Downloaded Movie of 2014 (Spangler)

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Downloaded Movie of 2014 (Spangler) Echoes of Reaganism in Hollywood Blockbuster Movies from the 1980s to the 2010s AMERICAN CULTURE Herausgegeben von / Edited by Astrid Böger, Bettina Friedl, Michaela Hampf und Martin Klepper BAND 15 AMERICAN CULTURE Ilias Ben Mna Herausgegeben von / Edited by Astrid Böger, Bettina Friedl, Michaela Hampf und Martin Klepper BAND 15 Echoes of Reaganism in Hollywood Blockbuster Movies from the 1980s to the 2010s Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss., 2019 The publication of this work was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Cover Illustration: © igoriss/istockphoto.com 11 ISSN 1615-567X • ISBN 978-3-631-83780-1 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84349-9 (E-PDF) • E-ISBN 978-3-631-84350-5 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84351-2 (MOBI) • DOI 10.3726/b17914 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © Ilias Ben Mna, 2021 Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Dedicated to my parents—and my two older brothers, who raised me on a healthy diet of 1980s action movies Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss., 2019 The publication of this work was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Cover Illustration: © igoriss/istockphoto.com 11 ISSN 1615-567X • ISBN 978-3-631-83780-1 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84349-9 (E-PDF) • E-ISBN 978-3-631-84350-5 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84351-2 (MOBI) • DOI 10.3726/b17914 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © Ilias Ben Mna, 2021 Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Contents Acknowledgements �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11 Introduction ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 Blockbusters and Reaganism ���������������������������������������������������������� 13 The Long Shadow of the 1980s ������������������������������������������������������� 15 How to Trace Ideology in Blockbusters? ��������������������������������������� 17 Focal Points for Analysis ����������������������������������������������������������������� 19 Why Does Reaganism in Blockbusters Matter? �������������������������� 25 ������������������������������������������������������������ 29 Chapter 1 Tracing Echoes in Film Chapter Overview ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29 The Case for the Continued Reaganization of Hollywood Blockbusters �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29 The Media Spectacle According to Douglas Kellner ������������������� 32 The Hollywood “Hard Body” According to Susan Jeffords ������� 37 George Lakoff’s “Strict Father Model” as a Political Framing Device �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 42 Roland Barthes’ Concept of Mythologies as a Tool for Deconstructing Capitalist Imagery ����������������������������������������������� 47 Defining Hollywood Blockbusters as a Formula ������������������������ 50 Key Ideological and Methodological Terms ��������������������������������� 55 Neoliberalism ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55 Neoconservatism ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 57 Messianic Americanism ���������������������������������������������������������� 59 Metatexts/Subtexts ������������������������������������������������������������������� 59 Potentials and Limitations �������������������������������������������������������������� 61 8 Contents ������ 67 Chapter 2 Key Myths and Metaphors in Reagan’s Rhetoric Chapter Overview �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 67 The “Small-Government” Metaphor ������������������������������������������ 68 The “Star Wars” Program as a Pop Culture Invocation for Cold War Rearmament ����������������������������������������������������������������� 76 Counter-Terrorism as “War” against the Other ������������������������ 84 The White Male Entrepreneur as Mythical Hero for the Nation ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94 Chapter 3 E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial as a Reaganite “Small- Government Fable” ������������������������������������������������������������������ 105 Introduction and Chapter Overview ������������������������������������������� 105 Hollywood Studios at Heaven’s Gate: The Production Background of E.T. ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 110 Film Analysis ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114 The Dystopian Nature of Government and Bureaucracy in E.T. ������������������������������������������������������������������ 114 The Restoration of the Father through White, Male, Middle-Class Individualism ������������������������������������������������� 128 The Pop Cultural Legacy of E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial ����������� 141 Chapter 4 The Recycling of Reagan’s Cold War Rhetoric in Independence Day ��������������������������������������������������������������������� 147 Introduction and Chapter Overview ������������������������������������������� 147 When Disaster Strikes at the Box Office: The Production Background of Independence Day ������������������������������������������������ 151 Film Analysis ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 156 Technological Superiority in Outer Space as an Expression of US-American Hegemony ����������������������������� 156 The Role of “Messianic Americanism” in Defeating the Other ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 173 The Pop Cultural Legacy of Independence Day ������������������������� 192 Contents 9 Chapter 5 The Dark Knight as an Echo Chamber for Reaganite Counter-Terrorism Rhetoric ������������������������ 197 Introduction and Chapter Overview ������������������������������������������ 197 A New Class of Criminals: The Production Background of The Dark Knight ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 202 Film Analysis ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 207 “War on Terror” and “Terror War” in The Dark Knight ��� 207 “Terror” Is What Others Do: Racial Otherness in The Dark Knight and in Neoconservative Rhetoric ����������� 228 The Pop Cultural Legacy of The Dark Knight ���������������������������� 244 ��� 251 Chapter 6 Hard-Bodied Entrepreneurialism in The Avengers Introduction and Chapter Overview ������������������������������������������� 251 The Superhero (Formula) Keeps Coming Back: The Production Background of The Avengers ����������������������������������� 256 Film Analysis ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 262 Entrepreneurialism and National Defense in The Avengers ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 262 Gendered “Hard Bodies” in Times of War ������������������������� 287 The Pop Cultural Legacy of The Avengers ���������������������������������� 305 Conclusions and Outlook ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 311 Main Conclusions and their Relevance for Contemporary Discussions �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 311 Implications for Blockbuster Movies as a Formula ������������������ 320 From Ronald to Donald: When Blockbuster Logic Meets Political Spectacles ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 326 List of Figures ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 341 Bibliography ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 343 Acknowledgements With special thanks to these wonderful individuals for their amazing assistance: Patrick Bradshaw, Claire J� Davis, Helen Gibson, Spencer Kohan, John Nordstrom, and Tyler Olson� This book was originally conceived and written as a doctoral thesis during the author’s candidacy for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae at Humboldt University of Berlin� The author submitted the original manuscript on 6 February 2019 to the Department of English and American Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, Unter den Linden
Recommended publications
  • See It Big! Action Features More Than 30 Action Movie Favorites on the Big
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ‘SEE IT BIG! ACTION’ FEATURES MORE THAN 30 ACTION MOVIE FAVORITES ON THE BIG SCREEN April 19–July 7, 2019 Astoria, New York, April 16, 2019—Museum of the Moving Image presents See It Big! Action, a major screening series featuring more than 30 action films, from April 19 through July 7, 2019. Programmed by Curator of Film Eric Hynes and Reverse Shot editors Jeff Reichert and Michael Koresky, the series opens with cinematic swashbucklers and continues with movies from around the world featuring white- knuckle chase sequences and thrilling stuntwork. It highlights work from some of the form's greatest practitioners, including