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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... grunts about his past life and why he enlisted , he generated this reaction : " What we got here is a Crusader , " one of his fellow grunts comments sarcastically . As the Americans snap in the village - “ Let's do the whole fuckin ...
... grunts of the 101st Airborne assaulted that hill , sustaining 70 percent casualties , eleven times before taking it . They were supported by 272 Air Force sorties that dropped a million pounds of bombs , including 150,000 pounds of ...
... grunts in the Ashau Valley . But the documentarylike quality of Hamburger Hill is not the only way that it differs from the other films of this year . Each of these films is different in setting , which affects their textuality . The grunts ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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