Politics in Popular Movies: Rhetorical Takes on Horror, War, Thriller, and Sci-Fi Films

Popular movies can be surprisingly smart about politics. At times, these are the portentous politics of state or war; but often, they are the everyday politics of family, romance, business, church, and school. Politics in Popular Movies analyzes the politics in many well-known films in four popular forms: horror, war, thriller, and science fiction. The aims are to appreciate specific movies and their shared forms, to understand their many politics, and to provoke some rollicking conversations. The means are loosely related "film takes" that venture ambitious, playful, and engaging arguments on political styles encouraged by recent films. Politics in Popular Movies shows how conspiracy films expose oppressive systems. It explores how various thrillers prefigured American experiences of 9/11 and then shaped aspects of the War on Terror. It details how some horror films embrace new media, while others use ultra-violence to spur political action. The book explains how a popular genre is emerging to examine nonlinear politics of globalization, terrorism, and more. It traces how recent war movies develop a fascinating range of political arguments. And it appreciates ways that science-fiction movies reflect populist politics from the Occupy and Tea Party movements, rethink the political foundations of current societies, and even remake our cultural images of the future.