Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge

Robin L. Murray, Joseph K. Heumann

SUNY Press - Nature - 240 pages

Ecology and Popular Film examines representations of nature in mainstream film while also looking at film itself as a form of nature writing. Considering a selection of mainstream movies that embrace a wide variety of environmental themes, from the Lumières’ Oil Wells of Baku (1896) to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Murray and Heumann explore such themes as environmental politics, eco-terrorism, ecology and home, tragic and comic eco-heroes, the spectacular, and evolutionary narrative, in a manner that is both accessible and fun. Other films discussed include The River (1937), Soylent Green (1971), Pale Rider (1985), 28 Days Later (2002), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). The book also includes a comprehensive filmography of films that deal with environmental themes and issues.

Contents

• Reading the Environment in Popular Cinema: 1
• Close View The First EcoDisaster Film?: 19
• Pare Lorentzs The River and theTennessee Valley Authority: 37
• 3 Reconstructing Underground Urban Space in Dark Days: 57
• Is It Our Nature to Live in the Dark?: 73
• The Case of Soylent Green and the 1970s EcoDisaster Film: 91
• Spoofing EcoDisaster in Eight Legged Freaks: 109
• Pale Rider and the Revenge Cycle: 127
• 8 Car Culture and the Transformation of the American Landscape in The Fast and the Furious: 143
• Simulated Construction and Destruction in Hooper: 165
• 10 Apocalypse as a Return to Normality in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later: 181
• Al Gore s An Inconvenient Truthand its Skeptics A Case of Environmental Nostalgia: 195
• Filmography: 207
• Works Cited: 215
• Index: 223

About the author

At Eastern Illinois University, Robin L. Murray is Professor of English and Joseph K. Heumann is Professor of Communication Studies.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge; SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema
• Authors: Robin L. Murray, Joseph K. Heumann
• Publisher: SUNY Press
• ISBN: 0791477177, 9780791477175
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection; Performing Arts / Film & Video / History & Criticism; Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism; Social Science / Popular Culture