The Films of the Eighties: A Social HistoryIn 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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Over the course of both decades , America and Russia continuously confronted one another . Eisenhower's fifties had Joseph McCarthy and the U - 2 spy plane incident , while Reagan indulged early in his " evil empire " rhetorical saber ...
... but in many instances ( such as attitudes toward Vietnam veterans and America / Russia understanding ) actually participated in those changes . In the film industry , from the early seventies on , businessmen have been in control .
Similarly , America's relationship to Russia and the cold war maneuverings of detente spawned another cluster of films of sociohistoric signification . Of the domestic issues of the decade , eighties film history developed an ongoing ...
In the eighties , Hollywood offered a series of warnings against the tragedy of nuclear war , proposed scenarios for America - Russia detente , laid bare the human realities of the American farm crisis , explored the fanaticism of the ...
The impact of that single " media event " so catalyzed public opinion that it influenced the Reagan government to pursue more serious nuclear arms control negotiations with Russia . In 1983 , three films — Places in the Heart , Country ...
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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 |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | The Films of the Eighties: A Social History |
| Author | William J. Palmer |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | SIU Press, 1995 |
| ISBN | 0809320290, 9780809320295 |
| Length | 335 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |