The Contemporary Superhero Film

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Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231549792
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Contemporary Superhero Film by : Terence McSweeney

Download or read book The Contemporary Superhero Film written by Terence McSweeney and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Audiences around the globe continue to flock to see the latest releases from Marvel and DC studios, making it clear that superhero films resonate with the largest global audience that Hollywood has ever reached. Yet despite dominating theater screens like never before, the superhero genre remains critically marginalized—ignored at best and more often actively maligned. Terence McSweeney examines this global phenomenon, providing a concise and up-to-date overview of the superhero genre. He lays out its narrative codes and conventions, exploring why it appeals to diverse audiences and what it has to say about the world in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Unpacking the social, ideological, and cultural content of superhero films, he argues that the genre should be considered a barometer of contemporary social anxieties and a reflection of cultural values. McSweeney scrutinizes representations of gender, race, and sexuality as well as how the genre’s conventions relate to and comment on contemporary political debates. Beyond American contributions to the genre, the book also features extensive analysis of superhero films from all over the world, contrasting them with the dominant U.S. model. The book’s presentation of a range of case studies and critical debates is accessible and engaging for students, scholars, and enthusiasts at all levels.

The Modern Superhero in Film and Television

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317484517
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis The Modern Superhero in Film and Television by : Jeffrey A. Brown

Download or read book The Modern Superhero in Film and Television written by Jeffrey A. Brown and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-11-10 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood’s live-action superhero films currently dominate the worldwide box-office, with the characters enjoying more notoriety through their feature film and television depictions than they have ever before. This book argues that this immense popularity reveals deep cultural concerns about politics, gender, ethnicity, patriotism and consumerism after the events of 9/11. Superheroes have long been agents of hegemony, fighting for abstract ideals of justice while overall perpetuating the American status quo. Yet at the same time, the book explores how the genre has also been utilized to question and critique these dominant cultural assumptions.

The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135213933
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero by : Angela Ndalianis

Download or read book The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero written by Angela Ndalianis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-05-07 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, injecting new, unpredictable and more challenging characterizations that engage ravenous readers who increasingly demand more.

The 21st Century Superhero

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Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786487305
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis The 21st Century Superhero by : Richard J. Gray II

Download or read book The 21st Century Superhero written by Richard J. Gray II and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-09-07 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superhero films are one of the most enduring genres of cinema, and their popularity is only increasing in the 21st century. These ten critical essays explore the phenomenon through the lenses of numerous academic disciplines, and cover topics such as the role of globalization in the formation of superhero narratives, the shifting nature of masculinity and femininity in the superhero world and the state of the genre today. Of particular interest is the way these narratives, however fantastic, abstract, futuristic or simplistic, resonate with specific events in the world and function as starting points for discussion of contemporary sociopolitical conflicts.

Avengers Assemble!

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231851227
Total Pages : 527 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis Avengers Assemble! by : Terence McSweeney

Download or read book Avengers Assemble! written by Terence McSweeney and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are living in the age of the superhero and we cannot deny it. Avengers Assemble! is a vibrant and theoretically informed interrogation of one of the defining and most financially successful film franchises of the new millennium. In the first single-authored monograph on the topic of the Marvel cinematic universe, Terence McSweeney asks, "Why has the superhero genre reemerged so emphatically in recent years?" In an age where people have stopped going to the cinema as frequently as they used to, they returned to it in droves for the superhero film. What is it about these films that has resonated with audiences all around the globe? Are they just disposable pop culture artifacts or might they have something interesting to say about the fears and anxieties of the world we live in today? Beginning with Iron Man in 2008, this study provocatively explores both the cinematic and the televisual branches of the series across ten dynamic and original chapters from a diverse range of critical perspectives which analyse their status as an embodiment of the changing industrial practices of the blockbuster film and their symbolic potency as affective cultural artifacts that are profoundly immersed in the turbulent political climate of their era.

