Adopting and developing a cultural politics approach, this comprehensive study explores how Hollywood movies generate and reflect political myths about social and personal life that profoundly influence how we understand power relations. Instead of looking at genre, it employs three broad categories of film. Security films present ideas concerning public order and disorder, citizenstate relations and the politics of fear. Relationalities films highlight personal and intimate politics, bringing norms about identities, gender and sexuality into focus. In socially critical films, particular issues and ideas are endowed with more overtly political significance. The book considers these categories as global political technologies implicated in hegemonic and soft power relations whose reach is both deep and broad.

Chris Beasley is Professor of Politics at the University of AdelaideHeather Brook is Senior Lecturer in Womens Studies at Flinders University

Foreword by Douglas Kellner1 Introduction: the cultural politics of popular film2 FramesPart I: Security3 Security: order and disorder4 War and order5 Disorder and fear6 Fearsome monstersPart II: Relationalities7 Gender and intimate relationships8 Romance9 BromancePart III: Social critique10 Against the grain? Socially critical movies11 Questioning the criticalPart IV: Global agendas12 The big picture: the metropole and peripheral others13 Responses from the marginsIndex