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Fifty Hollywood Directors

Fifty Hollywood Directors

Author: Suzanne Leonard

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317593935

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 431

View: 963

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Fifty Hollywood Directors introduces the most important, iconic and influential filmmakers who worked in Hollywood between the end of the silent period and the birth of the blockbuster. By exploring the historical, cultural and technological contexts in which each director was working, this book traces the formative period in commercial cinema when directors went from pioneers to industry heavyweights. Each entry discusses a director’s practices and body of work and features a brief biography and suggestions for further reading. Entries include: Frank Capra Cecil B DeMille John Ford Alfred Hitchcock Fritz Lang Orson Welles DW Griffith King Vidor This is an indispensible guide for anyone interested in film history, Hollywood and the development of the role of the director.

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams

Author: Edward Gross

Publisher: Macmillan

ISBN: 9781250089472

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 864

View: 809

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This is the true story behind the making of a television legend. There have been many books written about Star Trek, but never with the unprecedented access, insight and candor of authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. Having covered the franchise for over three decades, they’ve assembled the ultimate guide to a television classic. The Fifty-Year Mission: Volume Two is an incisive, no-holds-barred oral history telling the story of post-Original Series Star Trek, told exclusively by the people who were there, in their own words—sharing the inside scoop they’ve never told before—unveiling the oftentimes shocking true story of the history of Star Trek and chronicling the trials, tribulations—and tribbles—that have remained deeply buried secrets... until now. The Fifty-Year Mission: Volume Two includes the voices of hundreds television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast, who span from the beloved The Next Generation and subsequent films through its spin-offs: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, as well J.J. Abrams’ reimagined film series.

Mystery, Violence, and Popular Culture

Mystery, Violence, and Popular Culture

Author: John G. Cawelti

Publisher: Popular Press

ISBN: 0299196348

Category: Social Science

Page: 436

View: 512

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Mystery, Violence, and Popular Culture is John G. Cawelti's discussion of American popular culture and violence, from its precursors in Homer and Shakespeare to the Lone Ranger and Superman. Cawelti deciphers the overt sexuality, detached violence, and political intrigue embedded within Batman and .007. He analyzes the work of such famous pop-culture icons as Alfred Hitchcock, the Beatles, and Andy Warhol, and looks at a range of films, from Psycho and Dances with Wolves, and literature, from The Waste Land to Catch 22. Examples from popular movies, television, literature, and music, according to the author, characterize the evolving psychological, sociological, and political state of a nation. The book explores the relationship between racial and cultural groups in popular media such as Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Here also are new perspectives on mystery literature, the detective story, and twentieth-century mystery writers from one of the founders of popular culture studies.

Westerns

Westerns

Author: Gary R. Edgerton

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781135765088

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 364

View: 687

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For nearly two centuries, Americans have embraced the Western like no other artistic genre. Creators and consumers alike have utilized this story form in literature, painting, film, radio and television to explore questions of national identity and purpose. Westerns: The Essential Collection comprises the Journal of Popular Film and Television’s rich and longstanding legacy of scholarship on Westerns with a new special issue devoted exclusively to the genre. This collection examines and analyzes the evolution and significance of the screen Western from its earliest beginnings to its current global reach and relevance in the 21st century. Westerns: The Essential Collection addresses the rise, fall and durability of the genre, and examines its preoccupation with multicultural matters in its organizational structure. Containing eighteen essays published between 1972 and 2011, this seminal work is divided into six sections covering Silent Westerns, Classic Westerns, Race and Westerns, Gender and Westerns, Revisionist Westerns and Westerns in Global Context. A wide range of international contributors offer original critical perspectives on the intricate relationship between American culture and Western films and television series. Westerns: The Essential Collection places the genre squarely within the broader aesthetic, socio-historical, cultural and political dimensions of life in the United States as well as internationally, where the Western has been reinvigorated and reinvented many times. This groundbreaking anthology illustrates how Western films and television series have been used to define the present and discover the future by looking backwards at America’s imagined past.

The Cowboy

The Cowboy

Author: Charles W. Harris

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

ISBN: 0806113413

Category: History

Page: 180

View: 886

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One of America’s unique contributions to world culture, the cowboy has captured the imagination of people everywhere. In The Cowboy: Six-Shooters, Songs, and Sex, eight renowned western writers report on what the cowboys really were like and what they are like today. Contributors detail how the cowboys lived, loved, and died, how they fared when ranchers switched from running cattle to entertaining dudes, and how the media have depicted the cowboy.

The Hero's Trail

The Hero's Trail

Author: Peter C. Mowrey

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9781476644271

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 404

View: 695

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The great American Westerns can be profoundly meaningful when read metaphorically. More than mere shoot 'em up entertainment, they are an essential part of a vibrant, evolving national mythology. Like other versions of the archetypal Hero's Journey, these films are filled with insights about life, love, nature, society, ethics, beauty and what it means to be human, and are key to understanding American culture. Part film guide, part historical survey, this book explores the mythic and artistic elements in more than fifty great Westerns--some orthodox, some subversive--from the genre's first half-century. Each film is given detailed critical analysis, from the earliest silent movies to Golden Age classics like Red River (1948), High Noon (1952) and Shane (1953).

