Description
Book SynopsisIdentifying narratives of gender, race and masculinity that defined Reagan's America, this text provides demonstrations of the synergy between political history and popular culture. Films discussed include ""Home Alone"", ""Beetlejuice"", ""Working Girl"", ""Trading Places"" and ""The Little Mermaid"".
Trade Review"
Flatlining on the Field of Dreams takes a apart some of the most commercially successful films of the epoch, demonstrating how they reflected, debated, and played with the dominant ideology of the time. . . . cleverly and wittily written . . . . The book will work extremely well in the classroom." * Film Quarterly *
"From Back to the Future to Forrest Gump, Nadel shows not only how notions of cinematic time re-script political change but how our very conceptualizations of change are thematized by our experiences of watching movies. This is not simply film history, or film as history, but film affirming history in the same way that Ronald Reagan affirmed film narratives." -- Susan Jeffords * University of Washington *
"Flatlining on the Field of Dreams brilliantly restages the cultural narratives associated with Reaganism within a neo-imperialist cinematic space and reveals the heretofore unexamined role class played in the reproduction of those narratives." -- Donald E. Pease * Dartmouth College *
"
Flatlining on the Field of Dreams takes a apart some of the most commercially successful films of the epoch, demonstrating how they reflected, debated, and played with the dominant ideology of the time. . . . cleverly and wittily written . . . . The book will work extremely well in the classroom." * Film Quarterly *
"From Back to the Future to Forrest Gump, Nadel shows not only how notions of cinematic time re-script political change but how our very conceptualizations of change are thematized by our experiences of watching movies. This is not simply film history, or film as history, but film affirming history in the same way that Ronald Reagan affirmed film narratives." -- Susan Jeffords * University of Washington *
"Flatlining on the Field of Dreams brilliantly restages the cultural narratives associated with Reaganism within a neo-imperialist cinematic space and reveals the heretofore unexamined role class played in the reproduction of those narratives." -- Donald E. Pease * Dartmouth College *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Class, Film, and President Reagan's America
1. Back to the Futures Market: The Cinematic Realities and Trading Places of President Reagan's America
2. Flatlining on the Field of Dreams
3. The Pretty Woman, The Little Mermaid, and the Working Girl Become "Part of That World"
4. "I'm Not Really Bad. I'm Just Drawn That Way": The Compulsive-Attraction Film
5. Home and Homelessness Alone in John Hughes's America, or Dennis the Menace II Society
6. Seas of Love and Murderous Doubles: AIDS Narratives and the Dangers of the Other
Conclusion: The Enduring Power of Reaganism and the Movies
