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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... give a shit . MCGRIFF : We weren't doin ' it for them . We were doin ' it for us . To give it all some kind of fuckin ' meaning . PERKINS : Leavin ' this place outside a plastic bag is all the meaning I need . The problem with trying to ...
... give us their planes , we will give them our suitcases . This apologia adheres strictly to the formulaic rhetoric of terrorism . It first claims responsibility for terrorism , admits its identity , and then , by means of direct ...
... give up everything so that you can live in Disneyland ? The irony of this prison house of society in Russia lies in the KGB's elaborate attempts to cover up the closed society realities . The salient subtext of White Nights involves the ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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