The Comic Book Film Adaptation

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Author :
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1626745188
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis The Comic Book Film Adaptation by : Liam Burke

Download or read book The Comic Book Film Adaptation written by Liam Burke and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There is no better, smarter examination of the relationship between comics and film." --Mark Waid, Eisner Award-winning writer of Kingdom Come and Daredevil In the summer of 2000 X-Men surpassed all box office expectations and ushered in an era of unprecedented production of comic book film adaptations. This trend, now in its second decade, has blossomed into Hollywood's leading genre. From superheroes to Spartan warriors, The Comic Book Film Adaptation offers the first dedicated study to examine how comic books moved from the fringes of popular culture to the center of mainstream film production. Through in-depth analysis, industry interviews, and audience research, this book charts the cause-and-effect of this influential trend. It considers the cultural traumas, business demands, and digital possibilities that Hollywood faced at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The industry managed to meet these challenges by exploiting comics and their existing audiences. However, studios were caught off-guard when these comic book fans, empowered by digital media, began to influence the success of these adaptations. Nonetheless, filmmakers soon developed strategies to take advantage of this intense fanbase, while codifying the trend into a more lucrative genre, the comic book movie, which appealed to an even wider audience. Central to this vibrant trend is a comic aesthetic in which filmmakers utilize digital filmmaking technologies to engage with the language and conventions of comics like never before. The Comic Book Film Adaptation explores this unique moment in which cinema is stimulated, challenged, and enriched by the once-dismissed medium of comics.

The Superhero Multiverse

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793624607
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis The Superhero Multiverse by : Lorna Piatti-Farnell

Download or read book The Superhero Multiverse written by Lorna Piatti-Farnell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Superhero Multiverse focuses on the evolving meanings of the superhero icon in 21st-century film and popular media, with an emphasis on re-adapting, re-imagining, and re-making. With its focus on multimedia and transmedia transformations, The Superhero Multiverse pivots on two important points: firstly, it reflects on the core concerns of the superhero narrative—including the relationship between ‘superhero comics’ and ‘superhero films’, the comics roots of superhero media, matters of canon and hybridity, and issues of recycling and stereotyping in superhero films and media texts. Secondly, it considers how these intersecting textual and cultural preoccupations are intrinsic to the process of remaking and re-adapting superheroes, and brings attention to multiple ways of materializing these iconic figures in our contemporary context.

Comics and Pop Culture

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Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477319417
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis Comics and Pop Culture by : Barry Keith Grant

Download or read book Comics and Pop Culture written by Barry Keith Grant and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2019-12-13 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is hard to discuss the current film industry without acknowledging the impact of comic book adaptations, especially considering the blockbuster success of recent superhero movies. Yet transmedial adaptations are part of an evolution that can be traced to the turn of the last century, when comic strips such as “Little Nemo in Slumberland” and “Felix the Cat” were animated for the silver screen. Representing diverse academic fields, including technoculture, film studies, theater, feminist studies, popular culture, and queer studies, Comics and Pop Culture presents more than a dozen perspectives on this rich history and the effects of such adaptations. Examining current debates and the questions raised by comics adaptations, including those around authorship, style, and textual fidelity, the contributors consider the topic from an array of approaches that take into account representations of sexuality, gender, and race as well as concepts of world-building and cultural appropriation in comics from Modesty Blaise to Black Panther. The result is a fascinating re-imagination of the texts that continue to push the boundaries of panel, frame, and popular culture.

Comic Book Movies

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Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813588790
Total Pages : 151 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (135 download)

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Book Synopsis Comic Book Movies by : Blair Davis

Download or read book Comic Book Movies written by Blair Davis and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-25 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comic Book Movies explores how this genre serves as a source for modern-day myths, sometimes even incorporating ancient mythic figures like Thor and Wonder Woman’s Amazons, while engaging with the questions that haunt a post-9/11 world: How do we define heroism and morality today? How far are we willing to go when fighting terror? How can we resist a dystopian state? Film scholar Blair Davis also considers how the genre’s visual style is equally important as its weighty themes, and he details how advances in digital effects have allowed filmmakers to incorporate elements of comic book art in innovative ways. As he reveals, comic book movies have inspired just as many innovations to Hollywood’s business model, with film franchises and transmedia storytelling helping to ensure that the genre will continue its reign over popular culture for years to come.

