Dreams of Flight - by Dana Polan (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"The first full-length study of the iconic 1960s film The Great Escape and its place in Hollywood and American history. Caught on film, the iconic jump of escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) over an imposing barbed wire fence on a stolen motorcycle has become an unforgettable symbol of a disaffected 1960s America. Dreams of Flight offers the first full-length study of The Great Escape, the classic film based on a true story of American and Allied prisoners of war who hatched an audacious plan to divert and thwart the Wehrmacht and escape into the nearby countryside. Through breezy prose and pithy analysis, Dana Polan centers The Great Escape within American cultural and intellectual history, drawing a vivid picture of the country in the 1960s. We see a nation grappling with its own military history; a society undergoing significant shifts in its culture and identity; a film industry in transition from Old Hollywood's big-budget runaway studio films to the slow interior cinema of New Hollywood. Dreams of Flight combines history with fan anecdotes and a close study of filmic style to bring readers into the film and its wide-reaching influence. Polan examines the production history, including prior adaptations in radio and television of celebrated author Paul Brickhill's original nonfiction book about the escape, and he compares the cinematic fiction to the real events of the escape in 1944. Dreams of Flight also traces the afterlife of The Great Escape in the many subsequent movies, TV commercials, and cartoons that reference it, whether reverentially or with humor"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>The first full-length study of the iconic 1960s film <i>The Great Escape</i> and its place in Hollywood and American history.</b><p>Escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) on a stolen motorcycle jumps an imposing barbed wire fence--caught on film, the act and its aftermath have become an unforgettable symbol of triumph as well as defeat for 1960s America. Combining production and reception history with close reading, <i>Dreams of Flight</i> offers the first full-length study of <i>The Great Escape, </i> the classic film based on a true story of Allied prisoners who hatched an audacious plan to divert and thwart the Wehrmacht and escape into the nearby countryside.</p> Through breezy prose and pithy analysis, Dana Polan centers <i>The Great Escape</i> within American cultural and intellectual history, drawing a vivid picture of the country in the 1960s. We see a nation grappling with its own military history, a society undergoing significant shifts in its culture and identity, and a film industry in transition from Old Hollywood's big-budget runaway studio films to the slow interior cinema of New Hollywood. <i>Dreams of Flight</i> combines this context with fan anecdotes and a close study of filmic style to bring readers into the film and trace its wide-reaching influence. Polan examines the production history, including prior adaptations in radio and television of celebrated author Paul Brickhill's original nonfiction book about the escape, and he compares the cinematic fiction to the real events of the escape in 1944. <i>Dreams of Flight</i> also traces the afterlife of <i>The Great Escape</i> in the many subsequent movies, TV commercials, and cartoons that reference it, whether reverentially or with humor.<p/><br></br><p><b> From the Back Cover </b></p></br></br>"Snappy and engaging but also intellectually rigorous. Offers a thoughtful critique of a well-remembered (but rarely studied) film and uses its analysis to offer deeper insights into American culture in the 1960s."--Patrick Keating, author of <i>The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood</i> <p/> "Dana Polan makes a powerful case for <i>The</i> <i>Great Escape</i>'s prominence within the generic evolution and the larger sweep of motion-picture history, leaving no stones unturned in his exhaustive research and painstaking analysis."--Noah Isenberg, author of <i>Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins</i><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Dana Polan's rich assessment of the film's making coupled with a superb analysis of the film itself, script, style, themes and directorial bravura is filled with informative nuggets. Eschewing the standard star bio approach, Polan goes much deeper. . . . Written with tremendous authority and great style."-- "Cinema Retro"<br><br><p>"<i>Dreams of Flight</i> is an act of devotion, a work of extreme connoisseurship."</p>-- "Air Mail"<br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Dana Polan</b> is Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University. His previous books include <i>The LEGO Movie </i>and <i>Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film.</i> <br>
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