The Terministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film

by David Blakesley

The Terministic Rhetorical Perspectives on Film examines the importance of rhetoric in the study of film and film theory. Rhetorical approaches to film studies have been widely practiced, but rarely discussed until now. Taking on such issues as Hollywood blacklisting, fascistic aesthetics, and postmodern dialogics, editor David Blakesley presents fifteen critical essays that examine rhetoric’s role in such popular films as The Fifth Element, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Usual Suspects, Deliverance, The English Patient, Pulp Fiction, The Music Man, Copycat, Hoop Dreams and A Time to Kill. This unique volume is about seeing and interpreting, about visual rhetoric and making meaning, about film as a symbolic form of expression. The essayists convey an approach to film as a set of well-grounded theoretical perspectives including psychoanalytic, semiotic, hermeneutic, phenomenological, and cultural discourses. Aided by sixteen illustrations, these insightful essays consider films rhetorically, as ways of seeing and not seeing, as acts that dramatize how people use language and images to tell stories and foster identification. Collectively, these essays examine society through a rhetorical lens, inviting the readers to judge for themselves the significant role rhetoric plays in the arena of film. Contributors include David Blakesley, Alan Nadel, Ann Chisholm, Martin J. Medhurst, Byron Hawk, Ekaterina V. Haskins, James Roberts, Thomas W. Benson, Philip L. Simpson, Davis W. Houck, Caroline J.S. Picart, Friedemann Weidauer, Bruce Krajewski, Harriet Malinowitz, Granetta L. Richardson, and Kelly Ritter.

328 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2003

Reviews

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essays in this collection are, for the most part, fairly straightforward and engaging. If anything, the primary fault of many of them is the attempt to apply whole theories of rhetoric to a single reading, and to force that reading upon the object being identified. Sometimes it works, and works well, and other times it just seems like a stretch. Plus, some of the interpretations read as fairly obvious--perhaps someone out there needed to actually say some of the things in here, but other interpretations seemed almost too obvious, which was kind of frustrating to read. There are a few standout pieces, however, which make the whole thing all around a worthy effort.