Hollywood's Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity

When the Vietnam War punctured the myth of American military invincibility, Hollywood needed a new kind of...
$169.88 AUD
$169.88 AUD
SKU: 9780806193755
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 420 left in stock
Author: Armando José Prats
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $169.88
10 customers are viewing this product
Hollywood's Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity by Prats, Armando José

Hollywood's Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity

$169.88

Hollywood's Imperial Wars: The Vietnam Generation and the American Myth of Heroic Continuity

$169.88
Author: Armando José Prats
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
When the Vietnam War punctured the myth of American military invincibility, Hollywood needed a new kind of war movie. The familiar triumphal narrative was relegated to history and, with it, the heroic legacy that had passed from one generation to the next for more than two hundred years.

How Hollywood helped create and instill the American myth of heroic continuity, and how films revised that myth after the Vietnam War, is what Armando José Prats explores in Hollywood's Imperial Wars. The book offers a new way of understanding the cultural and historical significance of Vietnam in relation to Hollywood's earlier representations of Americans at war, from the mythic heroism of a film like Sands of Iwo Jima to the rupture of that myth in films such as The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Platoon.

As early as the mid-1940s, Prats suggests, fears aroused by the Cold War were stirring anxieties about sustaining the heroic myth--anxieties reflected in the insistent, aggressive patriotism in films of the period. In this context, Prats considers the immeasurable cultural importance of John Wayne, the cinematic apotheosis of wartime valor and righteousness, whose patriotism was nonetheless deeply compromised by his not having served in World War II. Prats reveals how historical and cultural anxieties emerge in well-known Vietnam movies, in which characters inspired by the heroes of the Second World War are denied the heroic legacy of their fathers. American war movies, in Prats's analysis, were forever altered by the loss in Vietnam. Even movies like American Sniper that exalt war heroes are marked as much by the failure of the heroic tropes of old Hollywood war movies as by the tragic turn of actual historical events.

Tracing what Prats calls the "anxiety of legacy" through the films of the World War II and post-Vietnam War periods, this book offers a new way of looking at both the Hollywood war movie and the profound cultural shifts it reflects and refracts.


Author: Armando José Prats
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 04/16/2024
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.88d
ISBN: 9780806193755

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Related Products

Recently Viewed Products