American Blockbuster: Movies, Technology, and Wonder

American Blockbuster: Movies, Technology, and Wonder
ISBN-10
1478012161
ISBN-13
9781478012160
Category
Performing Arts
Pages
400
Language
English
Published
2020-07-24
Publisher
Duke University Press
Author
Charles R. Acland

Description

Ben-Hur (1959), Jaws (1975), Avatar (2009), Wonder Woman (2017): the blockbuster movie has held a dominant position in American popular culture for decades. In American Blockbuster Charles R. Acland charts the origins, impact, and dynamics of this most visible, entertaining, and disparaged cultural form. Acland narrates how blockbusters emerged from Hollywood's turn to a hit-driven focus during the industry's business crisis in the 1950s. Movies became bigger, louder, and more spectacular. They also became prototypes for ideas and commodities associated with the future of technology and culture, accelerating the prominence of technological innovation in modern American life. Acland shows that blockbusters continue to be more than just movies; they are industrial strategies and complex cultural machines designed to normalize the ideologies of our technological age.

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