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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... major villain of seventies film as a corporate entity , in this eighties film history the ubiquitous villain is the political terrorist . One of the central polemic concerns of The Films of the Seventies : A Social History was that ...
... Major Goody Nelson ( James Earl Jones ) laughs . But even as these career soldiers mock the military ritual charade that they take part in every day , they realize that their job is a bizarre cover - up for a war that is in utter chaos ...
... major rebel against the totalitarian state is Harry Tuttle ( Robert De Niro ) , a renegade heating - and - cooling repairman who converts people to the ideology of rebellion against the state by fixing their ductwork . While 1984 ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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