Steven Spielberg is known as the most powerful man in New Hollywoodand a pioneer of the contemporary blockbuster, America's mostsuccessful export. His career began a new chapter in mass culture.At the same time, American post war liberalism was breaking down.This fascinating new book explains the complex relationship betweenfilm and politics through the prism of an iconic filmmaker.
Spielberg's early films were a triumphant emergence of theSunbelt aesthetic that valued visceral kicks and basic emotionsover the ambiguities of history. Such blockbusters have inspiredmuch debate about their negative effect on politics and have beencharged as being an expression of the corporatization of life. HereFrederick Wasser argues that the older Spielberg has not fully gonethis way, suggesting that the filmmaker recycles the populistvision of older Hollywood because he sincerely believes in both bigtime moviemaking and liberal democracy. Nonetheless, his storiesare burdened by his generation's hostility to public life,and the book shows how he uses filmmaking tricks to keep hisaudience with him and to smooth over the ideologicalcontradictions. His audiences have become more global, as his filmsengage history.
This fresh and provocative take on Spielberg in the context ofglobalization, rampant market capitalism and the hardeningsocio-political landscape of the United States will be fascinatingreading for students of film and for anyone interested incontemporary America and its culture.