The Films of the Eighties: A Social HistorySouthern Illinois University Press, 1993 - 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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... Chris Taylor becomes the audience's surrogate for immersion into the life of the Vietnam War . But along with learning how the war works , the audience , through its identification with Chris Taylor , learns how an infantryman in ...
... Chris Taylor has learned the Vietnam War , has become proficient in death - dealing . He has learned to read the bush and see the attacking NVA in the night as he could not in the opening night ambush scene . He can find his claymore ...
... Chris Taylor kill Sergeant Barnes ? Perhaps because " it don't mean nothin ' . " Perhaps because he sees murder as a moral act . Perhaps as an act of revenge for Elias . Perhaps as a mercy killing , because Barnes asks him ( tells him ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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