John Woo, Michael Mann, Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa, Kathryn Bigelow, Jackie Chan, and much more. As the curators note, “In a sense, all movies are ’action’ movies; cinema is movement and light, after all. Since nearly the very beginning, spectacle and stunt work have been essential parts of the form. There is nothing quite like watching physical feats, pulse-pounding drama, and epic confrontations on a large screen alongside other astonished moviegoers. See It Big! Action offers up some of our favorites of the genre.” In all, 32 films will be shown, many of them in 35mm prints. Among the highlights are two classic Technicolor swashbucklers, Michael Curtiz’s The Adventures of Robin Hood and Jacques Tourneur’s Anne of the Indies (April 20); Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (April 21); back-to-back screenings of Mad Max: Fury Road and Aliens on Mother’s Day (May 12); all six Mission: Impossible films
    [Show full text]
  • Canadian Movie Channel APPENDIX 4C POTENTIAL INVENTORY
    Canadian Movie Channel APPENDIX 4C POTENTIAL INVENTORY CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CANADIAN FEATURE FILMS, FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES AND MADE-FOR-TELEVISION FILMS, 1945-2011 COMPILED BY PAUL GRATTON MAY, 2012 2 5.Fast Ones, The (Ivy League Killers) 1945 6.Il était une guerre (There Once Was a War)* 1.Père Chopin, Le 1960 1946 1.Canadians, The 1.Bush Pilot 2.Désoeuvrés, Les (The Mis-Works)# 1947 1961 1.Forteresse, La (Whispering City) 1.Aventures de Ti-Ken, Les* 2.Hired Gun, The (The Last Gunfighter) (The Devil’s Spawn) 1948 3.It Happened in Canada 1.Butler’s Night Off, The 4.Mask, The (Eyes of Hell) 2.Sins of the Fathers 5.Nikki, Wild Dog of the North 1949 6.One Plus One (Exploring the Kinsey Report)# 7.Wings of Chance (Kirby’s Gander) 1.Gros Bill, Le (The Grand Bill) 2. Homme et son péché, Un (A Man and His Sin) 1962 3.On ne triche pas avec la vie (You Can’t Cheat Life) 1.Big Red 2.Seul ou avec d’autres (Alone or With Others)# 1950 3.Ten Girls Ago 1.Curé du village (The Village Priest) 2.Forbidden Journey 1963 3.Inconnue de Montréal, L’ (Son Copain) (The Unknown 1.A tout prendre (Take It All) Montreal Woman) 2.Amanita Pestilens 4.Lumières de ma ville (Lights of My City) 3.Bitter Ash, The 5.Séraphin 4.Drylanders 1951 5.Have Figure, Will Travel# 6.Incredible Journey, The 1.Docteur Louise (Story of Dr.Louise) 7.Pour la suite du monde (So That the World Goes On)# 1952 8.Young Adventurers.The 1.Etienne Brûlé, gibier de potence (The Immortal 1964 Scoundrel) 1.Caressed (Sweet Substitute) 2.Petite Aurore, l’enfant martyre, La (Little Aurore’s 2.Chat dans
    [Show full text]
  • D5310 DIE HARD (USA, 1988) (Other Titles: Piege De Cristal; Stirb Langsam; Trappola Di Cristallo)
    D5310 DIE HARD (USA, 1988) (Other titles: Piege de cristal; Stirb langsam; Trappola di cristallo) Credits: director, John McTiernan ; writers, Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza ; story, Roderick Thorp. Cast: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald Veljohnson, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush. Summary: Action/adventure film set in contemporary Los Angeles. A team of terrorists thieves has seized an office building in L.A. and taken hostages. A New York cop (Willis), in town to spend Christmas with his estranged wife (Bedelia), is the only hope for the people held by the thieves. Two FBI agents assigned to the case (Davi and Bush) are Vietnam veterans. Ansen, David. “The arts: movies: reactivating action heroes” Newsweek 112 (Jul 25, 1988), p. 58. [Reprinted in Film review annual 1989] Breuning, Ulrich. “Die hard” Levenede billeder 5 (Feb 1989), p. 46-7. Broesky, Pat H. “Death is hard ... reincarnation is easy” New York times 143 (Jun 12, 1994), sec. 2, p. 15. Canby, Vincent. “Film view: ‘Die hard’ calls to the kidult” New York times 137 (Jul 31, 1988), sec. 2, p. 19-20. Carr, Jay. “Bruce Willis’ ‘Die hard’: Stylized terror” Boston globe (Jul 15, 1988), p. 29. _______. “Star Bonnie Bedelia keeping her cool” Boston globe (Jul 21, 1988), Calendar, p. 9. Cherchi Usai, Paolo. “Trappola di cristallo” Segnocinema 36 (Jan 1989), p. 26-7. Chiacchiari, Federico. “Trappola di cristallo” Cineforum 28/278 (Oct 1988), p. 92-3. Cieutat, Michel. “Piege de cristal” Positif 334 (Dec 1988), p. 73. Combs, Richard. “Die hard” Monthly film bulletin 56 (Feb 1989), p. 45-6.
