Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood 2

Lincoln Geraghty

Description

Hollywood continues to reign supreme; from award-winning dramas to multimillion-dollar, special-effects-laden blockbusters, Tinseltown produces the films that audiences around the world go to the cinema to see. While the film industry has dramatically changed over the years—stars have come and gone, studios have risen and fallen, new technologies have emerged to challenge directors and entice audiences—Hollywood remains the center of global media entertainment.

 

The second volume of Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood builds on its predecessor by exploring how the industry has evolved and expanded throughout its history. With new essays that discuss the importance of genre, adaptation, locations, and technology in the production of film, this collection explores how Hollywood has looked to create, innovate, borrow, and adapt new methods of filmmaking to capture the audience’s imaginations. Touching on classic films such as North by Northwest and Dirty Harry alongside CGI blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight as well as comedies such as When Harry Met Sally and Jerry Maguire, this landmark book charts the changing tastes of cinemagoers and the diverse range of offerings from Hollywood.

 

User-friendly and concise, yet dense and wide-ranging, Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood 2 demonstrates that Hollywood, despite its challenges from independent filmmakers and foreign directors, remains the undisputed king of moviemaking in the twenty-first century.

 

Introduction 

Adaptation

Hollywood in the Twenty-First Century

Locating Hollywood 

Hollywood and Technology 

Industry Spotlight 

The Avengers/Marvel's Avengers Assemble

Directors 

James Cameron

Frank Capra

Nora Ephron

Alfred Hitchcock

Christopher Nolan

Awards

Marketing

Sound & Music 

Special Effects and CGI

TV To Film

Remakes

Teen Films

Superhero and Comic Book Films

Computer Game Adaptations

Christmas and the Holidays

Thrillers

The Sport Film 

Sujets

• Directories
• Película fotográfica
• América del Norte
• Reference
• Directory
• North America
• California
• Electronic
• Film
• Hollywood
• Culture cinématographique

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783204915
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 27 Mo

