Description

A Critical Companion to Robert Zemeckis offers a comprehensive, academic and detailed study of the works of Robert Zemeckis, whose films include successful productions such as the Back to the Future trilogy (1985-90), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000) and The Polar Express (2004), but also lesser known films such as I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), Used Cars (1980), and Allied (2015). Most of Zemeckis’ major productions were not only successful when they were first released but continue to enjoy popularity—with critics and fans alike—even today. This volume investigates several distinct areas of Zemeckis' works and addresses the different approaches: the philosophical, the artistic, the socio-cultural, and the personal. The methodologies adopted by the contributors differ significantly from each other, thus offering the reader a variegated and compelling picture of Zemeckis' oeuvre, which includes nineteen films. Contrary to the few volumes published in the past on the subject, the chapters in this volume offer specific case studies that have been previously ignored (or only partially mentioned) by other scholars. A Critical Companion to Robert Zemeckis offers a great variety of interdisciplinary approaches to Zemeckis’ films, illuminating, re-reading and/or interpreting for the first time the entire career of the director, from his first films to the most recent ones.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Filmmaker

1) “You Gotta Get Their Friendship, Their Trust, then Get Their Money”: Social Class and Financial Corruption in Used Cars, Eric Sterling
2) Till Death Do Us Part: Romancing the Stone, Death Becomes Her, and the Romance Genre, Michael Charlton
3) Used Cars, Flying Cars and Streetcars: The Role of Transportation and Capitalism in the Films of Robert Zemeckis, Siobhan Lyons
4) Deconstructing the Femme Fatale: Zemeckis's Ventures into Horror, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns
5) The Horror, the Horror: Freud, Horror, and the Uncanny in the Motion Capture Productions of Robert Zemeckis, Paul Johnson
6) Allied: The Longstanding Relationship Between Composer Alan Silvestri and Director Robert Zemeckis, Kingsley Marshall

Part II: The Philosopher

7) Luck, Happiness, and Forrest Gump, David K. Chan
8) The Things We Can't See: Kierkegaard's Three Stages and the Crisis of Faith in The Polar Express, Nicole Pramik
9) White Christian Heroes and Others in Back to the Future, Forrest

Product details

Published Oct 15 2020
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 310
ISBN 9781793623454
Imprint Lexington Books
Dimensions 228 x 161 mm
Series Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Directors
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Adam Barkman

Anthology Editor

Antonio Sanna

Contributor

Adam Barkman

Contributor

David K. Chan

Contributor

Paul Johnson

Contributor

David LaRocca

Contributor

Siobhan Lyons

Contributor

Sue Matheson

Sue Matheson is Full Professor of English at the U…

Contributor

Francis Mickus

Contributor

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns is Professor in the…

Contributor

Antonio Sanna

Contributor

Carl Sobocinski

Contributor

Eric Sterling

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