Performing Arts : Film

During the 1980s, American cinema underwent enormous transformations. Blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and The Empire Strikes Back grabbed huge revenues for the studios. At the same time, the growth of home video led to new and creative opportunities for independent film production, resulting in many of the decade’s best films. Both large- and small-scale filmmakers responded to the social, political, and cultural conditions of the time. The two-term presidency of Ronald Reagan spawned a new Cold War with the Soviet Union, which Hollywood film both embraced and critiqued. Also during this time, Hollywood launched a long-awaited cycle of films about the Vietnam War, exploring its impact both at home and abroad. But science fiction remained the era’s most popular genre, ranging from upbeat fantasies to dark, dystopic visions. Bringing together original essays by ten respected scholars in the field, American Cinema of the 1980s examines the films that marked the decade, including Ordinary People, Body Heat, Blade Runner, Zelig, Platoon, Top Gun, Aliens, Blue Velvet, RoboCop, Fatal Attraction, Die Hard, Batman, and sex, lies & videotape. more...

Price: $17.00

Argues that television is the central apparatus of consumer society and its success is measured not in terms of whether we enjoy programs, but how much we spend as a result of watching them. Should be read by anyone who watches television. more...

Price: $24.99

Going beyond the box-office hits of Disney and Dreamworks, this guide to every animated movie ever released in the United States covers more than 300 films over the course of nearly 80 years of film history. Well-known films such as Finding Nemo and Shrek are profiled and hundreds of other films, many of them rarely discussed, are analyzed, compared, and catalogued. more...

Price: $20.00

The art. The craft. The business. Animation Writing and Development takes students and animation professionals alike through the process of creating original characters, developing a television series, feature, or multimedia project, and writing professional premises, outlines and scripts. It covers the process of developing presentation bibles and pitching original projects as well as ideas for episodes of shows already on the air. Animation Writing and Development includes chapters on animation history, on child development (writing for kids), and on storyboarding. It gives advice on marketing and finding work in the industry. It provides exercises for students as well as checklists for professionals polishing their craft. This is a guide to becoming a good writer as well as a successful one. more...

Price: $31.95

In war films, the portrayal of deep friendships between men is commonplace. Given the sexually anxious nature of the American imagination, such bonds are often interpreted as carrying a homoerotic subtext. In Armed Forces, Robert Eberwein argues that an expanded conception of masculinity and sexuality is necessary in order to understand more fully the intricacy of these intense and emotional human relationships. Drawing on a range of examples from silent films such as What Price Glory and Wings to sound era works like The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Three Kings, and Pearl Harbor, he shows how close readings of war films, particularly in relation to their cultural contexts, demonstrate that depictions of heterosexual love, including those in romantic triangles, actually help to define and clarify the nonsexual nature of male love. The book also explores the problematic aspects of masculinity and sexuality when threatened by wounds, as in The Best Years of Our Lives, and considers the complex and persistent analogy between weapons and the male body, as in Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan. more...

Price: $17.00