Extrait

GERAGHTY
DIRECTORY OF WORLD CINEMA AMERICAN HOLLYWOOD 2
DIRECTORY OF
DIRECTORY OF
WORLD CINEMA
AMERICAN HOLLYWOOD 2 WORLD
EDITED BY CINEMA
LINCOLN GERAGHTY
Hollywood continues to reign supreme; from award-winning dramas to
multimillion-dollar, special-effects-laden blockbusters, Tinseltown produces the films
that audiences around the world go to the cinema to see. While the film industry
has dramatically changed over the years – stars have come and gone, studios have
risen and fallen, new technologies have emerged to challenge directors and entice
audiences – Hollywood remains the centre of global media entertainment.
The second volume of Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood builds on its
predecessor by exploring how the industry has evolved and expanded throughout its
history. With new essays that discuss the importance of genre, adaptation, locations
and technology in the production of film, this collection explores how Hollywood has
looked to create, innovate, borrow and adapt new methods of film-making to capture
the audience’s imagination. Touching on classic films such as North by Northwest
and Dirty Harry, alongside CGI blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and The Dark
Knight, as well as comedies such as When Harry Met Sally and Jerry Maguire, this
landmark book charts the changing tastes of cinemagoers and the diverse range of
offerings from Hollywood.
User-friendly and concise, yet dense and wide-ranging, Directory of World Cinema:
American Hollywood 2 demonstrates that Hollywood, despite its challenges from
independent film-makers and foreign directors, remains the undisputed king of
filmmaking in the twenty-first century.
Directory of World Cinema ISSN 2040-7971
Dirorld Cinema eISSN 2040-798X
Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood 2 ISBN 978-1-78320-006-1
Dirorld Cinema: American Hollywood 2 eISBN 978-1-78320-491-5
www.worldcinemadirectory.org EDITED BY
intellect | www.intellectbooks.com LINCOLN GERAGHTY
AMERICAN
2
HOLLYWOODVolume 25
directory of
world cinema
american Holl ywood 2
Edited by Lincoln Geraghty
intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USAFirst published in the UK in 2015 by
Intellect Books, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2015 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2015 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Publisher: May Yao
Publishing Managers: Jelena Stanovik and Heather Gibson
Cover photograph: North by Northwest, 1959. MGM/THE KOBAL COLLECTION
Cover designer: Holly Rose
Copy-editor: Sebastian Manley
Typesetter: John Teehan
Directory of World Cinema ISSN 2040-7971
Dirorld Cinema eISSN 2040-798X
Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood 2 ISBN 978-1-78320-006-1
Dirorld Cinema: American Hollywood 2 eISBN 978-1-78320-491-5
Printed and bound by Short Run Press, UK.
contentsdirectory of world cinema
american
Hollywood 2
a cknowledgements 5remakes 149
Essay
introduction 6 Reviews
adaptation8 teen films167
Hollywood in the Essay
Twenty-First Century Reviews
l ocating Hollywood 12 superhero and c omic Book films 187
Essay
Hollywood and technology 16 Reviews
industry spotlight 20 c omputer Game a daptations 207
The Avengers/Marvel's Avengers Essay
Assemble Reviews
directors 25 c hristmas and the Holidays 225
James CameronEssay
Frank CapraReviews
Nora Ephron
Alfred Hitchcockthrillers 247
Christopher Nolan Essay
Reviews
awards 51
Essay t he sport film 265
Reviews Essay
Reviews
marketing69
Essay r ecommended r eading 284
Reviews
a merican Hollywood c inema
sound & music 89online 292
Essay
Reviews test your Knowledge 294
special effects and c Gi 109 n otes o n c ontributors 297
Essay
Reviews filmography 304
t V to film 129
Essay
Reviews
contentsDirectory of World Cinema
acKnowledGementsDirectory of World Cinema
The completion of this second volume would not have been possible without
the help and support of a number of people. Again, I must thank all those at
Intellect who helped in the production of the fnished book. The contributors,
for all their talent and insight into the flms discussed, must be praised – with
perhaps their patience being valued and credited the most. It is truly amazing
to see the collected effort that makes up a volume of this nature. Everyone
took their contributions seriously, researching, writing and redrafting their
entries to produce quality flm scholarship. To my colleagues in the School of
Creative Arts, Film and Media at the University of Portsmouth who wanted to
be involved with the project, I again offer my gratitude for stepping forward,
despite your busy schedules, and volunteering to write essays and reviews.
We routinely discuss and argue about the latest blockbuster release or
Oscar-nominated flm, and this volume stands as testament to the fact that
Hollywood flm still has the power to infuence our lives, inspire our decisions
and feed the circulation of popular culture. As ever, I must thank my wife
Rebecca Janicker, who, as ever, inspired me to take this project on and fnish
it. While her contributions are always insightful, she is the perfect partner with
which to go to the cinema: she doesn’t hold it against me for picking a dud!
l incoln Geraghty
Acknowledgements 5
acKnowledGementsDirectory of World Cinema
introduction:
By t He editor
In the frst volume of American Hollywood I argued that the history of Hollywood flm
production was not one history but an amalgam of many: from the history of the tension
between spectacle and narrative, to the history of technological change, to the history
of industrial and economic forces, to the history of the establishment of norms and
flm-making practices. Over the years studios have managed and adapted to shifting
audience tastes and the changing cultural landscape. Despite threats from economic
downturns, the popularity of other media such as television through to videogames,
and the prevalence of underground markets such as illegal downloads and pirated
DVDs, Hollywood has maintained its position as the most important producer of popular
entertainment around the globe. Megastars like Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson
continue to attract big box offce returns and multimillion-dollar franchises still dictate
your local cinema release calendar. No surprise then that companies like Marvel are
the cornerstone of Hollywood’s durability. They build on established audience loyalties,
adapt and remake older titles so that their brand crosses generational boundaries, and
aggressively market movies using traditional means such as toys and trailers as well as
newer platforms offered by the Internet and social media.
For many, however, the contemporary franchise blockbuster poses more of a
danger than security for the industry. The plethora of titles targeted at more youthful
demographics supposedly threatens the value and relevance of Hollywood flm, so much
so that every year the Oscars are accused of being boring and lacking in real depth and
quality. Critics that expound upon the death of cinema when faced with summer months
devoted to superhero flms no doubt shudder to think that Marvel and DC are constantly
looking to fnd and develop projects from their vast back catalogue of titles. That said,
where would Hollywood be without its sure-fre blockbuster hit? Without the injection
of fnances from summer successes, how could it keep making serious and demanding
flms that challenge audiences all year round – indeed, the types of flms that might not
make a splash at the box offce but dominate the Oscars? The answer lies in the fact that
Hollywood has always done both, as evidenced in the history of spectacle versus narrative
outlined above. Hollywood is an industry all about recycling what works and adapting the
best of what has come before. That superhero movies or sequels and remakes appear
to dominate at your local multiplex is not a recent phenomenon; the blockbuster, as a
vehicle for studio success in a crowded and competitive market, has been a tried and
tested method to attract audiences. Returning to and remaking older flms, and adapting
titles from other literary and media sources, has been part of flm-making from the very
beginning.
Take for example X-Men: Days of Future Past, which started the blockbuster bonanza
in May 2014. It not only represents the most recent in a long line of X-Men movies but
also acts as a sequel to a prequel that joins together older and newer versions of mutant
characters drawn from an even longer history of comic book superheroes dating back
to the 1960s. The franchise speaks to fans of the comics, fans of the movies and fans of
characters like Wolverine – played by Hugh Jackman, who seems to be the hook upon
thwhich 20 Century Fox hangs all its hopes and dreams. Yet, this strategy is not new;
Hollywood returns to the safety of the known and already done on a regular basis. Literary
6 American Hollywood 2Directory of World Cinema
franchises like the Harry Potter flms or James Bond highlight the industry’s penchant for
backing what is popular and in the public imagination. Moreover, older flms and genres
reappear with regularity as Hollywood looks to keep up with other entertainment media.
The recent 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) is a sequel to the graphic-novel-inspired
300 (2007), but it is also part of a longstanding movie cycle of epic sword-and-sandal
movies that Hollywood has historically produced, from the silent historicals, such as DW
Griffth’s Judith of Bethulia (1914) and the frst Ben-Hur (1925), to the colossals, such as
Quo Vadis (1951) and The Robe