Download or read book Critical Perspectives on Hollywood Science Fiction written by Stephen Trinder and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-18 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the global recession of 2008 have contributed heavily to popular criticism of neoliberalism. This book investigates James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009) and Elysium (2013), Len Wiseman’s Total Recall (2012) and the Wachowskis’ and Tom Tykwer’s independent epic Cloud Atlas (2012) to examine how far this model is critically interrogated in science fiction cinema. The subject is a critical one upon reflection of the role that a heavily ingrained allegiance to neoliberal and colonial discourse in mainstream politics and media has played in the rise of populist right-wing politics, growing worldwide income inequality, and, in particular, cultivating racist attitudes towards the Other.
Download or read book Neoliberalism with a Human Face written by Stephen Trinder and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Contemporary American Science Fiction Film written by Terence McSweeney and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-21 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary American Science Fiction Film explores and interrogates a diverse variety of popular and culturally relevant American science fiction films made in the first two decades of the new millennium, offering a ground-breaking investigation of the impactful role of genre cinema in the modern era. Placing one of the most popular and culturally resonant American film genres broadly within its rich social, historical, industrial, and political context, the book interrogates some of the defining critical debates of the era via an in-depth analysis of a range of important films. An international team of authors draw on case studies from across the science fiction genre to examine what these films can tell us about the time period, how the films themselves connect to the social and political context, how the fears and anxieties they portray resonate beyond the screen, and how the genre responds to the shifting coordinates of the Hollywood film industry. Offering new insights and perspectives on the cinematic science fiction genre, this volume will appeal primarily to scholars and students of film, television, cultural and media studies, as well as anyone interested in science fiction and speculative film.
Download or read book Red Planets written by Mark Bould and published by Pluto Press (UK). This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique account of the Chinese Revolution, seen through the eyes of American journalist Rayna Prohme.
Download or read book The Mouse Machine written by J P. Telotte and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2008-06-18 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout Disney's phenomenally successful run in the entertainment industry, the company has negotiated the use of cutting-edge film and media technologies that, J. P. Telotte argues, have proven fundamental to the company's identity. Disney's technological developments include the use of stereophonic surround sound for Fantasia, experimentation with wide-screen technology, inaugural adoption of three-strip Technicolor film, and early efforts at fostering depth in the animated image. Telotte also chronicles Disney's partnership with television, development of the theme park, and depiction of technology in science-fiction narratives. An in-depth discussion of Disney's shift into digital filmmaking with its Pixar partnership and an emphasis on digital special effects in live-action films, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, also highlight the studio's historical investment in technology. By exploring the technological context for Disney creations throughout its history, The Mouse Machine illuminates Disney's extraordinary growth into one of the largest and most influential media and entertainment companies in the world. Hardbook is unjacketed.
Download or read book Critical Perspectives on the Western written by Lee Broughton and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-09-19 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, the Western film has been considered a dying breed of cinema, yet filmmakers from Quentin Tarantino to Ethan and Joel Coen find new ways to reinvigorate the genre. As Westerns continue to be produced for contemporary audiences, scholars have taken a renewed interest in the relevance of this enduring genre. In Critical Perspectives on the Western: From A Fistful of Dollars to Django Unchained, Lee Broughton has compiled a wide-ranging collection of essays that look at various forms of the genre, on both the large and small screen. Contributors to this volume consider themes and subgenres, celebrities and authors, recent idiosyncratic engagements with the genre, and the international Western. These essays also explore issues of race and gender in the various films discussed as well as within the film genre as a whole. Among the films and television programs discussed in this volume are The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward, Robert Ford; Django Kill; Justified; Meek’s Cutoff; Tears of the Black Tiger; Appaloosa; The Frozen Limits; and Red Harvest.Featuring a diverse selection of chapters that represent current thinking on the Western. Critical Perspectives on the Western will appeal to fans of the genre, film students, and scholars alike.
