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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Simon Philpott
Film and television have been influential in the remaking of the American self since the traumas of Vietnam. We undertake readings of class, gender, ethnicity and race focusing on the roles of Martin Sheen and his two 'crews' in Apocalypse Now Redux and in the television series The West Wing. We argue that despite the appearance of a more progressive America as represented by the Bartlet White House it remains within a long tradition that represents the US in discourses of innocence and pureness of will and is largely blind to the kind of violence perpetrated by Willard and his crew in Apocalypse Now Redux. We suggest that the capacity of the US repeatedly to 'forget' its use of certain kinds of violence marks the limits of self-sacrifice of the American self and provides the discursive possibility for the eternal return of innocence. Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Author(s): Philpott S, Mutimer D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Geopolitics
Year: 2005
Volume: 10
Issue: 2
Pages: 335-355
Print publication date: 01/01/2005
ISSN (print): 1465-0045
ISSN (electronic): 1557-3028
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14650040590946610
DOI: 10.1080/14650040590946610
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