Collegiate Times

While many go to the movies for a relaxing, two-hour escape, there are those who see it as a direct reflection of our current culture and everyday lives.

Among these individuals is Virginia Tech film professor Stephen Prince. Over the last two decades, Prince has written 15 books exploring a wide array of cinematic study including on-screen violence and Hollywood’s adaptation to the home video era. His prolific output of essays and film criticism has garnered international recognition and widespread scholarly publication.

His newest book, “Firestorm: American Film in the Age of Terrorism,” studies the cultural impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It is a subject that carries significant weight, and according to Prince it is one that has yet to receive dutiful academic attention.

“Their hadn’t been a study on film,” Prince said. “I like to do something original, interesting and important.”

In studying artistic reactions to Sept. 11, Prince expands the impact of his research beyond film. “Firestorm” explores the emotional effects of the attacks that left deep scars on America.
In the book, Prince describes cinematic portrayals of terrorists before Sept. 11 as cartoonish. Despite frequent terror attacks in the 1980s, including the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, there was a lack of fear among audiences that made terrorists perfect plot devices for genre films.

For the first time, Prince writes, “9/11 compelled U.S. political culture and public life to assimilate the probability of future acts of mass murder.” The fear al-Qaida planted in the American psyche throughout the 2000s manifested itself in the cinema of the era.

From themes of paranoia and symbolic violence in “The Dark Knight” to the replacement of Islamic terrorists with less controversial Neo-Nazis as villains in “The Sum of All Fears,” Prince explains how twenty-first century American filmmaking reflects the nation’s newfound anxiety.

Patty Raun, head of the Department of Theatre and Cinema, described “Firestorm” as a rich and moving piece of scholarship that tackles important themes.

“9/11 changed all art forms and the way we view any symbolic or metaphoric expression,” Raun said. She found Prince’s exploration of the issues insightful and surprisingly accessible, even to people unfamiliar with cinematic scholarship.

By examining the age of terrorism through the filmmaker’s lens, Prince adds a new perspective to the understanding of post-9/11 changes in American culture. Hollywood films receive considerable attention in “Firestorm,” but so do documentaries such as “In Memoriam” that Prince said are more likely to explore controversial ideas. 

The comprehensive focus of the book, which includes television shows such as “24,” will come as no surprise to Prince’s film students. Sophomore film major Katelyn Russell took his Introduction to Film course and recalled Prince’s extensive cinematic knowledge, both in his textbook “Movies and Meaning” and during class discussions.

“He’s extremely smart,” she said. “People would ask the most random questions, but he would always know the answers.”

Prince will soon begin writing about a completely different aspect of modern cinema: digital filmmaking.

“My next book is about film in the high definition age,” he said. While the book is more than a year away from publication, he has already begun researching topics such as the aesthetics of digital film and computer-based special effects.

In the meantime, Prince will teach film courses and discuss “Firestorm” as he recently did on the NPR program “On the Media.” Prince believes that lessons and themes of Sept. 11 and the immediate aftermath continue to remain relevant almost a decade after the attack.

“Terrorism is an issue that remains important,” he said. “I think the fear is still there (even) if it’s not as acute or felt immediately as it was in 2003.”