Echoes of Reaganism in Hollywood Blockbuster Movies from the 1980s to the 2010s
Series:
Ilias Ben Mna
This book examines the reverberations of key components of Ronald Reagan’s ideology in selected Hollywood blockbuster movies. The aim of this analysis is to provide a clearer understanding of the intertwinement of cinematic spectacles with neoliberalism and neoconservatism. The analysis comprises a dissection of Reagan’s presidential rhetoric and the examination of four seminal Hollywood blockbuster movies. The time range for analysis stretches from the 1980s until the 2010s. Among the key foci are filmic content as well as production and distribution contexts. It is concluded that Reagan’s political metaphors and the corporatization of film studios in the 1970s and 1980s continue to shape much of Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking.
- Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2021. 378 pp., 16 fig. col.
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Blockbusters and Reaganism
- The Long Shadow of the 1980s
- How to Trace Ideology in Blockbusters?
- Focal Points for Analysis
- Why Does Reaganism in Blockbusters Matter?
- Chapter 1 Tracing Echoes in Film
- Chapter Overview
- The Case for the Continued Reaganization of Hollywood Blockbusters
- The Media Spectacle According to Douglas Kellner
- The Hollywood “Hard Body” According to Susan Jeffords
- George Lakoff’s “Strict Father Model” as a Political Framing Device
- Roland Barthes’ Concept of Mythologies as a Tool for Deconstructing Capitalist Imagery
- Defining Hollywood Blockbusters as a Formula
- Key Ideological and Methodological Terms
- Neoliberalism
- Neoconservatism
- Messianic Americanism
- Metatexts/Subtexts
- Potentials and Limitations
- Chapter 2 Key Myths and Metaphors in Reagan’s Rhetoric
- Chapter Overview
- The “Small-Government” Metaphor
- The “Star Wars” Program as a Pop Culture Invocation for Cold War Rearmament
- Counter-Terrorism as “War” against the Other
- The White Male Entrepreneur as Mythical Hero for the Nation
- Chapter 3 E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial as a Reaganite “Small-Government Fable”
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- Hollywood Studios at Heaven’s Gate: The Production Background of E.T.
- Film Analysis
- The Dystopian Nature of Government and Bureaucracy in E.T.
- The Restoration of the Father through White, Male, Middle-Class Individualism
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial
- Chapter 4 The Recycling of Reagan’s Cold War Rhetoric in Independence Day
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- When Disaster Strikes at the Box Office: The Production Background of Independence Day
- Film Analysis
- Technological Superiority in Outer Space as an Expression of US-American Hegemony
- The Role of “Messianic Americanism” in Defeating the Other
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of Independence Day
- Chapter 5 The Dark Knight as an Echo Chamber for Reaganite Counter-Terrorism Rhetoric
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- A New Class of Criminals: The Production Background of The Dark Knight
- Film Analysis
- “War on Terror” and “Terror War” in The Dark Knight
- “Terror” Is What Others Do: Racial Otherness in The Dark Knight and in Neoconservative Rhetoric
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of The Dark Knight
- Chapter 6 Hard-Bodied Entrepreneurialism in The Avengers
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- The Superhero (Formula) Keeps Coming Back: The Production Background of The Avengers
- Film Analysis
- Entrepreneurialism and National Defense in The Avengers
- Gendered “Hard Bodies” in Times of War
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of The Avengers
- Conclusions and Outlook
- Main Conclusions and their Relevance for Contemporary Discussions
- Implications for Blockbuster Movies as a Formula
- From Ronald to Donald: When Blockbuster Logic Meets Political Spectacles
- List of Figures
- Bibliography
- Series Index
American Culture
Herausgegeben von / Edited by
Astrid Böger, Bettina Friedl, Michaela Hampf und Martin Klepper
Band 1 Carsten Springer: Crises: The Works of Paul Auster. 2001.
Band 2 Carsten Blatt: Wege aus dem Krieg. Strategien literarischer Verarbeitung des Vietnam-Traumas in den Romanen von Tim O'Brien. 2001.
Band 3 Lars Schroeder: Slave to the Body. Black Bodies, White No-Bodies, and the Regulative Dualism of Body-Politics in Old South. 2003.
Band 4 Larissa Bendel: The requirements of our life is the form of our art: Autobiographik von Frauen der Beat Generation. 2005.
