Hollywood Knights: Arthurian Cinema and the Politics of Nostalgia (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781403966490)

Hollywood Knights examines the role played by Hollywood films in America's appropriation of the medieval past in times of cultural crisis. It analyzes the Arthurian films produced during the red scare of the 1950s, the breakdown of traditional authority in the 1960s and '70s, the turn to the right in the 1980s, and the redemption of national and masculine authority in the 1990s, arguing that these films propose an idealized past--an American Camelot and a democratic chivalry--to solve the problems of a troubled present, ensure prosperity at home, and extend a beneficial American authority abroad. Movies discussed include The Knights of the Round Table, The Sword in the Stone, Camelot, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, Excalibur, and The Fisher King.

Author: S. Aronstein
ISBN-10: 1403966494
ISBN-13: 9781403966490
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Language: English
Published: 10/13/2005
Pages: 264
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 8.56h x 5.96w x 0.76d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2006 pg. 1999