The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light / Edition 1

by Nigel Morris

Overview

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consistently as self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship which contradict assumptions about their ideological tendencies. Exercising powerful emotional appeal, their ambiguities are profitably advantageous in maximising audiences and generating media attention.

About the Author:
Nigel Morris is Principal Lecturer in Media Theory and Teacher Fellow in the Department of Media Production, University of Lincoln

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904764885
Publisher:	Wallflower Press
Publication date:	02/06/2007
Series:	Directors' Cuts Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	317,764
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nigel Morris is Principal Lecturer in Media Theory and Teacher Fellow in the Department of Media Production, University of Lincoln. His publications include articles and chapters on aspects of American, British, German and Welsh cinema, literary adaptation, and cinematic and literary modernism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     vii
Introduction: the Critical Context     1
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: tripping the light fantastic     8
Duel: the descent of Mann     20
The Sugarland Express: a light comedy?     32
Jaws: searching the depths     43
1941: war on Hollywood     62
Raiders of the Lost Ark: lights, camera, action     73
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: turn on your love light     84
Twilight Zone: The Movie: magic lantern man overshadowed     95
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: anything goes     102
The Color Purple: sisters and brothers     113
Empire of the Sun: shanghai showmanship     135
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: cut to the chase     149
Always: light my fire     159
Hook: an awfully big Pan(a)vision adventure     176
Jurassic Park: another monster hit     192
Schindler's List: darkness visible     214
The Lost World: Jurassic Park: more digital manipulation     239
Amistad: black and white in colour     251
Saving Private Ryan: Hollywood on war     270
A.I. Artificial Intelligence: eyes wide open     299
Minority Report: through a glass, darkly     316
Catch Me If You Can: captured on celluloid     330
The Terminal: all that jazz     343
War of the Worlds: rays in the mirror     352
Munich: bitter fruit on the olive branch     359
Audiences, subjectivity and pleasure     376
Bibliography     394
Index     421

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating take on the man's legendary work.

Empire

Highly recommended.

Choice