Film and Everyday Eco-disasters

by Robin L. Murray, Joseph K. Heumann

Overview

Eco-disasters such as coal-mining accidents, oil spills, and food-borne diseases appear regularly in the news, making them seem nearly commonplace. These ecological crises highlight the continual tensions between human needs and the environmental impact these needs produce. Contemporary documentaries and feature films explore environmental-human conflicts by depicting the consequences of our overconsumption and dependence on nonrenewable energy.

Film and Everyday Eco-disasters examines changing perspectives toward everyday eco-disasters as reflected in the work of filmmakers from the silent era forward, with an emphasis on recent films such as Dead Ahead, an HBO dramatization of the Exxon Valdez disaster; Total Recall, a science fiction action film highlighting oxygen as a commodity; The Devil Wears Prada, a comment on the fashion industry; and Food, Inc., a documentary interrogation of the food industry. The authors evaluate not only the success of these films as rhetorical arguments but also their rhetorical strategies. This interdisciplinary approach to film studies fuses cultural, economic, and literary critiques in articulating an approach to ecology that points to sustainable development as an alternative to resource exploitations and their associated everyday eco-disasters.

Robin L. Murray is a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University. Joseph K. Heumann is a professor emeritus of communication studies at Eastern Illinois University. Murray and Heumann are the coauthors of Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge; That’s All Folks: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features (Nebraska, 2011); and Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803248748
Publisher:	Nebraska
Publication date:	06/01/2014
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Robin L. Murray is a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University. Joseph K. Heumann is a professor emeritus of communication studies at Eastern Illinois University. Murray and Heumann are the coauthors of Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge; That’s All Folks: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features (Nebraska, 2011); and Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Cinematic Eco-disasters and Our Basic Human Needs xi

Part 1 Human Approaches to the Ecology of Air, Water, and Clothing 1

1 At the Boiling Point: The Aesthetics of Atmospheric Pollution and Climate Change in Documentary and Feature Films 3

2 James Bond and Water Wars in Contemporary Film: A New Eco-warrior? 24

3 Ready to Wear? From Fashion to Environmental Injustice 46

Part 2 Eco-documentaries and the Rhetoric of Food Production 67

4 Contemporary Eco-food Films: The Documentary Tradition 69

5 Flipper? We're Eating Flipper? Documenting Animals Rights and Environmental Ethics at Sea 92

Part 3 Negative Externalities of Housing and Energy Industries 113

6 Give Me Shelter: The Ecology of Homes and Homelessness 115

7 Activism in Mountaintop Removal Films: Turn Off the Lights for Sustainability 137

8 The Search for the "Golden Shrimp": The Myth of Interdependence in Oil Drilling Films 159

Conclusion: Can the Film Industry and the Environmental Movement Mix? 183

Filmography 191

Works Cited 199

Index 211

Editorial Reviews

The authors’ grasp of historical and legal context is top-notch and the book consistently connects the issues and arguments represented in the films to their potential to inspire environmental activism in the viewer. . . . A broad-based, historically detailed overview of its fascinating and relevant central theme.”—Carter Soles, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment
 

Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment - Carter Soles