Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film

Hollywood may shelve its bomb movies and Law & Order may cut the Twin Towers out of its opening credits, but it's full steam ahead for Jerome F. Shapiro's Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film. From ""prototypical bomb films"" such as 1927's Metropolis to modern farces like The Naked Gun 2 1/2. Shapiro, an assistant professor at Hiroshima University, examines hundreds of movies that deal with survival in the face of destructive power. It's a dense and scholarly volume, and one that film students will pounce upon. Others might, too, if they buy Shapiro's thesis that ""atomic bomb cinema is the paradigmatic site of struggle over cultural power for our times."" (Nov.)