Ebook: The 'War on Terror' and American Film: 9/11 Frames Per Second

An exploration of the impact of 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’ on American cinema

Popular cinema is often derided with the epithet ‘it’s only a movie’, but is there any more potent cultural artefact than popular film? Where could one turn for a more effective cultural barometer than to Hollywood cinema?

American film in the first decade of the new millennium became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the ‘War on Terror’ or criticise it? More than just reproducing these fears and fantasies, The ‘War on Terror’ and American Film: 9/11 Frames Per Second argues that American cinema has played a significant role in shaping them, restructuring how audiences have viewed the ‘War on Terror’ in particularly influential ways.

This compelling, theoretically informed and up-to-date exploration of contemporary American cinema charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film from Black Hawk Down (2001), through Batman Begins (2005), United 93 (2006) to Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Through a vibrant analysis of a range of genres and films – which in turn reveal a strikingly diverse array of social, historical and political perspectives – The ‘War on Terror’ and American Film:9/11 Frames Per Second explores the impact of 9/11 and the war on terror on American cinema in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond.

Key Features

• Charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film: draws on a range of contemporary films including Black Hawk Down (2001), through Batman Begins (2005), United 93 (2006) to Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
• Comprehensive and broad in scope: provides a rich social, historical and political context
• Interrogates the emerging debates of the era: focuses on some of the most prominent genres/sub-genres and cycles of the decade and explains why they have emerged and how they differ from pre 9/11 films