Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema [Paperback]

Wheeler Winston Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2003 | ISBN-10: 1903364744 | ISBN-13: 978-1903364741

Visions of the Apocalypse examines the cinema's fascination with the prospect of nuclear and/or natural annihilation, as seen in such films as Saving Private Ryan, Bowling for Columbine, We Were Soldiers, Invasion U.S.A., The Last War, Tidal Wave, The Bed Sitting Room, The Last Days of Man on Earth and numerous others. It also considers the ways in which contemporary cinema has become increasingly hyper-conglomerised, leading to films with ever-higher budgets and fewer creative risks. Along the way, the author discusses such topics as the death of film itself, to be replaced by digital video; the political and social tensions that have made these visions of infinite destruction so appealing to the public; and the new wave of Hollywood war films, coupled with escapist comedies, in the post-9/11 era. Encompassing both questions of physical and filmic mortality Visions of the Apocalypse is a meditation on the questions of time, memory and the cinema's seemingly unending appetite for spectacles of destruction.

(10/1/05)

Editorial Reviews

Review

[Dixon's] analysis of films, many of them undeservedly neglected, is often enlightening; and his assessment of contemporary business practices in Hollywood is refreshing.

(Choice April 2005)

A dynamic and provocative new book, which challenges its readers with some unsettling arguments.

(Daniel Herbert, University of Southern California film-philosophy.com )

Dixon takes on grand themes in this slim volume, no less than the 'end of cinema.'

(Richard Ascarate Film Quarterly )

About the Author

Wheeler Winston Dixon is the James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies, Chair of the Film Studies Program, and professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, as well as Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. He has published numerous books on the subject of cinema.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wallflower Press (September 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903364744
• ISBN-13: 978-1903364741
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wheeler Winston Dixon is the James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies, Coordinator of the UNL Film Studies Program, Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. His newest books include A History of Horror (Rutgers University Press, 2010); Film Noir and The Cinema of Paranoia (Rutgers University Press and Edinburgh University Press, 2009); A Short History of Film, written with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, (Rutgers University Press and I.B. Tauris, 2008), which has gone through five printings, was issued in a Spanish translation from Ediciones Robinbook in November, 2009 as Breve historia del cine, and is forthcoming as an audio book from University Press Audiobooks in 2010; Film Talk: Directors at Work (Rutgers University Press, 2007); Visions of Paradise: Images of Eden in the Cinema (Rutgers University Press, 2006); American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations (Rutgers University Press, 2006); and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood (Southern Illinois UP, 2005). In 2003, Dixon was honored with a retrospective of his films at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and his films were acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum, in both print and original format.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Certainly a great book by a top mind... with one single flaw., March 16, 2008

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Paulo Leite (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema (Paperback)

I always found it fascinating how American audiences (and film makers) love the cinematic spectacles of self destruction. From the great San Francisco to the discreet On the Beach all the way to the more recent Deep Impact (Special Collector's Edition), The Day After Tomorrow (Two-Disc All-Access Collector's Edition), Cloverfield [Theatrical Release] and I Am Legend (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) (not forgetting the once-controversial The Day After, naturally).

I, for example, freely admit that I love those films. And I love them perhaps because of my personal taste for (among many other things) the radically different premise they put in front of us: the vision of a world you dot see every day. And more important: it's not for real... no strings attached.

And if we decide to focus our study just on that angle alone, I am sure we can identify many trends going on today. And they all represent big meals for those who care to dine. They would all make great subjects for serious study.

That was exactly what I was expecting when I bought this great book.

Mr. Dixon has a great knowledge of films, meaning that he is an experienced viewer... and he backs everything he says with the right data and the actual numbers. I will not try to summarize the book... but basically, what he offers is a long and valid (but somehow debatable - that's what I think) reflection on how the Hollywood film industry in particular (and all the other cultural industries in general) function today AND they way they drive (and shape) its audience towards certain... let's say "tastes".

And Mr Dixon does that very well.

The big major flaw, in my modest opinion, is that... from page one all the way to the end, Mr Dixon's very precise analysis left a bitter taste of prejudice and discrimination under my tongue against commercial Cinema. Maybe that's because I myself teach Film Production (and work in that area) and therefore (maybe), have a different view on the matter. What I feel is that Mr. Dixon violently criticizes an Industry (and a system of things) he clearly dislikes without taking some time and distance to see a bigger, broader picture.

And that analysis make up for 90% of the book. It IS a great analysis... but it comes from someone who seems to have picked just one side. I agree with him on most everything. But I miss the other side. I believe the things Mr. Dixon criticizes have their own reason of existing. They do fill some void. He and I may not like them (it may not be our personal taste). But we have to understand why they are there.

Sometimes, the great scholar becomes a (I wish I wouldn't have to use the word) snob critic when he starts throwing adjectives like "awful" to films that are much more than JUST that. At a certain point, several films and people get classified upon adjectives and terms that seems prejudicial. I'm not saying one cannot express his own feelings. But hardly that easily in the middle of such a great analysis.

I was expecting a different book... specially because the analysis of today's big self destruction spectacles was not fully accomplished.

BUT I still strongly recommend this book because (even after all I've pointed) Mr. Dixon DOES give us an astounding job. Really. It's a great book. His reflections on 9/11, its media coverage and the impact it had on American Cinema is top notch. His views on War Cinema are quite excellent.

Again: a great book.