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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... Woman is a more abstract , detached , even symbolic analysis of death squad terrorism . There are images of torture and death , but most of the film is talk . Only at the very end when Molina has been released and decides to become ...
... Woman . Molina tells about the terrible dilemma of " a shipwrecked man caught in the huge web of the Spider Woman who cries because she is going to love him and kill him simultaneously . " The dual dilemma of this shipwrecked man scene ...
... woman stands at the end of an ancient quay as the stormy seas crash around her . A Victorian gentleman walking with his betrothed sees this solitary female figure defying the storm - tossed waves and feels compelled to warn her of her ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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