The Crowded Prairie

The Crowded Prairie
Author: Michael Coyne
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Total Pages: 270
Release: 1997-12-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Focuses on a group of popular, critically acclaimed westerns, examining their interaction with US society, culture and ideology from the end of the Depression to the Bicentennial in 1976. While exploring their depictions of such issues as intervention in World War II, miscegenation, generational discord, ethnic ascendance, McCarthyism, civil rights, Vietnam, and Watergate, the author shows how the genre veered from sagas of national achievement to bleak visions of life in the US. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Round the Bend

Round the Bend
Author: Nevil Shute
Publisher: Alien Ebooks
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2023-03-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1667602799

Round the Bend follows the life of Tom Cutter, an Englishman who becomes a pilot and settles in the Middle East after World War II. Tom starts an air freight business and becomes fascinated by the spiritual beliefs of the local Muslim population, which leads him to start his own religion called "The Way." Through his travels and teachings, Tom attracts a group of devoted followers and becomes a spiritual leader. However, his unconventional beliefs and practices lead to conflict with some of the more traditional religious and political authorities in the region. Despite the challenges he faces, Tom remains committed to his beliefs and the pursuit of a more peaceful and harmonious world. The novel explores themes of religion, spirituality, cultural differences, and the clash between tradition and modernity.

The Film Sense

The Film Sense
Author: Sergei Eisenstein
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1947
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780156309356

A renowned Soviet director discusses his theory of film as an artistic medium which must appeal to all senses and applies it to an analysis of sequences from his major movies.

Queer Bergman

Queer Bergman
Author: Daniel Humphrey
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2013-03-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0292743769

One of the twentieth century’s most important filmmakers—indeed one of its most important and influential artists—Ingmar Bergman and his films have been examined from almost every possible perspective, including their remarkable portrayals of women and their searing dramatizations of gender dynamics. Curiously however, especially considering the Swedish filmmaker’s numerous and intriguing comments on the subject, no study has focused on the undeniably queer characteristics present throughout this nominally straight auteur’s body of work; indeed, they have barely been noted. Queer Bergman makes a bold and convincing argument that Ingmar Bergman’s work can best be thought of as profoundly queer in nature. Using persuasive historical evidence, including Bergman’s own on-the-record (though stubbornly ignored) remarks alluding to his own homosexual identifications, as well as the discourse of queer theory, Daniel Humphrey brings into focus the director’s radical denunciation of heteronormative values, his savage and darkly humorous deconstructions of gender roles, and his work’s trenchant, if also deeply conflicted, attacks on homophobically constructed forms of patriarchic authority. Adding an important chapter to the current discourse on GLBT/queer historiography, Humphrey also explores the unaddressed historical connections between post–World War II American queer culture and a concurrently vibrant European art cinema, proving that particular interrelationship to be as profound as the better documented associations between gay men and Hollywood musicals, queer spectators and the horror film, lesbians and gothic fiction, and others.

All the News is Fit to Print

All the News is Fit to Print
Author: Chad Stebbins
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780826211637

All the News is Fit to Print traces Aull's transformation from struggling schoolteacher to one of the best-known small-town newspapermen in America.

The Essentials Vol. 2

The Essentials Vol. 2
Author: Jeremy Arnold
Publisher: Running Press Adult
Total Pages: 812
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0762469404

A guide to fifty-two examples of must-see cinema, The Essentials Vol. 2 -- based on the Turner Classic Movies series -- is packed with behind-the-scenes stories, illuminating commentary, moments to watch for, and hundreds of photos spotlighting films that define what it means to be a classic. Since 2001, Turner Classic Movies' The Essentials has been the ultimate destination for cinephiles both established and new, showcasing films that have had a lasting impact on audiences and filmmakers everywhere. In this second volume based on the series, fifty-two films are profiled with insightful notes on why they're Essential, a guide to must-see moments, and running commentary from Essentials hosts past and present: TCM's Ben Mankiewicz and the late Robert Osborne, as well as Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Molly Haskell, Carrie Fisher, Rose McGowan, Alec Baldwin, Drew Barrymore, Sally Field, William Friedkin, Ava DuVernay, and Brad Bird. Enjoy one film per week for a year of stellar viewing or indulge in your own classic movie festival. Spanning the silent era through the late 1980s with such diverse films as Top Hat, Brief Encounter, Rashomon, Vertigo, and Field of Dreams, it's an indispensable book for movie lovers to expand their knowledge of cinema and discover -- or revisit -- landmark films that impacted Hollywood forever.