Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History

Film Nation

Hollywood Looks at U.S. History

Robert Burgoyne

$24.50 paper
ISBN: 0-8166-2071-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2071-5

Explores contemporary American films that challenge official history.

Our movies have started talking back to us, and Film Nation takes a close look at what they have to say. In movies like JFK and Forrest Gump, Robert Burgoyne sees a filmic extension of the debates that exercise us as a nation--debates about race and culture and national identity, about the nature and makeup of American history.

In analyses of five films that challenge the traditional myths of the nation-state--Glory, Thunderheart, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, and Forrest Gump--Burgoyne explores the reshaping of our collective imaginary in relation to our history. These movies, exploring the meaning of "nation" from below, highlight issues of power that underlie the narrative construction of nationhood. Film Nation exposes the fault lines between national myths and the historical experience of people typically excluded from those myths.

Throughout, Burgoyne demonstrates that these films, in their formal design, also preserve relics of the imaginary past they contest. Here we see how the "genre memory" of the western, the war film, and the melodrama shapes these films, creating a complex exchange between old concepts of history and the alternative narratives of historical experience that contemporary texts propose.

The first book to apply theories of nationalism and national identity to contemporary American films, Film Nation reveals the cinematic rewriting of history now taking place as a powerful attempt to rearticulate the cultural narratives that define America as a nation.

“In this slender but provocative volume, Robert Burgoyne asserts that the major historical traumas of the American past—from the mistreatment of African Americans and Native Americans to the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War—are currently being redefined and rewritten in Hollywood films, resulting in a new ‘national narrative’ that challenges the old ‘dominant fiction’ of the past.” —American Studies International

“In Film Nation Robert Burgoyne argues that popular film plays a crucial role in formulating the imagined community of the nation state. A rewarding read.” —Film and History

“Film Nation is a learned discussion of the uncertain character of contemporary nationalism in the United States. Burgoyne sees recent historical films as part of a broader culture-wide project, that of redefining the United States in a way that maintains the privileged character of older progressive civic nationalism while reconfiguring the nation to include all of the previously suppressed racial and ethnic narratives that indicate ours has been a history of conquest, exploitation, and cultural resistance to white racial male dominations. Film Nation rewards the reader with a continuous flow of stimulating ideas about how to discuss the content of recent history films.” —Journal of American History

“Any historian who is interested in investigating film as history should forget about disciplinary turf wars and read Robert Burgoyne’s Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at US History. A theoretically sophisticated but clearly and elegantly written work, Burgoyne’s study explains why historians’ preoccupation with issues of authenticity may be beside the point while revealing ‘the significance of the stakes on the table.’ Burgoyne’s Film Nation is an imaginative study that challenges us to rethink film as history. Burgoyne’s Film Nation foregrounds issues of representation that historians should consider in thinking about film as history.” —Rethinking History

“Film Nation is distinguished by Robert Burgoyne’s critical acuity, his on-the-money remarks about the subjects he interrogates, as well as the singularity of his focus on American Cinema and the ways by which film suggests much about American national identity.” —Cineaste

“In this slim, densely argued volume, Burgoyne draws on a vast array of sources that include cultural and social critics, historians and film theorists in order to examine five recent films—Glory, JFK, Thunderheart, Born on the Fourth of July, and Forrest Gump—that are based on actual historical events. What is more important than mere presentation of facts is how the films act as a major forum for creating and shaping our beliefs about who we are as a nation -- and how they do so by engaging the audience emotionally. This book provides intellectual tools that can be applied to a searching critique of any historically based film.” —Detroit Metro Times

Robert Burgoyne is professor of English and film studies at Wayne State University and is chair of the Department of English. He is the author of Bertolucci's 1900: A Narrative and Historical Analysis (1991) and coauthor, with Robert Stam and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, of New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics (1992).

160 pages | 1997
Contents:

Introduction

Race and Nation in Glory

History vs. Folklore
Two Historical Trajectories
Racial Identity into National Identity

Native America, Thunderheart, and the National Imaginary

Reversing the Territorial Imaginary
The Western and the National Imaginary
The Western and its Tropes of Space and Nation
War and the Forging of Ethnic Community

National Identity, Gender Identity and the "Rescue Fantasy" in Born on the 4th of July

Melodrama and National Identity
The Critique of Masculinity as "Punitive Agency"
Imaging the Nation

