War on the Silver Screen

War on the Silver Screen PDF Author: GLEN JEANSONNE
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612346421
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Americans have been almost constantly at war since 1917. In addition to two world wars, the United States has fought proxy wars, propaganda wars, and a “war on terror,” among others. But even with the constant presence of war in American life, much of what Americans remember about those conflicts comes from Hollywood depictions. In War on the Silver Screen Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen vividly demonstrate how war movies have burned the images and impressions of those wars onto the American psyche more concretely than has the reality of the wars themselves. That is, our feelings about wars are generated less by what we learn through study and discourse than by powerful cinematic images and dialogue. Films are compressed, intense, and immediate and often a collective experience rather than a solitary one. Actors and drama provide the visceral impact necessary to form perceptions of history that are much more enduring than those generated by other media or experiences. War on the Silver Screen draws on more than a century of films and history, including classics such as All Quiet on the Western Front, Apocalypse Now, and The Hurt Locker, to examine the legacy of American cinema on twentieth- and twenty-first-century attitudes about war.

War on the Silver Screen

War on the Silver Screen PDF Author: GLEN JEANSONNE
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612346421
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Get Book Here

Book Description
Americans have been almost constantly at war since 1917. In addition to two world wars, the United States has fought proxy wars, propaganda wars, and a “war on terror,” among others. But even with the constant presence of war in American life, much of what Americans remember about those conflicts comes from Hollywood depictions. In War on the Silver Screen Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen vividly demonstrate how war movies have burned the images and impressions of those wars onto the American psyche more concretely than has the reality of the wars themselves. That is, our feelings about wars are generated less by what we learn through study and discourse than by powerful cinematic images and dialogue. Films are compressed, intense, and immediate and often a collective experience rather than a solitary one. Actors and drama provide the visceral impact necessary to form perceptions of history that are much more enduring than those generated by other media or experiences. War on the Silver Screen draws on more than a century of films and history, including classics such as All Quiet on the Western Front, Apocalypse Now, and The Hurt Locker, to examine the legacy of American cinema on twentieth- and twenty-first-century attitudes about war.

Martial Culture, Silver Screen

Martial Culture, Silver Screen PDF Author: Matthew Christopher Hulbert
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 080717470X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Martial Culture, Silver Screen analyzes war movies, one of the most popular genres in American cinema, for what they reveal about the narratives and ideologies that shape U.S. national identity. Edited by Matthew Christopher Hulbert and Matthew E. Stanley, this volume explores the extent to which the motion picture industry, particularly Hollywood, has played an outsized role in the construction and evolution of American self-definition. Moving chronologically, eleven essays highlight cinematic versions of military and cultural conflicts spanning from the American Revolution to the War on Terror. Each focuses on a selection of films about a specific war or historical period, often foregrounding recent productions that remain understudied in the critical literature on cinema, history, and cultural memory. Scrutinizing cinema through the lens of nationalism and its “invention of tradition,” Martial Culture, Silver Screen considers how movies possess the power to frame ideologies, provide social coherence, betray collective neuroses and fears, construct narratives of victimhood or heroism, forge communities of remembrance, and cement tradition and convention. Hollywood war films routinely present broad, identifiable narratives—such as that of the rugged pioneer or the “good war”—through which filmmakers invent representations of the past, establishing narratives that advance discrete social and political functions in the present. As a result, cinematic versions of wartime conflicts condition and reinforce popular understandings of American national character as it relates to violence, individualism, democracy, militarism, capitalism, masculinity, race, class, and empire. Approaching war movies as identity-forging apparatuses and tools of social power, Martial Culture, Silver Screen lays bare how cinematic versions of warfare have helped define for audiences what it means to be American.

Silver Screen Fiend

Silver Screen Fiend PDF Author: Patton Oswalt
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451673221
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs, alcohol or sex: it was film. After moving to L.A., Oswalt became a huge film buff (or as he calls it, a sprocket fiend), absorbing classics, cult hits, and new releases at the New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton's life schoolbook, informing his notion of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships. Set in the nascent days of L.A.'s alternative comedy scene, Oswalt's memoir chronicles his journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way"--

Making Patton

Making Patton PDF Author: Nicholas Evan Sarantakes
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700618627
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Forever known for its blazing cinematic image of General George S. Patton (portrayed by George C. Scott) addressing his troops in front of a mammoth American flag, Patton won seven Oscars in 1971, including those for Best Picture and Best Actor. In doing so, it beat out a much-ballyhooed M*A*S*H, irreverent darling of the critics, and grossed $60 million despite an intense anti-war climate. But, as Nicholas Evan Sarantakes reveals, it was a film that almost didn't get made. Sarantakes offers an engaging and richly detailed production history of what became a critically acclaimed box office hit. He takes readers behind the scenes, even long before any scenes were ever conceived, to recount the trials and tribulations that attended the epic efforts of producer Frank McCarthy—like Patton a U.S. Army general—and Twentieth Century Fox to finally bring Patton to the screen after eighteen years of planning. Sarantakes recounts how filmmakers had to overcome the reluctance of Patton's family, copyright issues with biographers, competing efforts for a biopic, and Department of Defense red tape. He chronicles the long search for a leading man—including discussions with Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, and even Ronald Reagan—before settling on Scott, a brilliant actor who brought to the part both enthusiasm for the project and identification with Patton's passionate persona. He also tracks the struggles to shoot the movie with a large multinational cast, huge outlays for military equipment, and filming in six countries over a mere six months. And he provides revealing insider stories concerning, for example, Scott's legendary drinking bouts and the origins of and debate over his famous opening monologue. Drawing on extensive research in the papers of Frank McCarthy and director Franklin Schaffner, studio archives, records of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, contemporary journalism, and oral histories, Sarantakes ultimately shows us that Patton is more than just one of the best war films ever made. Culturally, it also spoke to national ideals while exposing complex truths about power in the mid-twentieth century.

