Tom Cruise: Performing Masculinity in Post Vietnam Hollywood Contributor(s): O'Donnell, Ruth (Author) |
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ISBN: 1784530522 ISBN-13: 9781784530525 Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company OUR PRICE: $158.40 Product Type: Hardcover Published: July 2015 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Art | Film & Video - Social Science | Popular Culture - Social Science | Gender Studies |
Dewey: 791.430 |
Series: International Library of the Moving Image |
Physical Information: 1" H x 6.1" W x 9.2" (1.10 lbs) 224 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Tom Cruise is a Hollywood superstar like no other. World famous since his debut in the 1980s, he remains among the highest paid actors. Why has his persona resonated so powerfully with millions of viewers? Using psychoanalytic theory, Tom Cruise: Performing Masculinity in Post Vietnam Hollywood demonstrates how his star persona sublimates anxieties about masculinity. Amid Reagan-era military jingoism and concern over declining industrial labour, he represented a new model of American masculinity based on white-collar upward mobility. Spanning blockbuster films such as Risky Business (1983), Jerry Maguire (1996) and the Mission: Impossible series (1996 - 2011), this book illustrates how his characters exemplify entrepreneurialism, charisma, technological gadgetry and verbal acuity to redefine male success. His newly emotive type - 'help me help you' - also successfully overcomes interpersonal conflicts with patriarchal authority and senior women in the workplace, and navigates race relations. The first scholarly study of Tom Cruise's celebrity, this book surveys his entire career and builds on Richard Dyer's 'star theory.' |