The Films of the Eighties: A Social HistorySIU Press, 1995 - 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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... editorial cartoon Brazil Colors Robocop No Way Out Russkies Steel Magnolias Gorillas in the Mist Bright Lights , Big City Troop Beverly Hills The ' burbs Baby Boom Preface T IS FITTING that The Films of the Eighties Illustrations.
... Hills Cop to Halloween and Friday the 13th to Mad Max and Lethal Weapon — ruled the film offerings of the eighties . The films of the eighties , however , were simply mirroring the fact that the decade itself , in its social history ...
... Hill ( 1987 ) provide fuel for the American imagination because that is where the real text of the Vietnam War now resides . Perhaps the best example of a Vietnam War megatext is Del Vecchio's 13th Valley . It is both a realistic novel ...
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Contents
| 16 | |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
The Nuclear War Film Texts | 179 |
From the Evil Empire to Glasnost | 206 |
The Feminist Farm Crisis and Other Neoconservative | 246 |
The Yuppie Texts | 280 |
Film in the Holograph of New History | 308 |
Index | 325 |