AFI Film Readers Series

Film Theory Goes to the Movies

by Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, and Ava Preacher

Published 4 March 1993

This book claims that film theory is not just about Eisenstein any more. While "film theory" has produced a significant body of influential scholarship, defining the cutting edge of critical analysis for the past two decades, the majority of this work has focused on classic Hollywood, European cinema, and avant-garde films. More recent films, particularly blockbusters, are generally absent from this field of study, relegated to the realm of popular reviewing. This book attempts to fill this gap by providing provocative analyses of such films as "The Silence of the Lambs", "Dances With Wolves", "Terminator II", "Pretty Woman", "Truth or Dare", "Mystery Train" and "Jungle Fever". Within the field of film study, these essays argue for the continuing need to engage in critical, ideological dialogues, and within the broader context of the academy, this collection debates cultural authority, canonicity, multiculturalism, and radical pedagogy. "Film Theory Goes to the Movies" employs a variety of critical approaches, from industry analysis to reception study, to close readings informed by feminist, deconstructive, and postmodernist theory.