A Cinema Without Walls: Movies and Culture After Vietnam (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: generational logic, contemporary film culture, showcase cinemas, Heaven's Gate, United States, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an intriguing and highly readable book, Corrigan ( Writing About Film ) argues that in the past 25 years the increased conglomerization of film production/distribution companies and the rise of VCR, satellite and cable television technologies have altered the way films are made and how we view them. The result is a "growing internationalization of national cinema cultures" and an increasing fragmentation of the audience. Moreover, people no longer experience films with the immediacy that characterized the moviegoing experience previously; video has reduced the movie to private, domestic performance, and a film is no longer the culmination of an evening out. At the same time, Corrigan writes, audiences are bombarded with a surfeit of images that leaves them with a battered sense of their place in history and culture. Combined with what many critics have recognized as a crisis of "legibility"--a growing incoherence in film texts--Corrigan notes, these facts make it more meaningful to discuss films not as texts but "as multiple cultural and commercial processes" constructed by increasingly specialized audiences, a practice he likens to cult practices. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Corrigan (English and film, Temple University) presents a challenging discussion of films and filmmakers of the period 1967 to 1990. He focuses on the changes in audience perceptions and patterns of viewing, and explores the impact of contemporary developments such as cable TV and media coverage of the Vietnam War. A typical insight, from Martin Scorsese's After Hours : "If you're not from New York, it's a paranoid fantasy; if you live in New York, it's a documentary." Sixteen films are examined at length, including Platoon and My Beautiful Laundrette , but the best analyses are of films outside the mainstream that have achieved cult followings, such as Choose Me and Badlands . The author's lofty academic prose can, however, be bombastic at times. Recommended for most cinema collections.
- Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (September 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813516684
• ISBN-13: 978-0813516684
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,013,044 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars That's Entertainment ... Theory!, July 15, 2003

By	Nicholas Stix (New York City/Queens) - See all my reviews

3 1/2 stars

Corrigan shows the parallels, within the mergers-and-acquisitions movie business and within selected films themselves, to a megabuck, blockbuster economy, a fragmented, now mythical "audience," and the politics of celebrity. Though at times he lets himself be seduced by film theory and pomo jargon, Corrigan stays lucid for the most part, and has some interesting ideas about film, society, and their relationship over the past generation.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars That's Entertainment ... Theory!, July 15, 2003

By	Nicholas Stix (New York City/Queens) - See all my reviews

3 1/2 stars

Corrigan shows the parallels, within the mergers-and-acquisitions movie business and within selected films themselves, to a megabuck, blockbuster economy, a fragmented, now mythical "audience," and the politics of celebrity. Though at times he lets himself be seduced by film theory and pomo jargon, Corrigan stays lucid for the most part, and has some interesting ideas about film, society, and their relationship over the past generation.