Nixon and the Silver Screen

Nixon and the Silver Screen PDF Author: Mark Feeney
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022604923X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
Richard Nixon and the film industry arrived in Southern California in the same year, 1913. In Nixon and the Silver Screen, Mark Feeney offers a new and often revelatory way of thinking about one of our most controversial presidents: by looking not just at Nixon's career—but Hollywood's. Nixon viewed more movies while in office than any other president, and Feeney argues that Nixon’s story, both in politics and in his personal life, is nothing if not quintessentially American. Bearing in mind the events that shaped his presidency from 1969 to 1974, Feeney sees aspects of Nixon’s character—and the nation’s—refracted and reimagined in the more than 500 films Nixon watched during his tenure in the White House. The verdict? Nixon’s legacy, for better or worse, is forever representative of the “Silver Age” in Hollywood, shaping and being shaped by that flickering silver screen.

Cinematic Cold War

Cinematic Cold War PDF Author: Tony Shaw
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The first book-length survey of cinema's vital role in the Cold War cultural combat between the U.S. and the USSR. Focuses on 10 films--five American and five Soviet, both iconic and lesser-known works--showing that cinema provided a crucial outlet for the global "debate" between democratic and communist ideologies.

Why We Fought

Why We Fought PDF Author: Peter C. Rollins
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813138744
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 877

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Book Description
A “wide-ranging and sophisticated anthology” comparing theaters of war to wars in the movie theater (Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel). Why We Fought makes a powerful case that film can be as valuable a tool as primary documents for improving our understanding of the causes and consequences of war. A comprehensive look at war films, from depictions of the American Revolution to portrayals of September 11 and its aftermath, this volume contrasts recognized history and historical fiction with the versions appearing on the big screen. The text considers a selection of the pivotal war films of all time, including All Quiet on the Western Front, Sands of Iwo Jima, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Saving Private Ryan—revealing how film depictions of the country’s wars have shaped our values, politics, and culture, and offering a unique lens through which to view American history. Named as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Silver Screen, Silver Prints

Silver Screen, Silver Prints PDF Author: Anne H. Hoy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781605830353
Category : Motion picture actors and actresses
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Long before a hopeful actor was given a screen test, their portraits were taken to determine the camera appeal of new faces. Silver Screen Silver Prints showcases Hollywood's invention of the glamour portrait, representing the distinctive styles of such photographers as George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, and Ruth Harriet Louise and charting the evolution from soft-focus Pictorialism to sculptured modernist glamor. Thematic sections focus on Hollywood fashion as promoted by photography and on the development of the discernible Paramount Studios house style. Photographs of iconic actors, including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Ramon Novarro, show how the portrait camera lens shaped their most enduring images. Elizabeth Taylor, the last great star of the Hollywood studio system, who used photography strategically to guide an upward trajectory from her early days as a child actress to her long reign as an international superstar, is featured. Taken together, the photographs in this catalogue, published in connection with the 2011 Grolier Club exhibition, demonstrate the centrality of studio portraits to the film industry's star-making apparatus, especially in the two decades before the Second World War.

Hollywood Goes to War

Hollywood Goes to War PDF Author: Clayton R. Koppes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520071612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The little-explored story of how politics, propaganda, and profits were combined to create the drama, imagery and fantasy that was American film during World War II. 32 black-and-white photographs.

Danger on the Silver Screen

Danger on the Silver Screen PDF Author: Scott McGee
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762474831
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Turner Classic Movies presents a heart-racing look into the world of stunt work featuring films that capture the exhilaration of a car chase, the comedy of a well timed prat fall, or the adrenaline rush from a fight scene complete with reviews, behind-the-scenes stories, and hundreds of photographs. Buckle in and join TCM on a action-packed journey through the history of cinema stunt work in Danger on the Silver Screen. This action-packed guide profiles 50 foundational films with insightful commentary on the history, importance, and evolution of an often overlooked element of film: stunt work. With insightful commentary and additional recommendations to expand your repertoire based on your favorites, Danger on the Silver Screen is a one-of-a-kind guide, perfect for film lovers to learn more about or just brush up on their knowledge of stunt work and includes films such as Ben-Hur (1925 & 1959), The Great K&A Train Robbery (1926), Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), The Thing from Another World (1951), Bullitt (1968), Live and Let Die (1973), The Blues Brothers (1980), Romancing the Stone (1984), The Matrix (1999), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), John Wick (2014), Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (2015), Atomic Blonde (2017), and many more.