The Old West in Fact and Film

The Old West in Fact and Film

Author: Jeremy Agnew

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9780786468881

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 267

View: 854

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For many years, movie audiences have carried on a love affair with the American West, believing Westerns are escapist entertainment of the best kind, harkening back to the days of the frontier. This work compares the reality of the Old West to its portrayal in movies, taking an historical approach to its consideration of the cowboys, Indians, gunmen, lawmen and others who populated the Old West in real life and on the silver screen. Starting with the Westerns of the early 1900s, it follows the evolution in look, style, and content as the films matured from short vignettes of good-versus-bad into modern plots.

The Quick, the Dead and the Revived

The Quick, the Dead and the Revived

Author: Joseph Maddrey

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9781476625492

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 204

View: 550

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For well more than a century, Western films have embodied the United States’ most fundamental doctrine—expansionism—and depicted, in a uniquely American way, the archetypal battle between good and evil. Westerns also depict a country defined and re-defined by complex crises. World War II transformed the genre as well as the nation’s identity. Since then, Hollywood filmmakers have been fighting America’s ideological wars onscreen by translating modern-day politics into the timeless mythology of the Old West. This book surveys the most iconic and influential Westerns, examines Hollywood stars and their political stripes and reveals the familiar Western tropes—which became elements in popular action, science fiction and horror films. This then sets the stage for the Western revival of the 1990s and a period of reinvention in the 21st century. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Some Remarks

Some Remarks

Author: Neal Stephenson

Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd

ISBN: 9780857898487

Category: Literary Collections

Page: 300

View: 543

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In this definitive collection of Stephenson's writings, journalism and meditations, the great American polymath puts the 20th Century - mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, currency, and the history of science and technology- under his eclectic and unflinching gaze. One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels - works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, pop culture, and philosophy, his books are the product of a keen and adventurous intellect. Not surprisingly, Stephenson is regularly asked to contribute articles, lectures, and essays to numerous outlets, from major newspapers and cutting edge magazines to college symposia. This remarkable collection brings together previously published short writings, both fiction and nonfiction as well as a new essay (and an extremely short story) created specifically for this volume. Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; video games to classics-based sci-fi; how geekdom has become cool and how science fiction has become mainstream (whether people admit it or not); the future of publishing and the origins of his novels. By turns amusing and profound, critical and celebratory, yet always entertaining, Some Remarks offers a fascinating look into the prismatic mind of this extraordinary writer.

Screenwriters

Screenwriters

Author: José Guilherme Correa

Publisher: Clube de Autores

ISBN: 9781365026348

Category: Religion

Page: 194

View: 169

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Screen-writing is a unique literary form. Screenplays are like musical scores, in that they are intended to be interpreted on the basis of other artists performances rather than serving as finished products for the enjoyment of their readers. They are written using technical jargon and tight, spare prose to describe set directions. Unlike a novella, a script focuses on describing the literal, visual aspects of the story rather than on its characters internal thoughts. In screen-writing, the aim is to evoke those thoughts and emotions through subtext, action, and symbolism. Prominent Hollywood script doctors include Steve Zaillian, William Goldman, Robert Towne, Mort Nathan, Quentin Tarantino etc., while many up-and-coming screenwriters work as ghost writers. This book is a modest catalogue of some of the most prominent screenwriters, listed from A to Z. The good are sometimes bad, and they can be even... Ugly. Many comments herein included were googled in deference to the multiplicity of information available today, yet they reflect exactly - or almost - what I thought. An amazing thing today is how anonymous commentators on the Internet rival and even surpass the poor quality of professional media and specialised literature. It all comes down to watching the truth 24 times per second, to quote Jean-Luc Godard s phrase. Not to mention that such truth may include sex scenes, violence, pedophilia, etc. We know that a literary masterpiece like Henry James Portrait of a Lady became a film of very poor quality as scripted by Laura Jones. We know, conversely, that a mediocre writer like Mickey Spillane inspired at least one film as remarkable as Kiss Me Deadly, thanks to A. I. Bezzerides script. Asa former screenwriter, Mr. Correa must avow that he found the job most gratifying. Writing that looks effortless is often hellish to write and revise. It was something he did have to slog through, but it proved particularly pleasing. Editing, discussing & finishing your work is particularly gratifying. Identifying your flaws and working to mitigate them is also gratifying. It is a general perception that creative careers are more interesting and fun than others. But the privilege of earning money through imagination and creativity is effectively hard-won. Please comment at will. Please disagree at will. Be facetious in your remarks, but please be neither vicious nor mean-spirited.