Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan
***INFO***
***REVIEWS***
***EVENTS***
Film Society of Lincoln Center, August 23-September 3
2-for-1 Double Features!
Make My Day: American Movies in the Age of Reagan
The presidency of Ronald Reagan was marked by such 80s movie events as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The King of Comedy, First Blood, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Blue Velvet. These films, plus the birth of MTV, helped form the pop-cultural backdrop for the Cold War and the delirious 1984 presidential campaign that led to Reagan’s re-election. In his latest book, Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan—the culmination of a trilogy he began with The Dream Life and An Army of Phantoms—critic/historian J. Hoberman contextualizes and examines Reagan as historical figure and symbolic totem, placing the key American films released during his presidency within a narrative bookended by the bicentennial celebrations (coinciding with the beginning of Reagan’s national ascendency) and the Iran-Contra Affair. On the occasion of this essential new book’s publication, Film at Lincoln Center will present a series of special double features selected by Hoberman from the films he discusses.
Organized by J. Hoberman and Dan Sullivan.
August 23 & September 1: Conan the
Barbarian (dir. John Milius) + First Blood (dir. Ted
Kotcheff)
August 23 & 26: Cutter’s Way (dir. Ivan Passer) + Blow
Out (dir. Brian De Palma)
August 24 & September 1: Gremlins (dir. Joe Dante)
+ The Terminator (dir. James Cameron)August 24 & 31: The King of Comedy (dir. Martin
Scorsese) + Videodrome (dir. David Cronenberg)
August 25 & 27: Risky Business (dir. Paul Brickman)
+ Sudden Impact (dir. Clint Eastwood)
August 25 & 30: Back to the Future (dir. Robert
Zemeckis) + Desperately Seeking Susan (dir. Susan
Seidelman)
August 26 & 28: True Stories (dir. David Byrne)
+ Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (dir. Tim Burton)
August 27 & September 2: Near Dark (dir. Kathryn
Bigelow) + River’s Edge (dir. Tim Hunter)
August 28 & September 3: Salvador (dir. Oliver
Stone) + Walker (dir. Alex Cox)
August 30 & September 2: Robocop (dir. Paul
Verhoeven) + The Running Man (dir. Paul Michael Glaser)
August 31 & September 3: The Last Temptation of Christ (dir.
Martin Scorsese) + They Live (dir. John Carpenter)