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Full Description
From the inception of the science fiction film, writers, directors, producers, and actors have understood that the genre lends itself to a level of social commentary not available in other formats. Viewers find it easier to accept explorations of such issues as domestic violence, war, xenophobia, faith, identity, racism, and other difficult topics when the protagonists exist in future times or other worlds that are only vaguely similar to our own.
The 22 original essays in this collection examine how the issues in particular science fiction films--from 1930's High Treason to 1999's The Iron Giant--reflect and comment on the prevailing issues of their time. The 16 writers (including such noted contributors as Ted Okuda, Gary Don Rhodes, Bryan Senn, John Soister and Ken Weiss) provide insight on how the genre's wistful daydreaming, forthcoming wonders, and nightmarish scenarios are often grounded in the grimmer realities of the human condition. Films covered include It Came from Outer Space, Godzilla, The 27th Day, Alien and Starship Troopers, plus television's The Adventures of Superman, the Flash Gordon serials, and vintage space cartoons by Fleischer.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Science Fiction and the Actual
1. High Treason: Great Expectations
2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931): Science, Society, and Sexuality
3. Cartoons and Technocracy: Disney's The Mad Doctor and Fleischer's Dancing on the Moon
4. Flash Gordon Conquers the Great Depression and World War Too! The Flash Gordon Serial Trilogy
5. Atomic City, Atomic World
6. Where Do Little Green Men Come From? A Speculative Look at the Origins of a Pop Culture Icon
7. In Them We Trust? Fear, Faith, and It Came from Outer Space
8. Secret Identity, Fragile Identity: TV's Superman in "Superman on Earth," "The Stolen Costume," "The Face and the Voice," and "Panic in the Sky"
9. The Atomic Kid: Radioactivity Finds Andy Hardy
10. Godzilla vs. the Military-Industrial Complex
11. Cosmic Frames and Cover-ups: Invasion of the Saucer Men and the UFO Conspiracy of Silence
12. The Cold War in Orbit: Two Films of Aliens, Arsenals, and Interventions
13. Scenes from a Marriage: The Sexual Politics of I Married a Monster from Outer Space
14. Two Faces of Voyeurism: Nude on the Moon and "X". The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
15. The Satan Bug: Some Nightmares Are Quite Inescapable
16. "Conclusion of All Our Yesterdays": The Jungian Text of The Omega Man
17. The Sport of Violence: Death Race 2000 and Rollerball
18. Logan's Run to Relevance
19. Entropy in B-flat; or, Disordered Thoughts on The Black Hole
20. Pets or Meat: Alien, Aliens, and the Indifference of the Gods
21. The Brave New World of Starship Troopers
22. The Iron Giant: A Gun with a Soul
Contributors
Index