    [Show full text]
  • The-Music-Of-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber Programme.Pdf
    Photograph: Yash Rao We’re thrilled to welcome you safely back to Curve for production, in particular Team Curve and Associate this very special Made at Curve concert production of Director Lee Proud, who has been instrumental in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. bringing this show to life. Over the course of his astonishing career, Andrew It’s a joy to welcome Curve Youth and Community has brought to life countless incredible characters Company (CYCC) members back to our stage. Young and stories with his thrilling music, bringing the joy of people are the beating heart of Curve and after such MUSIC BY theatre to millions of people across the world. In the a long time away from the building, it’s wonderful to ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER last 15 months, Andrew has been at the forefront of have them back and part of this production. Guiding conversations surrounding the importance of theatre, our young ensemble with movement direction is our fighting for the survival of our industry and we are Curve Associate Mel Knott and we’re also thrilled CYCC LYRICS BY indebted to him for his tireless advocacy and also for alumna Alyshia Dhakk joins us to perform Pie Jesu, in TIM RICE, DON BLACK, CHARLES HART, CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON, this gift of a show, celebrating musical theatre, artists memory of all those we have lost to the pandemic. GLENN SLATER, DAVID ZIPPEL, RICHARD STILGOE AND JIM STEINMAN and our brilliant, resilient city. Known for its longstanding Through reopening our theatre we are not only able to appreciation of musicals, Leicester plays a key role make live work once more and employ 100s of freelance in this production through Andrew’s pre-recorded DIRECTED BY theatre workers, but we are also able to play an active scenes, filmed on-location in and around Curve by our role in helping our city begin to recover from the impact NIKOLAI FOSTER colleagues at Crosscut Media.
    [Show full text]
  • Crossmedia Adaptation and the Development of Continuity in the Dc Animated Universe
    “INFINITE EARTHS”: CROSSMEDIA ADAPTATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONTINUITY IN THE DC ANIMATED UNIVERSE Alex Nader A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2015 Committee: Jeff Brown, Advisor Becca Cragin © 2015 Alexander Nader All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jeff Brown, Advisor This thesis examines the process of adapting comic book properties into other visual media. I focus on the DC Animated Universe, the popular adaptation of DC Comics characters and concepts into all-ages programming. This adapted universe started with Batman: The Animated Series and comprised several shows on multiple networks, all of which fit into a shared universe based on their comic book counterparts. The adaptation of these properties is heavily reliant to intertextuality across DC Comics media. The shared universe developed within the television medium acted as an early example of comic book media adapting the idea of shared universes, a process that has been replicated with extreme financial success by DC and Marvel (in various stages of fruition). I address the process of adapting DC Comics properties in television, dividing it into “strict” or “loose” adaptations, as well as derivative adaptations that add new material to the comic book canon. This process was initially slow, exploding after the first series (Batman: The Animated Series) changed networks and Saturday morning cartoons flourished, allowing for more opportunities for producers to create content. References, crossover episodes, and the later series Justice League Unlimited allowed producers to utilize this shared universe to develop otherwise impossible adaptations that often became lasting additions to DC Comics publishing.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    NOTES Introduction 1. Robert Kagan to George Packer. Cited in Packer’s The Assassin’s Gate: America In Iraq (Faber and Faber, London, 2006): 38. 2. Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004): 9. 3. Critiques of the war on terror and its origins include Gary Dorrien, Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the New Pax Americana (Routledge, New York and London, 2004); Francis Fukuyama, After the Neocons: America At the Crossroads (Profile Books, London, 2006); Ira Chernus, Monsters to Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin (Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CO and London, 2006); and Jacob Heilbrunn, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons (Doubleday, New York, 2008). 4. A report of the PNAC, Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, September 2000: 76. URL: http:// www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf (15 January 2009). 