Big Wednesday: Lamenting Lost Youth in the New Hollywood

MCKENNA, Mark (2024) Big Wednesday: Lamenting Lost Youth in the New Hollywood. Cinema and Youth Cultures . Routledge, London. ISBN 9780367178925 (In Press)

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Abstract or description

This book provides an examination of Big Wednesday as an unconventional film that employs a mythic sensibility in its representation of the loss of youth and young manhood.

Critically and commercially unsuccessful on its original release, the coming-of-age, surf drama Big Wednesday (1978), has undergone a significant reappraisal. It is now considered not only an important contribution to youth cinema, but also the most important film that John Milius ever made. Over six chapters, the book considers questions of authorship, commerce, genre, stardom, and myth, and explores how these ideas intersect with the film’s status as a significant youth movie and collectively how these ideas have contributed to its recent critical rehabilitation. In doing so, the book also provides a much-needed reassessment of an important and overlooked entry in the New Hollywood canon.

Exploring Big Wednesday’s subsequent resonance and relevance, this unique study will appeal to students and scholars in film studies, popular culture studies, youth studies, sociology and media studies.

Item Type:	Book / Proceeding
Additional Information:	"This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Big Wednesday Lamenting Lost Youth in the New Hollywood on 26 November 2024, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9780367178925"
Faculty:	School of Digital, Technologies and Arts > Film and Media
Depositing User:	Mark MCKENNA
Date Deposited:	08 Jul 2024 08:27
Last Modified:	08 Jul 2024 08:27
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/8124

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