The stories, myths, and colossal spheres and regions (and timelines) the Star Trek franchise has generated so far, to a large extent, are based on the show’s clever usage and reinterpretation of ancient Greek myths, epic stories of exploration, warfare, politics, and adventure often already familiar to audiences from (classic) storytelling or archaic tales. It […]
Captain America and the American Journey, 1940-2022 by Richard A. Hall (2024)
When the powerful alliance of superheroes named The Avengers were called by Marvel Comics (or rather, by S.H.I.E.L.D.), each member represented certain traits, powers, mindsets and even ideologies. The “Sentinel of Liberty,” a nickname (turned nom-de-guerre at various occasions on countless missions) for Captain America, unlike other superheroes of the Golden Age, did not simply exist […]
The Dark Interval. Film Noir, Iconography, and Affect by Padraic Killeen (2023)
Pedric Killeen, a media scholar, arts journalist and lecturer on film and digital cultures from Ireland, brings some fresh ideas to the field of film noir research. His basic idea here is to approach the individual/main protagonist and read him and his actions in terms of a certain paralysis or state of shock he experiences […]
Watching the World Die. Nuclear Threat Films of the 1980s by Mike Bogue (2023)
Already in the 1950s, apart from science-fiction movies following aliens from outer space invasion plots, disaster films or creature horror, another genre was equally prominent in the list of sensational productions: the nuclear threat films. Those were a familiar feature of popular culture, and audiences could watch new movies of the kind until roughly the […]
Asian Monster and Science Fiction Poster Art. Cinema posters … 1956 – 2021 by Detlef Claus (2023)
Monster movies from Asia and the US ever since the 1950s have drawn audiences to the cinemas. With the dawn of the atomic age and space exploration, also science fiction films quickly established as a genre. To promote such films made in Asia worldwide, and to keep national movie distributors curious, lobby cards and film […]
The Cinema of Powell and Pressburger by Nathalie Morris and Claire Smith (eds.) (2023)
English director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, a Hungarian refugee who came to England in the 1930s, as a team turned out to be visionaries of British film, who created breathtaking cinematic masterpieces. Those often would include elements from fairy-tales, surreal environments, dark and dangerous settings, as well as enchanting Technicolor dreams, sometimes in […]
Secondary Action Heroes of Golden Age Comics by Lou Mougin (2023)
When in the 1930s and early 1940s comic books became very popular and promised good profits for its publishers, the market was soon flooded with various sorts of adventures at the newsstands. The comic book stories would take place on far away planets, on the American frontier of colonial America, in the West, in exotic […]
Blood on the Moon by Alan K. Rode (2023)
To enumerate all the good movies of actor Robert Mitchum would make a long list. To his very best works, however, counts the 1948 Western movie Blood on the Moon. This film turned out to be one of the few examples for a perfect blend of two very American genres, namely the Western and film […]
White Lens on Brown Skin: The Sexualization of the Polynesian in American Film by Matthew Locey (202...
South seas fiction and later cinema as a genre, that pictures Pacific Islanders and their land, really took off as early as 1898 when the Hawaiian islands were annexed by the United States. Forerunners of the many films that would cover Polynesian culture were the magical and powerful reports of European sailors when they were […]