bookshelf

PROJECTING THE SHADOW

Name: PROJECTING THE SHADOW
Author: Janice Hocker Rushing
ISBN: 0-226-73166-9

THE CYBORG HERO IN AMERICAN FILM

by Janice Hocker Rushing & Thomas S. Frentz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1995

bookshelf

Iron John goes to Hollywood in this confused and tedious examination of the hunter and the hunted in six modern films: The Manchurian Candidate, The Deer Hunter, Jaws, Blade Runner, and the two Terminators. Rushing and Frentz, communications professors at the University of Arkansas, seem interested in these films only as a justification for a hodgepodge of pontifications on life, the universe, and everything. Their thesis, insofar as it exists, concerns the replacement of the archetypal Indian hunt by the technological hunt. In their view, technology causes the hunter's weapons to take on a life of their own until they eventually turn against the hunter himself. This hopped-up restatement of the Frankenstein story becomes, in Rushing and Frentz's hands, an almost indigestible Joseph Campbell's soup of myth, Jungian analysis, and Anthropology 101. As they proclaim, ``If films are to a large extent public dreams, then our role as critics is similar to that of the depth analyst; to interpret how the film as collective dream provides a picture of the cultural unconscious.'' So bewitched are they by their voodoo film criticism that they invariably fail to invoke essential authorities outside their narrow congeries. For example, they discuss the idea of frontier at great length without once mentioning its originator, Frederick Jackson Turner. But, then, this book is only grudgingly about rational film analysis. Rushing and Frentz seem much happier soap- boxing away about spirituality, the men's movement, and their derivative panacea for fin-de-siäcle malaisetransmodernism (postmodernism made warm and snuggly). But scatter enough critical darts, and you are bound to hit something. The authors can claim credit for at least a handful of good ideas or sound critical perceptions, particularly their analysis of The Deer Hunter's deep mythic roots. In the end, the only real monster to be found is the one Rushing and Frentz have so carelessly brought to life. (30 b&w film stills, not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1995

ISBN: 0-226-73166-9

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Univ. of Chicago

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.