Stephen Prince

The Horror Film

Rutgers University Press

In this volume, Stephen Prince has collected essays reviewing the history of the horror film and the psychological reasons for its persistent appeal, as well as discussions of the developmental responses of young adult viewers and children to the genre. The book focuses on recent postmodern examples such as The Blair Witch Project. In a daring move, the volume also examines Holocaust films in relation to horror.

Copyright year: 2004

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American Cinema of the 1980s

Themes and Variations

Edited by Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

During the 1980s, American cinema underwent enormous transformations. Blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and The Empire Strikes Back grabbed huge revenues for the studios. At the same time, the growth of home video led to new and creative opportunities for independent film production, resulting in many of the decade's best films. Bringing together original essays by ten respected scholars in the field, American Cinema of the 1980s examines the films that marked the decade, including Ordinary People, Body Heat, Blade Runner, Zelig, Platoon, Top Gun, Aliens, Blue Velvet, Robocop, Fatal Attraction, Die Hard, Batman, and sex, lies & videotape .

Copyright year: 2007

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Classical Film Violence

Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968

By Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

Stephen Prince has written the first book to examine the interplay between the aesthetics and the censorship of violence in classic Hollywood films from 1930 to 1968, the era of the Production Code, when filmmakers were required to have their scripts approved before they could start production. He explains how Hollywood's filmmakers designed violence in response to the regulations of the Production Code and regional censors.

Copyright year: 2003

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Digital Visual Effects in Cinema

The Seduction of Reality

By Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

Stephen Prince argues for an understanding of digital technologies as an expanded toolbox, available to enhance both realist films and cinematic fantasies. He offers a detailed exploration of each of these tools, from lighting technologies to image capture to stereoscopic 3D. Integrating aesthetic, historical, and theoretical analyses of digital visual effects, Digital Visual Effects in Cinema is an essential guide for understanding movie-making today.

Copyright year: 2012

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Tough Ain't Enough

New Perspectives on the Films of Clint Eastwood

Edited by Lester D. Friedman and David Desser

Rutgers University Press

Clint Eastwood has appeared in virtually every major film genre and, at this late point in his career, has emerged as one of America’s most popular and respected—though controversial—filmmakers. Tough Ain’t Enough offers readers a series of original essays by prominent cinema scholars who explore the actor-director’s extensive career.

Copyright year: 2018

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Savage Cinema

Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies

By Stephen Prince

University of Texas Press

Stephen Prince explains the rise of explicit violence in the American cinema, its social effects, and the relation of contemporary ultraviolence to the radical, humanistic filmmaking that Peckinpah practiced.

Copyright year: 1998

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Apocalypse Cinema

By Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

Covering such films as Metropolis, Dr. Strangelove, Contagion, and Avengers: Endgame, this book provides a lively overview of apocalypse cinema, including alien invasion movies, nuclear annihilation stories, and films where nature itself threatens humanity through climate change or deadly diseases.

Copyright year: 2021

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Art Direction and Production Design

Edited by Lucy Fischer

Rutgers University Press

It is impossible to imagine filmmaking without an understanding of the contributions of art direction and production design. In Art Direction and Production Design, six outstanding scholars survey the careers of notable art directors, the influence of specific design styles, the key roles played by particular studios and films in shaping the field, the effect of technological changes on production design, and the shifts in industrial modes of organization.

Copyright year: 2015

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Screening Violence

Edited by Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

Graphic cinematic violence is a magnet for controversy. From passionate defenses to outraged protests, theories abound concerning this defining feature of modern film: Is it art or exploitation, dangerous or liberating? Screening Violence provides an even-handed examination of the history, merits, and effects of cinematic “ultraviolence.”

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A Little Solitaire

John Frankenheimer and American Film

Edited by Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer; Introduction by R. Barton Palmer

Rutgers University Press

Little Solitaire offers the only multidisciplinary critical account of Frankenheimer's oeuvre. Especially emphasized is his deep and passionate engagement with national politics and the irrepressible need of human beings to assert their rights and individuality in the face of organizations that would reduce them to silence and anonymity.

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Tough Ain't Enough

New Perspectives on the Films of Clint Eastwood

Edited by Lester D. Friedman and David Desser

Rutgers University Press

Clint Eastwood has appeared in virtually every major film genre and, at this late point in his career, has emerged as one of America’s most popular and respected—though controversial—filmmakers. Tough Ain’t Enough offers readers a series of original essays by prominent cinema scholars who explore the actor-director’s extensive career.

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A Dream of Resistance

The Cinema of Kobayashi Masaki

By Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

A Dream of Resistance is the first book in English to explore Kobayashi Masaki’s entire career. Drawing from rare archives, including the young director’s wartime diary, Stephen Prince illuminates the political and religious dimensions of Kobayashi’s films and examines how their values were shaped by his intellectual history and upbringing.

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