Our enemy, ourselves: Political conspiracy in American cinema, 1970-present.

This thesis is an examination of "paranoid conspiracy" films, a film noir subgenre that emerged in mainstream American cinema in the early 1970s and turns on vast, shadowy conspiracies located within U.S. "power structures" (government agencies, the military, the media) and directed against the American public. Specifically, it focuses on the emergence of these films in the 1970s, their almost complete disappearance during the Reagan presidency, and subsequent reemergence in the early 1990s. Placing representative texts in the context of U.S. political and social reality of the last three decades, it analyzes the relationship between the conspiracy theory genre, the "crisis of confidence" in the American society, and the process of formation of American national identity.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2003

Author dc:creator

• Budziszewski, Przemyslaw

Contributors dc:contributor

• Benshoff, Harry
• Levin, C. Melinda
• Armintor, Deborah Needleman

• Conspiracy in motion pictures.
• Motion pictures -- United States.
• conspiracy theories
• motion pictures
• film analysis
• film noir

Statement dc:rights

• Use restricted to UNT Community
• Copyright
• Budziszewski, Przemyslaw
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 53314926
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4269/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc4269

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc4269