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. |
From inside the book
... than conventional historians have portrayed it , and historical " reality " is extremely difficult to re - create and may not even exist , those charges against Hollywood's exploitation of history have been rendered even more moot .
... 6 and what Dominick LaCapra designates " the critical reading of texts ( including items usually referred to as documents ) in a manner that may itself affect both the conception of former ' reality ' and activity in the present .
It has resisted Einstienian relativity as an answer to the perplexing nineteenth - century historical questions concerning the nature and graspability of " reality " the most agressively . In the mid - twentieth century , the main ...
... the conviction that documents are texts that supplement or rework ' reality . ' " 12 Whether those texts be classi- fied materials or letters and diaries or presidential papers or public speeches or trial evidence or business files ...
Popular film is an excellent example of a LaCaprian text that can both " supplement or rework ' reality " while also serving as a source open to textual , holographic interpretation which can " divulge facts about ' reality .
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Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 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 |