Traces the historical development of science fiction cinema and American culture through examinations of 15 groundbreaking films.
Introduction The Day the Earth Stood Still Forbidden Planet Invasion of the Body Snatchers 2001: A Space Odyssey Planet of the Apes Star Wars Close Encounters of the Third Kind Alien E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Blade Runner The Terminator Robocop The Abyss Independence Day The Matrix Conclusion Notes Index
M. Keith Booker is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of numerous articles and books on modern literature, film, and science-fiction, including Film and the American Left (1999), Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War (2001), Strange TV: Innovative Television Series from The Twilight Zone to The X-Files (2003), and Science Fiction Television (2004).
…ideally suited for general readers looking for a new perspective
on familiar texts and for instructors looking for accessible
analyses of how films reflect their historical and cultural
contexts.
*Film Criticism*
Booker studies 15 science fiction films made in the US in the
second half of the 20th century, including The Day the Earth Stood
Still (1951), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Blade Runner (1982),
and The Matrix (1999). The 25-page introduction reveals the
author's extensive knowledge of his subject; here Booker looks at
historical events that affected the production of certain types of
films, e.g., the Cold War and the alien-invasion films. He then
devotes a chapter to each film, providing for each a one-paragraph
introduction; sections on the plot and the sources of the film; a
longer discussion of how events in society contributed to certain
concerns of the film and elements of the production; and a
concluding section on how that film influenced other films….
Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general
readers.
*Choice*
M. Keith Booker, the author of several studies of film and
television, offers a guide to the leading science fiction movies
since the 1950s. Each of his chapters is devoted to a film --
fifteen in total -- and follows the pattern of plot summary, note
on sources, interpretation, and indication of the work's legacy.
The summaries are helpful and clear but the interpretive commentary
will probably be of more interested to the reader because in every
case Booker relateds the films to their cultural context.
*Journal of American Studies*
College-level collections strong in science fiction holdings will
welcome the scholarly survey Alternate Americas: Science Fiction
Film and American Culture. Its professor author M. Keith Booker has
selected some fifteen of the most successful, innovative sci fi
films of all time and here considers their cultural, technical and
cinematic effects. Any genre fan will immediately recognize and
acknowledge these selections as true 'greats', from Forbidden
Planet and 2001 to Alien, E.T., Blade Runner and Matrix. That they
not only reflected future fantasy but the concerns and culture of
their times makes for a penetrating analysis which surveys plots
and underlying meanings.
*California Bookwatch*
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