Author: Peter Lev File Type: pdf While the anti-establishment rebels of 1969s Easy Rider were morphing into the nostalgic yuppies of 1983s. The Big Chill, Seventies movies brought us everything from killer sharks, blaxploitation, and teen comedies to haunting views of a divided America at war. Indeed, as Peter Lev persuasively argues in this book, the films of the 1970s constitute a kind of conversation about what American society is and should be - open, diverse, and egalitarian, or stubbornly resistant to change. Examining forty films thematically, Lev explores the conflicting visions presented within ten different film genres or subjects Hippies (Easy Rider, Alices Restaurant) Cops (The French Connection, Dirty Harry) Disasters and Conspiracies (Jaws, Chinatown) End of the Sixties (Nashville, The Big Chill) Art, Sex, and Hollywood (Last Tango in Paris) Teens (American Graffiti, Animal House) War (Patton, Apocalypse Now) African-Americans (Shaft, Superfly) Feminisms (An Unmarried Woman, The China Syndrome) Future Visions (Star Wars, Blade Runner). As accessible to ordinary moviegoers as to film scholars, Levs book is an essential companion to these familiar, well-loved movies. Peter Lev is Professor of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland.From Library JournalLev (mass communication, Towson Univ.) examines how American cinema in the Seventies portrayed societys progress toward diversity and egalitarianism. Focusing on themes and genres rather than the auteur approach, Lev groups the 39 films discussed in chapters that include Hippie Generation (Five Easy Pieces, Alices Restaurant), and Whose Future? (Star Wars, Alien). His academic, almost literary explication and interpretation works especially well with more cerebral films, such as Apocalypse Now, but is less successful with action films and Blaxploitation to African American films. There are many good insights, including the observation that much of the philosophy and beliefs of the Sixties counterculture was not really portrayed in films until the very end of the decade (in films like Easy Rider) and then really flourished in the films of the Seventies. Lev also explores the impact of the increasing importance of marketing and the changing venues for films (cable, videos, pay-per-view). Marc Sigoloffs The Films of the Seventies (LJ 784), a detailed filmography of the period, is a good complementary reference source for Levs essays. Recommended for academic and film libraries.DRichard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewThe 1970s have been largely neglected in film scholarship. Levs book is just what the field needs... [Indeed], the entire field of cinema studies needs to see more publications of the quality of this one-conscientious, thorough, well-balanced, and insightful... Its the kind of book that will become increasingly important in the next century. -Paul Monaco, author of Society, Culture, and Television

Author: Tennessee Williams File Type: epub Now with an insightful new introduction, the authors original Foreword, and the one-act play, The Enemy Time, on which Sweet Bird of Youth was based. Tennessee Williams knew how to tell a good tale, and this steamy, wrenching play about a faded movie star, Alexandra Del Lago, and about the lost innocence and corruption of Chance Wayne, reveals the dark side of the American dreams of youth and fame. Distinguished American playwright Lanford Wilson has written an insightful Introduction for this edition. Also included are Williams original Foreword to the play the one-act play The Enemy Timethe germ for the full-length version, published here for the first time an essay by Tennessee Williams scholar, Colby H. Kullman and a chronology of the authors life. **htmlReview Knowing his subject with chilling intensity, Mr. Williams peels off layer after layer of the skin, body, and spirit of his characters and leaves their nature exposed. (Brooks Atkinson - The New York Times) Be especially sensitive to the play as hes written it, as he saw and heard it in his imagination...this is not realism. This is a dream that keeps going wrong. (Lanford Wilson - from his Introduction) From the Back Cover The very title of Sweet Bird of Youth is one of ironic pity. The two chief characters--a raddled has-been actress from Hollywood, seeking to forget her present in drugs and sex, and her still handsome masseur-gigolo, who has brought her to his hometown in the South, believing that through her money and faded glamor his gaudy illusions may yet come true--are the reverse side of the American dream of youth. Yet as they work out their fate amid violence and horror, there is nevertheless a note of compassion for the damned.

Author: Jane Smiley File Type: epub From Publishers WeeklyIn this vast, intricately patterned novel, Smiley accurately captures the voice of the medieval sagas. Understated, scattered with dreams and warnings, darkened by the brooding sense of unavoidable disasters to come, it is the tale of a Scandinavian settlement that lasted perhaps 500 years. With a meticulous attention to detail, the novel brings daily activities to lifefrom cheese making to hunting walruswhile examining the passions of a people under stress. The action centers on the family of Gunnar Asgeirsson. Gunnars sister Margret is married off to Olaf, but he fails to consummate the marriage, and Margret begins a clandestine affair with a Norwegian sailor, Skuli Gudmundsson, who has stayed on in Greenland as a household retainer. Violence and tragedy ensue, and as Margrets unhappiness increases, her character hardens, and she offers her labor as an itinerant servingwoman. Although Margret is not always onstage, the novel spans the years of her long life. A foil to Margret, but no luckier, is Gunnars wife, Birgitta, who is gifted with second sight. It is she who sums up the overriding sense of futility We have come to the ending of the world, for in Greenland the world must end as it goes on, that is with hunger and storms and freezing. Like the original Norse sagas, The Greenlanders roves restlessly from one folk group to another. Many of their destinies interlock, and certain exterior forces prey upon them all the harsh climate the marauding skraelings, aboriginal Eskimos regarded as demons outbreaks of bubonic plague and famine. Compulsive feuding, a witchcraft craze and a willingness to heed the apocalyptic prophecies of the madman Larus help to tear the society apart. As in her previous fiction (Duplicate Keys, The Age of Grief), this novel reveals Smileys skill in delineating the behavior of individuals confined within a group. Her depiction of an isolated medieval folk battling for survival has a modern relevance. 50,000 first printing Literary Guild alternate. 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalOf proven skill when writing short stories and conventional novels, Smiley here attempts a family saga set among the Norse peoples of 14th-century Greenland. Centered on the fortunes of farmer Asgeir Gunnarsson and his children and grandchildren, the narrative pictures a bleak, declining society. Founded by Erik the Red, the Greenland colonies flourished for centuries then trade shipments were cut off by the Black Death in Europe, the climate grew colder, and native peoples became increasingly hostile. Vivid, even stunning descriptions of the land and customs of these lost settlements are the books strong points. Characterizations are less successful many personalities remain wooden throughout the lengthy action. Nevertheless, the exotic subject matter will appeal to historical novel fans.Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C. 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author: Carolyn Dewald File Type: pdf span 14px normalAt a time when the ancient Greeks knowledge of the past relied on orally transmitted memories, Herodotus was a pioneering historical practitioner who explored the interplay of myth and history and the role of narrative in history. In this volume a team of experts discusses Herodotus Histories and their influence. Topics covered include their relationship to Homer, their view of the natural world, their methodology and the Herodotean narrator. Each chapter presents the most up-to-date scholarship on Herodotus and offers a guide to further reading on the subject.span Popularly known as the Father of History, Herodotus is the first major prose writer in the history of Western literature whose work has survived in full. At a time when the ancient Greeks knowledge of the past relied on orally transmitted memories, he was a pioneering historical practitioner who explored the interplay of myth and history and the role of narrative in history. Contributors to this volume analyze Herodotus Histories and their influence. Taking a thematic approach, they explore the Histories and their context, techniques and themes, representation of the Greeks relationships with foreigners and reception.ReviewThe Cambridge Companion to Herodotus is am odel of its kind and its editors should be proud. We are all in their debt. - John Dillery, University of Virginia