Manchester University Press The Cultural Politics of Contemporary Hollywood Film: Power, Culture, and Society

‘The authors draw on an impressive array of contemporary literature and critical studies to provide original and illuminating analyses of how contemporary Hollywood film is an important force of cultural politics.’ From the foreword by Douglas Kellner, Distinguished Professor of Education at UCLA and author of Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush/Cheney Era Movies are never politically innocent. They generate and reflect myths about nation, society, community, and personal life that profoundly influence how we understand our world and ourselves. Developing a new syncretic ‘cultural politics’ approach, this comprehensive and up-to-date study interrogates the stories Hollywood tells us, offering insights into both the pleasures and problems associated with what we watch. Hollywood film is often analysed by genre. This book follows a very different method, considering film as a political technology. It illustrates this original framing in terms of three categories: security, relationalities, and social critique. ‘Security’ films communicate ideas about public order and disorder, citizen–state relations, and the politics of fear. ‘Relationalities’ films highlight personal and intimate politics, bringing norms about identities, gender, and sexuality into focus. In ‘socially critical’ films, particular issues and ideas are endowed with more overtly political significance, though the underlying ideological assumptions are not always immediately clear. The political myths that characterise these films are considered in the context of Hollywood’s global reach and impact. Readers with an interest in the study of culture, film, media, communications, politics, sociology, gender, and sexuality at any level will find this innovative book offers new ways to understand movies and their effects.