American Science Fiction Film and Television

American Science Fiction Film and Television
Author: Lincoln Geraghty
Publisher: Berg
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2009-10-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0857850768

American Science Fiction Film and Television presents a critical history of late 20th Century SF together with an analysis of the cultural and thematic concerns of this popular genre. Science fiction film and television were initially inspired by the classic literature of HG Wells and Jules Verne. The potential and fears born with the Atomic age fuelled the popularity of the genre, upping the stakes for both technology and apocalypse. From the Cold War through to America's current War on Terror, science fiction has proved a subtle vehicle for the hopes, fears and preoccupations of a nation at war. The definitive introduction to American science fiction, this is also the first study to analyse SF across both film and TV. Throughout, the discussion is illustrated with critical case studies of key films and television series, including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files, and Battlestar Galactica.

American Science Fiction TV

American Science Fiction TV
Author: Jan Johnson-Smith
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2005
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780819567383

Science fiction TV and the American psyche.

Contemporary American Science Fiction Film

Contemporary American Science Fiction Film
Author: Terence McSweeney
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2022-02-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1000540642

Contemporary American Science Fiction Film explores and interrogates a diverse variety of popular and culturally relevant American science fiction films made in the first two decades of the new millennium, offering a ground-breaking investigation of the impactful role of genre cinema in the modern era. Placing one of the most popular and culturally resonant American film genres broadly within its rich social, historical, industrial, and political context, the book interrogates some of the defining critical debates of the era via an in-depth analysis of a range of important films. An international team of authors draw on case studies from across the science fiction genre to examine what these films can tell us about the time period, how the films themselves connect to the social and political context, how the fears and anxieties they portray resonate beyond the screen, and how the genre responds to the shifting coordinates of the Hollywood film industry. Offering new insights and perspectives on the cinematic science fiction genre, this volume will appeal primarily to scholars and students of film, television, cultural and media studies, as well as anyone interested in science fiction and speculative film.

Screening Space

Screening Space
Author: Vivian Carol Sobchack
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1997
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780813524924

This text attempts to shape definitions of the American science fiction film, studying the connection between the films and social preconceptions. It covers many classic films and discusses their import, seeking to rescue the genre from the neglect of film theorists. The book should appeal to both film buff and fans of science fiction.

The Mouse Machine

The Mouse Machine
Author: J P. Telotte
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2008-06-18
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0252033272

Throughout Disney's phenomenally successful run in the entertainment industry, the company has negotiated the use of cutting-edge film and media technologies that, J. P. Telotte argues, have proven fundamental to the company's identity. Disney's technological developments include the use of stereophonic surround sound for Fantasia, experimentation with wide-screen technology, inaugural adoption of three-strip Technicolor film, and early efforts at fostering depth in the animated image. Telotte also chronicles Disney's partnership with television, development of the theme park, and depiction of technology in science-fiction narratives. An in-depth discussion of Disney's shift into digital filmmaking with its Pixar partnership and an emphasis on digital special effects in live-action films, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, also highlight the studio's historical investment in technology. By exploring the technological context for Disney creations throughout its history, The Mouse Machine illuminates Disney's extraordinary growth into one of the largest and most influential media and entertainment companies in the world. Hardbook is unjacketed.

American Science Fiction Television Series of the 1950s

American Science Fiction Television Series of the 1950s
Author: Patrick Lucanio
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1998
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

As Americans grappled with the real problems of the atomic age in the 1950s, the science fiction television series provided escapist fare. At first essentially fantasy and adventure, the shows reflected the progress of the decade, using in the late 1950s extrapolations from the theories and findings of true science. From Adventures of Superman to World of Giants, this reference work covers all science fiction television series of the 1950s. A lengthy essay details character development, technical innovations, critical commentary and other matters. The episode guides that follow first provide primary cast and production credits for the entire season and then coverage of each individual episode, with title, airdate, writer, director, and a plot synopsis. Much of the information was derived from actual viewing, and many errors from other works are corrected here.

Alternate Americas

Alternate Americas
Author: M. Keith Booker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2006-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0313025142

For more than 50 years, science fiction films have been among the most important and successful products of American cinema, and are worthy of study for that reason alone. On a deeper level, the genre has reflected important themes, concerns and developments in American society, so that a history of science fiction film also serves as a cultural history of America over the past half century. M. Keith Booker has selected fifteen of the most successful and innovative science fiction films of all time, and examined each of them at length—from cultural, technical and cinematic perspectives—to see where they came from and what they meant for the future of cinema and for America at large. From Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Star Wars, from Blade Runner to The Matrix, these landmark films have expressed our fears and dreams, our abilities and our deficiencies. In this deep-seeking investigation, we can all find something of ourselves that we recognize, as well as something that we've never recognized before. The focus on a fairly small number of landmark films allows detailed attention to genuinely original movies, including: Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Robocop, The Abyss, Independence Day, and The Matrix. This book is ideal for general readers interested in science fiction and film.

American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction

American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Author: Robert Yeates
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1800080980

Visions of the American city in post-apocalyptic ruin permeate literary and popular fiction, across print, visual, audio and digital media. American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction explores the prevalence of these representations in American culture, drawing from a wide range of primary and critical works from the early-twentieth century to today. Beginning with science fiction in literary magazines, before taking in radio dramas, film, video games and expansive transmedia franchises, Robert Yeates argues that post-apocalyptic representations of the American city are uniquely suited for explorations of contemporary urban issues. Examining how the post-apocalyptic American city has been repeatedly adapted and repurposed to new and developing media over the last century, this book reveals that the content and form of such texts work together to create vivid and immersive fictional spaces in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Chapters present media-specific analyses of these texts, situating them within their historical contexts and the broader history of representations of urban ruins in American fiction. Original in its scope and cross-media approach, American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction both illuminates little-studied texts and provides provocative new readings of familiar works such as Blade Runner and The Walking Dead, placing them within the larger historical context of imaginings of the American city in ruins.

American Science Fiction and the Cold War

American Science Fiction and the Cold War
Author: David Seed
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1135953821

American Science Fiction--in both literature and film--has played a key role in the portrayal of the fears inherent in the Cold War. The end of this era heralds the need for a reassessment of the literary output of the forty-year period since 1945. Working through a series of key texts, American Science Fiction and the Cold War investigates the political inflections put on American narratives in the post-war decades by Cold War cultural circumstances. Nuclear holocaust, Russian invasion, and the perceived rise of totalitarianism in American society are key elements in the author's exploration of science fiction narratives that include Fahrenheit 451, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Dr. Strangelove.

Science Fiction Film, Television, and Adaptation

Science Fiction Film, Television, and Adaptation
Author: Jay Telotte
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2011-08-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136650091

The book examines the difficulty of adapting from one screen medium to another by looking at both successful and unsuccessful efforts in the area of science fiction. Those difficult efforts at moving from film to TV and from TV to film reveal much about the technologies involved and this highly technological genre as well.