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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... Look , there are 2500 men still unaccounted for and more than 400 live sightings . vo : Look , Colonel Rhodes , I told you there was nothing I could do . RHODES : AW dammit , that's all I ever heard in Washington . Nobody can do ...
... look of defiance , vulnerability , and mystery . The gentleman is stopped dead by that look and retreats from its existential authenticity . In the Victorian age , a woman simply does not look a man directly in the face and assert her ...
... Look Who's Talking ( 1989 ) , babies proved the most popular props available . In Raising Arizona , a baby strapped in a car seat gets left on the roof of a car and ends up on the center line of a highway ; in Baby Boom , a baby gets ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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