Modernism and the Narrative of Nation in JFK

The Temporality of Trauma
The Imagined Community as Lost Object

Prosthetic Memory/National Memory: Forrest Gump

Memory and National Identity
Nation and Religion
Redefining the Sixties

Conclusion



Film Nation Hollywood Looks at U.S. History Robert Burgoyne		$24.50 paper ISBN: 0-8166-2071-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2071-5
Explores contemporary American films that challenge official history. Our movies have started talking back to us, and Film Nation takes a close look at what they have to say. In movies like JFK and Forrest Gump, Robert Burgoyne sees a filmic extension of the debates that exercise us as a nation--debates about race and culture and national identity, about the nature and makeup of American history. In analyses of five films that challenge the traditional myths of the nation-state--Glory, Thunderheart, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, and Forrest Gump--Burgoyne explores the reshaping of our collective imaginary in relation to our history. These movies, exploring the meaning of "nation" from below, highlight issues of power that underlie the narrative construction of nationhood. Film Nation exposes the fault lines between national myths and the historical experience of people typically excluded from those myths. Throughout, Burgoyne demonstrates that these films, in their formal design, also preserve relics of the imaginary past they contest. Here we see how the "genre memory" of the western, the war film, and the melodrama shapes these films, creating a complex exchange between old concepts of history and the alternative narratives of historical experience that contemporary texts propose. The first book to apply theories of nationalism and national identity to contemporary American films, Film Nation reveals the cinematic rewriting of history now taking place as a powerful attempt to rearticulate the cultural narratives that define America as a nation. “In this slender but provocative volume, Robert Burgoyne asserts that the major historical traumas of the American past—from the mistreatment of African Americans and Native Americans to the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War—are currently being redefined and rewritten in Hollywood films, resulting in a new ‘national narrative’ that challenges the old ‘dominant fiction’ of the past.” —American Studies International “In Film Nation Robert Burgoyne argues that popular film plays a crucial role in formulating the imagined community of the nation state. A rewarding read.” —Film and History “Film Nation is a learned discussion of the uncertain character of contemporary nationalism in the United States. Burgoyne sees recent historical films as part of a broader culture-wide project, that of redefining the United States in a way that maintains the privileged character of older progressive civic nationalism while reconfiguring the nation to include all of the previously suppressed racial and ethnic narratives that indicate ours has been a history of conquest, exploitation, and cultural resistance to white racial male dominations. Film Nation rewards the reader with a continuous flow of stimulating ideas about how to discuss the content of recent history films.” —Journal of American History “Any historian who is interested in investigating film as history should forget about disciplinary turf wars and read Robert Burgoyne’s Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at US History. A theoretically sophisticated but clearly and elegantly written work, Burgoyne’s study explains why historians’ preoccupation with issues of authenticity may be beside the point while revealing ‘the significance of the stakes on the table.’ Burgoyne’s Film Nation is an imaginative study that challenges us to rethink film as history. Burgoyne’s Film Nation foregrounds issues of representation that historians should consider in thinking about film as history.” —Rethinking History “Film Nation is distinguished by Robert Burgoyne’s critical acuity, his on-the-money remarks about the subjects he interrogates, as well as the singularity of his focus on American Cinema and the ways by which film suggests much about American national identity.” —Cineaste “In this slim, densely argued volume, Burgoyne draws on a vast array of sources that include cultural and social critics, historians and film theorists in order to examine five recent films—Glory, JFK, Thunderheart, Born on the Fourth of July, and Forrest Gump—that are based on actual historical events. What is more important than mere presentation of facts is how the films act as a major forum for creating and shaping our beliefs about who we are as a nation -- and how they do so by engaging the audience emotionally. This book provides intellectual tools that can be applied to a searching critique of any historically based film.” —Detroit Metro Times Robert Burgoyne is professor of English and film studies at Wayne State University and is chair of the Department of English. He is the author of Bertolucci's 1900: A Narrative and Historical Analysis (1991) and coauthor, with Robert Stam and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, of New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics (1992). 160 pages \| 1997 Contents: Introduction Race and Nation in Glory History vs. Folklore Two Historical Trajectories Racial Identity into National Identity *Native America, Thunderheart, and the National Imaginary* Reversing the Territorial Imaginary The Western and the National Imaginary The Western and its Tropes of Space and Nation War and the Forging of Ethnic Community National Identity, Gender Identity and the "Rescue Fantasy" in Born on the 4th of July Melodrama and National Identity The Critique of Masculinity as "Punitive Agency" Imaging the Nation Modernism and the Narrative of Nation in JFK The Temporality of Trauma The Imagined Community as Lost Object Prosthetic Memory/National Memory: Forrest Gump Memory and National Identity Nation and Religion Redefining the Sixties Conclusion