Blockbuster Performances

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Why Do Critics and Scholars Dismiss Blockbuster Performances?

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 1-11

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3. Historical Epic Blockbusters: Are You Not Entertained … By Actors?

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 13-39

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4. Magic-Fantasy Blockbusters: One Whimsy to Rule Them All

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 41-69

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5. Superhero Blockbusters: Actors Ahead of the Curve

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 71-102

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6. Crime Action Blockbusters: Performing Shaken, Not Stirred

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 103-129

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7. Male-Led Science Fiction Blockbusters: Performing “Faster, More Intense”

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 131-160

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8. Female-Led Science Fiction Blockbusters: Performing “Stop Taking My Hand!”

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 161-187

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9. Conclusion: Once More Around the Blockbuster

   • Daniel Smith-Rowsey

   Pages 189-194

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10. Back Matter

    Pages 195-211

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This book examines performances in the American film industry’s highest-earning and most influential films. Countering decades of discourse and the conventional notion that special effects are the real stars of Hollywood blockbusters, this book finds that the acting performances in these big-budget action movies are actually better, and more genre-appropriate, than reputed. It argues that while blockbusters are often edited for speed, thrills, and simplicity, and performances are sometimes tailored to this style, most major productions feature more scenes of stage-like acting than hyper-kinetic action. Knowing this, producers of the world’s highest-budgeted motion pictures usually cast strong or generically appropriate actors. With chapters offering unique readings of some of cinema’s biggest hits, such as The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Iron Man and The Hunger Games, this unprecedented study sheds new light on the importance ofperformance in the Hollywood blockbuster. 

• stars
• pop culture
• popular films
• Hollywood
• American
• big-budget
• Star Wars
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• independent film
• acting

"Daniel Smith-Rowsey fills in the gaps in our understanding of acting in contemporary blockbusters. Many accomplished film actors gladly take the shuttle between prestigious independent films and vastly popular action, fantasy, and superhero franchises. Do large scale spectaculars call for a kind of acting different from that required in an intimate character study? With well-chosen case studies and intricate analyses, the author answers these questions and many others in a book that should become a standard in the studies of performance and Hollywood cinema." (Dennis Bingham, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, USA)

 

• Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga, CA, USA

  Daniel Smith-Rowsey

Daniel Smith-Rowsey teaches Communication Studies at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. He is the author of Star Actors in the Hollywood Renaissance: Representing Rough Rebels (2013) and a co-editor of The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century (2016).

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