xviii Introduction widely accessed national literature. After a brilliant historical overview of both the film industry and film studies, she more thoroughly contextualizes the rela- tionships between the generations and American mythologizing. The final essay, “American Religiosity in the Age of Entertainment: Hollywood and American Values,” hits the exposed nerve of that ever-shifting landscape of American religion. Offering a reading through the lens of spirituality rather than “religion,” it contends that cinema promotes a worldview that is roughly contigu- ous with a “faith” that rests on a blend of scientism and occultism rather than tra- ditional Christianity and/or secularism. What is emerging, then, as evident in the blockbusters of the last two decades, is a new kind of postsecular mythology that is at once self-actualizing, spiritually aware, socially conscious, and, of course, patently American. CONCLUSION While many of the entries in this volume can standalone and be referenced individually, there is a unifying thread that runs throughout: “American” . . . “blockbuster” . . . “generation.” Alternating between this triad and the contents of the films themselves, each contributor artfully offers more than just a simple ref- erence entry for the curious or to save someone a trip to Wikipedia’s page. In contrast, such heavily meditated-upon interpretations of the widely known block- busters included here offer the opportunity for any member of any generation to see themselves reflected in their favorite texts and, perhaps, to get a glimpse of the other American. NOTES 1. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3176/3176-h/3176-h.htm. 2. William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American (1958). 3. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/characters/nm0001459. 4. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1209450-the-moviegoer?page=2. 5. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and​ -gen​ eration​-z-begins. N.b.: This link does not include the span of years for the Greatest Genera‑ tion I extrapolated those myself.
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