US Film Exclusive: How the Apocalypse Sells "America" (Langley)
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 7:41Richard Langley's "American Un-Frontiers"
Think about the American frontier, and you will probably picture scenes from a Hollywood Western: wide-open spaces ready for roaming, sparsely=-populated by cowboys and "Indians", prospectors and pioneers. However, in this new short film, premiered on EA, Richard Langley argues that the cherished American idea of the frontier is more than the landscape and lifestyle of the West.
The "frontier" also has another home in Hollywood: the apocalypse blockbuster.
American Un-Frontiers: Universality and Apocalypse Blockbusters looks at the recent films of Roland Emmerich --- Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 --- to show they use the "frontier" with the hallowed American ideas of universality and renewal and how they ultimately endorse American dominance of the globe.
Hey, it may be the end of the world as we know it, but America feels fine....