engagement . What Roger tells Eddie is that you just cannot make deals about ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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