Re-Reading George Pal’s The Time Machine: Decolonization, Integration, and the Cold War
Abstract
During its history of reception, George Pal’s The Time Machine (1960) has acquired a reputation as either a largely apolitical piece of filmmaking, or as a hawkish endorsement of American Cold War prerogatives. Given its historical context, this reputation is undeserved. Within the larger framework of the Cold War, particularly in regard to historical events immediately preceding the release of the film in 1960, Pal lays out a narrative that advocates benign American intervention on behalf of recently decolonized nations at risk of being absorbed into the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. In light of Christina Klein’s work on the internal inconsistencies and contradictions within Cold War rhetoric, Pal’s film reads differently when seen as commenting upon post-WW II decolonization rather than upon ideological, political, and military rivalry with the Soviet Union
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Editorial
- Terrors of Territory: Mary Rowlandson, Charles Brockden Brown, Shyamalan’s The Village, and the Haunting of the American Frontier
- Stranger on a Train: William Blake and Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man – Media and Violence, Poetry and Politics
- Re-Reading George Pal’s The Time Machine: Decolonization, Integration, and the Cold War
- Ethical Magic: Traumatic Magic Realism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- If… Bernardine Evaristo’s (Gendered) Reconstructions of Black European History
- Buchbesprechungen
- Bucheingänge
- Die Autoren dieses Heftes
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Editorial
- Terrors of Territory: Mary Rowlandson, Charles Brockden Brown, Shyamalan’s The Village, and the Haunting of the American Frontier
- Stranger on a Train: William Blake and Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man – Media and Violence, Poetry and Politics
- Re-Reading George Pal’s The Time Machine: Decolonization, Integration, and the Cold War
- Ethical Magic: Traumatic Magic Realism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- If… Bernardine Evaristo’s (Gendered) Reconstructions of Black European History
- Buchbesprechungen
- Bucheingänge
- Die Autoren dieses Heftes
