The Films of the Nineties: The Decade of Spin

The Films of the Ninetees is a real-to-reel cultural analysis of the 1990s. Drawing on the theories of postmodern philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Jean-Francois Lyolard, this volume scrutinizes films and television shows such as Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Titanic, Shrek, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The West Wing with an eye trained on implicit attitudes about notions of reality and objective truth. Through these readings, Palmer chronicles the concept of "spin," the power to turn history to one's own agenda, a concept that emerged as the major sociopolitical persuasion strategy of the decade. In a world changed by the AIDS epidemic, the Clinton presidency, hip-hop, gay rights, and the redefinition of sexuality, the traditional conceptions of reality broke down and spin became a powerful force. The Films of the Nineties is an extensive analysis that dissects hundreds of individual works - but it is also a social, political, and sexual history of one of the most lively and complex decades of the twentieth century.

William J. Palmer is Professor of Literature and Film in the English Department of Purdue University.