Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to consider the ways in which the Hollywood science fiction film addresses America’s relationship to the world and to look at how the genre can be understood as raising ethical questions concerning US foreign policy, security, international relations, economics, and the environment. In carrying out this aim, my approach is best described as an analytical and historical overview, tracing the development of Hollywood science fiction cinema from the 1930s through to present day in relation to the issues raised above. By concentrating on specific iconography, narratives and characters, my analysis examines how changes in meaning and representational shifts are informed by broader socio-scientific, economic and political contexts.
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Notes
- 1.
In this, these American serials co-opted and developed imagery from what might be regarded as proto-science fiction films, like Méliès’s short “trick films” (most famously, Le Voyage dans la Lune [1902], Le Voyage à Travers L’impossible [1904]) and later films that emanated from Europe in the 1920s, like the Soviet film Aelita (1924) or the German film Frau im Mond (1929), which was shown in the US under the title, By Rocket to the Moon. So, the serials’ national or nationalist perspective as extended to a literal point of view upon the entire world in film is not, of course, without precedent. However, given this chapter’s primary focus upon the Hollywood science fiction film, it is appropriate to begin analysis with these cinema serials.
- 2.
Michael Benson calls Killer Kane a ‘Hitler-like tyrant’ in his book Vintage Science Fiction Films, 1896–1949 (2000 [1985]: 103).
- 3.
The convictions of conspiracy to commit espionage of several American citizens followed in 1951. Americans convicted at this time included Julius Rosenberg, Ethel Rosenberg (both convicted and sentenced to death in 1951), Morton Sobell (convicted in 1951 and sentenced to 30 years in prison), Harry Gold (convicted in 1951 and sentenced to 30 years in prison).
- 4.
The treaty was originally signed by the US, UK and Soviet Union and 59 other non-nuclear states. China and France acceded in 1992 and by May 2010 189 states were party to the treaty (see Kerr et al. 2010: ‘summary’ section).
- 5.
Writing in 2003, Janet McLean estimates that “twenty-nine to fifty-one of the world’s 100 largest economic entities are multinational companies; the remainder are nation-states” (2003: 364).
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Cornea, C. (2017). From Isolationism to Globalism: An Overview of Politics and Ethics in the Hollywood Science Fiction Film. In: Baron, C., Halvorsen, P., Cornea, C. (eds) Science Fiction, Ethics and the Human Condition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56577-4_10
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