Melodrama is the foundation of American cinema. It is, however, a poorly understood term. While it is a pervasive and persuasive dramatic mode, it is not tied to any specific moral or ideological system. It is not a singular genre; rather, it operates as a "genre generating machine" capable of determining the aesthetics and structure of the drama within many genres. Melodrama centers the conflict around the clash between good and evil and provides a sense of poetic justice--but the specific values embedded in notions of good and evil are determined by the culture, and they shift from nation to nation, region to region, and period to period. This book explores the "populist" westerns of the 1930s, the propaganda films that followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the popularity of Sax Rohmer's master villain Fu Manchu. "Melodramas of passion" and film noir also offer a challenge to melodrama with its seemingly alienated protagonists and downbeat endings. Yet, with few exceptions, Hollywood was able to assimilate these genres within its melodramatic imagination.
This is the story of two thrilling generations of Bounty. First, the original eighteenth century British Naval Transport ship, on which the most infamous mutiny in British naval history played out. Pulling together details from various contemporary accounts of these events author and filmmaker Geoff D'Eon tells the tale of a harsh leader cast out to sea who miraculously finds his way back to England. Then comes the glorious twentieth century Hollywood recreation of Bounty from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Her crew spend delightful weeks in the South Pacific. Years later, Bounty fights for survival as her captain sails her straight into violent Hurricane Sandy. A dramatic rescue effort saves the crew, but the ship, the captain and one young crew member are lost. Spanning four centuries, this is a story of romance, risk, exotic travel, cruelty, lust, loyalty, jealousy, misadventure, hubris, heroism and death. Fully illustrated with paintings, photographs and artifacts, this book tells one of the greatest sea stories of them all.
The longest ever journey across Antarctica. The only traverse, via The South Pole, of the greatest axis of the continent: Six men from six countries, 36 husky dogs, 220 days, near 4,000 miles (6,000 Kms) through winter, summer and into the following winter. Battling through ferocious winter storms, isolation, crevasses, the team endured constant blizzards, little communication with the outside world and dwindling supplies. This unprecedented undertaking was considered absurd, ludicrous. However, seven months after starting, the team reached the far coast, proving the cooperation of so many cultures and the phenomenal stamina of the huskies could complete 'The Impossible'.
To support his theory, Cunfer looks at the entire Great Plains (450 counties in ten states), tapping historical agricultural census data paired with GIS mapping to illuminate land use on the Great Plains over 130 years. Coupled with several community and family case studies, this database allows Cunfer to reassess the interaction between farmers and nature in the Great Plains agricultural landscape."--BOOK JACKET.
Among the runners of C. C. Pyle's First Annual International Transcontinental Foot Race were an assortment of underdogs, including twenty-year-old Oklahoman and part Cherokee Andy Payne, who wanted to win over the girl of his dreams and pay off the mortgage on his family's farm; Paul "Hardrock" Simpson, who was in over his head but couldn't let down his North Carolina hometown; Mike Kelly, a luckless boxer from Indiana; Seattle's Ed Gardner, one of four black runners who encountered bigotry; Charles Hart, a sixty-three-year-old Englishman hoping his best days weren't behind him; and Frank Johnson, a middle-aged husband, father, and steelworker from St. Louis who broke away from his humdrum life and dared to do something different. Newspaper and magazine journalist Geoff Williams details this historic event and the colorful cast of characters involved, based on firsthand accounts of those who were there and interviews from many living descendants. C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race is a classic American story so astonishing and surreal that you have to hear it to believe it.
(Limelight). A ground-breaking critical survey of the talented, audacious, and influential directors Hal Hartley, Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, John Sayles, Quentin Tarantino, among others who, dominating the "independent scene," have revitalized American film. Illustrated throughout, index.
The incredible story of a flood of near-biblical proportions -- its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America's natural-disaster policies for the next century. The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It continued for days. Some people drowned in their attics, others on the roads when they tried to flee. It was the nation's most widespread flood ever—more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless. The destruction extended far beyond the Ohio valley to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. Fourteen states in all, and every major and minor river east of the Mississippi. In the aftermath, flaws in America's natural disaster response system were exposed, echoing today's outrage over Katrina. People demanded change. Laws were passed, and dams were built. Teams of experts vowed to develop flood control techniques for the region and stop flooding for good. So far those efforts have succeeded. It is estimated that in the Miami Valley alone, nearly 2,000 floods have been prevented, and the same methods have been used as a model for flood control nationwide and around the world.
