Fascism and Millennial American Cinema

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.

Critically considers the filmic mediation of an issue, fascism, that has been of recurrent concern historically and is of pressing concern presently Sheds new light on the topic of fascism and film, which has, in terms of the post-classical period of American cinema, received scant attention Provides detailed and theoretically informed analysis of a number of films, including American History X (1999), Fight Club (1999) and American Beauty (1999)

Autorentext
Leighton 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).

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Fascism, and American Cinema.- 2. Skinheads, Racism, (Neo-)Nazism and the Family.- 3. Patriots and Militias, Fascism and the State.- 4. A (Fascist) New World Order/A (Fascistically Contested) New World Order.- 5. The Übermensch, its Avatars and the Ordinary.- 6. Conclusion: The World Turns.