Imagining America at War

In this book, Cynthia Weber explores the relationship between film and politics, and - more specifically - cinema and war. Using the events of 9/11 as a watershed, she illuminates how ten films released (and re-released) after this date reflect fierce debates about US foreign policy and a more fundamental debate about what it means to be an American. These films include: Pearl Harbor (World War II); We Were Soldiers and The Quiet American (the Vietnam War); Behind Enemy Lines, Black Hawk Down and Kandahar (episodes of humanitarian intervention); Collateral Damage and In the Bedroom (vengeance in response to loss); Minority Report (futurist preemptive justice); and Fahrenheit 9/11 (an explicit critique of Bush's entire war on terror). "This is not just another book about post-9/11 America: it fills a significant gap - as the notion of self-understanding and national identity is rarely discussed in a systematic and scholarly way. Imagining America at War will be of great interest to students of American Studies, US Foreign Policy, Contemporary US History, Cultural Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Film Studies."--Jacket.