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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... stereotypes to elicit that chauvinistic response . As Haid and Halberstam intimate , perhaps the only ones who did not succumb to this inflated stereotype were the Vietnam veterans themselves . For six months in 1985 , Rambo was ...
... stereotype of the Vietnam veteran . Tim O'Brien , author of Going After Cacciato , writes , in an essay titled " The Violent Vet , ” about this stereotype : The typical Vietnam veteran is bonkers . Outright dangerous : a shell- shocked ...
... stereotype in American film . The Presidio is another film almost exclusively populated with Vietnam vets , but it is not as extreme in its exploitation . The " violent vets " of The Presidio also are lined up on both sides of the law ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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