Discussing such classic films as Sergeant York, Air Force, and All Quiet on the Western Front, as well as more modern blockbusters like Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan, this outstanding volume focuses on Hollywood and its production of war films.

Topics covered include:

• 
  
• the early formation of war cinema
• 
  
• the apotheosis of the Hollywood war film
• 
  
• the ascendancy of ambivalence
• 
  
• Hollywood and the war since Vietnam
• 
  
• war as a way of seeing.

For any student of film studies or American cultural studies, this is a valuable companion.

American cinema has always been violent, and never more so than now: exploding heads, buses that blow up if they stop, racial attacks, and general mayhem. From slapstick's comic violence to film noir, from silent cinema to Tarantino, violence has been an integral part of America on screen.
This new volume in a successful series analyses violence, examining its nature, its effects, and its cinematic and social meaning. The contributors, who include Marsha Kinder and Richard Maltby address theories and histories of Hollywood violence, traditionally violent genres, and Hollywood violence and cultural politics.

Discussing such classic films as Sergeant York, Air Force, and All Quiet on the Western Front, as well as more modern blockbusters like Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan, this outstanding volume focuses on Hollywood and its production of war films.

Topics covered include:

• 
  
• the early formation of war cinema
• 
  
• the apotheosis of the Hollywood war film
• 
  
• the ascendancy of ambivalence
• 
  
• Hollywood and the war since Vietnam
• 
  
• war as a way of seeing.

For any student of film studies or American cultural studies, this is a valuable companion.

American cinema has always been violent, and never more so than now: exploding heads, buses that blow up if they stop, racial attacks, and general mayhem. From slapstick's comic violence to film noir, from silent cinema to Tarantino, violence has been an integral part of America on screen.
This new volume in a successful series analyses violence, examining its nature, its effects, and its cinematic and social meaning. The contributors, who include Marsha Kinder and Richard Maltby address theories and histories of Hollywood violence, traditionally violent genres, and Hollywood violence and cultural politics.

September 11, 2001 made the dangers of terrorism horrifyingly real for Americans. Although not the first or only attack on U.S. soil, its magnitude renewed old debates and raised fresh concerns about the relations between media and such events. How should the news - print, cable, network, radio, Internet - cover stories? What visual evidence does the public have the ""right"" to see and what is not acceptable to show to the viewing public at home? How can - or should - such events be retold cinematically? Bringing together fifteen classic essays by prominent scholars in a variety of fields, including history, international relations, communications, American studies, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies, Terrorism, Media, Liberation explores the relationship between violent political actions and the technological media that present and frame them for mass audiences. Fundamental to the idea of terrorism is the psychological impact that violent acts have on those not directly involved. Essays examine concerns over the creation of spectacle and the propagation of fear and argue that the mediated ways the public learns about these events unavoidably shape our understanding of terrorism as a contemporary threat. With a thoughtful introduction by J. David Slocum, this timely and important collection provides a historical, rather than simplistically moral perspective on the current, thoroughly mediated, ""war on terrorism.