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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... violence . He chose , however , not to present that film's message from a black point of view . His was a choice quite similar to that made earlier by Sir Richard Attenborough in Cry Freedom ( 1987 ) , which views the evils of South ...
... Violent killing machines like The Termina- tor ( 1984 ) and Robocop ( 1987 ) replace the depraved human villains of the past . More friendly , childlike machines like R2D2 and C3PO of the Star Wars series ( 1977 , 1980 , 1983 ) , Number ...
... violence in the film . " In a war , " as Samuel Popkin has stated , " the first and foremost issue is the containment of violence . " 5 Dirty Harry operating in San Francisco is trying to contain violence . Harry has a gun and the bad ...
... violence in a war zone such as Saigon . Films like Platoon ( 1986 ) , Off Limits , Full Metal Jacket ( 1987 ) , or Hamburger Hill ( 1987 ) provide fuel for the American imagination because that is where the real text of the Vietnam War ...
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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 |