Long Ago and Far Away: Hollywood and the Second World War
Author(s): Robert Fyne (Author)
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Publication Date: 20 May 2008
Language: English
Print length: 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0810861240
ISBN-13: 9780810861244
Book Description
The Second World War was the greatest social, political, and economic upheaval of the 20th century. As a popular Hollywood subject, WWII still enthralls viewers six decades after Allied commanders affixed their signatures on the victory document in Tokyo Bay. Recreating flag-waving charges, frontal beachhead assaults, commando raids, and even home front heroics, these motion pictures-for better or worse-provide the primary learning experience for postwar generations. After scrutinizing hundreds of screenplays, Robert Fyne has written an in-depth study of World War II films, analyzing the different storylines, points-of-view, and contemporary events found in each. In Long Ago and Far Away: Hollywood and the Second World War, Fyne examines WWII films from 1941 to the present, explaining how the content and mood in these productions paralleled national mores and politics. Some titles are laudatory, even chauvinistic, while others are frivolous or sophomoric. Biographical screenplays both glorify and damn various leaders. Some films bombard viewers with horrific experiences, while others, such as goofy science fiction titles with their wraiths and flying saucers, seem inappropriate. Love stories are examined, as well as films revealing Japanese prisoner of war deprivations and Nazi concentration camp atrocities. From Above and Beyond to Zone Troopers and The Best Years of Our Lives to Flags of Our Fathers, this is a compelling look at how filmmakers have dramatized this pivotal period in history. For historians, movie watchers, or social commentators, Long Ago and Far Away, complete with an elaborate filmography, offers new information about Hollywood’s diverse interpretations of the Good War.
Editorial Reviews
Review
The book includes an extensive filmography, a useful bibliography, and some stills. Recommended. ― CHOICE, December 2008
Fyne’s writing is extraordinarily fluid, creating a pleasurable narrative that entrances readers with its story-line and then, using a venerable tactic of the true raconteur, faces them with serious, even troubling, issues they cannot evade. ―
Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, October 2008
The Second World War continues to fascinate both viewers and filmmakers. Here Robert Fyne revisits and extends the subject of his earlier Hollywood Propaganda of World War II, bringing his analysis right up to the present and deftly positioning the films of each period in their social and cinematic contexts. More than merely a history or a critical study, the narrative seamlessly blends the work of an accomplished scholar with the art of a first-class raconteur. — Robert Matson, Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh (Johnstown) and the author of Neutrality and Navicerts: Britain, the United
About the Author
Robert Fyne is professor of English at Kean University. He currently serves as the book review editor for Film & History and is the author of The Hollywood Propaganda of World War II (Scarecrow, 1994).
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