The cinema dreams its rivals : media fantasy films from radio to the Internet

By the middle of the twentieth century, Hollywood, formerly the one and only dream factory, found itself facing a host of media rivals for the public's attention. In the 1980s, another competitor arrived in the form of the proto-Internet—a computer network as yet untested by all but research scientists, college students, the military, and a few thousand PC and modem owners. How did Hollywood respond to this nascent challenge? By dreaming about it, in a series of technological fantasies, from Tron to War Games to Lawnmower Man. The Cinema Dreams Its Rivals examines the meaning and effect of the movies' attempts to reshape the shifting media landscape. Paul Young looks at the American cinema's imaginative constructions of three electronic media—radio, television, and the Internet—at the times when these media seemed to hold limitless possibilities. In doing so, he demonstrates that Hollywood is indelibly marked by the advent of each new medium, from the inclusion of sound in motion pictures to the use of digital graphics. But conversely, Young argues, the identities of the new media are themselves changed as Hollywood turns them to its own purposes and its own dreams. Paul Young is professor of English and director of the film studies program at Vanderbilt University. Contents......Page 8 Introduction: The Perpetual Reinvention of Film......Page 10 1. Rubes, Camera Fiends, Filmmakers, and Other Amateurs: The Intermedia Imagination of Early Films......Page 38 2. A Cinema without Wires......Page 86 3. Eating the Other Medium: Sound Film in the Age of Broadcasting......Page 110 4. The Glass Web: Unraveling the Videophobia of Postwar Hollywood Cinema......Page 174 5. The Negative Reinvention of Cinema: Late Hollywood in the Early Digital Age......Page 230 Acknowledgments......Page 286 Notes......Page 292 Filmography......Page 322 A......Page 326 B......Page 327 C......Page 328 D......Page 330 E......Page 332 G......Page 333 I......Page 334 L......Page 336 M......Page 337 N......Page 338 P......Page 339 R......Page 341 S......Page 342 T......Page 344 V......Page 346 W......Page 347 Z......Page 348 Paul Young looks at the American cinema's imaginative constructions of three electronic media-radio, television, and the Internet-at the times when these media seemed to hold limitless possibilities. The Cinema Dreams Its Rivals demonstrates that Hollywood is marked by the advent of each new medium, but conversely, the identities of the media are themselves changed as Hollywood turns them to its own purposes Paul Young looks at the American cinema's imaginative constructions of three electronic media: radio, television and the Internet at the times when these media seemed to hold limitless possibilities. In doing so he demonstrates that Hollywood is indelibly marked by the advent of each new medium Paul Young. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 255-284), Filmography (p. 285-288), And Index.