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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 36
... comic book phase , and ( 3 ) the symbolic nihilist phase . Folded or layered into these three phases are the three major themes that dominate the Vietnam War films : ( 1 ) life in the war itself ( adaptation , survival , loss of ...
... comic - strip Vietnam War and moved it through a series of events that were also comic strip : a political comic ... book approach . But since that time Hollywood writers , producers and directors have much more often opted for the comic ...
... comic book phase , but with a few exceptions ( The Stunt Man , Birdy , The Killing Fields ) , these films stereotype and exploit the image of the Vietnam veteran . The " Strangers at Home " Films First Blood , the movie that introduced ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown