American Cinema and Cultural Diplomacy : The Fragmented Kaleidoscope

This book contends that Hollywood films help illuminate the incongruities of various periods in American diplomacy. From the war film __Bataan__ to the Revisionist Western __The Wild Bunch__, cinema has long reflected US foreign policy’s divisiveness both directly and allegorically. Beginning with the 1990s presidential drama __The American President__ and concluding with __Joker’s__ allegorical treatment of the Trump era, this book posits that the paradigms for political reflection are shifting in American film, from explicit subtexts surrounding US statecraft to covert representations of diplomatic disarray. It further argues that the International Relations theorist Walter Mead’s concept of a US polity dominated by contesting beliefs, or a ‘kaleidoscope’, permeates these changing paradigms. This synergy reveals a cultural milieu where foreign policy fissures are increasingly encoded by cinematic representation. The interdisciplinarity of this focus renders this book pertinent reading for scholars and students of American Studies, Film Studies and International Relations, along with those generally interested in Hollywood filmmakers and foreign policy. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Shifting Kaleidoscopes: The Presence of Diplomatic Contradiction in Political and Allegorical American Film (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 1-33 Triangulation: Unilateral Idealism in the 1990s Cinematic Presidency (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 35-64 Equilibrium: The Turn of the Twenty-First-Century War Film and the Millenarian Remaking of Global Meliorism (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 65-105 Reconfiguration: Hard and Soft Power Rivalries in Cinematic Engagements With the War on Terror (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 107-148 Fragmentation: The Deconstruction of Neoliberal Occupation in No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 149-185 Collision: The Dark Knight and Avatar’s Eulogies to Liberal Internationalist Failure (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 187-228 Stasis: The Continuation of Contradiction in the Age of Malaise and Populism (Thomas J. Cobb)....Pages 229-253 Back Matter ....Pages 255-264