Projecting Paranoia: Conspiratorial Visions in American Film
- ISBN-10
- 0700611509
- ISBN-13
- 9780700611508
- Category
- Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism
- Pages
- 323
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2001
- Publisher
- University Press of Kansas
- Author
- Ray Pratt
Description
A lit cigarette glows in the dark. A faceless voice describes sinister forces that are hard at work behind the scenes-a hidden conspiracy that controls our lives and perhaps even our thoughts. Then, like a ghost in the night, the voice is gone, leaving a residue of unease and a whisper of paranoia.
As emblematic as "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men or the "Cigarette Smoking Man" in the wildly popular X-Files, that ghostly presence stands in for numerous other "voices" in a wide range of American films from the classic era of film noir through Oliver Stone's JFK and Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential. In this sweeping and idiosyncratic synthesis of film and politics, Ray Pratt shows us how such movies are deeply rooted in postwar American culture and continue to exert an enormous influence on the national imagination.
For decades American cinema has mirrored and promoted the postmodern anxieties and paranoid perceptions embedded in our society. Tapping into the moviegoing audience's own projected fears, many Hollywood films seem to confirm our belief that there are indeed secret sinister forces at work and that our lives are at risk because of them.
Pratt revisits blockbusters and cult favorites alike and shows how their images of conspiracy have been fostered by the public's increasing distrust of large organizations, producing in turn a cinematic "narrative of resistance" that challenges the status quo. He offers Seven Days in May and Dr. Strangelove as signposts of Cold War hysteria; Chinatown, The Conversation, and Missing as clear reflections of our distrust of political and corporate elites in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate; and Blue Velvet and The Stepfather as dark countermyths to the "family values" touted by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He also considers gender paranoia in films like Klute, Fatal Attraction, and Silence of the Lambs and reminds us that sometimes, as in Serpico, our guardian police forces need a bit of guarding themselves.
Deftly interweaving cultural, political, and film theory with fresh insights into film noir detectives, nuclear angst, sexual predators, and government conspiracies, Projecting Paranoia is essential reading for anyone interested in the American psyche or great moviemaking.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2001
- 323 pages
- Paperback
- University Press of Kansas
Similar books
-
10/40/70: Constraint as Liberation in the Era of Digital Film Theory
By Nicholas RombesExtras: This film sparks another film, unnamed, that unspools like this: Theytell methat the big metal box in the other room is the Recording Machine. It sits empty, with nooneto enter itand run it. Its smooth metal casing isblood ...
-
The Motion Picture Guide
By Jay Robert Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross... Steve JACK THE BEAR SCHINDLER'S LIST SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER Zieger , Ulrich FARAWAY , SO CLOSE Ziehm , Howard T. FLESH GORDON MEETS THE COSMIC CHEERLEADERS Alesch , Stephen MATINEE Allen , Linda TWENTY BUCKS Alshams , Sharon E.
-
Once Upon a Time in China: A Guide to Hong Kong, Taiwanese, and Mainland Chinese Cinema
By Jeff YangArmour of God ( 1986 ; Hong Kong , Ac , Cm ) D : Jackie Chan C : Jackie Chan , Alan Tam , Rosamund Kwan , Lola Forner , Bozidar Smiljanic In this flamboyant actioner - clearly inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark - Chan plays Asian Hawk ...
-
Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen
By Timothy Shary... WOMAN INTO CINEMA Janet McCabe MELODRAMA : GENRE , STYLE , SENSIBILITY John Mercer and Martin Shingler FILM PERFORMANCE : FROM ACHIEVEMENT TO APPRECIATION Andrew Klevan NEW DIGITAL CINEMA : REINVENTING THE MOVING IMAGE Holly Willis ...
-
Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum's the Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Stage and Screen to 1939
By Mark Evan SwartzEdward Hudlin maintains that the book follows very closely the structure of the heroic myth as outlined by Joseph Campbell ... Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope look at Dorothy's adventures from a mythological and feminist perspective.19 ...
-
James Whale, a Biography, Or, The Would-be Gentleman
By Mark Gatiss7 Someone whom Whale liked and admired was Hell's Angels screenwriter Joseph Moncure March , and Whale talked to Pearson about the possibility of March writing the screenplay . Pearson agreed but March was under contract to Howard ...
-
1927: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of the Jazz Age's Greatest Year
By Thomas S. HischakFrom January 1 to December 31 of 1927, the entries in this book cover every major news event—national and international—of this pivotal year in history.
-
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
By Thomas S. HischakHollywood's Greatest Year Thomas S. Hischak. Published by Rowman & Littlefield A ... British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hischak, Thomas S. author.
-
Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era
By Susan JeffordsAnd although many 1991 films by black male directors about black men's lives emphasize families and masculinities as well — Boyz n the Hood ( John Singleton ) , Straight Out of Brooklyn ( Matty Rich ) , Jungle Fever ( Spike Lee ) —the ...
-
Looking at Movies: Buch
By Dave Monahan, Richard Meran BarsamLooking at Movies: Buch