An Army of Phantoms
Subtitle: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War
Publisher: The New Press; Distributed by Perseus Distribution
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 432
Description: An Army of Phantoms- a major new work of film history and cultural criticism from J. Hoberman, one of the foremost film critics writing todayùaddresses the dynamic synergy of American politics and American popular culture during the Cold War's first decade. Heralded by a mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, the years between 1946 and 1956 brought an explosion of affluence and anxiety. Along with U.S. dominance over Europe and a new war in Asia came the birth of the civil rights movement and the first stirrings of a new youth culture. The period saw the movie industry purged of its political left at the same time as the ideological action hero John Wayne reached the peak of his career. Analyzing Hollywood's cavalry Westerns, apocalyptic sci-fi flicks, and biblical spectaculars, along with media events, congressional hearings and political campaigns, and drawing on FBI files and studio records, Hoberman has orchestrated a colorful, sometimes surreal pageant wherein Cecil B. DeMille rubs shoulders with Douglas MacArthur, atomic tests are shown on live TV, God talks on the radio, and Joe McCarthy is bracketed with Marilyn Monroe. Essential reading for film and history buffs, An Army of Phantoms expands on the analysis of the 1960's found in Hoberman's critically acclaimed The Dream Life and offers a lively and astute history of film that is also, to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard, about the film of history. --Book Jacket.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : from God's mouth to your ear -- Prologue : Mission for Hollywood-Stalingrad to V-J Day -- Aliens among us : Hollywood, 1946-47.  MGM's Manhattan Project : The beginning or the end? -- When HUAC came to Hollywood … -- Showtime (“Hooray for Robert Taylor!”) -- Decision at the Waldorf : The big mop-up -- Fighting for the Ministry of Truth, Justice, and the American Way, 1948-50. The Iron Curtain parts and the campaign begins -- Fort Apache, our home -- Hollywood alert: From Red Menace to storm warning -- “The Saucers Are Real!” (and guilty of treason) -- Sunset/Panic/In a lonely place -- Countdown -- Redskin menace from outer space: America at war, 1950-52. Across Rio Grande…into Manchuria? -- This Is Korea?	-- The communist was a thing for the FBI! -- Three cases : Joseph L., Carl F., and Elia Kazan -- Campaign '52 : take us to our leader, Big Jim -- High Noon in the universe -- The PaxAmericanArama : Eisenhower Power, 1953-55 -- “No one on this Earth can help you” : above and beyond and fantasies of invasion -- The hammer, the witch trials, and pickup on South Street	-- After Quo Vadis : Onward Christian soldier, watch out for the wild one -- Marilyn ascends, Joe goes down -- Sh-Boom Them! (DeMillennium approaching …) -- Searchin' : America on the road, 1955-56. Coonskin kids, or the Martians have landed -- On the brink of the wild frontier : Kiss Me Deadly, Rebel Without a Cause -- Better red than dead : body-snatched prisoners of Comanche mind control -- “That'll be the day!” The Spirit of'56 -- Epilogue : the face of the crowd.