Download or read book Science Fiction Film written by Keith M. Johnston and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Science Fiction Film develops a historical and cultural approach to the genre that moves beyond close readings of iconography and formal conventions. It explores how this increasingly influential genre has been constructed from disparate elements into a hybrid genre. Going beyond a textual exploration of these films, this study places them within a larger network of influences that includes studio politics and promotional discourses. The book also challenges the perceived limits of the genre - it includes a wide range of films, from canonical SF, such as Le voyage dans la lune, Star Wars and Blade Runner, to films that stretch and reshape the definition of the genre. This expansion of generic focus offers an innovative approach for students and fans of science fiction alike"--
Download or read book Science Fiction Cinema written by Christine Cornea and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2007-06-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major new study offers a broad historical and theoretical reassessment of the science fiction film genre. The book explores the development of science fiction in cinema from its beginnings in early film through to recent examples of the genre. Each chapter sets analyses of chosen films within a wider historical/cultural context, while concentrating on a specific thematic issue. The book therefore presents vital and unique perspectives in its approach to the genre, which include discussion of the relevance of psychedelic imagery, the 'new woman of science', generic performance and the prevalence of 'techno-orientalism' in recent films. While American films will be one of the principle areas covered, the author also engages with a range of pertinent examples from other nations, as well as discussing the centrality of science fiction as a transnational film genre. Films discussed include The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, The Quatermass Experiment, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Demon Seed, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Wars, Altered States, Alien, Blade Runner, The Brother from Another Planet, Back to the Future, The Terminator, Predator, The One, Dark City, The Matrix, Fifth Element and eXistenZ. Key Features*Thematically organised for use as a course text.*Introduces current and past theories and practices, and provides an overview of the main themes, approaches and areas of study.*Covers new and burgeoning approaches such as generic performance and aspects of postmodern identity.*Includes new interviews with some of the main practitioners in the field: Roland Emmerich, Paul Verhoeven, Ken Russell, Stan Winston, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Joe Morton, Dean Norris and Billy Gray.
Download or read book CYBORGS CAPITALISM HOPE written by Yee-Ling Wong and published by Open Dissertation Press. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "Cyborgs, Capitalism, Hope: a Study of Hong Kong and Hollywood Science Fiction Films" by Yee-ling, Wong, 黃綺玲, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Posthuman representations in selected Hollywood and Hong Kong science fiction films show new interconnections in "techno-globalization." They also exhibit a waning relationship between the "center" and the "margin" of technoculture. This study discusses the relation of technology, humanity, affect, and aesthetics in selective science fiction films produced from 1984 to 2010. The science fiction features were made in the United States and in Hong Kong. They include: The Terminator (1984), Terminator2 (1991), Terminator Salvation (2009), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2002), I Love Maria (1988), Kung Fu Cyborg (2009) and Future X-Cops (2010). In particular, Kung Fu Cyborg merges the popular genre conventions of martial arts and technoculture, and manifests a different imagination at work wherein Hong Kong's martial arts cinema stands in the place of a scientific-based Western technoculture absent in Hong Kong science fiction films. This study presents several key critical frames elaborated by scholars of science fiction who have assessed the recurrent themes and figures of science fiction films. The discussion of films identifies the resemblances, the differences, and the competitive dynamic between American science fiction films and Hong Kong action features. The absence of utopian or dystopian figures in posthuman filmic representations in Hong Kong cinema is considered an important difference from Western science fiction films. This thesis examines the figure of the cyborg and argues for the important place of emotions and the power to emote and hope as having a complex relationship to technology, humans and humanness. The compassionate cyborg has temporal and moral dimensions relating to belief and religion in this important genre. Thus, this thesis examines the backdrop for science fiction affect, which is one of oppression and crisis that speaks to the conditions of capitalism and modernity. The affective cyborgs make an important figure in the science fiction films that concern the crisis conditions, the appeal of technology, and the conventions of science fiction genre in commercial cinema. DOI: 10.5353/th_b5090014 Subjects: Science fiction films - China - Hong Kong Science fiction films - United States
Download or read book The Cold War in Science Fiction Soviet and American Science Fiction Films in the 1950s written by Natalia Voinova and published by Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag). This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study will compare the USSR and the United States according to their cinematic use of science fiction in the late 1950s and 1960s in order to coincide with the period of de-Stalinisation and thaw in the USSR, and late McCarthyism in the United States. The genre provides an opportunity to express the two powers' scientific stand-off through fiction, and serves as a vehicle for the dissemination of ideas and propaganda. Post-1956 marks the time when the period of de-Stalinisation officially began and science fiction saw a carefully crafted rebirth for it served as a tool that could reflect the socialist ideal and quasi-religious faith in science that was promoted by the party. Science fiction uniquely demands for an imaginative view of the future, and therefore, corresponds with the Marxist- Leninist future-oriented ideology. For this period, the themes for American science fiction are hyperbolised monsters and invasion, and reflect the fear of the otherness of the Soviet Union, and its threat on domestic ideals. These themes are reflected in movies as 'Angry Red Planet', and 'Them!'. On the other hand, Soviet science fiction movies focus on the heroic Soviet man who frequently receives calls for help from outer space, and overcomes great trials to save those not living in utopia. This storyline is represented in 'Towards a Dream', and 'The Sky is calling'. The author gives special attention to the Soviet movie 'The Sky is calling' and the subsequent redubbed American version 'Battle beyond the Sun'. Further, she addresses alterations or plot, and subtle propaganda messages in the Soviet movies 'Planet of Storms', and the Hollywood remake 'Journey to the Prehistoric Planet'.
