2006 Movies and Crisis

One of ten essays covering how American films in each of the years 2000-2009 responded to the turbulent decade framed, at one end, by the traumatic catastrophe of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and, at the other, by the election of the first African American president of the United States. In between, the United States and the world witnessed the rapid expansion of new media and the Internet, such natural disasters as Hurricane Katrina, political upsisings around the world, and a massive meltdown of world economies. Amid these crises and revolutions, American films responded in multiple ways, sometimes directly reflecting these turbulent times, and sometimes directly couching history in traditional genres and stories. This chapter comprises detailed examination of four pairs of films in their immediate historical context.