Mark E. Wildermuth Books

Examining American science fiction films from 1950 to 2020, this study explores the theme of extraterrestrial invasions as a metaphor for imperialism. It highlights how these films portray America and its allies as subjects of colonial control, allowing filmmakers to critique or defend American interventionism. The analysis delves into the films' commentary on domestic issues like racial and gender hierarchies, as well as international hegemonic practices, tracing the evolution of these themes from the Cold War era to contemporary culture.

This book works to complicate and push against common arguments that the Western from its inception is an anti-feminist genre. By focusing on representations of women professionals in Westerns, it shows that women in cinematic and televisual Westerns sometimes do acquire agency and empowerment in the private and public realms, despite our culture’s tendency to gender the former as feminine and the latter as solely masculine. The study reviews the relationship of these progressive Westerns to both explicit and latent feminist ideologies relevant to their times, as the films evolved from the 1930s to the twenty-first century.