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OverviewThe first full-length study of the iconic 1960s film The Great Escape and its place in Hollywood and American history. Caught on film, the iconic jump of escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) over an imposing barbed wire fence on a stolen motorcycle has become an unforgettable symbol of a disaffected 1960s America. Dreams of Flight offers the first full-length study of The Great Escape, the classic film based on a true story of American and Allied prisoners of war who hatched an audacious plan to divert and thwart the Wehrmacht and escape into the nearby countryside. Through breezy prose and pithy analysis, Dana Polan centers The Great Escape within American cultural and intellectual history, drawing a vivid picture of the country in the 1960s. We see a nation grappling with its own military history; a society undergoing significant shifts in its culture and identity; a film industry in transition from Old Hollywood's big-budget runaway studio films to the slow interior cinema of New Hollywood. Dreams of Flight combines history with fan anecdotes and a close study of filmic style to bring readers into the film and its wide-reaching influence. Polan examines the production history, including prior adaptations in radio and television of celebrated author Paul Brickhill's original nonfiction book about the escape, and he compares the cinematic fiction to the real events of the escape in 1944. Dreams of Flight also traces the afterlife of The Great Escape in the many subsequent movies, TV commercials, and cartoons that reference it, whether reverentially or with humor. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Dana PolanPublisher: University of California Press Imprint: University of California Press Dimensions: Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 21.00cm Weight: 0.544kg ISBN: 9780520379299ISBN 10: 0520379292 Pages: 288 Publication Date: 09 November 2021 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Out of stock  The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available. Table of Contents"Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Engineering The Great Escape From Book to Film (and In Between) 2. Tunneling In The Great Escape: Style, Theme, and Structure 3. Afterlives Coda Appendix: ""It Really Happened"" Notes Index"ReviewsDana Polan's rich assessment of the film's making coupled with a superb analysis of the film itself, script, style, themes and directorial bravura is filled with informative nuggets. Eschewing the standard star bio approach, Polan goes much deeper. . . . Written with tremendous authority and great style. * Cinema Retro * Dreams of Flight is an act of devotion, a work of extreme connoisseurship. * Air Mail * Far more than just a love letter to a foundational film from an author and devoted fan, Dreams of Flight is a rewarding work of scholarly reclamation, a volume that is always precise in its observation of the hidden dimensions of The Great Escape. . . . Through careful attention to formal choices and an impressively broad engagement with memory, history, and cinematic legacies, Dreams of Flight uncovers the many textures of its popular subject. * Velvet Light Trap * Dana Polan's rich assessment of the film's making coupled with a superb analysis of the film itself, script, style, themes and directorial bravura is filled with informative nuggets. Eschewing the standard star bio approach, Polan goes much deeper. . . . Written with tremendous authority and great style. * Cinema Retro * Dreams of Flight is an act of devotion, a work of extreme connoisseurship. * Air Mail * Author InformationDana Polan is Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University. His previous books include The LEGO Movie and Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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