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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 100
... Vietnam War as Film Text 16 3 The " Coming Home " Films 61 4 The Terrorism Film Texts 114 5 The Nuclear War Film Texts 179 6 From the " Evil Empire " to Glasnost 206 7 The Feminist Farm Crisis and Other Neoconservative Feminist Texts ...
... films of the seventies and of the eighties was their nostalgic attraction to fifties and sixties events , issues , and social mores . James Greenberg describes how in the Reaganite - yuppie ... Vietnam War was central to the x Preface.
A Social History William J. Palmer. example , where the Vietnam War was central to the relationship between film and social history in the seventies , it remained so throughout the eighties . Or whereas a prominent chapter in its ...
... Vietnam War , terror- ism , the nuclear threat , detente , are all issues that had a profound impact upon the formation of American social history during the decade . Some of these international issues were carry - over issues from both ...
... film focused less upon the film's subject matter and more upon the trials of bringing that film to the screen . It all began in 1978 when Francis Coppola publicized the making of Apocalypse Now as a war almost equal to the Vietnam War ...
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 |