American Cinema of the 2000s: Themes and Variations

Published by Rutgers University Press 2012

American Cinema of the 2000s

Themes and Variations

Edited by: Timothy Corrigan
With contributions by: Timothy Corrigan , Anna Everett , Sharon Willis , Thomas Schatz , Linda Ruth Williams , Dina Smith , Bob Rehak , Nora Alter , Nigel Morris , Karen Beckman and Dana Polan

In the series Screen Decades: American Culture/America

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813553238

Overview
Contents

About this book

The decade from 2000 to 2009 is framed, at one end, by the traumatic catastrophe of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and, at the other, by the election of the first African American president of the United States. In between, the United States and the world witnessed the rapid expansion of new media and the Internet, such natural disasters as Hurricane Katrina, political uprisings around the world, and a massive meltdown of world economies.

Amid these crises and revolutions, American films responded in multiple ways, sometimes directly reflecting these turbulent times, and sometimes indirectly couching history in traditional genres and stories. In American Cinema of the 2000s, essays from ten top film scholars examine such popular series as the groundbreaking Matrix films and the gripping adventures of former CIA covert operative Jason Bourne; new, offbeat films like Juno; and the resurgence of documentaries like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Each essay demonstrates the complex ways in which American culture and American cinema are bound together in subtle and challenging ways.

Author / Editor information

TIMOTHY CORRIGAN is a professor of English and cinema studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His many books include NewGerman Film: The Displaced Image; A Cinema without Walls: Movies and Culture after Vietnam; and The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker. He is the editor of the journal Adaptation and an editorial board member of Cinema Journal.

Reviews

“There is nothing like this series. Screen Decades firmly situates American cinema in the realms of material culture, popular culture, cultural narrative, reception analysis, and industrial history.”

— American Quarterly

"Corrigan offers ten essays that chronologically define the major historical events of the past decade and reveal how popular cinema can reflect cultural change. This is a thoughtful, probing look into recent history, a book that can serve as an effective primary or supplemental text for classes in media studies or interdisciplinary classes combining history, media, and social studies. Recommended."

— Choice

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
TIMELINE:The 2000s Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION. Movies and the 2000s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2000 Movies , Anti-Climaxes and Disenchantments Nora Alter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2001 Movies , Smart Films , and Dumb Stories Linda Ruth Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
2002 Movies and Melancholy Sharon Wills Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
2003 Movies, " Shock and Awe," and the Troubled Blockbuster Bob Rehak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
2004 Movies and Spectacle in a Political Year Anna Everett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
2005 Movies, Terror, and the American Family Karen Beckman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
2006 Movies and Crisis Nigel Morris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
2007 Movies and the Art of Living Dangerously Dina Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
2008 Movies and a Hollywood Too Big to Fail Thomas Schatz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	194
2009 Movies, a Nation, and New Identities Dana Polan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
2000 2009 Select Academy Award Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Works Cited And Consulted Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255