This book examines a spate of American films released around the turn of the millennium that differently address the actuality or possibility of domestic fascism within the USA. The films discussed span a diversity of forms, genres and production practices, and encompass low- and medium-budget studio and independent releases (such as
American History X,
Stir of Echoes and
The Believer), star and/or
auteur vehicles (such as
The Siege,
Fight Club and
American Beauty), and high-budget, high-concept science-fiction films and franchises (such as
Starship Troopers,
Minority Report, the
Matrix and
X-Men trilogies and the
Star Wars prequels). Central to the book is the detailed analysis of the films, which is contextualized historically in relation to a period that saw the significant rise of the far Right. The book concordantly affords a wider insight into fascism and its various manifestations and how such have been, and continue to be, registered within American cinema.
About the AuthorLeighton Grist is Reader in Media and Film Studies at the University of Winchester, UK. He has published extensively on film, including work on classical and post-classical Hollywood cinema, film theory and genre. He is the author of
The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1963-77: Authorship and Context (2000) and
The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1978-99: Authorship and Context II (2013).
Reviews"Scholars of film history, media and culture, and political communication will find this book to be useful and informative." (Lindsay R. Martin, CBQ Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 51 (3-4), 2020)
Book InformationISBN 9781137595652
Author Leighton GristFormat Hardback
Page Count 242
Imprint Palgrave MacmillanPublisher Palgrave Macmillan