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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... film's ideological / historical project is as blatantly revisionist as this , " Gavin Smith protests , " but it's [ Mississippi Burning ] a classic case of a film not being what it should be ... Hollywood modes of discourse infiltrate ...
... film's human action . Also , on a primary text level , history may embody an idea that gives a general definition to the vision of the film and points in a general way toward the other levels of textuality of the film - its subtexts and ...
... film's screening in the Cinema Now film series at Purdue University , 30 November 1984 . 14. Pauline Kael , “ Circus , " New Yorker , 16 April 1984 , 142 . 15. Ivor Davis , " From Poland , Joanna Pacula stroll through ' Gorky Park ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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