Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan . . . and Beyond / Edition 2

by Robin Wood

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231129664
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/10/2003
Edition description:	A Revised and Expanded Edition of the Classic Text
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.34(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robin Wood is a founding editor of CineAction and author of Hitchcock's Films Revisited (Revised Edition, Columbia, 2002) and Sexual Politics and Narrative Film (Columbia, 1998). He is professor emeritus at York University and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema Studies.

Table of Contents

Prologue 2003
1. Cards on the Table
2. The Chase: Flashback, 1965
3. Smart-Ass and Cutie-Pie: Notes Toward the Evaluation of Altman (1975)
4. The Incoherent Text: Narrative in the 70s
5. The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s
6. Normality and Monsters: The Films of Larry Cohen and George Romero
7. Brian De Palma: The Politics of Castration
8. Papering the Cracks: Fantasy and Ideology in the Reagan Era
9. Horror in the 80s
10. Images and Women
11. From Buddies to Lovers
12. Two Films by Martin Scorsese
13. Two Films by Michael Cimino
14. Day of the Dead: The Woman's Nightmare
15. On and Around My Best Friend's Wedding
16. Teens, Parties, and Rollercoasters: A Genre of the 90s
17. Hollywood Today: Is an Oppositional Cinema Possible?
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Extremely valuable.... Offers the first large-scale interpretation of a period of Hollywood (and independent) filmmaking that presents the serious moral, psychological, and historical issues at stake."

American Film

In this update of his 1986 book, Wood, who previously authored thoughtful studies on heavyweight film figures like Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock, maintains his focus on American moviemaking from the freewheeling 1970s to the more conservative 1980s. Though not intended as a comprehensive portrait of those years, the book still omits too many important films. However, it does offer close readings of groundbreaking titles by Robert Altman, Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, and Michael Cimino, plus coverage of cult and "B" movie directors like George Romero and Larry Cohen. Horror films and homosexuality on the screen are also treated. In the new preface, Wood spends a good deal of time talking about his life as a recently "out" gay man and cinematic depictions of women in an age of feminism, as if to mirror the seismic changes that were influencing American movies from 1970 to 1984. Also new to this edition are Wood's gutsy defenses of My Best Friend's Wedding ("one of the great American comedies") and Heaven's Gate ("among the supreme achievements of the Hollywood cinema"), discussions of Hollywood today and teen party pictures like American Pie, and an essay on Day of the Dead. The author's political asides and his discussion of his sexuality, which simply seems self-indulgent, make up the weakest material. This uneven revision is recommended for academic collections on recent Hollywood cinema. Public libraries should wait for a more popular treatment of the period.-Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan... and Beyond is one of the most impressive demonstrations by a film critic that 'to be political is to avoid the trivial.'... Wood's writing is rich, eloquent, and illuminating. If our culture is indeed facing the possibility of imminent extinction, his is an essential contribution to it.

Film Comment

Robin Wood is a serious and important writer, and this is a serious and important book.... [A] wonderful collection of essays.

Film International

Wood's commentary—blending scholarly insight with a personal tone, knowledgeable about theory but not obscure, always interested in gender and sexuality but not overwhelmed by that interest—will engage students at all levels of preparation in film studies.

Choice