Projecting 9/11

Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo is professor of critical culture, gender, and race studies at Washington State University.Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo is associate professor of critical culture, gender, and race studies at Washington State University. Together they are the authors of Animating Difference, with C. Richard King.

Here is a sharp, smart, easy-to-read book by authors who have done their homework. A volume on the lasting effect of 9/11 on American cinema has been necessary for some time, and Bloodsworth-Lugo and Lugo-Lugo go a long way toward filling that gap. They offer penetrating discussions of such films as Neil Jordan's The Brave One (a 21st-century version of Michael Winner's Death Wish, 1974), Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian fantasy Children of Men, Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War film The Hurt Locker, and other pertinent titles. Projecting 9/11 is remarkable because it is at once accessible and densely theoretical, and thus is appropriate for a broad audience. It would be an excellent resource for a class on post-9/11 American cinema—suggesting, too, that all Hollywood cinema since 9/11 has been affected by the tragedy of the Twin Towers in one way or another—and the authors have taken pains to do the necessary research to make the volume authoritative. This volume is that rare thing: a scholarly work that is also a page-turner. . . .Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS1: INTRODUCTION 2: WHITE MASCULINITY AND THE (IN)SECURITY OF 9/113: WAR AND SEXUALIZED/RACIALIZED THREATS4: NARRATIVES OF THREAT AND 9/11 MONSTERS5: 9/11 TRANSNATIONALISM AND GENDERED CITIZENSHIP6: ANIMATED 9/11 RACIALITY CONCEPTIONS OF PROGRESS7: THE GREAT RECESSION AND WHITE MASCULINE (IN)SECURITY AGAIN 8: 9/11 END OF DAYS HOLLYWOODBIBLIOGRAPHYFILMOGRAPHY