The Planet at the End of the World: 'Event' cinema and the representability of climate change

Branston, Gillian Anne 2007. The Planet at the End of the World: 'Event' cinema and the representability of climate change. New Review of Film and Television Studies 5 (2) , pp. 211-229. 10.1080/17400300701432936

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This paper proposes a new way of understanding the first ultra‐high FX ‘eco‐blockbuster’ Hollywood movie in relation to environmental debates around the representability of ‘climate change’. Cinema, especially, but not exclusively, high‐budget Hollywood cinema, with its several ‘delays’, including expensive FX and franchise structuring, is probably the media form least often discussed in relation to such debates. Other, less ‘delayed’ and ‘factual’ media most often mediate them. This paper argues the usefulness of a new term, ‘issue event blockbuster’ for exploring The Day After Tomorrow (USA 2004). It is an attempt to indicate the mixed ground, at both pre‐ and post‐production levels, which this film occupied within Hollywood's commercial aesthetic. Understandings of the possibilities and limits of such a film might enrich academic and also eco‐activist approaches to the representability of climate change politics.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	1740-7923
Last Modified:	10 Nov 2021 02:23
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/3978

Citation Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item