<p>Praise for the First Edition</p><p>This politically informed book demonstrates how war movies are more than just entertainment. They serve intentionally or not as a cultural weapon of global empire. Clearly written, richly researched, and persuasively argued, <em>The Hollywood War Machine </em>is a feast for any opponent of militaristic propaganda.<br />Michael Parenti, author of <em>Superpatriotism</em> and <em>The Culture Struggle</em></p><p>From Tom Cruise in <em>Top Gun </em>down to <em>United 93</em>, about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hollywood has played a crucial role in implanting militarism, hypermasculinity, and racism deep in the American psyche. Carl Boggs and Tom Pollards <em>The Hollywood War Machine </em>is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of American imperialism.<br />Chalmers Johnson, author of <em>Blowback</em> and <em>The Sorrows of Empire</em></p><p>A critical cultural chronicle of postwar American political history. Engaging and penetrating. . . . It patiently relates the complicity of Hollywood in the culture of American militarism.<br />Jan Nederveen Pieterse, author of <em>Globalization</em> <em>and</em> <em>Culture: Global M nge</em></p><p>Opinionated and witty . . . it has fizz.<br />Terrell Carver, author of <em>Engels: A Very Short Introduction</em></p><p>American intervention and empire since the Progressive Era have not come out of thin air. Instead their politics have been colonizing popular culture at the cinema in Westerns, sci-fi films, spy movies, and political thrillers for decades. Boggs and Pollard develop an excellent critical overview of how and why the military-industrial-entertainment complex has become so powerful during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in this wide-ranging study of American film. Reading <em>The Hollywood War Machine</em> helps us understand why many think violence is truly as American as</p>
The newly expanded and revised edition of The Hollywood War Machine includes wide-ranging exploration of numerous popular military-themed films that have appeared in the close to a decade since the first edition was published. Within the Hollywood movie community, there has not been even the slightest decline in well-financed pictures focusing on warfare and closely-related motifs. The second edition includes a new chapter on recent popular films and another that analyzes the relationship between these movies and the bourgeoning gun culture in the United States, marked in recent years by a dramatic increase in episodes of mass killings.
CONTENTS Preface Chapter One: Media Culture in the Imperial System Chapter Two: Militarism in American Popular Culture Chapter Three: War and Cinema: The Historical Legacy Chapter Four: The Vietnam Syndrome: Politics and Cinema Chapter Five: Recycling the Good War Chapter Six: Cinematic Warfare in the New World Order Chapter Seven: Hollywood After 9/11