Love, Sex, Gender, and Superheroes

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Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 1978825285
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (788 download)

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Book Synopsis Love, Sex, Gender, and Superheroes by : Jeffrey A. Brown

Download or read book Love, Sex, Gender, and Superheroes written by Jeffrey A. Brown and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-19 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Impossibly muscular men and voluptuous women parade around in revealing, skintight outfits, and their romantic and sexual entanglements are a key part of the ongoing drama. Such is the state of superhero comics and movies, a genre that has become one of our leading mythologies, conveying influential messages about gender, sexuality, and relationships. Love, Sex, Gender, and Superheroes examines a full range of superhero media, from comics to films to television to merchandising. With a keen eye for the genre’s complex and internally contradictory mythology, comics scholar Jeffrey A. Brown considers its mixed messages. Superhero comics may reinforce sex roles with their litany of phallic musclemen and slinky femme fatales, but they also blur gender binaries with their emphasis on transformation and body swaps. Similarly, while most heroes have heterosexual love interests, the genre prioritizes homosocial bonding, and it both celebrates and condemns gendered and sexualized violence. With examples spanning from the Golden Ages of DC and Marvel comics up to recent works like the TV series The Boys, this study provides a comprehensive look at how superhero media shapes our perceptions of love, sex, and gender.

Capitalist Superheroes

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Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1780991800
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Capitalist Superheroes by : Dan Hassler-Forest

Download or read book Capitalist Superheroes written by Dan Hassler-Forest and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the same way that Stallone and Schwarzenegger played film heroes who came to embody the values of Ronald Reagans aggressive conservative agenda in the 1980s, the 21st-century film narratives of Batman, Spider-Man and Superman reflect the policies of the Bush Doctrine after 9/11. This book offers a groundbreaking study of the relationship that exists between post-9/11 American politics and the contemporary superhero movie phenomenon. No other Hollywood subgenre was as consistently popular during the George W. Bush presidency, as films such as Spider-Man, Superman Returns, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight embodied the key contradictions that inform the cultural and political life of the post-9/11 years. By combining in-depth analyses of numerous major superhero films from this era with astute readings of contemporary critical theory, this book offers accessible and academically potent insight into the complex interplay between politics, ideology, and entertainment in the 21st century. ,

The Amazing Transforming Superhero!

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Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786490136
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis The Amazing Transforming Superhero! by : Terrence R. Wandtke

Download or read book The Amazing Transforming Superhero! written by Terrence R. Wandtke and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-11-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays analyzes the many ways in which comic book and film superheroes have been revised or rewritten in response to changes in real-world politics, social mores, and popular culture. Among many topics covered are the jingoistic origin of Captain America in the wake of the McCarthy hearings, the post-World War II fantasy-feminist role of Wonder Woman, and the Nietzschean influences on the "sidekick revolt" in the 2004 film The Incredibles.

Comic Book Film Style

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Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477314504
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis Comic Book Film Style by : Dru Jeffries

Download or read book Comic Book Film Style written by Dru Jeffries and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superhero films and comic book adaptations dominate contemporary Hollywood filmmaking, and it is not just the storylines of these blockbuster spectacles that have been influenced by comics. The comic book medium itself has profoundly influenced how movies look and sound today, as well as how viewers approach them as texts. Comic Book Film Style explores how the unique conventions and formal structure of comic books have had a profound impact on film aesthetics, so that the different representational abilities of comics and film are put on simultaneous display in a cinematic work. With close readings of films including Batman: The Movie, American Splendor, Superman, Hulk, Spider-Man 2, V for Vendetta, 300, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Watchmen, The Losers, and Creepshow, Dru Jeffries offers a new and more cogent definition of the comic book film as a stylistic approach rather than a genre, repositioning the study of comic book films from adaptation and genre studies to formal/stylistic analysis. He discusses how comic book films appropriate comics' drawn imagery, vandalize the fourth wall with the use of graphic text, dissect the film frame into discrete panels, and treat time as a flexible construct rather than a fixed flow, among other things. This cinematic remediation of comic books' formal structure and unique visual conventions, Jeffries asserts, fundamentally challenges the classical continuity paradigm and its contemporary variants, placing the comic book film at the forefront of stylistic experimentation in post-classical Hollywood.