British chemistry has traditionally been depicted as a solely male endeavour. However, this perspective is untrue: the allure of chemistry has attracted women since the earliest times. Despite the barriers placed in their path, women studied academic chemistry from the 1880s onwards and made interesting or significant contributions to their fields, yet they are virtually absent from historical records.Comprising a unique set of biographies of 141 of the 896 known women chemists from 1880 to 1949, this work attempts to address the imbalance by showcasing the determination of these women to survive and flourish in an environment dominated by men. Individual biographical accounts interspersed with contemporary quotes describe how women overcame the barriers of secondary and tertiary education, and of admission to professional societies. Although these women are lost to historical records, they are brought together here for the first time to show that a vibrant culture of female chemists did indeed exist in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries./a
Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley have been researching quarantine since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. With Until Proven Safe, they bring us a book as compelling as it is definitive, not only urgent reading for social-distanced times but also an up-to-the-minute investigation of the interplay of forces–––biological, political, technological––that shape our modern world. Quarantine is our most powerful response to uncertainty: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside us will be revealed. It is also one of our most dangerous, operating through an assumption of guilt. In quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space—from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC to closed-door simulations where pharmaceutical execs and epidemiologists prepare for the outbreak of a novel coronavirus. But the story of quarantine ranges far beyond the history of medical isolation. In Until Proven Safe, the authors tour a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert, see plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world’s wheat supply, and meet NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer, tasked with saving Earth from extraterrestrial infections. They also introduce us to the corporate tech giants hoping to revolutionize quarantine through surveillance and algorithmic prediction. We live in a disorienting historical moment that can feel both unprecedented and inevitable; Until Proven Safe helps us make sense of our new reality through a thrillingly reported, thought-provoking exploration of the meaning of freedom, governance, and mutual responsibility.
He is a scientist. He is a family man. He is a master of momentum. He is one of the world's greatest superheroes. He cannot be outrun. He is the FlashÉ and he is the Fastest Man Alive. Jary Garrick first sped onto the scene in 1940 and in the three-quarters of a century since his earliest super-speedster adventures, Barry Allen and Wally West have carried on wearing the symbol of the yellow lightning bolt as the Flash combating evil throughout Keystone City, Central City, the multiverse, and time itself. From his fleet-footed debut by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert to his modern fiery forms by Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and Francis Manupal, THE FLASH: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS collects the stories of the Scarlet Speedsters' heroics at hypervelocity, from such legendary comic talents as Robert Kanigher, Carmine Infantino, John Broome, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Irv Novick, George Perez, William Messner-Loebs, Mike Wieringo, Scott Kollins, Ethan Van Sciver and more.
Simons describes the current human-rights situation in Saudi Arabia with reference to corruption, the treatment of dissidents, the penal system, the suppression of women, slavery and other aspects. A detailed history, from pre-Islamic times to the present, is provided, with attention to the influence of Mohammed, the Saudi ascendancy, the role of the West, the discovery of oil and the wars in the region. Finally attention is given to the various (economic/political/religious) problems that today face the Saudi regime and to the Saudi response.
When viewers think of film noir, they often picture actors like Humphrey Bogart playing characters like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, the film based on the book by Dashiell Hammett. Yet film noir is a genre much richer. The authors first examine the debate surrounding the parameters of the genre and the many different ways it is defined. They discuss the Noir City, its setting and backdrop, and also the cultural (WWII) and institutional (the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and the Production Code Administration) influences on the subgenres. An analysis of the low budget and series film noirs provides information on those cult classics. With over 200 entries on films, directors, and actors, the Encyclopedia of Film Noir is the most complete resource for film fans, students, and scholars.
An unprecedented celebration of the worldÕs ultimate super-villain, featuring work from comics legends Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, Dick Sprang, Len Wein, John Byrne, Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and more. For 75 years, super-villain Lex Luthor has dedicated his life to ridding Earth of the menace that is Superman. Though just an ordinary man, LuthorÕs superior intelligence and cunning are power enough to make him the ultimate match for the Man of Steel. From mad scientist to corrupt business tycoon to President of the United States, SupermanÕs greatest nemesis has been reinvented time and again, as for three-quarters of a century the two rivals have continued their ultimate matchup of brains versus brawn!
The crime film genre consists of detective films, gangster films, suspense thrillers, film noir, and caper films and is produced throughout the world. Crime film was there at the birth of cinema, and it has accompanied cinema over more than a century of history, passing from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color. The genre includes such classics as The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather, Gaslight, The French Connection, and Serpico, as well as more recent successes like Seven, Drive, and L.A. Confidential. The Historical Dictionary of Crime Films covers the history of this genre through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on key films, directors, performers, and studios. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about crime cinema. -- from Amazon.com.
CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF THE KING OF ATLANTIS! Though often overshadowed or overlooked, Aquaman is among the greatest and most enduring characters in the DC Universe. The King of Atlantis is one of the few Golden Age characters to survive into the present day. He’s also a founding member of the Justice League, the first DC hero to start a family and soon will star in his own big-screen franchise. From the lighthearted swashbuckling adventures of Aquaman’s early decades, through the loss of his son (not to mention his hand), to his modern reinvention as a formidable master of the sea, this collection provides a crash course in more than seven decades of DC history! AQUAMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS collects 400 pages of the iconic hero’s finest moments—from his first appearance by Mort Weisinger and creator Paul Norris to his modern-day adventures—and features the work of such comics superstars as Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Jim Aparo, Steve Skeates, Peter David, Ramona Fradon, Paul Levitz, Nick Cardy and more. Collects ADVENTURE COMICS #120, #174, #220, #260, #266, #269, #444, #452, #475; AQUAMAN (1962-) #1, #18, #40; JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #2; AQUAMAN (1986-) #3; AQUAMAN (1991-) #2, #34; AQUAMAN (1994-) #4, #17; and AQUAMAN (2011-) #1, #43.
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