5. On the first generation on Cold War neoconservatives, which has been covered far more extensively than the second, see Gary Dorrien, The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture and the War of Ideology (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1993); Peter Steinfels, The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America’s Politics (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1979); Murray Friedman, The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005); Murray Friedman ed. Commentary in American Life (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2005); Mark Gerson, The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars (Madison Books, Lanham MD; New York; Oxford, 1997); and Maria Ryan, “Neoconservative Intellectuals and the Limitations of Governing: The Reagan Administration and the Demise of the Cold War,” Comparative American Studies, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Fear and Threat in Illegal America: Latinas/Os, Immigration, and Progressive Representation in Colorblind Times by Hannah Kathr
    Fear and Threat in Illegal America: Latinas/os, Immigration, and Progressive Representation in Colorblind Times by Hannah Kathryn Noel A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (American Culture) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Evelyn A. Alsultany, Co-chair Associate Professor María E. Cotera, Co-chair Associate Professor María Elena Cepeda, Williams College Associate Professor Anthony P. Mora © Hannah Kathryn Noel DEDICATION for Mom & Dad ii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I could not have accomplished this dissertation without the guidance of my co-chairs, and graduate and undergraduate mentors: Evelyn Alsultany, María Cotera, María Elena Cepeda, Mérida Rúa, Larry La Fountain-Stokes, Carmen Whalen, Ondine Chavoya, Amy Carroll, and Anthony Mora. Evelyn, thank you for the countless phone calls, comments on every page of my dissertation (and more), advice, guidance, kind gestures, and most of all your sensibilities. You truly went above and beyond in commenting and helping me grow as a teacher, scholar, and human. María, thank you for standing by my side in both turbulent, and joyous times; your insight and flair with words (and style) are beyond parallel. Maria Elena, thank you for your constant guidance and keen constructive criticism that has forced me to grow as an intellectual and teacher. I will never forget celebrating with you when I found out I got into Michigan, I am beyond honored and feel sincere privilege that I have been able to work and grow under your mentorship. Mérida, I would have never found my way to my life’s work if I had not walked into your class.
    [Show full text]
  • Part I: Introduction
    Part I: Introduction “Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” -Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) “For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.” -Patrick Henry (1776) “I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.” -William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator (1831) “Gas is running low . .” -Amelia Earhart (July 2, 1937) 1 2 Dear Reader, Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society.
    [Show full text]
  • SMHF Scandinavian Championships 2015
    RESULTS - Ieniemienie Miniatures- SMHF Scandinavian Championships 2015 Saturday: 1. Halter Obstacle 1 Name: Lymricks Pure Platinum 2 Name: Samis Two Timer Regalaire 3 Name: Highlight The Royal Affair 4 Name: Lotsafuns Truly Flamboyant 5 Name: 2 B Patsy Cline 2. Youth Halter Obstacle 3. Multi-color mares (Pinto and Appaloosa only) 1 Name:LE Angels To Embace After Dark 4. Solid color mares (open to all other colors) 1 Name: PP Shine Of Lily 5. Multi-color stallions and geldings 1 Name: La Vista Top Of The Mark 6. Solid color stallions and geldings 1 Name: Jean Dark Silver Lining 2 Name: Marielunds Superstars Magneficent 3 Name: LE Angels In Command 4 Name: Ekelund Tango Cavalier 5 Name: MJ Delicate Blue Moon Winsemall 7. Roadster 1 Name:Samis Two Timer Regalaire 8. Golden age Mares (10 years and older) 1 Name: 2 B Patsy Cline 9. Golden Age Stallions (10 years and older) 1 Name: Arions Destiny Gold Charm 2 Name: Marystowns Echo Royale 3 Name: Grosshills Dandys Cheating Heart 10. Golden Age Geldings (10 years and older) 11. Oversized Mares 12. Oversized Stallions 13. Oversized Geldings 14. Three by One Owner - 3 horses owned by the same person, or farm. Each horse in the group is to be judged individually. Name: Grasscorners Lucky Charm 1 Name: Arions Destiny Gold Charm Name: Grasscorners Flashdance Name: LE Angels Inky Grace 2 Name: LE Angels In Command Name: LE Angels To Embrace After Dark AMATEUR 15. Amateur Weanling mares - 30” and under 1 Name: Grasscorners Flashdance 16. Amateur Yearling mares - 28” and under 17.
