Film Theory Goes to the Movies fills the gap in film theory literature which has failed to analyze high-grossing blockbusters. The contributors in this volume, however, discuss such popular films as The Silence of the Lambs, Dances With Wolves, Terminator II, Pretty Woman, Truth or Dare, Mystery Train, and Jungle Fever.They employ a variety of critical approaches, from industry analysis to reception study, to close readings informed by feminist, deconstructive and postmodernist theory, as well as recent developments in African American and gay and lesbian criticism. An important introduction to contemporary Hollywood, this anthology will be of interest to those involved in the fields of film theory, literary theory, popular culture, and women's studies.

Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, Ava Preacher Collins

Introduction, Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, Ava Preacher Collins; Chapter 1 The New Hollywood, Thomas Schatz; Chapter 2 Reclaiming the Social, Henry A. Giroux; Chapter 3 Pretty is as Pretty does, Hilary Radner; Chapter 4 The Unauthorized Auteur Today, Dudley Andrew; Chapter 5 Loose Canons, Ava Preacher Collins; Chapter 6 Spectacles of Death, Jeffrey Sconce; Chapter 7 Hardware and Hardbodies, What do Women Want?, Sharon Willis; Chapter 8 Thelma and Louise and the Cultural Generation of the New Butch-Femme, Cathy Griggers; Chapter 9 Taboos and Totems, Janet Staiger; Chapter 10 The Powers of Seeing and being Seen, Ann Cvetkovich; Chapter 11 Spike Lee and the Fever in the Racial Jungle, Ed Guerrero; Chapter 12 Split Skins, Susan White; Chapter 13 The Big Switch, Susan Jeffords; Chapter 14 Between Apocalypse and Redemption, Michael Eric Dyson; Chapter 15 Making Cyborgs, Making Humans, Forest Pyle; Chapter 16 Genericity in the Nineties, Jim Collins;