Research

How Has Hollywood Incorporated The Ideologies Of 9/11 Into Superhero Movies?

Research Quotes

"As Alex Harvey notes, After the fall of the towers, the superhero became a figure of some focus for those seeking to express their grief, anger and fear in the wake of the attacks"

"Combining fantasy elements with a science-fiction iconography, and in line with many of their superhero contemporaries, the Iron Man films draw on the war on terror for their contexts and imagery"

"9/11 set the stage for the current superhero craze"

Reframing 9/11

"September 11th, 2001 remains a focal point of American consciousness, a site demanding ongoing excavation, a site at which to mark before and after everything changed"

"The American film industry was initially reluctant to many films and dramatize the events of september 11th and the subsequent war on terror."

The Long Shadow Of 9/11

"It is now difficult, and rightly so, to talk of 9/11 as a singular, monumental, unprecedented, and unmatchable event - an event so unique and unnameable that it lies beyond works and can only be gestured to through numbers"

"The narrative that Americans constructed to help make sense of 9/11 no longer seems as straightforward and uncomplicated as it so often does in the movies"

"It was cinema, and popular culture in general that... helped cast the disturbing events of 9/11, and the even more disturbing events that followed into an easily accessible, easily digestible story, one in which everyone had a role to play, as either hero or villain, good or evil, with us or against us"

"Films are not simply reflections of events and conditions but participate in shaping audience judgements"

Resources

1. Google Books: Post 9/11 Cinema: Through A Lens Darkly

2. Google Books: Fantasy Film Post 9/11

3.  The Long Shadow Of 9/11 - On Film Blog

4. Representations Of Terrorism In Post 9/11 American Films - Academia

5. Reframing 9/11 - On Film Blog

Key Films

1. Iron Man
2. Batman Begins
3. The Dark Knight