Film Theory Goes to the Movies (AFI Film Readers)

Film theory--it isn't just about Eisenstein anymore.

While "film theory" has produced a significant body of influential scholarship, defining the cutting edge of critical analysis for the past two decades, the majority of this work has focused on "classical" Hollywood, European cinema, and avant-garde films. More recent films, especially high-grossing blockbusters, are conspicuously absent from this field of study, relegated to the narrow realm of popular reviewing.

Film Theory Goes to the Movies fills this gap by providing provocative analyses of such current popular films as The Silence of the Lambs, Dances With Wolves, Terminator II, Pretty Woman, Truth or Dare, Mystery Train, and Jungle Fever. Within the field of film study, these essays argue for the continuing need to engage in critical, ideological dialogues, and within the broader context of the academy, this collection addresses the debates concerning cultural authority, canonicity, multiculturalism, and radical pedagogy.

Film Theory Goes to the Movies employs a variety of critical approaches, from industry analysis to reception study, to close readings informed by feminist, deconstructive, and postmodernist theory, as well as recent developments in African American and gay and lesbian criticism. It is an important introduction to contemporary Hollywood which will be of interest to those involved in the fields of film theory, literary theory, popular culture, and women's studies.