ENGLISH 347

Contemporary Developments in Literature and Culture: American Dreams, American Nightmares: Movies and the Cultural Legacy of the 1960s.

Professor Landon

The 1960s saw not only dramatic changes in American politics and culture, but also in the American film industry, changes which made it possible for Hollywood films to dramatize and comment on the social upheavals which characterized the decade: the challenges to traditional ideas of family values and moral attitudes, the disillusionment with national political institutions, the renewed claims for individual autonomy, and above all the political assassinations of national leaders and the war in Vietnam.

This Winter Session we will explore the ways that films from the late 1960s through the late 1990s have been shaped by that cultural legacy, legacy of divisiveness and debate which has often been described as "the culture wars." The main focus will be on the work of major directors whose films directly reflect this legacy, including Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, Oliver Stone, Stephen Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Lawrence Kasdan. We will look at the films of less prominent filmmakers whose work is of special (if sometimes bizarre) significance, for example Michael Cimino, David Lynch, and Quentin Tarantino, and George Romero.

The list of assigned films will include The Graduate, Easy Rider, Dirty Harry, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, The Big Chill, Blue Velvet, Star Wars, Fatal Attraction, Thelma and Louise, Forrest Gump, Independence Day, True Romance, The Insider, and American Beauty.

If you have any questions about the course, please contact me by e-mail (landon@umbc.edu)or by phone at (410) 455-2052.

English 347 is listed among the online courses at my Internet Website: http://research.umbc.edu/~landon/index.html.