Description
Book SynopsisEbook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open initiative. Given the USA's long-held taste for the monstrous in all its forms (Scott W.Poole), coupled with its love for the colossal, the exaggerated and the brash (William Tsutsui), it is not surprising that the giant monster movie has long been a key part of the nation's cinematic landscape; yet up until recently the genre has been largely neglected by scholars. The US Giant Monster Movie: Size Does Matter addresses this gap, providing a richly detailed and compelling critical account of this vital but often overlooked instance of popular cinema. Using Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of the carnivalesque to help inform a discussion of examples ranging from The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933), up to recent CGI blockbusters including Cloverfield (2008), Pacific Rim (2013), and Godzilla vs Kong (2021), the book charts chronological developments in the form; examines its wide-ranging thematic concerns; and
