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Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema
 
 
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Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema [Paperback]

Michael Atkinson (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 1, 2004
Looking back on a century that witnessed the emergence of motion pictures to become, almost immediately, a dominant cultural force in our lives, this penetrating and provocative book argues that "movies (like cathedrals) cannot help but display the subconscious impulses oftheir society." From D.W. Griffith to the Marx Brothers to film noir, "what are conceived and consumed as innocent pop movies ... are in fact manifestations of wild horror, superstitious ignorance, fatalistic dread and bigoted savagery."

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 220 pages
  • Publisher: Limelight Editions; 1st Limelight ed edition (August 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0879102853
  • ISBN-13: 978-0879102852
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,291,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Son of Sayville, New York, Michael Atkinson is the author of seven books, including a debut novel, HEMINGWAY DEADLIGHTS (St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books, 2009), and the second in its series, HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT, coming in 2010.

He is a longtime film and culture critic, Googleable at Sight & Sound, The Boston Phoenix, The Guardian, The Believer, Moving Image Source, Modern Painters, IFC.com, TCM.com, Film Comment, The Village Voice, The Forward, Chicago Reader, The Progressive, In These Times, The Stranger, The American Prospect, Movieline (Hollywood Life), poetryfoundation.org, GOOD, Maxim, Details, Detour, Hollywood Life, Greencine.com, The Criterion Collection, Philadelphia City Paper, etc.

Other books include FLICKIPEDIA: Perfect Movies for Every Occasion, Holiday, Season, Mood, Ordeal and Whim (Chicago Review Press), EXILE CINEMA: Filmmakers At Work Beyond Hollywood (SUNY Press), GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE: Speculating on the Dark Heart of Pop Cinema (Limelight Eds.) and BLUE VELVET (British Film Institute).

He is also a widely published poet, with the debut collection ONE HUNDRED CHILDREN WAITING FOR A TRAIN (Word Works), and poems recently Michigan Quarterly Review, Zone 3, Mudfish, Phoebe, Passages North, Cimarron Review, Rhino, Carolina Quarterly and New Letters.

He is a professor of film at C.W. Post/Long Island University, a father of three, a (dormant) member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and a screenwriter, of among other things, a notorious TV pilot, BABYLON FIELDS (CBS), starring Amber Tamblyn, Ray Stevenson, Jamey Sheridan and Kathy Baker, unaired but easily found online.

His author site is www.mike-atkinson.com, and his blog resides at www.zeroforconduct.com.

 

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Must" reading for students of film history & pop culture., May 8, 2000
This review is from: Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema (Paperback)
Ghosts In The Machine: Speculating On The Dark Heart Of Pop Cinema is a compilation of diverse essays exploring movies as the modern equivalent of medieval folktales and antiquarian mythologies with respect to their influence on shaping contemporary language, cultural mores, and social expectations. Michael Atkinson draws upon his considerable expertise as a young film scholar and critic in drawing together his essays on "The Planet of the Apes" film cycle; the work of Cornell Wilde, road movies, film noir, rock biopics, live-action cartoons, the contributions of Ray Harryhausen, and a great deal more. Ghosts In The Machine is "must" reading for all students of film history, cinematic pop culture, and anyone else who has ever sat in a darkened theater absorbing the values, mores, customs, and ideas embedded in those flicking images up on the screen.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Yo, Atkinson is the film critic's film critic, November 11, 2009
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This review is from: Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema (Paperback)
A little dash of Manny Farber with some Rock and roll in his heart, some academic grounding but not a lot of meaningless big words strung together by tired Marxists, you know who I mean.... Atkinson is informed and theoretical without ever getting pedantic or David Bordwell pompous. Humor is a must and Atkinson's wit could cut ice like butter. This book would get five stars for the Planet of the Apes piece alone, a masterwerke of gonzo film criticism if ever there was one.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
repo man, pop biopics, film blanc, eighth sea, footage films, found footage
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Film Comment, Beach Red, Stille Nacht, Heavenly Creatures, New York, Peter Ibbetson, Hong Kong, Aeon Flux, Highway Patrolman, Street of Crocodiles, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comb, Boiling Point, The Doors, Cold War, The Naked Prey, Planet of the Apes, Unsilent Nights, Ousmane Sembene, Red Rose, Gun Crazy, Camp de Thiaroye, Borom Sarret, True Romance, The Brothers Quay
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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