Band 5 Maike Kolbeck: From Word to Land. Early English Reports from North America as Worldmaking Texts. 2008.
Band 6 Jannika Bock: Concord in Massachusetts, Discord in the World. The Writings of Henry Thoreau and John Cage. 2008.
Band 7 Yvonne Klose: “How had it ever happened here?” A Constructivist Reading of Thomas Pynchon´s The Crying of Lot 49 and its Role in the Pynchon Canon. 2012.
Band 8 Wilfried Koch: Die Naturbeschreibung im Journal von Henry David Thoreau. 2012.
Band 9 Gabriele G. E Paulix: Das Amerika Haus als Bauaufgabe der Nachkriegszeit in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. „Architecture Makes a Good Ambassador“. 2012.
Band 10 Tobias Schnettler: Darstellungen der Great Migration. Richard Wright und Jacob Lawrence. 2014.
Band 11 Iulian Cananau: Constituting Americanness. A History of the Concept and Its Representations in Antebellum American Literature. 2015.
Band 12 Thomas Girst: Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment. On John Okada´s No-No Boy. 2015.
Band 13 Jerry Schuchalter: Norman Mailer and the Modernist Turn. 2015.
Band 14 Frank Usbeck: Ceremonial Storytelling. Ritual and Narrative in Post-9/11 US Wars. 2019.
Band 15 Ilias Ben Mna: Echoes of Reaganism in Hollywood Blockbuster Movies from the 1980s to the 2010s. 2021.
←377 | 378→- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Blockbusters and Reaganism
- The Long Shadow of the 1980s
- How to Trace Ideology in Blockbusters?
- Focal Points for Analysis
- Why Does Reaganism in Blockbusters Matter?
- Chapter 1 Tracing Echoes in Film
- Chapter Overview
- The Case for the Continued Reaganization of Hollywood Blockbusters
- The Media Spectacle According to Douglas Kellner
- The Hollywood “Hard Body” According to Susan Jeffords
- George Lakoff’s “Strict Father Model” as a Political Framing Device
- Roland Barthes’ Concept of Mythologies as a Tool for Deconstructing Capitalist Imagery
- Defining Hollywood Blockbusters as a Formula
- Key Ideological and Methodological Terms
- Neoliberalism
- Neoconservatism
- Messianic Americanism
- Metatexts/Subtexts
- Potentials and Limitations
- Chapter 2 Key Myths and Metaphors in Reagan’s Rhetoric
- Chapter Overview
- The “Small-Government” Metaphor
- The “Star Wars” Program as a Pop Culture Invocation for Cold War Rearmament
- Counter-Terrorism as “War” against the Other
- The White Male Entrepreneur as Mythical Hero for the Nation
- Chapter 3 E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial as a Reaganite “Small-Government Fable”
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- Hollywood Studios at Heaven’s Gate: The Production Background of E.T.
- Film Analysis
- The Dystopian Nature of Government and Bureaucracy in E.T.
- The Restoration of the Father through White, Male, Middle-Class Individualism
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial
- Chapter 4 The Recycling of Reagan’s Cold War Rhetoric in Independence Day
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- When Disaster Strikes at the Box Office: The Production Background of Independence Day
- Film Analysis
- Technological Superiority in Outer Space as an Expression of US-American Hegemony
- The Role of “Messianic Americanism” in Defeating the Other
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of Independence Day
- Chapter 5 The Dark Knight as an Echo Chamber for Reaganite Counter-Terrorism Rhetoric
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- A New Class of Criminals: The Production Background of The Dark Knight
- Film Analysis
- “War on Terror” and “Terror War” in The Dark Knight
- “Terror” Is What Others Do: Racial Otherness in The Dark Knight and in Neoconservative Rhetoric
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of The Dark Knight
- Chapter 6 Hard-Bodied Entrepreneurialism in The Avengers
- Introduction and Chapter Overview
- The Superhero (Formula) Keeps Coming Back: The Production Background of The Avengers
- Film Analysis
- Entrepreneurialism and National Defense in The Avengers
- Gendered “Hard Bodies” in Times of War
- The Pop Cultural Legacy of The Avengers
- Conclusions and Outlook
- Main Conclusions and their Relevance for Contemporary Discussions
- Implications for Blockbuster Movies as a Formula
- From Ronald to Donald: When Blockbuster Logic Meets Political Spectacles
- List of Figures
- Bibliography
- Series Index