Marvel Comics into Film

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Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786443049
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis Marvel Comics into Film by : Matthew J. McEniry

Download or read book Marvel Comics into Film written by Matthew J. McEniry and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marvel Studios' approach to its Cinematic Universe--beginning with the release of Iron Man (2008)--has become the template for successful management of blockbuster film properties. Yet films featuring Marvel characters can be traced back to the 1940s, when the Captain America serial first appeared on the screen. This collection of new essays is the first to explore the historical, textual and cultural context of the larger cinematic Marvel universe, including serials, animated films, television movies, non-U.S. versions of Marvel characters, films that feature characters licensed by Marvel, and the contemporary Cinematic Universe as conceived by Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios. Films analyzed include Transformers (1986), Howard the Duck (1986), Blade (1998), Planet Hulk (2010), Iron Man: Rise of Technovore (2013), Elektra (2005), the Conan the Barbarian franchise (1982-1990), Ultimate Avengers (2006) and Ghost Rider (2007).

Superheroes!

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Publisher : Crown Archetype
ISBN 13 : 0385348592
Total Pages : 708 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis Superheroes! by : Laurence Maslon

Download or read book Superheroes! written by Laurence Maslon and published by Crown Archetype. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, the Avengers, the X-Men, Watchmen, and more: the companion volume to the PBS documentary series of the same name that tells the story of the superhero in American popular culture. Together again for the first time, here come the greatest comic book superheroes ever assembled between two covers: down from the heavens—Superman and the Mighty Thor—or swinging over rooftops—the Batman and Spider-Man; star-spangled, like Captain America and Wonder Woman, or clad in darkness, like the Shadow and Spawn; facing down super-villains on their own, like the Flash and the Punisher or gathered together in a team of champions, like the Avengers and the X-Men! Based on the three-part PBS documentary series Superheroes, this companion volume chronicles the never-ending battle of the comic book industry, its greatest creators, and its greatest creations. Covering the effect of superheroes on American culture—in print, on film and television, and in digital media—and the effect of American culture on its superheroes, Superheroes: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture appeals to readers of all ages, from the casual observer of the phenomenon to the most exacting fan of the genre. Drawing from more than 50 new interviews conducted expressly for Superheroes!—creators from Stan Lee to Grant Morrison, commentators from Michael Chabon to Jules Feiffer, actors from Adam West to Lynda Carter, and filmmakers such as Zach Snyder—this is an up-to-the-minute narrative history of the superhero, from the comic strip adventurers of the Great Depression, up to the blockbuster CGI movie superstars of the 21st Century. Featuring more than 500 full-color comic book panels, covers, sketches, photographs of both essential and rare artwork, Superheroes is the definitive story of this powerful presence in pop culture.

American Theology, Superhero Comics, and Cinema

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135014361
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis American Theology, Superhero Comics, and Cinema by : Anthony Mills

Download or read book American Theology, Superhero Comics, and Cinema written by Anthony Mills and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stan Lee, who was the head writer of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s, co-created such popular heroes as Spider-Man, Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and Daredevil. This book traces the ways in which American theologians and comic books of the era were not only both saying things about what it means to be human, but, starting with Lee they were largely saying the same things. Author Anthony R. Mills argues that the shift away from individualistic ideas of human personhood and toward relational conceptions occurring within both American theology and American superhero comics and films does not occur simply on the ontological level, but is also inherent to epistemology and ethics, reflecting the comprehensive nature of human life in terms of being, knowing, and acting. This book explores the idea of the "American monomyth" that pervades American hero stories and examines its philosophical and theological origins and specific manifestations in early American superhero comics. Surveying the anthropologies of six American theologians who argue against many of the monomyth’s assumptions, principally the staunch individualism taken to be the model of humanity, and who offer relationality as a more realistic and ethical alternative, this book offers a detailed argument for the intimate historical relationship between the now disparate fields of comic book/superhero film creation, on the one hand, and Christian theology, on the other, in the United States. An understanding of the early connections between theology and American conceptions of heroism helps to further make sense of their contemporary parallels, wherein superhero stories and theology are not strictly separate phenomena but have shared origins and concerns.

War on Terror and American Film

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Author :
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
ISBN 13 : 0748693114
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (486 download)

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Book Synopsis War on Terror and American Film by : McSweeney Terence McSweeney

Download or read book War on Terror and American Film written by McSweeney Terence McSweeney and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compelling, theoretically informed and up-to-date exploration of contemporary American cinema charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film from Black Hawk Down (2001), through Batman Begins (2005), United 93 (2006) to Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Through a vibrant analysis of a range of genres and films - which in turn reveal a strikingly diverse array of social, historical and political perspectives - this book explores the impact of 9/11 and the war on terror on American cinema in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond.