Breaking in to the Movies

Film and the Culture of Politics

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by Henry A. Giroux

Blackwell Publishers

Due/Published December 2001, 312 pages, paper

ISBN 0631226044

Breaking in to the Movies brings together Henry A. Giroux's best-known essays from the last twenty years, centering on important subjects on the cultural studies and pop culture agenda, including violence, race, class, gender, identity, politics, and children's culture. The volume charts his career through essays on the Hollywood tradition, from early reflections on Norma Rae and Looking for Mister Goodbar to analyses of more recent movies such as Pulp Fiction, Dead Poets Society, Dangerous Minds, and Fight Club. By addressing the profound pedagogical role of film in contemporary society, Giroux demonstrates how it dramatically shapes the way we come to terms with today's most charged social issues.

Contents

Breaking into the Movies: An Introduction.
Part I: Reclaiming the Political in Popular Culture:
1. Norma Rae: Character, Class, and Culture.
2. Hollywood Film and the Challenge of Neo-Fascist Culture.
3. Lina Wertmuller: Film and the Dialectic of Liberalism.
4. Looking for Mister Goodbar: Gender and the Politics of Pleasure.
Part II: Hollywood Film and the War on Youth:
5. Slacking Off : Border Youth and Postmodern Education.
6. Culture, Class, and Pedagody in Dead Poet's Society.
7. Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films.
8. The Politics of Pedagogy, Gender and Whiteness in Dangerous Minds.
9. Media Panics and the War Against Kids: Larry Clark and the Politics of Diminished Hopes.
Part III: Race and the Culture of Violoence in Hollywood Films:
10. Racism and the Aesthetic of Hyper-Real Violence: Pulp Fiction and other Visual Tragedies.
11. Multiculturalism and the Cultural Politics of Race in 187.
12. Brutalized Bodies and Emasculated Politics: Fight Club, Consumerism and Masculine Violence