CINEMA WARS - HOLLYWOOD FILM AND POLITICS IN THE BUSH-CHENEY ERA

Cinema Wars explores the intersection of film, politics, and US culture and society through a bold critical analysis of the films, TV shows, and documentaries produced in the early 2000s
Offers a thought-provoking depiction of Hollywood film as a contested terrain between conservative and liberal forces
Films and documentaries discussed include: Black Hawk Down, The Dark Knight, Star Wars, Syriana, WALL-E, Fahrenheit 9/11 and other Michael Moore documentaries, amongst others
Explores how some films in this era supported the Bush-Cheney regime, while others criticized the administration, openly or otherwise
Investigates Hollywood’s treatment of a range of hot topics, from terrorism and environmental crisis to the Iraq war and the culture wars of the 2000s
Shows how Hollywood film in the 2000s brought to life a vibrant array of social protest and helped create cultural conditions to elect Barack Obama

Douglas Kellner is George Kneller Chair of Philosophy of Education at UCLA. He is the author of many books on social theory, politics, history, and culture, including Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film, co-authored with Michael Ryan, and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy. He is the co-editor of Media and Cultural Studies Keyworks (Wiley-Blackwell 2006). Kellner’s most recent book is Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombings to the Virginia Tech Massacre. His website is at www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/kellner.html.

"This volume will be a valuable source ... .The provocative political stances taken and wide range of films discussed here will stimulate debate for academics and students alike." (Times Higher Education, February 2010)
"By far the best work yet on Hollywood cinema and American politics in the post-9/11 era. In the tradition of Camera Politica, Doug Kellner provides a bold and insightful assessment of a wide array of recent films, from documentaries and disaster spectacles to Iraq War films and low-budget horror. In the process, he fashions a remarkably comprehensive critique of American film and ideology in the new millennium."
—Thomas Schatz, University of Texas at Austin
"Professor Douglas Kellner has produced a masterful account of contemporary film culture in the United States, skillfully connecting it to major political issues, events, and developments of our period. This volume is absolutely indispensable reading for anyone interested in the central dynamics of American cinematic history and politics."
—Carl Boggs, author of Imperial Delusions and The Hollywood War Machine
"Cinema Wars spurs an important discussion about the political issues that are raised by contemporary, mainstream films. Kellner’s book is a fascinating read and gives us a framework for lively classroom discussion."
—Janet Bergstrom, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA
"Doug Kellner is our leading analyst of politics and the media. Cinema Wars, the latest book in this prolific scholar’s remarkable output, sheds light on the dreamworld of fiction and the reality of documentary. As the United States lurched from the disastrous arrogance of the Bush years to the troubled aftermath of the Great Recession, film referenced each unsteady step. Kellner was there, and he explains it all for us."
—Toby Miller, editor of The Contemporary Hollywood Reader

List of illustrations.
Introduction: Film, Politics, and Society.
Hollywood Film and the Contemporary Moment.
Cinema, Politics, and Social History: From Cinematic Realism to Allegory.
Reading Film Diagnostically.
Signs of the Times.
Cinema Wars: In This Book.
1. Confronting the Horrors of the Bush/Cheney Era: From Documentary to Allegory.
The Golden Age of Documentary.
Grand Theft 2000.
Bush/Cheney and Co.: Scandals and Critique.
Republican Rule and Crises of Democracy.
Real Disaster Films: From An Inconvenient Truth and Environmental Documentaries to Fictional Allegories.
Climate Change and Environmental Crisis Documentaries.
Critical Animated Visions.
Social Apocalypse in Disaster, Horror and Fantasy Films.
Environmental Meltdown.
Horror Shows.
2. Hollywood’s 9/11 and Spectacles of Terror.
9/11 as Disaster Film and Spectacle of Terror.
Representations of 9/11 in Hollywood Film: United 93 and World Trade Center.
Disney Television Republican Propaganda: The Path to 9/11.
Hollywood’s Terror War.
Christian Allegories of Apocalypse.
The State of Terror.
3. Michael Moore’s Provocations.
Michael Moore, Emile de Antonio, and the Politics of Documentary Film.
Roger and Me and the Documentary of Personal Witnessing: Issues of Capitalism and Class.
Bowling For Columbine and Exploratory Documentary: Guns, U.S. History, the Military, and Violence.
Fahrenheit 9/11 and Agit-Prop: From the Stolen Election to 9/11 and Iraq.
Sicko and the Michael Moore Genre.
4. From Realism to Allegory and Satire: Hollywood Political Critiques of the Bush/Cheney Regime.
The Hollywood Political Thriller as Social Critique.
The Star Wars Prequels as Anti-Bush/Cheney Allegory.
Jabs and Blows Against the Regime: From Satire to Dystopia.
5. The Cinematic Iraq War.
Documenting and Dissecting the Invasion and Occupation.
Interpreting the Iraq Fiasco.
Iraq and its Aftermath in Fiction Films.
Conclusion: Cinema as Art, Industry, and Site of Struggle.
Hollywood Films in the Age of Bush-Cheney: A Contested Terrain.
Some Final Reflections on Film and Politics in the Contemporary Moment.
References.
Index.