'War on Terror' and American Film

Terence McSweeney is Senior Lecturer in the School of Media Arts and Technology, Southampton Solent University.

• List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The Lives of Others: Vulnerability in Post 9/11 American Cinema; 2. Boots on the Ground: the New Millennial Combat Film as Cultural Artefact; 3. "Masters of our own Security": Redemption Through Violence in the Post 9/11 Action Genre; 4. Turning to the Dark Side: Questioning American Mythology in the Superhero Genre; 5. Remaking 9/11: Imagining the Unimaginable in the Alien Invasion Film; 6. Decade of the Dead: Zombie Films as Allegory of National Trauma; 7. The Rise and Fall of Empires: The 'War on Terror' as Allegorical Moment in Historical Film; Conclusion; Works cited; Index.

This is an important and comprehensive study of Hollywood cinema and its representation of the impact of 9/11. In particular McSweeney’s investigation of genre enables the reader to explore ideological connections between the explicit (United 93) and implicit text (Batman Begins) and question the notion of the 'war on terror'.