America on Film Modernism, Documentary, and a Changing America [Hardcover]

America on Film, first published in 2002, examines how the notion of 'American' has changed from American cinema up to the 1950s.America on Film examines a selection of films made in the last quarter of the 20th century in an effort to trace how the notion of American has changed drastically from that portrayed in American cinema up to the 1950s. In works such as Mississippi Masala, Lone Star, Malcolm X , Raging Bull, When We Were Kings, and Bugsy Sam Girgus finds a new and ethnically varied array of characters that embody American values, ideals, and conflicts. America on Film charts these changes through analysis of cinematic tensions between fiction, documentary, and modernism.America on Film examines a selection of films made in the last quarter of the 20th century in an effort to trace how the notion of American has changed drastically from that portrayed in American cinema up to the 1950s. In works such as Mississippi Masala, Lone Star, Malcolm X , Raging Bull, When We Were Kings, and Bugsy Sam Girgus finds a new and ethnically varied array of characters that embody American values, ideals, and conflicts. America on Film charts these changes through analysis of cinematic tensions between fiction, documentary, and modernism.This study examines a selection of films made in the last quarter of the twentieth century in an effort to trace how the notion of American has changed drastically from that portrayed in American cinema up to the 1950s. In works such as Mississippi Masala, Lone Star, Malcolm X, Raging Bull, When We Were Kings and Bugsy Sam Girgus finds a new and ethnically varied array of characters that embody American values, ideals and conflicts. He charts these changes through analysis of cinematic tensions between fiction, documentary and modernism.Part I. Embodying a New Race for America: The Question of American Hope in Mississippi Masala and Lone Star: 1. Mississippi Masala: merging ethnic and racial images; 2. Lone Star: an archeoló¼