Eroes In Hell

Badmen, Bandits, and Folk Heroes

Badmen, Bandits, and Folk Heroes is a comparative study of the literary and cinematic representation of Mexican American masculine identity from early twentieth-century adventure stories and movie Westerns through contemporary self-representations by Chicano/a writers and filmmakers. In this deeply compelling book, Juan J. Alonzo proposes a reconsideration of the early stereotypical depictions of Mexicans in fiction and film: rather than viewing stereotypes as unrelentingly negative, Alonzo presents them as part of a complex apparatus of identification and disavowal. Furthermore, Alonzo reassesses Chicano/a self-representation in literature and film, and argues that the Chicano/a expression of identity is characterized less by essentialism than by an acknowldgement of the contingent status of present-day identity formations. Alonzo opens his provocative study with a fresh look at the adventure stories of Stephen Crane and the silent Western movies of D. W. Griffith. He also investigates the conflation of the greaser, the bandit, and the Mexican revolutionary into one villainous figure in early Western movies and, more broadly, traces the development of the badman in Westerns. He newly interrogates the writings of Américo Paredes regarding the makeup of Mexican masculinity, and productively trains his analytic eye on the recent films of Jim Mendiola and the contemporary poetry of Evangelina Vigil. Throughout Badmen, Bandits, and Folk Heroes, Alonzo convincingly demonstrates how fiction and films that formerly appeared one-dimensional in their treatment of Mexicans and Mexican Americans actually offer surprisingly multifarious and ambivalent representations. At the same time, his valuation of indeterminacy, contingency, and hybridity in contemporary cultural production creates new possibilities for understanding identity formation.

How Heroes of Fiction Propose and how Heroines Reply

Long Ago and Far Away

The Second World War was the greatest social, political, and economic upheaval of the 20th century. As a popular Hollywood subject, WWII still enthralls viewers six decades after Allied commanders affixed their signatures on the victory document in Tokyo Bay. Recreating flag-waving charges, frontal beachhead assaults, commando raids, and even home front heroics, these motion pictures-for better or worse-provide the primary learning experience for postwar generations. After scrutinizing hundreds of screenplays, Robert Fyne has written an in-depth study of World War II films, analyzing the different storylines, points-of-view, and contemporary events found in each. In Long Ago and Far Away: Hollywood and the Second World War, Fyne examines WWII films from 1941 to the present, explaining how the content and mood in these productions paralleled national mores and politics. Some titles are laudatory, even chauvinistic, while others are frivolous or sophomoric. Biographical screenplays both glorify and damn various leaders. Some films bombard viewers with horrific experiences, while others, such as goofy science fiction titles with their wraiths and flying saucers, seem inappropriate. Love stories are examined, as well as films revealing Japanese prisoner of war deprivations and Nazi concentration camp atrocities. From Above and Beyond to Zone Troopers and The Best Years of Our Lives to Flags of Our Fathers, this is a compelling look at how filmmakers have dramatized this pivotal period in history. For historians, movie watchers, or social commentators, Long Ago and Far Away, complete with an elaborate filmography, offers new information about Hollywood's diverse interpretations of the Good War.