Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan...and Beyond

by Wood, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780231129664
• ISBN10: 0231129661
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

This classic of film criticism, long considered invaluable for its eloquent study of a problematic period in film history, is now substantially updated and revised by the author to include chapters beyond the Reagan era and into the twenty-first century. For the new edition, Robin Wood has written a substantial new preface that explores the interesting double context within which the book can be read-that in which it was written and that in which we find ourselves today. Among the other additions to this new edition are a celebration of modern "screwball" comedies like My Best Friend's Wedding, and an analysis of '90s American and Canadian teen movies in the vein of American Pie, Can't Hardly Wait, and Rollercoaster. Also included are a chapter on Hollywood today that looks at David Fincher and Jim Jarmusch (among others) and an illuminating essay on Day of the Dead.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Prologue (2003)	xiii
Cards on the Table	1	(8)
The Chase: Flashback, 1965	9	(14)
Smart-Ass and Cutie-Pie: Notes Toward the Evaluation of Altman (1975)	23	(18)
The Incoherent Text: Narrative in the 70s	41	(22)
The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s	63	(22)
Normality and Monsters: The Films of Larry Cohen and George Romero	85	(35)
Brian De Palma: The Politics of Castration	120	(24)
Papering the Cracks: Fantasy and Ideology in the Reagan Era	144	(24)
Horror in the 80s	168	(12)
Images and Women	180	(18)
From Buddies to Lovers	198	(21)
Two Films by Martin Scorsese	219	(22)
Two Films by Michael Cimino	241	(46)
Day of the Dead: The Woman's Nightmare	287	(8)
On and Around My Best Friend's Wedding	295	(14)
Teens, Parties, and Rollercoasters: A Genre of the 90s	309	(24)
Hollywood Today: Is an Oppositional Cinema Possible?	333	(18)
Bibliography	351	(2)
Index	353