Description
Book SynopsisWe live in a world at risk. Dire predictions about our future or the demise of planet earth persist. Even fictional representations depict narratives of decay and the end of a commonly shared social reality. Along with recurring Hollywood blockbusters that imagine the end of the world, there has been a new wave of zombie features as well as independent films that offer various visions of the future. The Apocalypse in Film: Dystopias, Disasters, and Other Visions about the End of the World offers an overview of Armageddon in film from the silent era to the present. This collection of essays discusses how such films reflect social anxietiesones that are linked to economic, ecological, and cultural factors. Featuring a broad spectrum of international scholars specializing in different historical genres and methodologies, these essays look at a number of films, including the silent classic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worry
Trade ReviewRitzenhoff and Krewani introduce and present essays on the ‘filmic and narrative representations of contemporary catastrophes,’ including television programs, digital media, and even action figures associated with those media. Since ‘apocalypse’ can mean different things—destruction, devastation, disaster, revelation—the contributors of the 15 essays go in a variety of directions in exploring their subjects. Several essays treat Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011), an international art film that renewed critical interest in apocalyptic cinema. Other films covered include The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rex Ingram, 1921), Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964), and The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986). Also considered are zombies in Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968) and The Walking Dead (Frank Darabont, 2010). An intriguing essay by Frederick Wasser shows how producer Irwin Allen’s disaster films (e.g., The Towering Inferno, 1974) were rendered obsolete by Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). This collection joins Kristen Moana Thompson’s Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the Millennium (CH, Nov'07, 45-1383), another readable, exciting work on films about last things. Film stills are well chosen. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *
One whose interest in cinema transcends mere entertainment may find this collection of theories and analyses quite fascinating. * Free Kittens Movie Guide *
From the cruel winds of austerity to the savage songs of war and terror, the end of times proclamations surround us. Our cinema is filled with the rubble of catastrophe and our stories with the characters of nihilism and annihilation. In this incredibly timely and wonderfully structured collection on the apocalypse, chaos and catastrophe are examined across the history of film and through a remarkably interesting set of themes. From the war film to the science fiction spectacle, from the melancholia of dark dystopias to the hungriness of the zombie film, we see the world ending, and with it a present already dead and a future not yet born. Each chapter is filled with insightful textual and contextual analysis as the dead skin of past and present decompose and recompose before us. A must read and must have collection for those interested in the chaos within cinema. -- Sean Redmond, Deakin University
Using the depiction of human-made catastrophe in more than a century of apocalyptic film-making the authors of this first-rate, edited volume analyze political, social, racial, gender, religious, and ecological problems threatening the real world—often in different ways than presented in movies. This book is an excellent example of contemporary scholars looking at popular culture, here motion pictures, as at times reflecting and more often disregarding reality. -- Brigitte Nacos, Columbia Univeristy
This collection of essays, edited by Karen A. Ritzenhoff and Angela Krewani, accounts for the omnipresence of the apocalypse in English-language cinema, a motif which represents a particularly potent allegory in our globalized world. I was very much impressed by the sheer novelty and range of the in-depth explorations the book offers. -- David Roche, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Karen A. Ritzenhoff and Angela Krewani PART I THE EARLY DEPICTIONS OF DISASTER Chapter 1 World War One and Hollywood’s First Modern Armageddon: Understanding Wartime and Post-Conflict Representations of a Global Cataclysm in Civilization (1916) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) Clémentine Tholas-Disset Chapter 2 The End of the World: Loss and Redemption in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) Karen Randell PART II GLOBAL DEMISE AND COLD WAR Chapter 3 ‘Radiation’s rising, but one mustn’t grumble too much’: Nuclear Apocalypse Played as Farce in Richard Lester’s The Bed-Sitting Room (1969) Thomas Prasch Chapter 4 The Legacy of Dr. Strangelove: Stanley Kubrick, Science Fiction Blockbusters and the Future of Humanity Peter Krämer Chapter 5 ‘Gentleman, You Can’t Fight in Here’: Gender Symbolism and the End of the World in Dr. Strangelove and Melancholia Catriona McAvoy PART III MELANCHOLIA AND OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE Chapter 6 Is There an End to It? Fictional Shelters and Shelter-Fiction Solvejg Nitzke Chapter 7 Melancholia and the Apocalypse Within Pierre Floquet Chapter 8 Eco Apocalypse: Environmentalism, Political Alienation and Therapeutic Agency Philip Hammond and Hugh Ortega Breton PART IV POLITICS OF SHOWING THE UNTHINKABLE Chapter 9 Disaster Films: The End of the World and the Risk Society Hero Frederick Wasser Chapter 10 The (Gender) Politics of Disaster in 2012 (2009) Charles Antoine Courcoux Chapter 11 Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice: A Religious Humanist Apocalypse Tatjana Ljujić Chapter 12 Dead Narratives: Defining Humanity Through Stories A. Fiona Pearson and Scott Ellis PART V MOVING BEYOND THE END OF THE WORLD Chapter 13 Opposing Thatcherism: Filmic Apocalypse as a Political Strategy in 1980s Britain Angela Krewani Chapter 14 Painting in Time: On the Use of Digital Visual Effects in Melancholia (2011) Andreas Kirchner Chapter 15 The Corporate and Corporeal: Min(d)ing the Body—Conscience and Consumption in Early 21st Century Hollywood Dystopia Wendy Sterba Index About the Editors and Contributors
