Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture
Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture
Author: M. Keith Booker
Desc: For more than 50 years science fiction films have been among the most important and successful products of American cinema and are worthy of study for that reason alone. On a deeper level the genre has reflected important themes concerns and developments in American society so that a history of science fiction film also serves as a cultural history of America over the past half century. M. Keith Booker has selected fifteen of the most successful and innovative science fiction films of all time and examined each of them at length--from cultural technical and cinematic perspectives--to see where they came from and what they meant for the future of cinema and for America at large. From Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Star Wars from Blade Runner to The Matrix these landmark films have expressed our fears and dreams our abilities and our deficiencies. In this deep-seeking investigation we can all find something of ourselves that we recognize as well as something that we've never recognized before. The focus on a fairly small number of landmark films allows detailed attention to genuinely original movies including: Forbidden Planet Invasion of the Body Snatchers 2001: A Space Odyssey Planet of the Apes Star Wars Close Encounters of the Third Kind Alien E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Blade Runner The Terminator Robocop The Abyss Independence Day and The Matrix. This book is ideal for general readers interested in science fiction and film.