Freedom and vengeance on film : precarious lives and the politics of subjectivity / Robert E. Watkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watkins, Robert E. (Professor), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politics in motion pictures.

Revenge in motion pictures.

Liberty in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

xi, 162 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London : I.B. Tauris, 2016.

Summary:

Films reflect and construct social reality in the way they employ, affirm and critique the discourses through which we grasp political life. This book examines five contemporary films that engage with our deep attachment to two core political ideas - freedom and vengeance - asking: what do audiences learn about freedom and vengeance from film, and what are the political consequences of the reproduction or disruption of their meanings? This book considers into the Wild (2006) and Mystic River (2003), films in which protagonists infused with a common-sense vision of personal sovereignty and invulnerability struggle for independence and vengeance. In contrast, it analyses The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2006), Wendy and Lucy (2008) and Winter's Bone (2010) - films in which protagonists respond to their predicaments in ways that acknowledge inescapable vulnerability. As the films studied illuminate precarious - and thus highiy dependent - lives, the book examines how such depictions treat male and female characters differently. It also studies the physical backdrops of films, as the wilderness and the fringes of America figure prominently, whether Alaska in the North or the southern border with Mexico. Collectively, these films unsettle the dominant political messages of American cinema and put the combined ends of freedom and vengeance into doubt. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Opting Out: Into the Wild and the Fantasy of Liberal Independence 24

Chapter 2 Avenging Dependence: Mystic River and the Political Ontology of Vulnerability 49

Chapter 3 Grieving Identity Politics: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and the Question of Grievability 65

Chapter 4 A Predicament of Precarity: Wendy and Lucy and the Impossibility of Neoiiberal Self-Care 84

Chapter 5 Familial Subjectivity and Winter's Bone 105.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-160) and index.

ISBN:

9781784530105

1784530107

OCLC:

953816003