7 Imperial heroes for a post-imperial age
-
Jeffrey Richards
Abstract
Director David Lean explored the nature of Britain's last imperial hero in Lawrence of Arabia, scripted by Robert Bolt. The clash of archetypes surfaced in one of the key 1960s films of empire, Zulu. The 1930s had seen a flourishing genre of imperial films produced both in Britain and in Hollywood. The outbreak of the Second World War put an end to the 1930s cycle of imperial films. By the 1960s, mass cinema closures in Britain and a general decline in cinema-going meant that Britain was no longer the lucrative market it had once been for American films. The onset of the Cold War meant that for Hollywood, subject to the McCarthy purge and anxious to demonstrate its anti-Communist credentials, nineteenth-century British India provided a useful warning lesson about the dangers of Russian infiltration.
Abstract
Director David Lean explored the nature of Britain's last imperial hero in Lawrence of Arabia, scripted by Robert Bolt. The clash of archetypes surfaced in one of the key 1960s films of empire, Zulu. The 1930s had seen a flourishing genre of imperial films produced both in Britain and in Hollywood. The outbreak of the Second World War put an end to the 1930s cycle of imperial films. By the 1960s, mass cinema closures in Britain and a general decline in cinema-going meant that Britain was no longer the lucrative market it had once been for American films. The onset of the Cold War meant that for Hollywood, subject to the McCarthy purge and anxious to demonstrate its anti-Communist credentials, nineteenth-century British India provided a useful warning lesson about the dangers of Russian infiltration.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- General editor’s introduction vi
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- 1 The persistence of empire in metropolitan culture 21
- 2 Empire loyalists and ‘Commonwealth men’ 37
- 3 Coronation Everest 57
- 4 Look back at empire 73
- 5 ‘No nation could be broker’ 91
- 6 The imperial game in crisis 111
- 7 Imperial heroes for a post-imperial age 128
- 8 Imperial legacies, new frontiers 145
- 9 Wandering in the wake of empire 163
- 10 Communities of Britishness 180
- 11 South Asians in post-imperial Britain 200
- 12 India, Inc.? 217
- Index 233
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- General editor’s introduction vi
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- 1 The persistence of empire in metropolitan culture 21
- 2 Empire loyalists and ‘Commonwealth men’ 37
- 3 Coronation Everest 57
- 4 Look back at empire 73
- 5 ‘No nation could be broker’ 91
- 6 The imperial game in crisis 111
- 7 Imperial heroes for a post-imperial age 128
- 8 Imperial legacies, new frontiers 145
- 9 Wandering in the wake of empire 163
- 10 Communities of Britishness 180
- 11 South Asians in post-imperial Britain 200
- 12 India, Inc.? 217
- Index 233