    [Show full text]
  • Essays Files/Klevans War Films Zero Dark Thirty.Pdf
    THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF COPYRIGHTEDEMBEDDED JOURNALI SM Fiction versus Depiction in Zero Dark Thirty K. L. Evans Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, takes its title from a military term for half-past midnight—that still, noc- turnal hour in which Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound was raided and robbed of its prize. To civilians, the term also implies that some people are awake while the rest of us sleep, that we are safeguarded by their sharp- eyed vigilance, and in Bigelow’s film these silent soldiers get their day in the sun. “I was interested in putting the audience into the shoes of the men and women in the thick of this hunt,” notedMATERIAL Bigelow, after she and Boal, a former freelance journalist, began investigating how bin Laden was finally tracked down. She wanted to “giv[e] people a glimpse at the dedication and courage and sacrifice they made.”1 Already there is something of a puzzle, though, in Bigelow’s description, since she aims to provide a truthful view of CIA field agents and to convinc- ingly simulate the view from where they stand, to offer at-home audiences an accurate account of what these agents undergo. And what happens when a film switches back and forth between two radically different representa- tional modes? Can it throw light on matters of moral, social, and political concern, as Zero Dark Thirty hopes to, when it brings together in one con- tinuous narrative that method of representation associated with feature films (the work of art, an effort of the imagination) and the quasi-journalistic approach Bigelow uses to reconstruct a topical incident, a kind of aesthetic articulation of the film’s opening promise that it has been “based on first- hand accounts of actual events”? How distorted is the “glimpse” Zero Dark Thirty presents when the film’s expressive possibilities are not only located 355 LaRocca War Films BOOK.indb 355 9/2/2014 1:24:54 PM 356 K.
    [Show full text]
  • Inmedia, 3 | 2013, « Cinema and Marketing » [Online], Online Since 22 April 2013, Connection on 22 September 2020
    InMedia The French Journal of Media Studies 3 | 2013 Cinema and Marketing Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/inmedia/524 DOI: 10.4000/inmedia.524 ISSN: 2259-4728 Publisher Center for Research on the English-Speaking World (CREW) Electronic reference InMedia, 3 | 2013, « Cinema and Marketing » [Online], Online since 22 April 2013, connection on 22 September 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/inmedia/524 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ inmedia.524 This text was automatically generated on 22 September 2020. © InMedia 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Cinema and Marketing When Cultural Demands Meet Industrial Practices Cinema and Marketing: When Cultural Demands Meet Industrial Practices Nathalie Dupont and Joël Augros Jerry Pickman: “The Picture Worked.” Reminiscences of a Hollywood publicist Sheldon Hall “To prevent the present heat from dissipating”: Stanley Kubrick and the Marketing of Dr. Strangelove (1964) Peter Krämer Targeting American Women: Movie Marketing, Genre History, and the Hollywood Women- in-Danger Film Richard Nowell Marketing Films to the American Conservative Christians: The Case of The Chronicles of Narnia Nathalie Dupont “Paris . As You’ve Never Seen It Before!!!”: The Promotion of Hollywood Foreign Productions in the Postwar Era Daniel Steinhart The Multiple Facets of Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973) Pierre-François Peirano Woody Allen’s French Marketing: Everyone Says Je l’aime, Or Do They? Frédérique Brisset Varia Images of the Protestants in Northern Ireland: A Cinematic Deficit or an Exclusive
    [Show full text]
  • First Felines
    SPRING 2021 NO. 40 First Felines Calvin Coolidge owned a variety of cats, including 4 housecats, a bobcat named Bob, and 2 lion cubs called Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau, according to the Coo- lidge Foundation. The housecats included Tiger, Blacky, Bounder, and Timmie. Blacky's favorite haunt was the White House elevator, whereas Timmie liked to hang out with the family canary perched between his shoul- ders. Tiger caused quite a stir when he went miss- ing. President Coolidge appealed to the people by calling for their help in a radio address. His beloved pet was lo- cated and returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Kennedys kept several pets during their time at the presidential residence. Tom Kitten technically be- longed to Carolyn, JFK's daughter. Unfortunately, the cat had to be removed from office when it was discovered President Kennedy was allergic to felines. Tom Kitten was the first cat to receive an obituary notice from the press. Socks, Clinton’s famous cat Bill Clinton arrived at the White House with Presidential history has had it’s fair share of famous Socks, perhaps the most felines. They were not above reaching a paw across the famous presidential fe- aisle and uniting pet lovers from both parties. Here are line. The black and white just a few of the country's former "First Cats". cat was a media favorite Abraham Lincoln was the first president to bring cats and the subject of a chil- into the White House. Then Secretary of State William dren's book and a Seward (Alaska purchase fame) presented his boss with song.
    [Show full text]