At the end of World War II, Hollywood basked in unprecedented prosperity. Since then, numerous challenges and crises have changed the American film industry in ways beyond imagination in 1945. Nonetheless, at the start of a new century Hollywood's worldwide dominance is intact - indeed, in today's global economy the products of the American entertainment industry (of which movies are now only one part) are more ubiquitous than ever.
How does today's 'Hollywood' - absorbed into transnational media conglomerates like NewsCorp., Sony, and Viacom - differ from the legendary studios of Hollywood's Golden Age? What are the dominant frameworks and conventions, the historical contexts and the governing attitudes through which films are made, marketed and consumed today? How have these changed across the last seven decades? And how have these evolving contexts helped shape the form, the style and the content of Hollywood movies, from Singin' in the Rain to Pirates of the Caribbean?
Barry Langford explains and interrogates the concept of 'post-classical' Hollywood cinema - its coherence, its historical justification and how it can help or hinder our understanding of Hollywood from the forties to the present. Integrating film history, discussion of movies' social and political dimensions, and analysis of Hollywood's distinctive methods of storytelling, Post-Classical Hollywood charts key critical debates alongside the histories they interpret, while offering its own account of the 'post-classical'. Wide-ranging yet concise, challenging and insightful, Post-Classical Hollywood offers a new perspective on the most enduringly fascinating artform of our age.
By:
Barry Langford
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 480g
ISBN: 9780748638581
ISBN 10: 074863858X
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 11 November 2010
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction; Part I: Hollywood in Transition 1946-1965; Introduction; 1, The Autumn of the Patriarchs; 2, The Communication of Ideas; 3, Modernising Hollywood; Part II: Crisis and Renaissance 1966-1981; Introduction; 4, Changing of the Guard; 5, New Wave Hollywood; 6, Who Lost the Picture Show?; Part III: New Hollywood 1982-2006; Introduction; 7, Corporate Hollywood; 8, Culture Wars; 9, Post-Classical Style?; Conclusion: ""Hollywood"" Now; Further Reading The Biggest, The Best - case studies; 1946: The Best Years of Our Lives; 1955: Marty, Cinerama Holiday; 1965: The Sound of Music; 1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws; 1985: Out of Africa, Back to the Future; 1995: Braveheart, Toy Story; 2005: Crash, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Barry Langford is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond (Edinburgh University Press, 2005) and Teaching Holocaust Literature and Film (with Robert Eaglestone, Palgrave Macmillan 2007), and has published on a wide variety of subjects in film and media studies and critical theory, including Holocaust film, Chris Marker's politics, revisionist Westerns, exilic identity in European city films, narrative temporalities in The Lord of the Rings, and British television situation comedy. His original short screenplay Torte Bluma was filmed in 2005 and premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival, going on to win awards at international festivals.
Reviews for Post-Classical Hollywood: Film Industry, Style and Ideology since 1945
The book's strenghts are real strengths: a good deal of original research, smart writing, and interpretative originality that increases as the book progresses. Highly recommended. -- S. C. Dillon, Bates College Choice The book's strenghts are real strengths: a good deal of original research, smart writing, and interpretative originality that increases as the book progresses. Highly recommended.
