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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... young American , unable to stand the madness , beats the mad boy to death with the butt of his rifle . Ironically the Americans strike out at the madness of the war with their own form of madness as they kill , rape , and burn the ...
... young Jackie Willow , who has gotten his wish to command a line unit in Vietnam , writes to Sergeant Hazard : " All anyone talks about in Viet- nam , all we see and hear about are demonstrations . This war seems to be tearing us all ...
... young man in the back . Heeding an institutional impulse to become engagé as the young pitcher falls dead , Price drops his camera to the ground and picks up the rifle . It is a symbolic act that Price will be forced to repeat in ...
Contents
The Vietnam War as Film Text | 16 |
The Coming Home Films | 61 |
The Terrorism Film Texts | 114 |
Copyright | |
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