Cinema Wars explores the intersection of film, politics, and US culture and society through a bold critical analysis of the films, TV shows, and documentaries produced in the early 2000s
* Offers a thought-provoking depiction of Hollywood film as a contested terrain between conservative and liberal forces
* Films and documentaries discussed include: Black Hawk Down, The Dark Knight, Star Wars, Syriana, WALL-E, Fahrenheit 9/11 and other Michael Moore documentaries, amongst others
* Explores how some films in this era supported the Bush-Cheney regime, while others criticized the administration, openly or otherwise
* Investigates Hollywood’s treatment of a range of hot topics, from terrorism and environmental crisis to the Iraq war and the culture wars of the 2000s
* Shows how Hollywood film in the 2000s brought to life a vibrant array of social protest and helped create cultural conditions to elect Barack Obama
Table of Content
Acknowledgments vii
List of Plates ix
Introduction: Film, Politics, and Society 1
Hollywood Film as a Contested Terrain 2
Cinema, Politics, and Social History: From Cinematic Realism to Allegory 13
Hollywood Film and the Contemporary Moment: Signs of the Times 18
Reading Film Diagnostically: Imagining Obama 34
In This Book 40
1 Confronting the Horrors of the Bush-Cheney Era: From Documentary to Allegory 51
The Golden Age of Documentary 52
Real Disaster Films: From An Inconvenient Truth and Environmental Documentaries to Animated Allegories 71
Allegories of Catastrophe: Social Apocalypse in Disaster, Horror, and Fantasy Films 80
2 Hollywood’s 9/11 and Spectacles of Terror 98
9/11 as Disaster Film and Spectacle of Terror 99
Representations of 9/11 in Hollywood Film: United 93 and World Trade Center 101
Disney Television Republican Propaganda: The Path to 9/11 108
Hollywood’s Terror War 118
3 Michael Moore’s Provocations 132
Michael Moore, Emile de Antonio, and the Politics of Documentary Film 133
Roger and Me and the Documentary of Personal Witnessing 136
Bowling For Columbine and Exploratory Documentary Montage 140
Fahrenheit 9/11 and Partisan Interventionist Cinema 146
Sicko and the Michael Moore Genre 155
4 Hollywood Political Critiques of the Bush-Cheney Regime: From Thrillers to Fantasy and Satire 163
The Hollywood Political Thriller Against the Bush-Cheney Regime 165
Star Wars Prequels as Anti-Bush-Cheney Allegory 173
From Satire to Dystopia 183
5 The Cinematic Iraq War 199
Documenting Iraq 200
Interpreting the Iraq Fiasco 208
Iraq and Its Aftermath in Fiction Films 219
Conclusion: Hollywood Cinema Wars in the 2000s 239
Critical Representations 240
History Lessons 250
Final Reflections 258
References 262
Index 269
About the author
Douglas Kellner is George Kneller Chair of Philosophy of Education at UCLA. He is the author of many books on social theory, politics, history, and culture, including Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film, co-authored with Michael Ryan, and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy. He is the co-editor of Media and Cultural Studies Keyworks (Wiley-Blackwell 2006). Kellner’s most recent book is Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombings to the Virginia Tech Massacre. His website is at www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/kellner.html.
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