Darkness in the bliss-out : a reconsideration of the films of Steven Spielberg

While There Has Been A Significant Outpouring Of Scholarship On Steven Spielberg Over The Past Decade, His Films Are Still Frequently Discussed As Being Paternalistic, Escapist, And Reliant On Uncomplicated Emotions And Complicated Special Effects. Even Those Who View His Work Favorably Often See It As Essentially Optimistic, Reassuring, And Conservative. James Kendrick Takes An Alternate View Of Spielberg's Cinema And Proposes That His Films―even The Most Popular Ones That Seem To Trade In Easy Answers And Comforting, Reassuring Notions Of Cohesion And Narrative Resolution―are Significantly Darker And More Emotionally And Ideologically Complex Than They Are Routinely Given Credit For. Darkness In The Bliss-out Demonstrates, Through Close Analysis Of A Wide Range Of Spielberg's Films, That They Are Only Reassuring On The Surface, And That Their Depths Embody A Complex And Sometimes Contradictory View Of The Human Condition--amazon.com. Introduction: Steven Spielberg And The Politics Of Bliss -- I Didn't Want To See This: Weekend America And Its Discontents In Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, E.t., And Poltergeist -- Americans Fighting Americans: Incoherence And Animal Comedy In 1941 -- What Exactly Are We Applauding? Indiana Jones And The Ideologies Of Heroism And American Exceptionalism -- Lost And Done For: The Rejection Of War Fantasies In Empire Of The Sun And War Horse -- For The World's More Full Of Weeping Than You Can Understand: Humanity And Inhumanity In A.i Artificial Intelligence. James Kendrick. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. FC Half Title Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Steven Spielberg and the Politics of Bliss 1. “I Didn’t Want to See This”: Weekend America and Its Discontents in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. and Poltergeist 2. “Americans Fighting Americans”: Incoherence and Animal Comedy in 1941 3. “What Exactly Are We Applauding?” Indiana Jones and the Ideologies of Heroism and American Exceptionalism 4. “Lost and Done For”: The Rejection of War Fantasies in Empire of the Sun and War Horse 5. “For the World’s More Full of Weeping Than You Can Understand”: Humanity and Inhumanity in A.I. Artificial Intelligence Works Cited Index