Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of essays looks at how films in the last few years have reflected and juxtaposed the ascent of Barack Obama and his administration. The films examined here include The Help, Django Unchained, Lincoln, The Mist, Invictus, Black Dynamite, and The Great Gatsby.
Trade ReviewThe election of Barack Obama in 2008 as the US's first African American president was a remarkable historic event. In the euphoria of the moment certain pundits imagined that the US had entered a postracial age, and racism was over. The deaths of Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin soon shattered the myth of a new golden age in race relations. The films that have emerged in the supposed postracial 'age of Obama' show that the US is still haunted by the ghost of racism, and that the land is troubled by issues of class and corporate excess. It is profoundly ironic that in an era that imagines we have transcended race the film industry produced Django, 12 Years a Slave, The Help, The Butler, and Fruitvale Station. Popular discontent with the great recession and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the 1 percent is reflected in futuristic films such as The Hunger Games. Rebellion against tyranny can be inferred in the success of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Izzo has put together a superb, compelling collection of film criticism. A tour de force. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. * CHOICE *
The years of the Barack Obama presidency have seen a resurgence of 'black cinema' akin to the rise of the Blaxploitation movement of the 1960s. The present collection of 18 essays by a varied collection of academic scholars reviews a number of recent popular films, including The Help, Django Unchained, The Blind Side, 12 Years a Slave, to consider not only their popularity among non-black audiences but also how they fit into the current cultural and political milieu. Of special interest are those essays that address films that are not specifically black-oriented, such as The Great Gatsby and The Hunger Games. Even films such as these, argue their authors, speak to the changing cultural landscape that has developed since 2008. As editor Izzo notes in his introduction, the coalescence of minority, traditional Democrat, and other like-minded voters in the presidential election came about in part from the recognition of Obama’s Otherness -- voters saw in his person the outsider that they also felt because of the economic recession. This new crop of films thus deals together with the past, present, and future and especially forces black artists to think about representations. . . .Izzo’s collection deserves a place in comprehensive academic libraries for its currency. * American Reference Books Annual *
Table of ContentsIntroduction David Garrett Izzo Part I: Resonance from the Past: Experience Is Learned Backward But Must Be Lived Forward Chapter 1 - “I Really Need a Maid!” White Womanhood in The Help Kwakiutl L. Dreher Chapter 2 - Gwendolyn Brooks’s Bronzeville and Tate Taylor’s Jackson: “Art hurts. Art urges voyages—and it is easier to stay at home.” Blake G. Hobby Chapter 3 - If Django and Lincoln Could Talk: James Baldwin Goes to the Movies Robert McParland Chapter 4 - The Exceptional N*gger: Redefining African American Identity in Django Unchained Rodney M. D. Fierce Chapter 5 - Blaxploitation in the Age of Obama: Black Dynamite, Django Unchained, Racial Reasoning, and Racial Capitalism Brian E. Butler Chapter 6 - Between The Butler and Black Dynamite: Servility, Militancy, and the Meaning of Blaxploitation Andrew Grossman Chapter 7 - Rednecks, Racism, and Religion: King and Darabont’s Precarious Prophecy of Obama’s Coming Victoria McCollum Part II: The Present Is an Eternal Now Connecting Past and Future Chapter 8 - “I Am Trayvon Martin”: Obama and the Black Male in Cinema Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar and Alisha Saiyed Chapter 9 - Invictus: South Africa as a Post-racial Fantasy in the Age of Obama Sohinee Roy Chapter 10 - “Mama, I Think I Broke Something”: Thinking about the Environment in Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild Irina Negrea Chapter 11 - It’s Not a Wonderful Life: The Financial Crisis on Film and the Limits of Hollywood Liberalism Peter Grosvenor Chapter 12 - Reimagining Barack Obama as Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s Film Adaptation of The Great Gatsby Cammie Sublette Part III: The Present Imagines the Future Chapter 13 - The Hunger Games, Race, and Social Class in Obama’s America Sonya C. Brown Chapter 14 - Rise of the Planet of the People: Contradictions and Revolution in Rise of the Planet of the Apes doug morris Part IV: The 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave Chapter 15 - “Under the Floorboards of This Nation”: Trauma, Representation, and the Stain of History in 12 Years a Slave Ed Cameron and Linda Belau Chapter 16 - 162 Years after 12 Years a Slave: A Viewing through Double-Consciousness Salvador Murguia Chapter 17 - Revoking the Privilege of Forgetting: White Supremacy Interrogated in 12 Years a Slave David M. Jones Chapter 18 - No, You Can’t: Passive Protagonists in The Blind Side, Django Unchained, and 12 Years a Slave Thomas Britt Index About the Editor and Contributors
