American Cinema of the 2000s

American Cinema of the 2000s
Author: Timothy Corrigan
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2012-04-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813553237

The decade from 2000 to 2009 is framed, at one end, by the traumatic catastrophe of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and, at the other, by the election of the first African American president of the United States. In between, the United States and the world witnessed the rapid expansion of new media and the Internet, such natural disasters as Hurricane Katrina, political uprisings around the world, and a massive meltdown of world economies. Amid these crises and revolutions, American films responded in multiple ways, sometimes directly reflecting these turbulent times, and sometimes indirectly couching history in traditional genres and stories. In American Cinema of the 2000s, essays from ten top film scholars examine such popular series as the groundbreaking Matrix films and the gripping adventures of former CIA covert operative Jason Bourne; new, offbeat films like Juno; and the resurgence of documentaries like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Each essay demonstrates the complex ways in which American culture and American cinema are bound together in subtle and challenging ways.

American Cinema of the 1930s

American Cinema of the 1930s
Author: Ina Rae Hark
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2007-06-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813543037

Probably no decade saw as many changes in the Hollywood film industry and its product as the 1930s did. At the beginning of the decade, the industry was still struggling with the transition to talking pictures. Gangster films and naughty comedies starring Mae West were popular in urban areas, but aroused threats of censorship in the heartland. Whether the film business could survive the economic effects of the Crash was up in the air. By 1939, popularly called "Hollywood's Greatest Year," films like Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz used both color and sound to spectacular effect, and remain American icons today. The "mature oligopoly" that was the studio system had not only weathered the Depression and become part of mainstream culture through the establishment and enforcement of the Production Code, it was a well-oiled, vertically integrated industrial powerhouse. The ten original essays in American Cinema of the 1930s focus on sixty diverse films of the decade, including Dracula, The Public Enemy, Trouble in Paradise, 42nd Street, King Kong, Imitation of Life, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Swing Time, Angels with Dirty Faces, Nothing Sacred, Jezebel, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Stagecoach .

American Cinema of the 1970s

American Cinema of the 1970s
Author: Lester D. Friedman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2007
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813540232

A smug glance at the seventies—the so-called "Me Decade"—unveils a kaleidoscope of big hair, blaring music, and broken politics—all easy targets for satire, cynicism, and ultimately even nostalgia. The contributors to this volume look beyond the strobe lights to reveal how profoundly the seventies have influenced American life and how the films of that decade represent a peak moment in cinema history. Bringing together ten original essays, American Cinema of the 1970s examines the range of films that marked the decade, including Jaws, Rocky, Love Story, Shaft, Dirty Harry, The Godfather, Deliverance, The Exorcist, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Apocalypse Now.

American Cinema of the 1990s

American Cinema of the 1990s
Author: Chris Holmlund
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2008
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0813543665

Films discussed include Terminator 2, The matrix, Home alone, Jurassic Park, Pulp fiction, Boys don't cry, Toy story and Clueless.

American Cinema of the 1960s

American Cinema of the 1960s
Author: Barry Keith Grant
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2008
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813542197

This book examines a range of films that characterized the decade, including Hollywood movies, documentaries, and the independent and experimental films.

American Cinema, 1890-1909

American Cinema, 1890-1909
Author: André Gaudreault
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2009
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0813544432

The essays in American Cinema 1890-1909 explore and define how the making of motion pictures flowered into an industry that would finally become the central entertainment institution of the world. Beginning with all the early types of pictures that moved, this volume tells the story of the invention and consolidation of the various processes that gave rise to what we now call "cinema."

American Independent Cinema

American Independent Cinema
Author: Geoff King
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2014-09-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0857737333

The independent sector has produced many of the most distinctive films to have appeared in the US in recent decades. From 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' in the 1980s to 'The Blair Witch Project' and New Queer Cinema in the 1990s and the ultra-low budget digital video features of the 2000s, indie films have thrived, creating a body of work that stands out from the dominant Hollywood mainstream. But what exactly is 'independent' cinema? This, the first book to examine the question in detail, argues that independence can be defined partly in industry terms but also according to formal and aesthetic strategies and by distinctive attitudes towards social and political issues, suggesting that independence is a dynamic rather than a fixed quality. Chapters focus on distribution and relationships with Hollywood studios; narrative ('Clerks' and 'Slacker' to 'Pulp Fiction', 'Magnolia' and 'Memento') and other formal dimensions (from 'Blair Witch's' 'authenticity' to expressive and stylized camerawork and editing in work from Harmony Korine to the Coen brothers); approaches to genre and alternative socio-political visions.

American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11

American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11
Author: Terence McSweeney
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1474413838

American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11 is a ground-breaking collection of essays by some of the foremost scholars writing in the field of contemporary American film. Through a dynamic critical analysis of the defining films of the turbulent post-9/11 decade, the volume explores and interrogates the impact of 9/11 and the 'War on Terror' on American cinema and culture. In a vibrant discussion of films like American Sniper (2014), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Spectre (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Lincoln (2012), The Mist (2007), Children of Men (2006), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), noted authors Geoff King, Guy Westwell, John Shelton Lawrence, Ian Scott, Andrew Schopp, James Kendrick, Sean Redmond, Steffen Hantke and many others consider the power of popular film to function as a potent cultural artefact, able to both reflect the defining fears and anxieties of the tumultuous era, but also shape them in compelling and resonant ways.

American Politics in Hollywood Film

American Politics in Hollywood Film
Author: Ian Scott
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2011-05-06
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0748688366

In this second edition of American Politics in Hollywood Film, Ian Scott takes up his analysis of political content and ideology through movies and contends that American culture and the institutional process continues to be portrayed, debated and influen

New Constellations

New Constellations
Author: Pamela Robertson Wojcik
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 081355229X

American culture changed radically over the course of the 1960s, and the culture of Hollywood was no exception. The film industry began the decade confidently churning out epic spectacles and lavish musicals, but became flummoxed as new aesthetics and modes of production emerged, and low-budget youth pictures like Easy Rider became commercial hits. New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s tells the story of the final glory days of the studio system and changing conceptions of stardom, considering such Hollywood icons as Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman alongside such hallmarks of youth culture as Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman. Others, like Sidney Poitier and Peter Sellers, took advantage of the developing independent and international film markets to craft truly groundbreaking screen personae. And some were simply “famous for being famous,” with celebrities like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Edie Sedgwick paving the way for today’s reality stars.