"Disguised" Political Film in Contemporary Hollywood

With strict guidelines on methodology and time frame -- films produced after September 2001, and a socio-semiotic theoretical framework -- Betty Kaklamanidou unpacks the problematic terms and ideas that go along with defining a new genre. Kaklamanidou considers a different sub-genre per chapter, placing each group of films in their socio-historical context to reach conclusions about the production of political films in millennial Hollywood. In shifting the terms of the debate, The "Disguised" Political Film in Contemporary Hollywood offers a fresh, new approach to the subject of the political film.The political film is not a clearly delineated object but rather an elusive one and resistant to clear boundaries. So, what is a political film? Can The Hunger Games (2012) belong to the same category as Lincoln (2012)? Is Jarhead (2005) a political movie simply because it is set during the Gulf War but with no reference to the motives of the conflict and/or American and Arab relations, and thus in the same group of war films such as The Three Kings (1999), another narrative that focuses on the same military conflict but includes direct commentary to governmental and military strategies? Are historical films by definition political since the majority deals with significant events and/or people in a specific socio­-cultural landscape?

In this comprehensive study, Kaklamanidou argues that there is a subset of Hollywood movies which fit into 'political genre,' a term not yet used by scholars, film critics, or industry (IMDB). She identifies 78 movies that were released between 2002 and 2012 and clearly explains why some ‘political thrillers’ do not belong to the genre of the political film, while other dramas, comedies, or science fiction movies do. This is a very important contribution to the study of genre and the political and will be an invaluable resource to scholars, students, and movie fans., Hollywood cinema and politics have always had a difficult relationship, with the American film industry traditionally reluctant to acknowledge the political messages of its films and the political intent of its filmmakers. As a result a vast part of Hollywood film production has been marketed as comedies, action thrillers, history dramas and epics, heritage films and biopics when they could also be perceived as political films. Looking behind these conventional generic disguises, film genre studies expert Betty Kaklamanidou deftly identifies the generic registers of political films in Hollywood cinema post-9/11 and demonstrates compellingly how their structure dovetails the formal and narrative requirements of contemporary filmmaking in the US. Rich in textual analysis and informed by strong theoretical and historical insights, The ‘Disguised’ Political Film in Contemporary Hollywood will help readers understand how to read popular films politically., Kaklamanidou’s insights are powerful and her writing is accessible and entertaining… Kaklamanidou’s impressive ability to demonstrate the political in a whole range of films is illuminating and makes this engaging study a must read.

Betty Kaklamanidou is a Fulbright scholar and Assistant Professor in Film and Television History and Theory at Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece. She is the author of Easy A: The End of the High-School Teen Comedy? (2018), Genre, Gender and the Effects of Neoliberalism (2013) and two books in Greek on adaptation theory and the history of the Hollywood rom com. Betty is also the co-editor of Politics and Politicians in Contemporary U.S. Television (2016), The Millennials on Film and Television (2014), HBO’s “Girls” (2014), and The 21st Century Superhero (2010). She is currently completing a co-edited a collection on post-2008 European Cinema. Betty’s articles have appeared in Television & New Media, Literature/Film Quarterly, Celebrity Studies and The Journal of Popular Romance Studies.