Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy

Hollywood is often characterised as a stronghold of left-liberal ideals. In Reel Power, Matthew Alford shows that it is in fact deeply complicit in serving the interests of the most regressive US corporate and political forces. Films like Transformers, Terminator: Salvation and Black Hawk Down are constructed with Defence Department assistance as explicit cheerleaders for the US military, but Matthew Alford also emphasises how so-called 'radical' films like Three Kings, Hotel Rwanda and Avatar present watered-down alternative visions of American politics that serve a similar function. Reel Power is the first book to examine the internal workings of contemporary Hollywood as a politicised industry as well as scores of films across all genres. No matter what the progressive impulses of some celebrities and artists, Alford shows how they are part of a system that is hard-wired to encourage American global supremacy and frequently the use of state violence.

Author: Matthew Alford
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Published: 08/06/2010
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.30w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780745329826

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 11/12/2010 pg. 19

About the Author
Matthew Alford has written for the Guardian, New Statesman and BBC radio. He has also lectured at the Universities of Bath and Bristol.

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