Download or read book Modern Science Fiction A Critical Analysis written by James Gunn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-05-25 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Gunn--one of the founding figures of science fiction scholarship and teaching--wrote in 1951 what is likely the first master's thesis on modern science fiction. Portions were in the short-lived pulp magazine Dynamic but it has otherwise remained unavailable. Here in its first full publication, the thesis explores many of the classic Golden Age stories of the 1940s and the critical perspective that informed Gunn's essential genre history Alternate Worlds and his anthology series The Road to Science Fiction. The editor's introduction and commentary show the historical significance of Gunn's work and its relevance to today's science fiction studies.
Download or read book Projections written by Lou Anders and published by Monkeybrain. This book was released on 2004 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the history and people, the science and the society, the lives, times and themes, the cultural impact and the critical response of the dynamic genre that is speculative fiction.
Download or read book Horror in Space written by Michele Brittany and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In sharp contrast to many 1960s science fiction films, with idealized views of space exploration, Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) terrified audiences, depicting a harrowing and doomed deep-space mission. The Alien films launched a new generation of horror set in the great unknown, inspiring filmmakers to take Earth-bound franchises like Leprechaun and Friday the 13th into space. This collection of new essays examines the space horror subgenre, with a focus on such films as Paul W.S. Anderson's Event Horizon, Duncan Jones' Moon, Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. Contributors discuss how filmmakers explored the concepts of the final girl/survivor, the uncanny valley, the isolationism of space travel, religion and supernatural phenomena.
Download or read book Seveneves written by Neal Stephenson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.
Download or read book Science Fiction Cinema in the Twenty First Century written by Pablo Gómez-Muñoz and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-27 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent films are increasingly using themes and conventions of science fiction such as dystopian societies, catastrophic environmental disasters, apocalyptic scenarios, aliens, monsters, time travel, teleportation, and supernatural abilities to address cosmopolitan concerns such as human rights, climate change, economic precarity, and mobility. This book identifies and analyses the new transnational turn towards cosmopolitanism in science fiction cinema since the beginning of the twenty-first century. The book considers a wide selection of examples, including case studies of films such as Elysium, In Time, 2012, Andrew Niccol’s The Host, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, and Cloud Atlas. It also questions the seeming cosmopolitanism of these narratives and exposes how they sometimes reproduce social hierarchies and exploitative practices. Dealing with diverse, interdisciplinary concerns represented in cinema, this book in the Studies in Global Genre Fiction series will be of interest to readers and scholars working in the fields of science fiction, film and media studies, cosmopolitanism, border theory, popular culture, and cultural studies. It will also appeal to fans of science fiction cinema and literature.
Download or read book Red Alert written by Ewa Mazierska and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-02 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars and students of film, science fiction, and Marxist culture will enjoy Red Alert.
Download or read book Hollywood Science written by Sidney Perkowitz and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-22 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, a scientist and dedicated film enthusiast discusses the portrayal of science in more than one hundred films, including science fiction, scientific biographies, and documentaries. Beginning with early films like Voyage to the Moon and Metropolis and concluding with more recent offerings like The Matrix, War of the Worlds, A Beautiful Mind, and An Inconvenient Truth, Sidney Perkowitz questions how much faith we can put into Hollywood's depiction of scientists and their work, how accurately these films capture scientific fact and theory, whether cataclysms like our collision with a comet can actually happen, and to what extent these films influence public opinion about science and the future. Bringing together history, scientific theory, and humorous observation, Hollywood Science features dozens of film stills and a list of the all-time best and worst science-fiction movies.
