Journey into the realm of VHS tapes and midnight showings where brawny barbarians rescue nubile virgins from evil wizards, giant snakes, and armies of the undead! Although originating in the era of the pulp magazines, sword and sorcery fiction enjoyed a cinematic boom in the 1980s; a decade that gave us Conan the Barbarian and The Beastmaster as well as more low-budget offerings like the Roger Corman-produced Deathstalker series and the Italian entries like Conquest and the Ator saga. Some of these movies are fondly remembered as cult classics today but many were released directly to VHS and lurked on the shelves of video rental stores before vanishing into obscurity. While some have long since lost their lustre, there are plenty of diamonds in the rough to be found. This book takes a comprehensive look at over 40 sword and sorcery movies from the 1980s, from the towering titans to the bargain basement sleaze-fests, unearthing them from their tombs and dusting them off so that they may shine once more.

Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library is a philosophical and historical analysis of how the rise of consumerism has led to the decline of the original mission of public libraries to sustain and promote democracy through civic education. Through a reading of historical figures such as Plato, Helvetius, Rousseau, and John Stuart Mill, the book shows how democracy and even capitalism were originally believed to depend upon the moral and political education that public libraries (and other institutions of rational public discourse) could provide. But as capitalism developed in the 20th century it evolved into a postmodern consumerism that replaced democracy with consumerism and education with entertainment. Public libraries have mistakenly tried to remain relevant by shadowing the rise of consumerism, but have instead contributed to the rise of a new barbarism and the decline of democracy.

#1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco at the hands of a buyout from investment firm KKR. A book that stormed both the bestseller list and the public imagination, a book that created a genre of its own, and a book that gets at the heart of Wall Street and the '80s culture it helped define, Barbarians at the Gate is a modern classic—a masterpiece of investigatory journalism and a rollicking book of corporate derring-do and financial swordsmanship. The fight to control RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more than just the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not seen in American business for decades, it became the high point of a new gilded age and its repercussions are still being felt. The tale remains the ultimate story of greed and glory—a story and a cast of characters that determined the course of global business and redefined how deals would be done and fortunes made in the decades to come. Barbarians at the Gate is the gripping account of these two frenzied months, of deal makers and publicity flaks, of an old-line industrial powerhouse (home of such familiar products a Oreos and Camels) that became the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s. As reporters for The Wall Street Journal, Burrough and Helyar had extensive access to all the characters in this drama. They take the reader behind the scenes at strategy meetings and society dinners, into boardrooms and bedrooms, providing an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. At the center of the huge power struggle is RJR Nabisco's president, the high-living Ross Johnson. It's his secret plan to buy out the company that sets the frenzy in motion, attracting the country's leading takeover players: Henry Kravis, the legendary leveraged-buyout king of investment firm KKR, whose entry into the fray sets off an acquisitive commotion; Peter Cohen, CEO of Shearson Lehman Hutton and Johnson's partner, who needs a victory to propel his company to an unchallenged leadership in the lucrative mergers and acquisitions field; the fiercely independent Ted Forstmann, motivated as much by honor as by his rage at the corruption he sees taking over the business he cherishes; Jim Maher and his ragtag team, struggling to regain credibility for the decimated ranks at First Boston; and an army of desperate bankers, lawyers, and accountants, all drawn inexorably to the greatest prize of their careers—and one of the greatest prizes in the history of American business. Written with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history, Barbarians at the Gate is present at the front line of every battle of the campaign. Here is the unforgettable story of that takeover in all its brutality. In a new afterword specially commissioned for the story's 20th anniversary, Burrough and Helyar return to visit the heroes and villains of this epic story, tracing the fallout of the deal, charting the subsequent success and failure of those involved, and addressing the incredible impact this story—and the book itself—made on the world.

Gender and Action Films 1980-2000 offers insights into the intertwined concepts of gender and action, and how their portrayal developed in the Action Movie genre during the final two decades of the twentieth century. A necessity for academics, students and lovers of film and media and those interested in gender studies.

Focusing on a less acknowledged period in Action Cinema history, Gender and Action Films prioritises female led action movies and champion a more meaningful interaction and representation between the Action genre and contemporary issues of race, sexuality, and gender.

The "Neverland Valley-Welcome" sign depicts a little boy, bending over to talk to a troll. Peter Pan was playing at the packed eighty-seat, 7,000 square-foot theatre. Popcorn and drinks were dished up gratis to the mobs at the concession stand. On-screen, Captain Hook had ten wide-eyed children bound and gagged, about to be fed to the crocodile. Nearby, amid the rides, a band was taking a break. Beat It thumped loudly from hidden speakers. A circus-like tent houses the bumper cars, where jubilant lads, faces flushed with excitement, rammed each other with enthusiasm. ...I freely admitted, there was no doubt that allegations of child molestation had hurt Jackson in this community. Where wouldn't such charges resonate? Sodom and Gomorrah? *** What do Michael Jackson's neighbors really think of him, or the other famous residents of the rural California wine country made famous by Sideways? Just two hours from Los Angeles, the honorable Old West lives on, with cowboys and Indians, a Danish village, stars, surfers, Michael Jackson, and more. *** "William Etling has the soul of an explorer, and the wit of a jester. Lucky for us, he also has a pen."-Michelle Schlegel The collected "Santa Ynez Notebook" of a Santa Barbara News-Press writer. Etling's delightful bi-weekly editorial dishes on all things Santa Ynez Valley, an area of tiny towns near Santa Barbara, Calif. This compilation of almost three years of work covers a wide variety of topics, including community events, regional history, locals both famous (Michael Jackson, anyone?) and not-so, and the author's personal life. The column's buoyant tone and warm voice make for a charming read-"I still love the beach. If I had a tail, I'd wag it when I'm near the water." As a teenager, Etling moved to the area with his family, and it's clear that he has adored the area ever since. More than just a love letter to his hometown, however, Sideways provides affecting reading for all-Etling is all over the board, from what happens when a small town kid goes to war to the peril of navigating a highway crossed frequently by deer to a Hollywood invasion, when suddenly everyone's an extra on the set of Seabiscuit. Fruitful subject matter, a likable host and evocative writing make for an enjoyable guide to this nook of California. -Kirkus Discoveries

Since the late 1990s, a subtle, subversive element has been at work within the staid confines of the Hollywood dream factory. Young filmmakers like Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry, David O. Russell, Richard Linklater, and Sofia Coppola rode in on the coattails of the independent film movement that blossomed in the early 1990s and have managed to wage an aesthetic campaign against cowardice of the imagination, much like their artistic forebears, the so-called Movie Brats—Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma, Altman, and Ashby among others—did in the 1970s. But their true pedigree can be traced back to the cinematic provocateurs of the Nouvelle Vague—such as Truffaut, Goddard, Chabrol, Rohmer, and Rivette—who, in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, liberated screens around the world with a series of films that challenged our assumptions of what the medium could offer and how stories could be told—all of them snapping with style as much as they delivered on ideas. Highly idiosyncratic yet intricately realized, accessible yet willing to overthrow the constraints of formal storytelling, surreal yet always grounded in human emotions, this new film movement captures the angst of its characters and the times in which we live, but with a wryness, imagination, earnestness, irony, and stylish wit that makes the slide into existential despair a little more amusing than it should be.