A Companion to Steven Spielberg provides an authoritative collection of essays exploring the achievements and legacy of one of the most influential film directors of the modern era.Offers comprehensive coverage of Spielberg’s directorial output, from early works including Duel, The Sugarland Express, and Jaws, to recent filmsExplores Spielberg’s contribution to the development of visual effects and computer games, as well as the c...

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is partly a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification-often vitriolic-for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consiste...

A Companion to Steven Spielberg provides an authoritative collection of essays exploring the achievements and legacy of one of the most influential film directors of the modern era.● Offers comprehensive coverage of Spielberg's directorial output, from early works, including Duel, The Sugarland Express, and Jaws, to recent films● Explores Spielberg's contribution to the development of visual effects and computer games, as well as the crit...

The third edition of Bill Nichols's best-selling text provides an up-to-date introduction to the most important issues in documentary history and criticism. A new chapter, "I Want to Make a Documentary: Where Do I Start?" guides readers through the steps of planning and preproduction and includes an example of a project proposal for a film that went on to win awards at major festivals. Designed for students in any field that makes use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, Introduct...

Over the last several decades, comic book superheroes have multiplied and, in the process, become more complicated. In this cutting edge anthology an international roster of contributors offer original research and writing on the contemporary comic book superhero, with occasional journeys into the film and television variation. As superheroes and their stories have grown with the audiences that consume them, their formulas, conventions, and narrative worlds have altered to follow suit, inj...

One of the most eclectic and distinctive writers currently working in comics, Grant Morrison (b. 1960) brings the auteurist sensibility of alternative comics and graphic novels to the popular genres-superhero, science fiction, and fantasy-that dominate the American and British comics industries. His comics range from bestsellers featuring the most universally recognized superhero franchises (All-Star Superman, New X-Men, Batman) to more independent, creator-owned...

Fifty Key American Films explores and contextualises some of the most important films ever made in the United States. With case studies from the early years of cinema to the present day, this comprehensive Key Guide provides accessible analyses from a range of theoretical perspectives.This chronologically ordered volume includes coverage of:Citizen KaneCasablancaPsycho

"This lively collection of essays on the ideas underpinning his films enriches and enlarges our understanding of Spielberg's complex body of work." —Joseph McBride, author of Steven Spielberg: A BiographyFew directors have had as powerful an influence on the film industry and the movie-going public as Steven Spielberg. Whatever the subject—dinosaurs, war, extra-terrestrials, slavery, the Holocaust, or terrorism—one clear and consistent touchstone is present...

Creatively spent and politically irrelevant, the American horror film is a mere ghost of its former self-or so goes the old saw from fans and scholars alike. Taking on this undeserved reputation, the contributors to this collection provide a comprehensive look at a decade of cinematic production, covering a wide variety of material from the last ten years with a clear critical eye.Individual essays profile the work of up-and-coming director Alexandre Aja and reassess William Malone...

Whether defined by the carnivalesque excesses of Troma studios (The Toxic Avenger), the arthouse erotica of Radley Metzger and Doris Wishman, or the narrative experimentations of Abel Ferrara, Melvin Van Peebles, Jack Smith, or Harmony Korine, underground cinema has achieved an important position within American film culture. Often defined as "cult" and "exploitation" or "alternative" and "independent," the American underground retains separate strategies of production and exhibit...

Dave Saunders’ spirited introduction to documentary covers its history, cultural context and development, and the approaches, controversies and functions pertaining to non-fiction filmmaking. Saunders examines the many methods by which documentary conveys meaning, whilst exploring its differing societal purposes.After a historical consideration of international documentary production, the author examines the impact of recent technological developments on the production, distributio...

"Provocative, insightful, and instructive analysis of the cinematic and philosophical significance of Steven Soderbergh's work." —Jason Holt, editor of The Daily Show and Philosophy: Moments of Zen in the Art of Fake NewsWidely regarded as a turning point in American independent cinema, Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies, and videotape launched the career of its twenty-six-year-old director, whose debut film was nominated for an Academy Award ...