The apocalypse in film : dystopias, disasters, and other visions about the end of the world /
edited by Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Angela Krewani.
- Lanham : Rowman and Littlefield, (c)2016.
- 1 online resource (xxii, 231 pages)
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction / THE EARLY DEPICTIONS OF DISASTER. World War One and Hollywood's First Modern Armageddon: Understanding Wartime and Post-Conflict Representations of a Global Cataclysm in Civilization (1916) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) / The end of the world: loss and redemption in Four horsemen of the apocalypse / GLOBAL DEMISE AND COLD WAR. "Radiation's rising, but one mustn't grumble too much": nuclear apocalypse played as farce in Richard Lester's The bed-sitting room / The legacy of Dr. Strangelove: Stanley Kubrick, science fiction blockbusters and the future of humanity / "Gentleman, you can't fight in here": gender symbolism and the end of the world in Dr. Strangelove and Melancholia / MELANCHOLIA AND OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF THE APOCALYSPE. Is there an end to it? fictional shelters and shelter-fiction / Melancholia and the apocalypse within / Eco apocalypse: environmentalism, political alienation and therapeutic agency / POLITICS OF SHOWING THE UNTHINKABLE. Disaster films: the end of the world and the risk society hero / The (gender) politics of disaster in 2012 / Tarkovsky's The sacrifice: a religious humanist apocalypse / Dead narratives: defining humanity through stories / MOVING BEYOND THE END OF THE WORLD. Opposing Thatcherism: filmic apocalypse as a political strategy in 1980s Britain / Painting in time: on the use of digital visual effects in Melancholia / The corporate and corporeal: min(d)ing the body conscience and consumption in early 21st century Hollywood dystopia / Karen A. Ritzenhoff and Angela Krewani -- Clémentine Tholas-Disset -- Karen Randell -- Thomas Prasch -- Peter Krämer -- Catriona Mcavoy -- Solvejg Nitzke -- Pierre Floquet -- Philip Hammond and Hugh Ortega Breton -- Frederick Wasser -- Charles Antoine Courcoux -- Tatjana Ljuji -- A. Fiona Pearson and Scott Ellis -- Angela Krewani -- Andreas Kirchner -- Wendy Sterba.
The Apocalypse in Film: Dystopias, Disasters, and Other Visions about the End of the World offers an overview of Armageddon in film from the silent era to the present. This collection of essays discusses how such films reflect social anxieties--ones that are linked to economic, ecological, and cultural factors. Featuring a broad spectrum of international scholars specializing in different historical genres and methodologies, these essays look at a number of films, including the silent classic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the Mayan calendar disaster epic, 2012, and in particular, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, the focus of several essays. As some filmmakers translate the anxiety about a changing global climate and geo-political relations into visions of the apocalypse, others articulate worries about the planet's future by depicting chemical warfare, environmental disasters, or human made destruction. This book analyzes the emergence of apocalyptic and dystopic narratives and explores the political and social situations on which these films are based. Contributing to the dialogue on dystopic culture in war and peace, The Apocalypse in Film will be of interest to scholars in film and media studies, border studies, gender studies, sociology, and political science.--Publisher website.
9781442260290
2021677112
Science fiction films--History and criticism. Apocalypse in motion pictures.