Screening Difference

Did you know that Pocahontas probably never fell in love with John Smith, as film versions pretend? That the myth of the sexually eager Hula girls is based on misunderstandings by early explorers?Screening Difference is a fascinating voyage through recent movie blockbusters dealing with encounters between "us," based on white Hollywood, and "them," the representations of other races, ethnicities, and cultures. Looking at orientations in casting, make-up, sets, props, lighting, camera movements, music, and language, this lively book follows the best-known genres, from animated cartoons to romantic movies.Screening Difference tracks the stories to their origins and dissects their hidden messages.

Did you know that Pocahontas probably never fell in love with John Smith, as the Disney and other film versions of those events pretend? ThatGodzilla was originally an anti-American and anti-nuclear movie, heavily cut and supplemented with new material? ThatZorro was not created by an American author but derived from the much older Mexican struggle for independence? ThatAnna and the King was largely invented? That the myth of the sexually eager Hula girls is based on misunderstandings by the first explorers? ThatBlack Hawk Down and many other war movies were censored and indirectly subsidized by the Pentagon?

Screening Difference takes us on a fascinating voyage through major movie blockbusters that deal with the encounter between "us," based on white Hollywood, and "them," the filmic representations of other races, ethnicities, and cultures. Looking at subtle orientations in casting and make-up, sets and props, lighting and camera movements, music and language, this lively book follows the best-known genres and subgenres: from animated cartoons to wilderness films, from romantic movies to colonial adventures.Screening Difference tracks the stories back to their origins and patiently dissects the hidden messages that have gradually crept into them.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 1 The Loud and the Silent: Global Film in the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 3 2 Children and Adults: Animated Cartoons
Chapter 4 3 Civilized and Barbarians: Antiquity Movies
Chapter 5 4 The Tamers and the Wild: Wilderness Adventure
Chapter 6 5 The Prolific and the Idle: Westerns and Southerns
Chapter 7 6 The Prude and the Lewd: Romantic and Erotic Encounters
Chapter 8 7 Helpers and Helpless: Colonial Adventure
Chapter 9 8 Friends and Foes: Spy, Action, and War Movies
Chapter 10 9 Believers and Heathen: Religious Films
Chapter 11 10 The Advanced and the Backward: Science Fiction and Space Adventure
Chapter 12 11 Other People's Dreams
Chapter 13 Glossary
Chapter 14 References