The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light

The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light
ISBN-10
0231503458
ISBN-13
9780231503457
Category
Performing Arts
Pages
224
Language
English
Published
2007-02-13
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Author
Nigel Morris

Description

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is partly a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification often vitriolic for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consistently as a self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship which contradict assumptions about their ideological tendencies. Exercising powerful emotional appeal, their ambiguities are profitably advantageous in maximising audiences and generating media attention.

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