Firestorm: American Film in the Age of Terrorism

401 Pages·2009·3.508 MB·English

by  Stephen Prince

FIRESTORM
ii
AP PHOTO / mark lennihan
iii
STEPHEN PRINCE FIRESTORM
AMERICAN FILM
IN THE AGE OF
TERRORISM
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publishers Since 1893
New York    Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2009 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Prince, Stephen, 1955–
(cid:16)(cid:16)Firestorm : American fi lm in the age of terrorism / Stephen Prince.
(cid:16)(cid:16)(cid:16)(cid:16)(cid:16)p. cm.
(cid:16)(cid:16)Includes bibliographical references and index.
(cid:16)(cid:16)ISBN 978-0-231-14870-2 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-14871-9 (pbk. :
alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-52008-9 (ebook)
(cid:16)1. Motion pictures —United States —History—21st century.(cid:16)2. September 11
Terrorist Attacks, 2001—Infl uence.(cid:16)3. Motion pictures—Political aspects—
United States.(cid:16)4. Terrorism in motion pictures.(cid:16)5. Psychic trauma in motion
pictures.(cid:16)6. War in motion pictures.(cid:16)I. Title.
PN1993.5.U6P745 2009
791.43'6552—dc22
2009013483
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free
paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
C(cid:2) 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
P(cid:2)10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may
have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
COVER & INTERIOR DESIGN BY MARTIN N . HINZE
For my parents

CONTENTS
Ac know ledg ments ix
Introduction 1
1. Theater of Mass Destruction 17
2. Shadows Once Removed 71
3. Ground Zero in Focus 124
4. Battleground Iraq 173
5. Terrorism on the Small Screen 234
6. No End in Sight 281
Appendix 1: Historical Timeline 311
Appendix 2: Filmography 325
Notes 347
Bibliography 363
Index 373

AC KNOW LEDG MENTS
On a delightful evening in Lund,
Erik Hedling spoke enthusiastically
to me about Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy
and about how the fi lm was not sim-
ply an epic about the ancient world
but was a symbolic drama about cur-
rent events. Erik’s insight planted the
seed that grew into this project. I
thank him for that and for his gra-
cious hospitality.
I worked out some of the ideas in
the book by fi rst presenting them in a
Virginia Tech colloquium on fi lm and
terrorism sponsored by the Humani-
ties Department. Neal King kindly
invited me to participate in that event.
I’d also like to thank the panelists and
lively audience members at a session
on terrorism and fi lm at the 2008
SCMS conference in Philadelphia. The
session showed how salient the events
of 2001 yet remain.
It was a pleasure working with
Columbia University Press. Special
thanks go to Jennifer Crewe, Associ-
ate Director and Editorial Director,
for her keen interest in the project, for
green-lighting my various requests,