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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... speech . Cameron's speech near the end of The Stunt Man is strikingly similar to those of John Rambo in First Blood , of Al Columbato in Birdy , of Eddie Keller in Some Kind of Hero , and of Alex Cutter in Cutter's Way . All of these ...
... speech , or Birdy , which rejects Al Columbato's speech as self - pity , or Some Kind of Hero , where the speech is subsumed in the madcap comic book antics , or Cutter's Way , where Alex's speech becomes just another aspect of noir ...
... speech , Ludmilla's speech is innocent . The manager's speech is the bluntest political rhetoric , and Paulie answers him with the image of the Berlin Wall ( which will come down before the end of the decade ) to which he has no answer ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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